Noodler’s Fountain Pen Inks: A Comprehensive Guide
Besides their unusual name, Noodler’s inks are best known for their extraordinary range of colors, low cost by volume, and distinctive labels that owner Nathan Tardif uses as a platform for his strongly held political beliefs. The brand’s name and catfish logo are inspired by the sport catching catfish with your bare hands. Tardif admires the egalitarianism of noodling—no amount of money or connections can give you an advantage over anyone else. This egalitarian philosophy extends into every aspect of Tardif’s operation. He makes all of his inks by hand using locally sourced components wherever possible, and he prices his inks as low as he can without actually losing money so that they can be accessible to as many people as possible.
In addition to nearly three dozen standard inks—more than most brands’ entire selection—Noodler’s offers over 70 specialty inks with useful and exotic properties that no other brands have. Let’s take a look at all of the different Noodler’s ink lines, then cover some of our top recommendations.
Noodler’s Ink Lines
Standard Inks
Three Noodler’s Standard Inks: Apache Sunset, Ottoman Rose, and La Couleur Royale.
Noodler’s standard inks are like most inks from any other brand—dye-based inks in a variety of colors, with low to moderate water resistance. They may not have the specialty features that other Noodler’s inks are known for, but that’s no reason to overlook them. Noodler’s standard line boasts some of the brand’s most beautiful colors, including Apache Sunset, Navajo Turquoise, and Ottoman Rose.
Noodler’s Standard Inks:
Bulletproof Inks
Three Noodler’s Bulletproof Inks: Black, El Lawrence, and 54th Massachusetts.
Noodler’s “bulletproof” inks use special cellulose-reactive dyes that make them exceptionally permanent yet still gentle on pens. They are highly resistant to water, bleach, and other solvents, as well as UV radiation and most other tools used by forgers and check washers. All bulletproof inks are also “eternal,” meaning that they are fade-resistant and archival. Other permanent fountain pen inks use either pigments or iron gall, both of which can harm pens if allowed to dry out inside them. Bulletproof inks don’t have that risk.
Because they’re cellulose-reactive, bulletproof inks work best on normal copy paper, whose moderately textured surface offers plenty of fibers to absorb the ink. Smoother papers like Rhodia and Clairefontaine aren’t as absorbent, so bulletproof inks don’t work as well on them. They dry slowly and are susceptible to water and smudging since they don’t get fully absorbed and bonded to the paper.
Noodler’s Bulletproof Inks:
Partially Bulletproof Inks
Three Noodler’s Partially Bulletproof Inks: Air-Corp Blue-Black, Black Swan in English Roses, and Rome Burning.
Partially bulletproof inks contain a mixture of bulletproof and non-bulletproof dyes, allowing for a wider range of colors while still retaining the main benefits of bulletproof inks. The non-bulletproof dyes may smear or fade if exposed to water, solvents, or UV radiation, but a core of perfectly legible bulletproof color will remain unaffected.
Noodler’s Partially Bulletproof Inks:
American Eel Lubricated Inks
Three Noodler’s American Eel Lubricated Inks: Eel Blue, Eel Cactus Fruit, and Eel Rattler Red.
American Eel inks (or simply Eel inks) contain an added lubricant for keeping piston-filled pens and converters working smoothly. Over time, pistons can become sticky and difficult to operate. With the exception of TWSBI pens, it’s often impossible to disassemble the pen or converter to grease the piston head. Filling your pen with one of these inks from time to time will help keep its piston sliding smoothly without the need for complicated maintenance.
Another effect of the added lubricant is that these inks are wet and free-flowing, making them a good choice for pens that are very dry-writing or that have issues with skipping and hard starts. The downside of Eel inks is that they are slower-drying and more prone to smearing, feathering, and bleed-through than typical inks.
Noodler’s Eel Inks:
“Bernanke” Fast-Drying Inks
Three Noodler’s “Bernanke” Fast-Drying Inks: Bernanke Black, Q-E’ternity, and Bernanke Blue.
Made especially for left-handed writers, Bernake inks are dry to the touch in under 10 seconds with most pen and paper combinations. Technically speaking, they’re fast-penetrating inks rather than fast-drying inks. They don’t actually dry faster than other inks, but they absorb more quickly into the paper so that there isn’t a pool of smearable ink sitting on top of the paper while the ink dries. This fast-penetrating ability also makes these inks more prone to feathering and bleed-through than typical inks.
The Bernanke name is intended as a humorous reference to former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. In order to combat deflation during the recent global financial crisis, Bernanke introduced a policy of quantitative easing that more than quadrupled the US base money supply—hence the need for a fast-drying ink to print all that money so quickly.
Noodler’s “Bernanke” Inks:
Polar Freeze-Resistant Inks
Three Noodler’s Polar Freeze-Resistant Inks: Polar Blue, Polar Green, and Polar Black.
If it snows where you live, you may have experienced the horrible fate that can befall a sealed container of liquid left out in the cold. Like any other water-based fluid, fountain pen inks expand when they freeze and can burst the bottle, cartridge, or pen they’re stored in. This is a particular risk for ink bottles during shipping, but it can also affect pens accidentally left in a car or on a patio table overnight.
Noodler’s Polar inks are specially formulated to resist freezing in temperatures down to -20°F. A thin icy film or slush may develop in the ink at temperatures close to this limit, but it won’t expand and can even still be written with. All Polar inks are also bulletproof and lubricated. Interestingly, all of the Polar inks except Polar Black are extremely fast-drying—even faster than the Bernanke inks—but they feather quite badly, so we don’t recommend them unless you need their anti-freezing properties.
Noodler’s Polar Inks:
Vintage-Style Inks
In addition to their cutting-edge specialty inks, Noodler’s also makes a variety of inks inspired by or recreated from vintage and historical inks:
Baystate Inks
Noodler’s Baystate Inks: Baystate Blue, Baystate Concord Grape, and Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry.
During the mid-1940s, a popular ink was created in Boston that replicated the vibrant blue color of colonial-era cobalt inks. Noodler’s Baystate Blue was created to achieve the same level of vibrancy as that ink without its high acidity, which would be fatal to modern fountain pens. Baystate Blue is touted as the highest-contrast modern blue fountain pen ink, and we don’t doubt it. Despite being so dark, it has an amazing intensity and almost glows on the page. The Baystate line was later expanded to include Cape Cod Cranberry and Concord Grape—pink and purple inks with similar levels of vibrancy.
Baystate inks can be mixed with each other, but due to their unique formulation they should never be mixed with other inks. They can also stain surfaces they come into contact with, but these stains can usually be cleaned with a 1:10 dilution of bleach and water.
V-Mail Inks
Three Noodler’s V-Mail Inks: Burma Road Brown, North African Violet, and Midway Blue.
These inks were reverse-engineered from a collection of colorful WWII-era inks sold in bottles emblazoned with patriotic labels. Such inks were used for writing encouraging “v-mail” (short for “victory mail”) letters to soldiers on the front lines.
Other Vintage-Style Inks
Three Other Noodler’s Vintage-Style Inks: Dragon’s Napalm, Qin Shi Huang, and Borealis Black.
Other vintage-style inks include:
- Borealis Black and Dark Matter—recreations of black inks from the mid-20th century.
- Dragon’s Napalm—inspired by the color of a bright orange antiseptic used during the 70’s.
- Qin Shi Huang—inspired by the fluorescent red paint used to coat the first emperor of China’s famous terracotta army.
Noodler’s Vintage-Style Inks:
Warden Forgery-Resistant Inks
Three Noodler’s Warden Forgery-Resistant Inks: Bad Black Moccasin, Bad Blue Heron, and Bad Belted Kingfisher.
Noodler’s bulletproof inks are already forgery-resistant, but their Warden inks turn that resistance up to 11. In addition to resisting solvents and UV radiation, these inks are also resistant to advanced laser-removal techniques discovered by academic researchers as a potential forgery tool. Not only are Warden inks virtually impossible to remove from paper, but they’re also impossible to replicate. Most are mixed on a per-bottle basis with slight variations, and all contain special identifier components that age over time. This means that no two bottles of the same Warden ink can be mistaken for each other when subjected to forensic analysis. A bit over the top for most people’s needs? Probably. Still pretty cool? Definitely.
Noodler’s Warden Inks:
Invisible Inks
Noodler’s Invisible Inks: Blue Ghost and Whiteness of the Whale.
These inks are invisible under normal light but glow bright blue under UV light. They’re also bulletproof, so they can’t be washed away by water. You can use them on their own to send secret messages or mix them with other Noodler’s inks to make them fluorescent. Blue Ghost is completely transparent and can be mixed with other inks without significantly affecting their color, while Whiteness of the Whale has a white component that doesn’t stand out on its own but is enough to lighten and desaturate the color of the ink it’s mixed with.
Noodler’s Invisible Inks:
Highlighter Inks
Three Noodler’s Highlighter Inks: Year of the Golden Pig Ink, Firefly, and Dragon Catfish Orange.
These inks are intended to be used in markers as highlighter ink, but they can also be used in fountain pens to create brightly colored margin notes:
- The Electric Color highlighter inks come in a wide range of colors and fluoresce under UV light.
- The Dragon Catfish inks come in three colors and are partially bulletproof as well as fluorescent.
- Year of the Golden Pig is a yellow highlighter ink that’s fully bulletproof and fluorescent.
The Dragon Catfish and Year of the Golden Pig inks come with eyedropper pens so that you can start highlighting with them right away. The Electric Color inks don’t come with pens, but they work great in a Platinum Preppy highlighter pen with the use of either a Platinum converter or an eyedropper conversion.
Noodler’s Highlighter Inks:
Waterase Inks
Noodler’s Waterase Inks: Blackerase and Bluerase.
When used in a marker like the one included with each bottle, these inks can write on whiteboards and other nonporous surfaces like glass, metal, and ceramics. They’re wet-erase inks, meaning they erase easily from nonporous surfaces with a wet paper towel but can’t be erased by dry erasers. They can also be used in fountain pens and are bulletproof on paper, but they feather quite badly and can’t write on nonporous surfaces with a fountain pen.
Noodler’s Waterase Inks:
Noodler’s Black Inks—Which Is Best?
Most brands only have one black ink, but not Noodler’s—they have 10. So which one should you choose?
Best for Normal Copy Paper: Black
The original and best-selling Noodler’s ink, Noodler’s Black was inspired by the need for an ink that could be used to fill in newspaper crosswords without excessive feathering and bleed-through on the highly absorbent newsprint. It works best on typical copy paper, where it is very dark, well-behaved, and permanent. This makes it ideal for students and office workers who don’t always get to choose the quality of paper they use.
On smoother papers like Rhodia, however, Noodler’s Black can become very slow-drying and prone to smudging. It also exhibits shading (variations in darkness) more on smoother papers, which many people find unappealing. For these papers, we recommend the next ink.
Best for Less-Absorbent Paper: Heart of Darkness
For smooth, less-absorbent paper, we recommend Heart of Darkness. It’s very dark—whether or not it appears darker than Noodler’s Black depends on the specific pen, paper, and lighting—and it dries quickly, which makes it well-suited to less-absorbent papers. It has a more neutral black color than Noodler’s Black, as well as a slightly glossy finish. Heart of Darkness feathers more on normal copy paper than Noodler’s Black does, so we recommend saving it for use with fountain pen friendly paper and notebooks.
Best for Very Absorbent Paper: X-Feather
On the other end of the spectrum, X-Feather (pronounced “anti-feather”) is designed for super-absorbent papers that not even Noodler’s Black can handle. It’s thicker than standard fountain pen inks—almost a hybrid between a fountain pen ink and a dip pen ink. This helps it hold a clean, sharp line. It also makes it a popular choice for italic and flexible nib calligraphy fountain pens, which can bring out undesired shading in even the most saturated normal black fountain pen inks.
Its thickness also makes X-Feather very slow drying and susceptible to smearing even after the ink is dry, however, so it’s not the most practical ink for everyday writing unless you need its extreme feather-resistance.
Best for Left-Handed Writers: Bernanke Black
Like we described above, Bernanke Black is specially formulated to quickly penetrate paper and not leave a pool of smearable ink on its surface. This makes it a lifesaver for left-handed writers, but it also makes it more prone to feathering. Unlike most Noodler’s black inks, Bernanke Black isn’t bulletproof, but it does have some water resistance.
Best Non-Bulletproof Black: Borealis Black
If you want a conventional black ink without the mixed pros and cons of bulletproof inks, go for Borealis Black. Based on a 1950s vintage of a popular ink with a similar name, it is very dark and generally well-behaved. It’s a wet-writing ink, though, so you may experience feathering with wetter pens or more absorbent papers. Borealis Black has some water resistance but not so much that you can count on it being entirely legible after getting wet.
Best for Troublesome Pens: Eel Black
If your pen or converter has a sticky piston, a dose of Eel Black will get it working smoothly again. For pens with excessively dry, rough, or skip-prone nibs, a permanent regimen of Eel Black can make them write more smoothly and consistently.
Best for Extreme Cold: Polar Black
Most people don’t do much writing in sub-freezing temperatures, but if you forget a pen or ink bottle in the car during winter you may find a nasty surprise waiting for you when you get back. Polar Black will protect your pens and ink bottles from bursting in temperatures down to -20°F. Otherwise, however, it’s just a slightly more feather-prone version of Eel Black.
Other Top Choices
There are far too many great Noodler’s inks for us to cover them all here, but let’s take a look at some of our absolute favorites.
54th Massachusetts
Noodler’s most popular blue black ink, 54th Massachusetts is a bulletproof ink inspired by the color of Union army uniforms during the American Civil War and named for an African-American regiment that successfully protested for equal pay with white regiments. It is well-behaved and very waterproof, even for a bulletproof ink, though it can dry out in the nib if you leave your pen uncapped without writing for very long.
Apache Sunset
Apache Sunset is the most beautifully and dramatically shading fountain pen ink we’ve ever seen. Depending on the pen and paper, it can range from mid-yellow to bright orange to blood red. When combined with smooth, fountain pen friendly paper and a wet-writing pen, you can often see all three colors in every letter you write. If you’re not familiar with shading, it’s an effect caused by ink beading up more heavily in some parts of letters than others, causing the dyes to become more concentrated in those parts. This is why smoother papers give more shading—the ink has longer to bead up before it dries or gets absorbed into the paper.
Black Swan in Australian Roses
Another beautifully shading ink, Black Swan in Australian Roses can vary from light magenta to near black. It was specifically designed for use in flex pens, which create the most dramatic shading, but it looks great with any pen. It’s also very well behaved on most papers. The “black swan” effect comes from the ink’s unusual formula—a mixture of light purple dye with a small proportion of bulletproof black dye. In spots where the ink is thinner on the page the light color shows through clearly, but where the ink is thicker the black dye quickly begins to dominate.
Black Swan in English Roses
Another Black Swan ink, Black Swan in English Roses has the same great shading and performance as Australian Roses but with a sophisticated brownish burgundy color.
El Lawrence
Named for T. E. Lawrence—the famous “Lawrence of Arabia”—El Lawrence is an intriguing ink that defies easy categorization. At first glance it appears almost black, but a closer look reveals subtle shades of olive and dark khaki. It’s said to be inspired by the color of a WWI British Army officer’s uniform, but the comparison we hear most often is to used motor oil. While that may not sound appealing to everyone, we think that once you start using it you’ll find the color just as captivating as we do. El Lawrence is a bulletproof ink with excellent water resistance, but it can dry out in the nib if left unused for several days in a row.
Ottoman Azure
Ottoman Azure is a beautiful deep blue suitable for any occasion. It’s conservative enough for a school or business environment, but its warm undertones and subtle shading give it a distinctive liveliness. The name is inspired by color’s similarity to the blue tiles of Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly known as the “Blue Mosque.” It isn’t bulletproof, but the ink has enough water resistance that most of what you write should remain legible enough to copy onto a fresh sheet if the original gets wet.
V-Mail North African Violet
Our top recommended purple ink, North African Violet is a well-behaved, fast-drying medium purple with excellent water and highlighter resistance. Part of Noodler’s V-Mail series, it is a recreation of a vintage purple ink sold during WWII.
Zhivago
Named for Boris Pasternak’s classic novel, Zhivago is a dark green that could easily be mistaken for black at first glance. Zhivago is great for both writing and drawing and gives your work a subtle, vintage feel. It is semi-bulletproof, which makes it particularly interesting to use for wash effects when sketching, since the green components blend easily while the core black lines remain sharp and unaffected.
Advice for Using Noodler’s Inks
Because of their special properties and formulas, Noodler’s inks can be intimidating. We haven’t had any trouble using Noodler’s inks, but we do have some tips for getting the best experience possible:
1) Shake Bottles Before Filling
We’ve found that some of the dye components used in Noodler’s inks can separate over time, so shaking the bottle before filling your pen will help ensure you get consistent colors and performance with every fill.
2) Open Bottles Carefully
Noodler’s ink bottles are often filled right to the brim, so we recommend leaving the bottle sitting on a flat surface and opening the lid very carefully, at least until you’ve used up some of the ink.
3) Clean Pens Thoroughly When Changing Inks
This is something you should always do when changing inks, but it’s especially important with Noodler’s inks. Different inks have different pH levels as well as other chemical differences that can cause them to react in undesirable ways when they get cross-contaminated. The most common reaction is for them to form a gritty or slimy sediment that can clog your pen, but other, more permanently damaging reactions are also possible. You can read our guide to cleaning fountain pens here.
4) Mix With Caution
For the same reasons why you should always clean your pens before changing inks, you should also be very cautious if you decide to try mixing inks. Always mix inks in a separate container and let the mixture sit for at least a few days before using it in a pen to see if any sediment forms in the container.
5) Consider Diluting
Many Noodler’s inks are highly saturated, which can make them very dark as well as slow-drying and prone to smudging. If you find yourself experiencing this issue, diluting the ink with a small proportion of distilled water can help bring out the ink’s color and improve its performance. It’ll also make the ink even less expensive by volume.
Index of Noodler’s Ink Properties
It can be hard to keep the special properties of all the different Noodler’s inks straight, so we’ve created an alphabetical index for your reference. You can also view the special properties of all Noodler’s inks using this table from their website. These are the properties officially listed by Noodler’s and don’t include some line-specific characteristics like being fast-drying or invisible.
- Bulletproof inks are water resistant as well as resistant to all tools known to be used by forgers, including bleach, alcohol, and UV light. These inks use special cellulose-reactive dyes, so they don’t work well on coated or non-cellulose-based paper.
- Eternal inks are fade-resistant, humidity-resistant, and archival. All bulletproof inks are eternal, and all currently produced eternal inks are bulletproof.
- Fluorescent inks glow under UV light.
- Forgery-Resistant inks resist all tools known to be used by forgers to eradicate ink, including bleach, alcohol, other solvents, and UV radiation. All bulletproof inks are forgery resistant, but not all forgery-resistant inks are bulletproof.
- Freeze-Resistant inks resist solidifying and expanding in temperatures down to about -20°F, protecting pens and bottles from bursting. Freeze-resistant inks may still form an icy film or slush, but they will not freeze solid and can still be written with.
- Lubricated inks have an added lubricant that helps keep piston mechanisms operating smoothly. A side-effect of the lubricant is that these inks are also very free-flowing, making them good for use in dry-writing or skip-prone pens.
- Partially Bulletproof inks contain a mixture of bulletproof and non-bulletproof dyes. Their non-bulletproof dyes may be smeared or eradicated by water, solvents, and UV light, but a bulletproof core will remain legible and unaffected.
- Partially Fluorescent inks may glow under some wavelengths of UV light.
- Water-Resistant inks resist smearing or fading when exposed to water, although they still be slightly affected. All bulletproof inks are water resistant, but not all water-resistant inks are bulletproof.
Final Thoughts
We hope we’ve inspired you to give Noodler’s inks a try. With so many lines and colors to choose from, there’s sure to be one that’s perfect for you. Do you have a favorite Noodler’s ink or a question that didn’t get covered? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!
Click here to see all of our Noodler’s inks by product line.
Click here to see all of our Noodler’s inks by product line.
| Noodler’s Inks By Product Line | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Inks | ||||
Antietam |
Apache Sunset |
Army Green |
Beaver |
Blue |
Blue Nose Bear |
Burgundy |
Cayenne |
Concord Bream |
Forest Green |
Gruene Cactus |
Habanero |
La Couleur Royale |
Midnight Blue |
Navajo Turquoise |
Nightshade |
Nikita |
Ottoman Azure |
Ottoman Rose |
Park Red |
Purple |
Purple Martin |
Purple Wampum |
Red |
Saguaro Wine |
Sequoia Green |
Shah’s Rose |
Squeteague |
Standard Green |
Summer Tanager |
Tiananmen |
Turquoise |
Violet |
Widow Maker |
Yellow |
| Bulletproof Inks | ||||
#41 Brown |
54th Massachusetts |
Bad Belted Kingfisher |
Bad Black Moccasin |
Bad Blue Heron |
Bad Green Gator |
Black |
Blackerase |
Blue Ghost |
Bluerase |
Dostoyevsky |
Eel Black |
El Lawrence |
Fox Red |
General of the Armies |
Heart of Darkness |
Hunter Green |
La Reine Mauve |
Lexington Gray |
|
Luxury Blue |
Periwinkle |
Polar Black |
Polar Blue |
Polar Brown |
Polar Green |
Upper Ganges Blue |
Whiteness of the Whale |
X-Feather |
Year of the Golden Pig Ink |
| Partially Bulletproof Inks | ||||
Air-Corp Blue-Black |
Black Swan in Australian Roses |
Black Swan in English Roses |
Blue-Black |
Dragon Catfish Green |
Dragon Catfish Orange |
Dragon Catfish Pink |
Golden Brown |
Green Marine |
Kiowa Pecan |
Navy |
Red Black |
Rome Burning |
Standard Brown |
Walnut |
Zhivago |
||||
| American Eel Lubricated Inks | ||||
Eel Black |
Eel Blue |
Eel Cactus Fruit |
Eel Gruene Cactus |
Eel Rattler Red |
Eel Turquoise |
||||
| “Bernanke” Fast-Drying Inks | ||||
Bernanke Black |
Bernanke Blue |
Q-E’ternity |
||
| Polar Freeze-Resistant Inks | ||||
Polar Black |
Polar Blue |
Polar Brown |
Polar Green |
|
| Vintage-Style Inks | ||||
Baystate Blue |
Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry |
Baystate Concord Grape |
Borealis Black |
Dark Matter |
Dragon’s Napalm |
Qin Shi Huang |
V-Mail Burma Road Brown |
V-Mail G.I. Green |
|
V-Mail Mandalay Maroon |
V-Mail Midway Blue |
V-Mail North African Violet |
V-Mail Operation Overlord Orange |
V-Mail Rabaul Red |
| Warden Forgery-Resistant Inks | ||||
Bad Belted Kingfisher |
Bad Black Moccasin |
Bad Blue Heron |
Bad Green Gator |
|
| Invisible Inks | ||||
Blue Ghost |
Whiteness of the Whale |
|||
| Highlighter Inks | ||||
Atlantic Salmon |
Dragon Catfish Green |
Dragon Catfish Orange |
Dragon Catfish Pink |
Firefly |
Georgia Peach |
Hellfire |
Lightening Blue |
St. Patty’s Eire |
Sunrise |
Year of the Golden Pig Ink |
||||
| Waterase Inks | ||||
Blackerase |
Bluerase |
|||
SOURCE:https://www.jetpens.com/blog/noodlers-fountain-pen-inks-a-comprehensive-guide/pt/902