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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.

Greetings friends! I was asked to create a separate post in which I will share my tests on fadeout of ink from light. I did my first test two years ago(2018), but there was not much ink. This is the original test sheet: These are sheets after half a year tested outdoors but without direct sunlight. Conclusion: First sheet: It seems to me that Pelikan Edelstein Topaz, Noodlers Midway Blue, Noodlers Ottoman Azure, Sheaffer Torquise did the best with the task of lightfastness. At the same time, Noodlers Midway Blue practically did not lose color at all - i.e. is the winner in lightfastness in this group. Second sheet: The second sheet "tête à tête", which placed black, orange and brown. And as it turned out, of all inks, the favorites in terms of lightfastness turned out to be precisely the warm, orange and brown shades, which practically did not lose their pigment . Regarding blacks, one cannot say that they have lost their color, because they do not have it, but in fact they are also great save tone and remained, in principle, almost the same black or so . In the second selection J.Herbin Aniversary 1670 Rouge Hematite, Gamma Reds, Diamine Inferno Orange, Diamine Beaver, Noodlers Kiowa Pecan and Noodlers Red-Black look best. There is no favorite here, but J. Herbin 1670, Diamine Inferno, Noodlers Red-Black and Koh-i-Noor Black is practically unchanged. Third sheet: The last sheet: And on the third sheet, I placed predominantly green shades and those ink that I did not have initially, but they appeared with some delay in the samples:). Recently bought the pigment Platinum, Windsor & Newton India ink, Gamma and Chinese india ink also got here. At that time, I still did not have dr. Ph.Martins. As you can see, the green shades did not go far from the blue ones and lost quite a lot in color, and Diamine Ultra Green turned out to be the leader. But I was pleasantly pleased with Platinum Carbon Black and Pigment Sepia Brown inks - the color did not change at all and it pleases because these are my main colors for drawings with fountain pens . Pelikan Fount India pigment ink also showed itself very well, despite the fact that they practically do not reflect light by dry pigment in side lighting, unlike Platinum Carbon Black, which, coupled with the price, makes them very attractive. More detailed photos you can view by the link: https://lenskiy.org/2018/11/fountain-pen-inks-light-resistance-test-2018/

JETSTREAM & easyFLOW In my pursuit for a perfect ballpoint refill I’ve came across with these 2 brands: JETSTREAM & easyFLOW. Why ballpoints? Because sometimes you need something else then a fountain pen to write on different surface: like napkins, fabric, wood, skin, you never know when or where. So I have narrow down my options for these hybrid ballpoint refills. Both write smooth, dark lines and both have water-proof and sun fade-proof characteristics. uni-ball JETSTREAM was developed in 2003, it’s an evolution of their gel refill “Signo 207”. Can be found in medium or fine strokes, also the main refills can be adapted to replace gel refills like Pilot G2 or European standard roller-ball refills. The blue refills are actually blue, quit dark lines, black is almost true black. SCHMIDT® easyFLOW 9000 was introduced later, in July 2007. Their main characteristic is based on Parker style refill (large capacity refill size G2 as per the standard DIN EN ISO 12757), making them ready available for many ballpoints producers, without any modification. The blue refill is more on the purple side, but still a vivid colour, black is a bit much darker then JETSTREAM. Also easyFLOW smudge a bit more than JETSTREAM. Somewhere back in 2014 I had to use a pen to write a polite note for a car parked illegally on our parking lot at work (a standard A4 printed polite note where you need to write registration number, date and time). And I used a Parker Big Red roller ball. Big mistake, with a bit of rain all my writing was washed out, completely! The car’s owner comes down to check what was with that note on his car and all my writing was gone. That was the point to search for a better ballpoint refill with water-proof characteristics, smooth writing, fast drying and vivid colours. After a lot of research I bought my first two hybrid ballpoint refills: easyFLOW 9000 in blue and black. After a while I have found JETSTREAM to be as good as easyFLOW 9000, but for different pen body, like roller-balls or Energel, other than Parker style. That being said I run a test to prove water-proof and sun exposure fading test of these two refill brands. For this test I have used some common refills along with my 2 favourites. I have used normal paper and glossy paper (from a magazine). One normal paper and one glossy paper it was washed through heavy water after 2 minutes of writing have dry. Everything was exposed in a closed shed with windows, where the sun can reach for about 3-4 hours daily, when not cloudy. Also there is high humidity on our little island, temperatures varying from 25˚ summer to 8˚ winter times. Refills in test: Schmidt easyFlow 9000 blue Schmidt easyFlow 9000 black Uni-ball Jetstream 1.0 blue Uni-ball Jetstream 1.0 black Uni-ball Jetstream sport blue Uni-ball Jetstream 0.7 black Pentel Energel 0.7 blue Pentel Energel 0.7 black Schneider Topball 0.5 black Inoxcrom gel M black Fisher Space M black Faber-Castell B black Parker M black Parker Quinkflow M blue Parker M blue Lamy M66 black Senator M blue Zebra F-series blue Pilot G2 0.5 black Pilot G2 0.7 black After this test I will stick with easyFLOW and Jetstream as my main refills for ballpoints. Also Inoxcrom gel refill and Lamy are really good, recommend them. A big surprise is Parker Quinkflow failing so hard. The test was run in my condition, feel free not to accept my observations. Also if you click on the pictures you can download them from Flickr and enlarge them to see some close ups. Except on single photo, the rest are scanned. Starting test June and July 2016 Normal Paper running water, June 2016 Normal paper, photo, not scan, July 2016 Glossy paper, July 2016 Ending test December 2016 Normal Paper running water Normal paper Glossy paper running water Glossy paper