EFNIR: Noodler's X-Feather Black

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Noodler's X-Feather Black

This is review #271 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This is a warmish dark, dark grey - at least, it's not black for me, until I look closely, then it seems black, just as it appears in the images.  Maybe there's a sheen of some sort, or it's just glossy. Ran dry (completely) on day 3.  No idea why.  Shook the pen to get it started again, was fine thereafter.

The RH in my house has been 33% for several days and I'm confident it's impacting the dry time. From now on, I plan to record the RH whenever I test dry time.

Cleaning was the bear you'd expect from Noodler's. The ink likes to cling. I didn't feel like breaking out the pipe cleaner to get behind that tab in Pilot sections that holds the cartridge, so once confirming a simple rinse / flush wouldn't do the job, I put everything in pen flush and into the ultrasonic cleaner.  That worked well for everything except the cartridge - the bottom edge still has a ring around it that won't come off - am soaking it now, will try more cycles after hours of soaking.

Zoomed in photo

Screenshot

Scan of Completed Review (The whole image is cooler than reality, but not enough to matter - the ink is black.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Shading is exaggerated for both.)

Line width (One of the lines used for dry time. Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 263µm. With 271 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.) (This is a really narrow line!)

Microscope image (400x. Not very interesting, but you can see it's a warm color and looks "granular" - as if there's pigment in there.)

Water Test Results

Previous Review: Diplomat Orchid.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[msilverton]

This one has been on my to buy list for months. Thanks a bunch for the review as it confirms the ink works on that cheap office printer paper. 🙂

[Sailor Kenshin]

@LizEF, I have a ton of black inks (including the comparison Lamy), so with the hard-cleaning and such, this X-Feather's not for me.  I enjoy your reviews always, even when I don't want the ink.

 

Now I'm thinking the micro looks like a head of cauliflower gone horribly wrong... 👀 🙀 😖

 

Finishing things... writing about a character who can't.

 

Love the Secret Name and Abilities story twist. Thanks for making Tuesdays special! 

 

 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, msilverton said:

This one has been on my to buy list for months. Thanks a bunch for the review as it confirms the ink works on that cheap office printer paper. 🙂

You're welcome.  Personally, I'd go with Noodler's Black to hedge my bet against copy paper that's worse than mine, but either way, hope you enjoy it if you get it.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, I have a ton of black inks (including the comparison Lamy), so with the hard-cleaning and such, this X-Feather's not for me.  I enjoy your reviews always, even when I don't want the ink.

Thank you. Life is too short for crappy paper - or black ink, for that matter.

 

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Now I'm thinking the micro looks like a head of cauliflower gone horribly wrong... 👀 🙀 😖

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Finishing things... writing about a character who can't.

  We all know people who never manage to finish anything.  May as well use that knowledge.

 

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Love the Secret Name and Abilities story twist. Thanks for making Tuesdays special! 

Thanks!   You're most welcome!

[yazeh]

Thanks for another fun review @LizEF 

I liked the "mind meld" scene between Quin and Vika. 🖖 I'm assuming Vika is a feminine figure

I'm intrigued by Quin's real name. Glad no one else knows that, to think he'd be called "Sak" as a nickname at school

 

Looking forward to next Tuesday as you lay the groundwork for the next "season" of the gang of three

 

 

[LizEF]

42 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for another fun review @LizEF 

You're most welcome!

 

42 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I liked the "mind meld" scene between Quin and Vika. 🖖 I'm assuming Vika is a feminine figure

Thanks.  Vika is a she, but she just looks like a fancy stick with a crystal sphere on top. 

 

46 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm intrigued by Quin's real name. Glad no one else knows that, to think he'd be called "Sak" as a nickname at school

  Indeed.  Though in my head, it's pronounced suh-KLAR, not SAK-lur.  (Not that it would stop school children either way.)

 

48 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Looking forward to next Tuesday as you lay the groundwork for the next "season" of the gang of three

Thanks!  (It's a gang of four now, though! )

[InesF]

Thank you, @LizEF, for the effort with getting rid of the ink.  As it isn't a light-engulfing black ink, it may have a chance to be interesting ... but, no, it isn't - at least not for me.  

Same as you, I can't see much in the microscopy image and can only guess that there is much more in than only dye/pigment and water.

 

I love how the story now goes much deeper and personalities of our heroes are revealed. The concept of true name is a classic in many fantasy games and has enormous potential. Let's use the intermission time to take a deep breath and prepare for surprises to come.  

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, for the effort with getting rid of the ink.

You're most welcome!

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

As it isn't a light-engulfing black ink, it may have a chance to be interesting ... but, no, it isn't - at least not for me.  

Yeah, no, not interesting.  I'm really not sure why Nathan bothered - Noodler's Black does better at this ink's job...

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Same as you, I can't see much in the microscopy image and can only guess that there is much more in than only dye/pigment and water.

This appearance is very common with pigmented inks.  Nathan may claim his inks aren't pigmented, but I'm calling "technicality" - there's something "granular" (as in "like a grain of sand only smaller") in there.  They all form this pattern similar to "edge of a cloud bank" or "silt deposited in a river delta" or "mineral deposits at a hot spring" - or pigmented ink on a slide.   The ink I recorded yesterday (also Noodler's) made a sort of micro-abyss drop off (still this pattern, but as if we're looking down into a canyon of the stuff).  It's very cool.  (You'll see it in 5 weeks. PM me if you can't bear the wait. )  Fortunately, I looked at the slide just after making it.  Some days later, the canyon had been flattened (the mesa had been squashed down to the level of the canyon?  something like that...).

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

I love how the story now goes much deeper and personalities of our heroes are revealed. The concept of true name is a classic in many fantasy games and has enormous potential. Let's use the intermission time to take a deep breath and prepare for surprises to come.  

Thank you!  Yes, plenty of deep breathing, since I still haven't figured out many of those surprises!

[yazeh]

18 hours ago, LizEF said:

Thanks.  Vika is a she, but she just looks like a fancy stick with a crystal sphere on top. 

My spell to your spell, your spell to my spell. We are one, suuuuuuuuuuuuuh-Klar 

[txomsy]

Thanks for the review.

 

I've found it surprising. X-Feather is one of (if not the) my favorite inks. Well behaved on any paper and pretty dark. I don't perceive it as a lighter shade of dark, but that's me. And I have not had any trouble cleaning it so far, and I've used it in most pens I own. But I don't have a Pilot, so can't comment on this. I've left it in a pen sometimes for months unused and didn't have starting/drying problems either. But after a long time I've mostly settled for pens that do not dry easily.

 

Maybe the differences are batch-related (as oft' claimed of Noodler's inks), or ink material dependent, or shelf time. I don't know.

 

But this is certainly one of my most used inks because, in my hands, it behaves well and is permanent. Something I value a lot. Now, that's been my experience, and YMMV, no claim it should be the same for anyone else.

 

Anyway, I (not so) recently got my hands on a 500ml bottle of Perle Noire, specially out of the difficulties I had earlier to get X-feather (not because I prefer it, not so far), so once my current 4.5 oz bottle of X-Feather is finished, it may be a long time before I lay my hands on a new one.

 

Time to get back to using the brush pens for drawing more intensively.

[LizEF]

47 minutes ago, yazeh said:

My spell to your spell, your spell to my spell. We are one, suuuuuuuuuuuuuh-Klar 

[LizEF]

26 minutes ago, txomsy said:

Thanks for the review.

You're very welcome.

 

28 minutes ago, txomsy said:

I've found it surprising. X-Feather is one of (if not the) my favorite inks. Well behaved on any paper and pretty dark. I don't perceive it as a lighter shade of dark, but that's me.

In writing, I didn't perceive it as lighter, only in the swab and on the slide.

 

29 minutes ago, txomsy said:

And I have not had any trouble cleaning it so far, and I've used it in most pens I own.

Demonstrator.  Need to completely and utterly remove it so it can't impact the next ink...  You get the idea.

 

30 minutes ago, txomsy said:

I've left it in a pen sometimes for months unused and didn't have starting/drying problems either. But after a long time I've mostly settled for pens that do not dry easily.

Things dry faster here - thank the inky stars!  (Though it just started snowing, and since Klaw's been whining all morning about going outside, I picked him up and carried him out until we were both turning white (a bigger change for him).  He didn't appreciate my efforts to satisfy his wishes... )

 

32 minutes ago, txomsy said:

Maybe the differences are batch-related (as oft' claimed of Noodler's inks), or ink material dependent, or shelf time. I don't know.

Indeed.  I have just the one sample (from Goulet) and a week in the pen.

 

33 minutes ago, txomsy said:

But this is certainly one of my most used inks because, in my hands, it behaves well and is permanent. Something I value a lot. Now, that's been my experience, and YMMV, no claim it should be the same for anyone else.

More data points make for better decisions!

 

34 minutes ago, txomsy said:

Time to get back to using the brush pens for drawing more intensively.

Enjoy!  Hope to see some of the drawings.