Noodler's Sidewinder Sepia : Nice Shading, but Not Sepia

[Matthew TWP]

When I was ordering Noodler's 1984 a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Dromgoole's also had an exclusive Noodler's ink called "Sidewinder Sepia" in a small, ounce bottle. Apparently it was a pen show ink recently, and the label is marked "2021" and has a phone number that I assume is Dromgoole's, but I haven't tried it. 

 

I might have mentioned in the past that I don't really like orange inks, so I'm starting to find the rate that I'm accumulating bottles of them a little distressing. But not so distressing that I'm about to stop or anything. I don't think that the website had a color swatch of this ink, when I ordered it, so I was expecting a sepia brown ink, so I was a little surprised to get this:

 

 

 

The color is clearly orange, and a moderately bright one that shades red. It gives me quite a bit of shading, so it reminds me a little of Apache Sunset, but of course, it's quite a bit darker, and it also dries a lot faster... this ink has a very average dry time for me.

 

 

When I swatched it on some of my favorite papers, I found that it behaved really well on almost all of them (some Noodler's can be pretty hard to work with). However, I found that on Tomoe River 52gsm and to a lesser extent Cosmo Air Light, the swatches looked a little dull, and I ended up adding extra ink, thinking that I had maybe not been generous enough with them. The heavy swatches developed an odd, powdery finish when dry (a little like bloom on chocolate), and I dumped on so much ink that it actually soaked through the Tomoe River paper (there was none on the Clairefontaine, which is the swatch on the left). I didn't have any problems like this when writing, though.

 

 

 

That said, after I put it in a pen with a broad nib, I was pretty happy with the ink overall. The amount of shading is wonderful, and the color is pretty nice for this time of year. Writing was smooth and easy, there was no bleed through or feathering on any of the papers I tried, and flow was medium to medium-wet... wet enough that I decided to try it out in a flex nib pen with a plastic nib, and it worked fine.

 

Anyway... not much in the way of writing samples today. I did the broad, the flex (unflexed) which is basically a fine, and the differences didn't seem significant enough to warrant any more. The papers below are 68gsm Tomoe River (plain) and Rhodia (ruled).

 

Oh... I should also mention that this ink is not waterproof at all. Just a few drops of water will lift away the bulk of the color pretty quickly, though a faint ghost of the writing does remain pretty permanently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also had a Red & Black notebook on my desk, and did a lot of random doodling on it with the flex nib, which I thought that I might as well also post here.

 

 

What do you think? Worth the $6.50 for the bottle? I think so.

 

[lapis]

Thanks again for such a great review. I too see absolutely zero sepia. Apache Sunset -- although, as you wrote, much brighter -- was the first thing which came to mind . Second off was NO's Sazerac which is of course darker, even "muddier". But the shading... that's really top-notch!

[Uncial]

Lovely ink, but that sure aint sepia.

[LizEF]

Thanks for another fabulous review.  Interesting how different the ink looks from that ultra-flex nib.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.  This is one I can DEFINITELY pass on, shading or not.  Because you're right -- it isn't sepia, it isn't even brown.  It's ORANGE.  And I have yet to find an orange ink I could stomach....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[yazeh]

Another fantastic and colourful review. If I had to choose between this and Apache, this would be it, if it's as better behaved as you say....

[Matthew TWP]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Another fantastic and colourful review. If I had to choose between this and Apache, this would be it, if it's as better behaved as you say....

 

Thanks! I agree that I prefer this to Apache Sunset; it's always easy to read and it dries quickly. Apache Sunset is really fun to use sometimes, though, as long as you know what you're getting into. 

[Ergative]

Apache Sunset is too yellow for my tastes. I remember being much happier with Habanero, which was darker, leaning more towards orange/red, but just as shadey. This looks quite a bit like Habanero.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I love orange inks...this is tempting!  Wonderful review, thanks.

[Matthew TWP]

5 hours ago, Ergative said:

This looks quite a bit like Habanero.

Yes, it does! Now that I have taken a look around at some Habanero samples, they look very similar to me, too. 

[DrDebG]

Thank you for your ink review!  

 

I really appreciate the time and effort you took to put this together.  

 

While I am not wild about Noodler's inks,  I do like the color.  

 

I too have never been a big fan of the color orange, but I find that orange inks do have their place in my ink collection.  

[vtgt]

Okay what you have there is certainly not sepia, but the shading you have in the writing samples is very entertaining and it's beautifully rich. It reminds me of Diamine Pumpkin a bit but more burnt orange. Did you test water resistance? The 1oz bottles are usually for bulletproofs. 

[Ceilidh]

12 hours ago, vtgt said:

 1oz bottles are usually for bulletproofs. 

The inks for Dromgoole's to give away to attendees of the Dallas Pen Show are also 1 oz bottles. This was the color for this year's show. A couple of them have eventually made it into the regular lineup, but for the most part, when the original run of 1 oz. bottles is gone, that's it.

[Matthew TWP]

15 hours ago, vtgt said:

Okay what you have there is certainly not sepia, but the shading you have in the writing samples is very entertaining and it's beautifully rich. It reminds me of Diamine Pumpkin a bit but more burnt orange. Did you test water resistance? The 1oz bottles are usually for bulletproofs. 

 

I did a water resistance test, and there was none to speak of. The bulk of the orange/red color is lifted away completely. There's a bit of a dark ghost left on the paper, but it's pretty faint.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

Not a bad ink. Although 1ml is too small for my taste. It reminds me of Diamine Deep Dark Orange.

[Matthew TWP]

On 10/23/2021 at 9:21 PM, DrDebG said:

While I am not wild about Noodler's inks,  I do like the color.  

 

For me, Noodler's inks are really hit and miss. I love some of them, and some of them are completely useless. Other brands are more reliably behaved, certainly, but I like the variety of different properties in Noodler's inks that I just don't find elsewhere, and as an ink hobbyist, part of the fun of getting a new bottle of ink is seeing what it's going to be like and what I might use it for, if anything.  

 

14 minutes ago, TitoThePencilPimp said:

Not a bad ink. Although 1ml is too small for my taste. It reminds me of Diamine Deep Dark Orange.

 

Ahh, I haven't tried any of the Deep Dark series, yet... and that one will probably be towards the bottom of my list. That does remind me that I'm overdue for a Cult Pens order, though. 1ml would be too small for anyone's taste 🙂

[vtgt]

1oz - ounce- bottles are an ideal size to me. Will do 250+ pages. I would say 3oz Noodler's bottles are unnecessarily big. Particularly when so many find them problematic and they lay around unused...

[FLZapped]

Hmmmmmm......Organics Studio is no better, their Sepia is green......

[Hooligan2473]

First. Dromgooles is a fantastic B&M to buy from. Many of my pens have been purchased from the 50+- year old store. Top notch customer service. 
 

As for the ink review. Brilliant. I am simple when it comes to color so this was educational for me. Well done and thank you. 

[Matthew TWP]

On 11/15/2021 at 7:32 AM, Hooligan2473 said:

First. Dromgooles is a fantastic B&M to buy from. Many of my pens have been purchased from the 50+- year old store. Top notch customer service. 
 

As for the ink review. Brilliant. I am simple when it comes to color so this was educational for me. Well done and thank you. 

Agreed... I'm a fan of Dromgoole's, though I've never made it down to Texas to visit their store. But when I bought my Diplomat Aero from them, they threw in 10 free bottles of ink with it, and that makes a supporter for life.

Glad you liked the review 🙂