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Noodler’s La Reine Mauve This ink could be the doomed sister of Kung Te-Cheng. They have the same distinct scent, viscosity, and behavior. The colour is not "mauve" in my book Ink comes in 1 oz/30 ml bottles and is thus more expensive, it's supposedly guillotine-proof, though I won't dare to test it, in the regard It isn’t as bad as I thought, but I won’t recommend to people who are not used to permanent inks. I recommend it for well-sealed pens that can be easily dismantled and cleaned, and dunked in a c leaning solution for 30 minutes. It is pen/nib/paper dependent. It bled through TR 68 gr/ Mnemosyne and copy paper with all nibs. It’s best for Midori, Rhodia and thick absorbent paper (like Peter Pauper) notebooks. I had to prime my pens a few times, but in general it was a pleasant writing experience. At one point I had to change my Kakuno’s EF nib to M. In Lamy it behaved reasonably well, I enjoyed journaling with a Stub as much as with the Ef nib. Let's start with the uninspiring chroma: Writing Samples: Note: this quote is apocryphal Photo: Comparison: Water test: and finally an artwork: La Reine Mauve inspired by a portrait of Marie-Antoinette: The background is Noodler's Socrates. · Pens used: Plilot Kakuno Ef, Lamy Safari (EF/F/M/B, 1.1), Osmiroid Copperplate nib · What I liked: Gorgeous colour, short drytimes. · What I did not like: Scent, and some flow issues and bleed through. · What some might not like: It stains and the scent can induce headaches. · Shading: None. · Ghosting: Yes, on copy/ TR 68gr/Mnemosyne papers · Bleed through: Same as above. · Flow Rate: Medium, viscous · Lubrication: Above average · Nib Dry-out: Not really. · Start-up: Did not notice. · Saturation: Very · Shading Potential: Nope. · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Didn’t look for it. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Didn’t notice. · Staining (pen): It stains be forewarned. · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: Not as bad as I thought. I rinsed and soaked with water and then let the feed/section rest in cleaning solution as a safe measure. · Water resistance: Excellent. · Availability: 1 oz, 30 ml bottle. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

Noodler’s Socrates This is a gorgeous purple, very wet but alas with long dry times on coated paper. Despite that, I enjoyed using it for sketching with a Japanese Ef or journaling in my Peter Pauper notebook with its thick absorbent paper. I would recommend it only with finer nibs on coated papers and with any nib on thick absorbent paper. It is surprisingly very well behaved on copy paper. Like most purples it has the tendency to stain clear sections, and I had to resort of a cleaning solution to clean my pen. This is pricier than the normal lineup of Noodler’s ink and I believe it was originally destined for the British Market. Let's start with the chroma: Writing Samples: While the scan shows ghosting, to the naked eye, there's none. Photo: Comparison: Water test: And finally some art work: Socrates and this was part of Inktober challenge, "old" · Pens used: Pilot Kakuno Ef, Lamy (EF/F/M/B, 1.1), · What I liked: Very well behaved on copy paper. Gorgeous purple. · What I did not like: Long dry times. · What some might not like: Same as above. · Shading: I didn’t see much. Nope. · Ghosting: A bit when I used the flex nib. · Bleed through: A few dots when I pressed hard. · Flow Rate: Wet through · Lubrication: Slightly below average. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Did not notice. · Saturation: Very saturated. · Shading Potential: Dismal · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): Yes · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: Medium to high maintenance · Water resistance: Excellent · Availability: 3 oz, 90 ml bottles Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

Hello, I see a lot of inks and colors that I really think I would enjoy. However, 90% of what I use my FP for is journals that I want to have many years from. Hopefully until the day I die which I hope is years from now 🙏 😃 I only use eternal inks, noodlers, carbon platinum, a few others. All are waterproof and or archival. I guess I don't understand why I, anyone, would want to use inks that aren't going to last or wash away. That leads to my question.... how good are non "eternal" inks? When it says non-waterproof will it actually just wash away or become completely illegible? If I splash or dunk it in water will I lose the writing, or will it just become super light? Not worried to much about lighfastness because it enclosed in a journal. Wont see much light while storing. I guess I'm hoping for, and looking for, reasons that would make it ok to use fantastic colors in my journal. I guess my biggest fears would be if for some reason my journals were introduced to water or moisture. Or if the ink just fades away after time. Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hello , Just wondering if could help with some questions I'm having about the Noodler's American Aristocracy ink. I know there are 3 "flavors" possible, but thats not what I'm thinking about. I bought a few bottles to try in my Kuretake Brush pen. Never made it there for the project I was doing. I journal often and always use waterproof, archival, and, or, bulletproof/eternal inks. I like variety and have many shades of blue and black. I also have a couple greens. Anyways... I was thinking about using this ink to journal, but have never used non bulletproof, waterproof, inks before for this purpose. I know that just because inks may not be water proof/resistant, etc, doesn't mean they won't last a long time. All that to ask my question... Does anyone know if the Noodler's American Aristocracy ink would be an ok choice for Journaling or anything else that would require lasting a long time? Would this ink fade quickly, after just a few years? Is this a ink that UV would destroy? Etc. Etc. I've seen many tests done for inks in the other forums, but haven't seen this ink used for any tests. So, I'm reaching out to see what everyone thinks. I would love to fill up a pen and writing with this ink. I just dont want to use it. And then a few years down the road I open up my journal, or view a document, or project, and the ink is gone, faded, or generally illegible. Appreciate your thoughts.

This 50ml bottle of Rohrer and Klingner's archival ink was not inexpensive, but performed well beyond my expectations. It writes wet, yet dries quickly. Is absolutely unfazed by water, and works on the cheapest papers. The only downside I have noticed is that while doing the crossword (yes, it works on newsprint!), it did hard start a little if I was too slow on a clue. It can hardly be faulted for that, though... Front: Back:

Noodlers applies the descriptors of archival and permanent to a variety of their inks. How do they determine this? Montblanc and other European vendors test to certain ISO standards, but Noodlers makes no mention of doing this. Noodlers does define freeze resistant, eternal, bulletproof and water resistant on this page, but no reference to archival or permanent. I'm writing up some family stories and genealogy and would like to think that the work would be around for many years.

I'm trying to get an answer. So far, I'm getting conflicting one. I like the Optik paper in Black N' Red notebooks, and I'd like to use it for something of historical significance. It's not going to work if 50 years from now the paper is faded and crumbling. If the paper is "acid free" and "archival," then it's useful to me. So far, no official site for the Optik paper makes any claim at all. A forum post here from eight years ago reported that on Facebook some official from the company said it is archival. But I'm getting no genuine, reliable, definitive information about this. The paper is made by Hamelin, a French company. Anyone know or have ideas about its archival qualities?

Yesterday I had a science class where we were testing the acidity and alkalinity of different liquids. I saw that as the perfect opportunity to put the permanency of some "permanent" inks to the test as there were a few chemicals on hand. I had three inks on hand: Noodler's Bulletproof black, Rohrer und Klingner Salix and Parker Quinkflow ballpoint ink. The Noodler's didn't budge, while the iron-gall was obliterated by the bleach, and changed colour for the ammonia and hydrochloric acid, and the Parker ballpoint turned red with bleach and then faded some more, and hydrochloric acid life a blue dye component. Just a little something to fuel one's curiosity

This is my first review here. It was also unplanned, I just wanted to make a scan for another thread I was replying to, and it exploded into this handwritten review. Which is admittedly not the best, but I hope it is helpful to somebody at least because damn, it took a long time to scan in and resize all my pigeon scratch. There are scans, there are potato camera photos. I didn't bother with photographing all the pages I wrote because I think you guys can get the idea of what my terrible camera can bring across, and the scans are more readable. No colour adjustments anywhere for anything whatsoever. I bought this ink to do watercolour drawings and fill out my tax forms, and it's serving its purpose well so far. It does smell rather strongly of "chemicals" when you open the bottle, not in the rotting way, just in the "don't sniff the glue, kids, it's bad for your brain" way. Obviously I have no idea what I am doing here. Enjoy! Oxford Optik Paper. Left: scan, Right: photo "Conceptum" notebook paper, AKA the cheap stuff that doesn't like fountain pens. Front and back. Front edited because of a very lazy token desire for privacy. Everything else is Leuchtturm paper. Water test with actual beads of water on the paper: Left scan, right photo. This is POST water-test. Left: back of page above, right, start of mandatory review topics: Poor quality nib creep picture, but the creep is bad enough that you can still see it anyhow: bottle pic from Seitz Kreuznach: That's all she wrote! EDIT: Very important caveat: I have never left this ink in my pen long enough to see what the long-term effects might be (long enough, like, "overnight".) There are warnings all over the label to not let this ink dry out in your pen, so I usually ink it up for a targetted use, write a little afterwards (like this review), then de-ink the pen because I'm done with it.

I have been looking for a suitable book do start my commonplace book in, and after some searching and thinking I decided to choose the Peter Pauper Press Universe Journal. I was attracted not only by the cover, but also the mention of "archival paper" being used in it. I received the book today, and seeing the general lack of information on Peter Pauper Press products in comparison to Rhodia, Clairfontaine, Tomoe River etc, I have decide to do a bit of an overview. The cover itself is supposed to replicate the the binding of The Universe: or The Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Little, which was a layperson's encyclopaedia of the sciences by the Frenchman Félix-Archimède Pouchet, and was published in London in 1870. Compared to the picture from archive.org, it appears that the modern cover is relatively faithful to the original: However, the size of the modern adaption is different, coming up to around 162x218mm, or 6 3/8 x 8 1/2 inches. The paper itself is relatively smooth, and is 100gsm. If you want an idea of what it feels like, think Clairefontaine 90gsm ivory brushed vellum paper, but with a little bit more texture. In addition, the paper is supposedly acid-free and archival. I say "supposedly" because these words do not technically have concrete, standard definitions. An interesting feature is the gold edges of the book: In addition the lines in the journal are relatively faint, at least compared to the lines in a Rhodia Webbie. They're not solid, but instead are dotted. I like this feature as it provides a guideline without being too distracting. The book claims to lie flat. Unless you are an extreme perfectionist, this statement is true. Yes, you will get some bulge, but that is to be expected. It lies flat enough for me. I have not gotten around to writing in it yet, as I am currently waiting on some ink (Rohrer & Klingner Zeichentusche Sepia) which I aim to use exclusively in this book, so I will post a writing sample when I have to opportunity to do some writing in it.

In seeking out archival inks... and scouring various web sites and reading about all sorts of things I'm still left feeling a bit befuddled - as googling can often do to a person. I think the three main issues are: Waterproofness, light fastness (UV resistant), and ph neutrality. What I've realized is that a lot of fountain pen people seem really worried about these things as they relate to their pens. As in ruining their pens with the pigments in waterproof inks, worried about a highly basic or acidic ink ruining their pens. I'm not so concerned about that. I like my pens but more importantly I am concerned about the paper and how long the image will last on the paper. As an artist, I have always been taught to try and make everything archival, and I like the idea that generations from now our creations as a society are still around for others to learn about us etc. Also I think it would be cool if my family had drawings or art work that my great great great grandfather did or something, I would want to check them out. And so I would want my great great great grand kids to be able to see things that I did if they wanted to (which they may not lol). I was originally determined to only buy inks that fit this bill to make sure they were around as long as possible and so that I could paint and use mixed media / ink washes etc.. if I wanted to. So I have some waterproof inks that I'm happy with and can use for this but really I was thinking about it. They don't all need to be waterproof if I'm just drawing. What are the chances my sketchbooks and papers etc.. are going to be submerged in water? I guess my basement could flood - that's a slight concern. The UV resistance is definitely an issue as an image hung on the wall in a house is exposed to light. If in a shop window trying to sell your work, it is exposed to a serious amount of light. So that leaves the 'ph'. It seems that it is pretty important to know the ph of the ink because ink that is say below a ph of 6 and higher than 8, is going to be problematic long term (not for the pen - I don't care so much about the pen). But for the integrity of the image/ drawing/ words/ text etc... on the paper. Is this true ? Also regarding ph. Noodlers and J. Herbin advertise their inks as ph neutral (with some exceptions) but looking at individual ph testing done on this site by members, and on various other websites... It seems the results are inconsistent with the advertising and even with each other sometimes. Sometimes radically different from each other. Ex. Herbin's Bleu Myosotis is reported as ph neutral on their website. But other (well respected in the fountain pen world) independent testers report it at 2.31. There's lots of other differences between other independent testing as well. So, almost done, I figured I could be a bit lengthy in my question on a site dedicated to people who like to write - I assume they don't mind reading a bit either... So what's the deal! What's someone to do ? Who do you believe ? How important is the ph of an ink if you're writing, drawing etc.. on an 'acid free' paper already ? Any thoughts on the ph issue specifically, but feel free to respond to anything else I've mentioned I guess.

Hello All, Just a random inquiry here. As my love affair with Tomoe River continues, I looked at another pristine sheet of Tomoe River in my Seven Seas Journal and can see the translucent areas on the paper, holding it up in front of a dark object. I'm wondering, does anybody know whether Tomoe River has archival qualities? Will the paper be around, decades, or centuries from now? A part of me wants it to self destruct, because I don't want my private thoughts to be around after I'm gone. But I don't have the heart to burn my journals or shred them to dispose of them forever.

Hi Guys! This is my first post but i've been reading a lot of content on this website since the past 2 months. I did search on the internet and on this forum but did not find any relevant information on this topic. I am wondering is the Iroshizuku ink can be used as an archival ink? I mostly use fountain pen for journalling and I would like to ensure this ink can be used for this and will be readable in 50 years from now. Do you guys have any information about it? I know these inks are supposed to be PH neutral but is it sufficient to considere these as archival safe? Thanks in advance and nice to read you all! Regards, Mathieu

I'm transcribing my family history into four Graphic Image albums to be handed down through the generations (similar to family bibles, for those familiar with the practice). Before jumping in, it's important to determine the best ink for this purpose. Needs to be long-lasting and resistant to show through or feathering. The book pages are acid free, with a very smooth finish. Ideally, I'd like to steer clear of iron galls since: Writing will occur in spurts, with periods of inactivity now and thenThe specific pen has yet to be identified---could be a gold nibbed Waterman using a converter, could be a Pelikan with piston and gold rhodium-plated nib Non-FP option would be a Montblanc Fineliner, black ink---only snag is that I can't find info about whether or not the ink is fade-resistant and archival. Additionally, I kind of like the idea of having more ink colors to work with, on a couple of special pages. For that, my guess is J. Herbin, but I don't know what the lifespan would be...? Lengthy exposure to light isn't likely; beyond that, I'm clueless about fading concerns. Thoughts? Suggestions? Wisdom to share?

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_215.jpg http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_214.jpg

I have been looking for a good archival ink so I figured I'd share what I found. I linked them to a review of the ink in question. I am only aware of Noodler's archival inks, so if you know of others, please feel free to add to the list. I also only included the ones that are fully archival, not the ones listed as "partial" on their list. Noodler's Archival Inks: #41 Brown 54th Massachusetts Bad Belted Kingfisher Bad Black Moccasin Bad Blue Heron Bad Green Gator Black Black Eel Blackerase Blue Ghost Dostoyevsky El Lawrence Empire Red Esenin Fox Heart of Darkness Hunter Kung Te-Cheng Kuprin La Reine Mauve Lexington Gray Luxury Blue Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia Mata Hari's Cordial Pasternak Periwinkle Polar Black Polar Blue Polar Brown Polar Green Rachmaninoff Rome Burning Socrates Tchaikovsky Upper Ganges Blue Whiteness of the Whale X-Feather Year of the Golden Pig