Fort Noodlers

Apologies for having taken so long to post anything! It's been busy at work, is my excuse. Anway, because I'm a colossal dweeb, I figured it'd be funny to title pen & ink posts after old cowboy movies. I've got a bunch of those in my DVD cabinet, in my "man cave". Well...it's fair to say that my entire apartment is actually one big man-cave, but be assured that it's a clean one; one's man-cave need not look like a frat house rec room. Wait--how did I get onto this topic? This post is about my Noodler's Ink collection.

Not as impressive as Fort Apache, but Fort Noodle, set up here on my kitchen table, would made sure John Wayne never ran out of ink.

When I first got interested in fountain pens a few years ago, I was an utter novice that would have made any fountain pen connoisseur face-palm him/herself in pain and remorse. I started buying cheapity-cheapo Jinhao and Hero pens from eBay and Amazon, and buying cheap-o-rama Chinese inks that smelled of insect repellent from same. This went on for an embarrassingly long period of time that, in order to protect my dignity, I'm not going to share. Over time, my knowledge of the fountain pen & ink world ever-so-slowly evolved, and I started watching early SBRE Brown videos (long before he was a Ph.D.) Dr. Brown, if you ever happen to see this, THANK YOU for all you have done for the pen community. To paraphrase Leonard Nimoy: "I am, and always shall be, your grateful fan." ☺

Thus, I started shopping about for better pens & ink, whereupon I discovered there were actual ink companies out there made by, and for, the fountain pen community. The first one I stumbled upon was Nathan Tardif's Noodler's Ink Company. Their inks are budget-friendly, come in practical-shaped bottles with colorful labels, and what struck me the most (me being a newb, and all), were replete in "special editions" and inks with special, peculiar properties, like fraud resistance for writing bank documents, inks with UV-reactive fluorescence, and so on. (This was way before the ink-world had sparkly shimmer-inks and sheening inks.) So, as if there were no other ink makers in the whole world, I started buying up every color of it that struck my fancy, until I had so many bottles of Noodler's inks that I have actually had to start giving some of them away.

I thought I'd do a quick write up of the ones I kept, and why, along with a few writing samples. The tools I used are as follows: my very last sheet of A5-sized G. Lalo blank ivory-colored laid paper (thank you Goulet Pens; that was the first "boutique" paper I ever tried), a sheet of A5-sized white Clairefontaine paper, a J. Herbin glass dip pen, and the attentive moral support of assistant editor Maggie, who pulled guard duty beneath my kitchen table during this highly important journalistic work. Just think what she could accomplish if only she had opposable thumbs.

We begin with my Noodler's blue inks: Squeteague, Blue-Black, Ottoman's Azure, and possibly the most controversial fountain pen ink ever made: Baystate Blue! Which of them is my favorite? The answer might surprise you.

I opened these up, starting with Ottoman's Azure, & started dipping with my trusty glass dip pen. Ottoman's Azure is named for the curious, somewhat unique shade of blue that Nathan Tardif says is the same color as the tiles that decorate the interior of the famed Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and it doesn't look like any other blue ink I've seen. It has a certain, sort of "cobalt" shade that is intriguing. However, I've had this ink for a while now, and haven't used it much recently...and the first thing I noticed when I opened it was a faint, then not-so-faint, ammonia smell.

I thought, "is that coming from the ink bottle?" I lifted it to my handsome, manly, rugged-profile nose (just kidding...my nose has a faint surgical scar on it, but dang, you should see my good looking ears) and took a whiff, and nearly died! I set it back down and stepped away for a moment while I coughed and coughed, and my eyes watered. What the heck?? The ammonia smell from that ink, which I'd never had from it before, nearly made me sick!

So my question is: anyone else out there have a bottle or two of Noodler's ink that they've owned for a while, that has gradually developed a strong chemical smell like that? My inks stay in a dark, shady bookshelf in my climate-controlled living room; I don't know why this would happen. None of my other inks have done this. As I kept writing with my other Noodler's inks, I found that this was happening with several of the other colors.

Here's the writing sample; please excuse my mediocre handwriting:

My favorites, you ask? I already know, in advance, the limitations of that Noodler's Baystate Blue. As a trade-off for the super-saturated, intensely blue color, it's not pH-neutral, so it will stain anything. Spill it on your carpet, and your carpet is just done. And it will bleed through any paper, even Tomoe River. And, yes, it will stain the blue devil crap out of the inside of your pen, so don't use it in a demonstrator. Ever.

BUT. There simply is no other blue ink color like it. Use it in a dedicated pen, perhaps with a converter so you don't have to worry about it getting on the inside of your pen barrel, or just use a dip pen (it doesn't stain glass), and you will indeed impress people with it. Accept it for it's intended use & it's limitations, and I maintain that there's no need to join that whole "I hate Baystate Blue" crowd. As for the other inks, I bought Noodler's Blue-Black because I wanted a sort of "standard" blue-black color for taking notes in my bullet journal. Anything "special" I wrote in it could be done with any color I like, but pages used as weekly planners, monthly calendars, would be old-school blue-black only...or so I figured. The color of this ink certainly fits my idea of what old blue-black ink should look like; no complaints there. But even for a Noodler's ink, which are known to be slow-dryers, this stuff took FOREVER to dry; especially on Tomoe River paper. I sadly ended up having to shelve it, and I figured I'd use up some of the grey inks I've bought recently for that purpose, instead. Namely, I largely use Diamine Earl Grey for updating my bullet journal.

Apologies; I struggled to get my camera to focus.

Next, are my two Noodler's "Old West" inks. Noodler's doesn't have an "Old West" ink line; I just came up with that myself. This is Noodler's Antietam, a mournful blood-red named for the American Civil War battlefield of the same name, and Noodler's Apache Sunset, an orange ink famed for being perhaps one of the greatest shading-inks ever made. It does live up to the reputation.

The photo just doesn't do this justice. I do indeed apologize if this comes across as a bit morbid, but Antietam dries into the same color as dried blood. This is actually useful for writing "Happy Halloween" greeting cards to one's niece and nephew. Apache Sunset shades like crazy, and is one of the best orange inks out there! It does dry a bit slowly, though.

Next, here are my Noodler's brown inks. These were also favorites! My photos of ink bottles didn't turn out well, so not many of my writing samples come with ink bottle photos. This blog is purely an amateur effort for hobby-style enjoyment; I apologize for the lack of finesse. 😊 I first bought Noodler's Walnut because I wanted an ink color that looked very, very "retro"; like something that had been written with a quill pen upon parchment and that had aged over time, and of all my Noodler's inks, this one seems to behave the best of them all, short of Noodler's famous black inks. When I opened it, there again was a faint smell of ammonia! I mean, what gives? It wasn't half as strong as what emanated from that bottle of Ottoman's Azure, though. Anyway, eventually, along came Noodler's Kiowa Pecan (pronounced as though it rhymes with Iowa, like the Kiowa Indians), which is as charming and relaxing color as it's name implies. However...it has a ridiculously long drying time...and I've had this bottle for 2-3 years, and it too has a faint ammonia smell. Noodler's Beaver seemed intriguing when I saw an old Brian Goulet video on it; I thought it would make a great terracotta style color, and it does. It smells even more strongly of ammonia now, though. Oh, and at one time, I had a bottle of UV-reactive Noodler's Qin Shi Huong, after the very first ever Emperor of China, said to be the same shade as one of the still-surviving pigments found on the Terra Cotta Army soldiers. "Nifty!" I thought; "A terracotta ink with the intent of history, behind it!" But you know what...? It wasn't terracotta at all; it was, I swear, bubble-gum pink. I ended up giving it away.

Were this a better photo, you'd see the cute owl in the tree. I can HEAR your eyes rolling.

I went through this phase of struggling to find the best green ink I could find...I figured I'd pick out one really good shade of green that appealed to me the most, and stick with it. I also hoped that would be a Noodler's ink. I had a bottle of their plain "Noodler's Green", and it was exactly that: a straight up utilitarian green; perfectly adequate for writing, but it didn't have the hard-to-pin-down "panache" I was looking for. I gave it to my long-suffering sister, who has been the recipient of many of my cast-offs like this, and kept looking. I tried Noodler's Forest Green, which was a bit darker and more reminiscent of a tree-green in summer, and Noodler's Cactus Green Eel: named for the Saguaro cactus of the southwestern USA. The "eel" bit is because that ink is lubricated to flow more easily in older, stubborn fountain pens. It's a very happy color, but was a bit too festive for my taste, I guess. Eventually, I ended up turning to DeAtramentis Pine Green (now discontinued), and Rohrer & Klingner Alt Gold-Grun ("Old Gold-Green").

(Side note: I'm writing this in a cafeteria, on my laptop, and a hearty & robust thunderstorm is brewing up outside. It's all the other folks seated here can talk about while I'm typing. Yes, dear reader, I'm risking life and limb via electrocution, pummelling winds, and drowning rain to bring you this mediocrity. You're welcome.)

I have a couple of Noodler's Purple inks, too! Saguaro Wine is the non-lubricated version of that Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel ink; I'm given to understand that Cactus Fruit Eel is a popular one over at Goulet Pens. The bright purple fruit of that cactus was the inspiration for those two inks. For some reason, I found the Saguaro Wine one to be imperceptibly more to my liking...this is likely because Nathan Tardif makes these inks in individual batches by hand, so the colors may vary ever so slightly from one batch to the next. He's like an alchemist.

I wonder what a medieval alchemist, hoping to stay employed at his emperor's court by convincing people that his love potions and curative oils actually worked, would think of ammonia? Would said pseudo-scientist think of using it in ink? He might try to sell it as a stroke of divinity, such that the potentate he hoped wouldn't hang him for for fraud could be convinced ammonia-steeped inks meant that said ruler was writing his mighty proclamations with the force of the gods.

Next, I have one bottle each of the often-talked about "Black Swan" inks. Nathan Tardif developed "Black Swan in Australian Roses" and "Black Swan in English Roses" as inks that would especially benefit from his flex nibs. They DO look good in a pen that's capable of line-variation; they ever-so-faintly "halo" a bit of different, lighter colors when pooled in broad strokes (or in an ink-swab). The overarching theme here is the red flower that symbolizes the sacrifices made of brave English (and English Commonwealth) soldiers who fought and perished in the first World War, as well as American soldiers once the U.S. finally got involved in that horrendous conflict. Again, forgive the morbidity. Third, there's this very pretty carmine color found in Noodler's Shah's Rose; one of the inks in the same specialty-issue series as Ottoman's Azure. I've had it for less time than the other Noodler's ink bottles on my shelf, so it seems to have no ammonia smell. Does write a bit dryly, though. Black Swan in Australian Roses is the more "purple-y" of the two.

Finally...the specialty ink of all specialty inks: Noodler's Blue Ghost. 👻

This is a true, honest-to-goodness invisible ink! There is literally NO VISIBLE TRACE of it on the paper when you write with it, without the aid of a UV light. Want to trade invisible messages in class? Get a bottle of this stuff, and one of those inexpensive UV LED lights you wear on your finger like a secret decoder ring (I got mine at Goulet Pens some time ago; not sure if they still have them), and go to town. I have a full-blown UV light tube stuck in the "roof" of the bottom shelf of my desk's hutch (that's a pitiful description) just for this purpose; these are available not too expensively at places like Wal-Mart. The above photo was taken with that very light on.

That's about all I've got for you for now. Let me know in the comments if you've ever had a bottle of Noodler's Ink turn into a rank ammonia smell (while still being perfectly usable), and I'm going to see if I can run all the way to my car before the downpour starts and wrecks my laptop. See you at the mailbox!