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I use Noodler's Black mainly for illustration. I generally make a pencil outline, then ink it and finally erase the pencil under drawing with a pencil eraser. When I do erase, I find that Noodler's Black also gets 'erased'. As in, it loses a bit of its saturation on the paper. I've used it in different pens on different paper and different erasers but have the same result. I have Bad Black Moccasin and it's completely fine when I erase over it. I was planning to invest in another bottle from Noodler's Black line of inks for drawing. I had my eyes on Heart Of Darkness, X feather Black and American Eel Black. I was wondering if anyone who has used these inks can provide some insight on how they behave when you use a pencil eraser over them? Any insight is much appreciated.

In short: goal of the test : to find the ink that fades least over the timemethod: 2 summer months exposure of the ink samples on the kitchen windowpaper: smooth and non-absorbing, durable Clairefontaine EUROPA Notemakercontrol ink: Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, known to fade quickly when exposed to the sunlight Results of the test: HERO 234: pros: no fading over time (pigmented), true black, no shading, pretty water-resistant, defined line, no bleed-through on worse quality paper cons: dries in pens (especially in caps that are not completely airtight), high maintenance - pens need to be cleaned regularly, very thick Noodlers Black: pros: no significant fading over time, pretty water-resistant, easy maintenance, no bleed-through on worse quality paper, quick drying time cons: not true black (black brownish gray), shading, sometimes dry although no flow issues, no skipping Diamine Jet Black: pros: resists pretty well fading over time, super easy maintenance, no bleed-through on worse quality paper, quick drying time cons: not black (blue teal gray), shading, dry on the paper, dry flow issues possible, no water-resistance Pilot Black bottle 350ml: pros: excellent flow - very wet ink, deep black color (sometimes gray), beautiful shading cons: fades significantly, bleed-through on worse quality paper, less water-resistant

Several years ago I was really into trying new fountain pens, ink, etc. and then settled into a routine with my favorite pens and black ink (boring). I used them at work to take notes and sign documents. Last year I started bullet journaling and enjoyed using my FP's on a nice quality notebook. My biggest problem is that the ink does not dry fast enough and it transfers to the adjacent page. It is not bleeding through, it is transferring to the page face that it is touching. There is probably a correct term for this...? Last year I was using: The ink is Noodler's Bulletproof Black in Pilot Vanishing Point and Sailor 1911 Realo pens. The nibs are EF/F and the notebook is from Rhodia. For this year, I have changed to a Dingbats* notebook which has the same problem, but not as bad. My problem is that the ink does not dry quickly and transfers to the next page: The red area is when I added items to the calendar page on the left side and closed the book. The green highlighted area is faint, but it is actually the days of the week (one column is numbers and one is the letter) that transfer over time and make the page look dirty. It is not as obvious in the picture, but in real life it is noticeable. To address this, I purchased some heavy stock "blotting paper" and put it between the most recently inked pages when I close the book. It acts as a placeholder and was not a large problem. The blotting paper gets a lot of ink on it. When I started making my bullet journal this year, I changed to a Dingbats* notebook. I like it a little better because the transfer seems to be less. Since there was a noticeable change in performance, I thought I would post here and see if there is a way to eliminate this all together by changing something. Paper and Ink seem like the most likely places to attack, but perhaps there are others, or perhaps this is just the "cost" of using FP's and I need to keep the blotting paper and move on? I would love any suggestions that you may have. I prefer black, waterproof ink, but would be open to something else if it would help. I need to use a notebook in the A5 size range. I like fine nibs and prefer the writing to not be too smooth. I like the scratch "resistance" as I write. Cheers

Hi all. Since I posted this in another thread and two other ink 'chemists' have confirmed and approved it, I thought I'd make an honest woman of myself by posting an official recipe here. I wanted a bulletproof Nightshade which is an exact copy of Noodler's Nightshade (which sadly washes away easily.) Here's the recipe and (messy) photo of my effort. It seems to be fully waterproof, leaving a bare touch of pink coloring, when run under a faucet. It seems to behave, both on paper and in a pen and is stable long term when bottled. I used ONLY Noodler's inks so as to avoid any ugly chemical problems. I know Noodler's and his Nightshade won't be on everyone's favorite list, but I liked it enough to give it a go. The recipe is: Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (BSAR) - 1 ML. Noodler's #41 Brown - 1 ML. Noodler's Kung Te Cheng - 6 drops Noodler's Heart Of Darkness (HOD) or Bulletproof Black - 8 drops Let me know what you think and please be kind. This is my 1st attempt. (Oops! in the photo, it should be "too dry in the nib." Sheesh!)

Hi everyone, I am interested on making the point on Noodler's Black once and for all (if that is even possible) because I have read and heard lots of contradictory things about that ink which has made me hesitant to buy it and use it in my more expensive pens and I am sure I am not alone in that boat. I have no bias against that ink, I know that some people here with lots of fountain pen experience and knowledge swear by it, and it indeed seems to have a lot of excellent properties that most people want, but I have also read other knowledgeable pen people such as Richard Binder in his article on inks be critical of it and say it could damage pens or at least dirty them a lot to the point of being very difficult to clean properly. All these contradictory stories and opinions have left me a bit lost as to weather or not Noodler's Black is an ink I want to use. So what is the definitive answer on Noodler's Black, if there's even one? PS: Maybe this has already been discussed thoroughly in an other thread I have missed, if so let me know, but all the threads I have read so far have just left me as divided as before on the issue.

This was a mix intended to use up Noodler's #41 Brown. #41 Brown is a pleasant, well-behaved ink, but too unsaturated for daily use. This mix achieves a darker, professional, more muted color that is medium-wet, 92% bulletproof, and shades well. Incidentally the color seems to be reminiscent of Diamine's Safari/Salamander The photo looks more accurate than the scan, although neither shows the green component well. My old scanner apparently doesn't like HP 24lb Laserjet paper. Photo Scan

After stalking the forums anonymous for several weeks and gaining heaps of valuable information, I've finally decided to make the leap and join the community. After all the great information, I'm now the proud owner of two Jinhao's equipped with Goulet F nibs (I love the Jinhao's, they are perfect for my large hands and I love the Goulet nibs!). After using cartridges for a few weeks, I decided to make the leap into re-filling my pens using a converter and bottled ink. The ink I chose was Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin, and I love the deep, dark, black color, however, I have noticed that my lines are thicker with the new ink. My Goulet F, which I admit already writes close to a M as it is, but is now a full-blown medium with Bad Black Moccasin ink. Has anyone else noticed if Bad Black Moccasin increases the width of their lines? I’m pretty positive it’s the ink, because with the black Parker cartridges, this was not an issue. To be clear, it is not feathering on cheap paper, it’s just thicker, which with my handwriting, makes most of my writing illegible. So, for my follow up, what would be a better choice in black ink for me? I need a daily workhorse ink, because I use it daily, for all of my writing and note taking, and I write exclusively on cheap paper (Notebooks, etc.). I do not require any kind of forge resistant ink, but I'm not opposed to an ink if it should happen to have it. I'm not particularly married to the Noodlers brand either, but I heard their regular Noodler's Black is a great everyday ink. If I'm not mistaken, I also remember reading that Aurora Black is a good everyday workhorse ink. In conclusion, I guess I'm looking for everyone's opinion on a good, everyday black ink that will go well with my Jinhao x450 and x750 and perform well on cheap paper. I do like the smoothness that it added to my pen, which I heard that Black Eel also helps with, and I also heard X-Feather is a great choice for cheap paper, but the reviews I have read are very mixed on it. Is the purchase of a new bottle of Noodler’s standard Black in my future? Let me know! Thanks in advance for all the help.

I use Rapidographs a lot in my art, and the old bottle of Koh-i-noor ink that I've been using with them is close to running out. It's not the greatest ink for my purposes--the shellac that makes it waterproof also makes everything shiny, which shows up on scanned images. It's also not as water-resistant as I'd like, mostly due to a layer of ink sitting on top of the surface of the paper and running all over the place if I try to use some watercolors over it. The solution to that, and to a certain extent to the sheen as well, has been to erase over everything really well to rub off any extra ink. I could just buy a new bottle, keep erasing over everything, and deal with the residual shinyness. However, I've also recently bought some very thin-tipped technical pens that I don't want to get clogged (which almost always spells death for the hair-masquerading-as-a-wire inside finer rapidographs,) so I've been thinking about buying a fountain pen ink anyhow. Platinum Carbon Black seems to be the recommended ink for anyone doing watercolor washes over drawings, but I'm also intrigued by the almost-perfect performance of Noodler's Black, which seems to have the same issue as the ink I'm currently using (ink left on the surface of the paper runs with water.) Noodler's is also cheaper, so I have a couple unanswered questions before I go off buying anything. How does Platinum Carbon Black/Noodler's Black perform on watercolor paper? Most of the reviews I can find about water resistance are on printer or notebook paper, which don't have as much sizing as a sheet of hot press watercolor paper. I suspect Noodler's will do worse than normal because it binds to cellulose, but I'm particularly interested in what, if anything, changes with the Platinum Carbon. If you erase over Noodler's, does the residual surface ink just smear around, or does any of it come off with erasing? If you erase over Noodler's, is there any difference in water resistance? Does either ink perform poorly in technical pens? Is there any water-resistant ink I'm completely looking over? Preferably black, but if there's some incredibly waterproof red I'm missing I might as well add it to the list. These are pretty specific to my situation and I might just have to get some samples to test things myself, but I figured I might as well ask around here first.

Hello all!!! So i tried an experiment after reading aboit some people mixing inks with noodlers black. I mkxed 1:1 with diamine poppy red, and for a day or so it was great. Then i noticed the bla k disappeared. When i looked at the vial i mixed it in, the inks had separated.... :-( it was such an awesome color! Kind of like when you touch the nibs of a pilot parallel with one having black and one having red. I digress.... So how come this happened?!? Ive read about alpt of people mixing similar to these two and it working... did i do something wrong? Im worried about wasting more ink to try bpb with any other inks... Any thoughts on why this happened to me amd is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

I'm not starting an ink war, please don't ban me. I recently got a bottle of bulletproof black and have been using it in a brand new faber-castell ambition. Disappointingly, the ink writes like a grey instead of a black. Sometimes, it even writes like a light grey. Only sometimes it's black. The problem is not with ink flow because I squeezed more ink into the feed with my converter, still, without increasing darkness. Is someone else experiencing this problem? Please help.