Noodlers Red-Black mini review

[IPv6Freely]

Wow, I love that!

[dhlr14454]

Nice review: and a very cool ink. Thanks.

[Imzadi]

Really nice! I've wondered about buying inks that exhibit some type of shading. This may be my first.

[sasdrtx]

Red Black was the first Noodlers ink that I bought and is still one of my all time favorites.....

 

If you think it does great things in a broad nib... you should try it in a .7mm stub.... great toning ...

Red-Black was my first Noodler's also, but I've always thought it just looked brown, which is definitely not what I wanted. Maybe I need to shake it up, as someone suggested earlier. I mostly use it in my Lamy AL-Star (M nib) which writes fairly wet.

 

[Aysedasi]

Well I've had this for a couple of weeks now and have reserved it to my broad nibbed Imperial where it gives me results quite like Stephen-I-am's. It's a very pleasant ink - I couldn't use it all the time, but for occasional use it really is a nice variety.

[Pravda]

This ink/color seems amazing! I would love to have it.. Thank you for the review

[lovemy51]

I've been having a blast taking notes with this new ink. I've found it to be smooth flowing and lubricating, with an average drying time. The best quality to me though is the gorgeous color -- it's nice and contrasty, showing wonderful variation of color when shading.

 

To my eye the color is not that far away from Noodlers Swishmix burgundy, and I would place red-black in the burgundy family. I admit that I find the red-black more interesting in every way. It does take longer to dry than the Swishmix ink, and that's a plus in my book since it allows an italic nib to be used to greater effect, with more contrast between thin and thick strokes. It also means less feathering, particularly on cheaper paper.

 

This ink has been classified as "near-bulletproof". The "10 seconds" and "20 seconds" are smear tests.

 

http://www.theboulets.net/fountainpen/noodlers_redblack.jpg

 

 

 

 

And a close-up:

 

http://www.theboulets.net/fountainpen/noodlers_redblack_closeup.jpg

 

The pen used was a Conway Stewart 58 with a 0.7 mm oblique stub nib.

 

Stephen

 

nice color, but... 10 secs and smears!... does it ever dry?

[Geoff V]

Yup, it dries! I'm in Melbourne, which has typically 45-55% humidity and Red-Black dries in seconds. It looks lovely, but the intensity of colour and shading depend very heavily on the flow characteristics of the pen involved. Al in all, an excellent ink!

[Pravda]

I finally got it and love it!!

 

Thank you for the great review, this is the one that convinced me to get it. The scans looked so amazing I just had to have it.. the other reviews had so much negative remarks on it I wonder which ones of them I might come to notice eventually but so far this ink is perfect

 

 

 

[jazztonight]

All I can say is, "SHAKE IT UP" baby!

 

I have 4 Noodler's colors now, and while I like the other 3 a lot, I LOVE the Red-Black.

 

It was very brown when I first loaded it into my pen, but after checking back and reading this thread, I filled up again, first shaking the bottle thoroughly.

 

Now it is truly red-black, and even with my Waterman Expert II Fine nib, it is an exquisite ink.

 

And finally, yes--it does take a LONG time to dry on my postcards, but less time on other papers, so be prepared.

 

If anyone wants to swap a postcard and see a sample of my challenged handwriting in Noodler's Red-Black, please PM me.

[Raiche58]

As a woman, I have wrestled with this color conundrum in the areas of lipstick, nail polish, and eye shadow. I have and enjoy Private Reserve Black Cherry. I have coveted Noodler's Red-Black. And I have quite a few bottles of various Brown inks.

 

Some see Red-Black and Black-Cherry as brown. It's hard for me to argue against that. For me I see--like a man doing the tango with a woman--two distinct aspects in Red-Black and Black-Cherry--not a perfect fusion appearing as brown. Is it just the peculiar quality of my eyes? There is something alluring about Red-Black(RB) and Black Cherry(BC). I have tried to make my own version of this using Diamine Ruby and Higgins Black (yes, this is with dip pens, not fountain.) My experiment is not to the standard of RB or BC--it looks like a warm black--or dare I say it--brown.

 

I try to talk myself out of buying every commercial recipe that comes on the market, but there are times when I think they have definitely captured lightening in a bottle. I will try to get by on P.R. Black Cherry and resist Noodler's Red-Black, but it will be hard.....I think Noodler's has tweaked the possibilities and done something different.