Noodler’s Red Black Ink Review

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.