Noodler's Red Black Fountain Pen Ink in a 3 oz Bottle

It has been a little while since I’ve done a fountain pen ink review, so I thought I’d break out my bottle of Noodler’s Black Red ink for a review.  I cant remember where I bought this bottle from to be quite honest, I think I picked it up on my trip to DC earlier this year, but as with just about everything else in the world, you can pick some up at Amazon.com here.

Noodler's Red Black with the Cap Off

The Noodler’s Red Black ink has a nice dark color to it, which you can see from the picture above.  The dark color can be seen inside the bottle, and also on the beaded up ink on the cap.  The ink that appears on the inside edge of the glass though gives you a better idea as to the true color, which is almost like a dried blood color, guess that might be good for any gory Halloween writing that you might be doing.  The bottle’s label has an interesting quote worth noting on it, which reads:

“The only pure Red-Black in the history of inks.  Prime Red and Prime Black.”

Noodler's Red Black Writing Samples

I did two writing samples with this ink, one in my Rhodia Web Notebook with 90g paper, and one in my Black n’ Red notebook.  I selected both of these notebooks because they usually handle fountain pen ink so well, and I couldn’t resist the novelty of doing a red black ink review in a Black n Red notebook.  The nice thing about doing the red black ink review in both notebooks is that you can get a good idea of how the ink appears differently on a bright white paper vs. an ivory paper.  Lets take a closer look at the individual writing samples on the respective papers.

Noodler's Red Black Writing Sample in a Black n Red Notebook

The first writing sample here is the Red Black ink in the Black n Red notebook, I think Im just going to keep typing that to see how many people I can confuse.  When you look at this ink on the bright white paper in this notebook, it really jumps off the page.  The writing samples are done with my Lamy Safari pen with an Extra Fine nib, and when  you inspect the writing up close, the ink looks pretty dark, especially compared to where you see the streak of ink that I just put on the paper using a cotton swab.  The streak of ink compared to the actual writing strokes, shows the depth and different tones you can get from this ink.  The writing experience with the ink on this paper, and with the Lamy Safari EF was really nice, the ink flowed very smoothly, and there was minimal to no nib creep either.  Just a simple and smooth writing experience.

Noodler's Red Black Writing Sample in a Rhoida Web Notebook with 90g Paper

Looking at the Red Black ink in the Rhodia Web Notebook with 90g Paper tells a slightly different story.  You can see that the ivory color of the paper takes it down a notch and darkens the color some.  Instead of the ink showing a stark contrast to the background like it did with the bright white paper, this time it has kind of a muted tone, but not in a bad way.  The written letters and lines appear darker to me, but you still pick up hints of red, that appear more like a burgundy or purple…I guess kind of like a deep dark red wine, or as I said before dried blood.  When you look at the streak of ink applied with the cotton swab, you can see that it’s really dark compared to the other in the Black n Red notebook.  While it doesn’t show much if any color contrast, it does show a nice deep, dark, and consistent red black, or burgundy color which I really like.  As for the writing experience, it’s the same as any other fountain pen and ink combination I’ve ever tired with this particular Rhodia Web Notebook, it’s really hard to find a better paper to write on.

Surprisingly enough I think this ink might even be OK for a more professional setting, I dont think I would use it for work, but I’m just really picky that way.  I do think that the ink is “quiet” enough to be good for notes and such in the workplace though, it’s just not my style for that purpose.   Either way, I dont think you can go wrong with this ink if you are looking for a nice deep dark color for your writing, just make sure that you have the right paper picked out for the desired look you want to achieve with the ink.

© 2009, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

Woody holding the Noodler's Blue Black Fountain Pen Ink.

I posted a 1/2 day poll to allow my readers to pick the next item that they wanted to see reviewed, and the overwhelming winner was the Noodler’s Blue Black fountain pen ink.  I was a little surprised by this, but happy at the same time because I was not aware of how many fountain pen fans there were out there.  Hope everyone enjoys the review and finds it helpful.

It was not until recently that I started trying any of the multi color inks because I always had a misguided perception that they wouldnt look “business-like” and I wouldnt be able to use them in a serious business or office environment.  After getting my hands on the Pilot Petit1 blue black (that I recently gave away to a reader) I quickly changed that opinion.  I found the color of the ink to be very suitable for any professional setting, and it had a very dignified and clean look to it…not at all the cheezy “trying too hard” look that I had expected.  I used to do the majority of my writing and note taking in straight black ink, but after trying this one out for a bit I’m starting to change my preference to the blue black…it has just enough character to it so it stands out, yet it is just subtle enough to not draw too much attention to it.

Noodler's blue black writing sample on Levenger Paper

One quick thing to point out before getting into the writing samples is that there seems to be something wrong with my scanner and there are some smudges on the glass, so you will see what looks like some smear marks in the pictures, but I assure you this has nothing to do with the ink.  The first picture you see above shows the Noodler’s blue black writing sample on Levenger paper.  As with most other inks that I have used on Levenger paper, they preform really well.  The ink writes very smoothly, and it doesnt show any feathering or bleeding on the page resulting in very crisp and clean lines.  This is my day to day writing combo for work, Noodler’s blue black and my Levenger Circa Notebook.

Noodler's blue black writing sample in a Rhodia notebook.

Now I know that there are many fountain pen users out there who love their Rhodia and/or Moleskine notebooks, so I wanted to do a quick writing sample to show how it writes on both of these papers.  I guess at some point I should also mention that the writing samples were all done with the same pen…I dont want to mention the pen yet because I will be doing a full review of it at some point, but I will say it is a Pelikan Fine nib, and Ill leave it at that.

Writing in the Rhodia notebook with this ink was also very smooth, and the ink seemed to lay down a nice line.  There are very faint signs of feathering that  you really dont notice unless you look REALLY close…I used a magnification of 20x in order to be able to see this.  Overall I would give a thumbs up to using the Noodler’s blue black with your Rhodia.

Boodler's blue black writing sample in a Moleskine notebook.

Now for the Moleskine writing sample…I dont think I’ve ever been truly satisfied with any fountain pen ink or liquid ink on a Moleskine.  The only thing that I’ve used that was ok on one of these has been a ballpoint or a gel ink.  You can see in the sample above that the Noodler’s blue black shows some heavy feathering on this paper…this has always been my issue with Moleskine paper.  If you look closely at this ink on the Moleskine vs. the Rhodia or the Levenger paper you will see that it appears to be lighter in color.  I noticed this after scanning the writing samples, so I went back and checked the actual samples to make sure this was not just my scanner acting up, and it definitely was not.  In looking at the samples next to each other, the Moleskine definitely resulted in a much lighter appearance for the Noodler’s Blue Black.  I dont know if Im just not being fair here, but I just really wouldnt recommend this paper and this ink together.

Noodler's blue black with Woody and the paper samples. Top is the Levenger paper, bottom left is the Rhodia, and top right is the Moleskine.

The last picture here is my attempt to try and show the Noodler’s Blue Black on all three different papers in the same picture.  You can really see how the ink is much lighter on the Moleskine (bottom right) as compared to the Levenger and Rhodia papers.

I purchased this bottle of Noodler’s from Goldspot who carries a ton of different Noodler’s inks, each time I have ordered from them they have always been very quick to deliver. You can see all the Noodler’s ink that they have here, and you can also check out all of the other pens that they offer.  In order to keep things completely transparent I want to also mention that Goldspot did give me a small bloggers discount on the bottle, however I this has nothing to do with my suggesting them as a great place to buy from.  I was actually a happy customer of theirs before I even started this blog.

Dont forget to check out the Ink Comparison Log for some comparisons of all the inks Ive reviewed.

© 2009 – 2010, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.