I prefer Noodler’s ink, and they have so many varieties I never seem to run out of new ones to try. Depending on what I’m writing, or who I am writing to, I like to change my ink and pen kinda frequently.
I’d been running Blue Nose Bear and Red Black in my DuoFold and Levenger L-Tech, respectively. I switched the Duofold back to Heart of Darkness, and put Luxury Blue into the L-Tech. I also decided to give Rome Burning a shot, seeing as how Washington is, and loaded up an old Mont Blanc of my fathers. I hate Mont Blanc.
Blue Nose Bear is a semi-permanent blue-green of sorts. I had high hopes for it, but felt it is kind of blah, and settles to an almost brownish blue on the note cards I was using it on. BNB was also no fun to use when writing in notepads, and I’m fairly done with it, I’d thought of maybe mixing it with some other blues, greens or just black.
Luxury Blue, however is pretty electric! I’ve honestly always hated blue. I felt it was boring to write with, sort of the “I don’t want black but I’ve got no guts” color of ink, but Luxury Blue shouts LOOK AT ME, without being uncouth. It is one of Noodler’s Eternal lines of ink, which gave me hope that if possibly someone, someday finds something I wrote them meaningful, it won’t disappear like invisible ink, which Mark will teach you to make from the tears of a unicorn. Mark’s unicorn tear concoction is slightly less expensive than Luxury Blue which clocks in at an astounding $12 per 1oz.
Rome Burning is one hell of a different ink! It goes on mottled brown and as it dries it feathers like ink was sprayed around the edges of the lettering and turns a golden shade of gold. It looks a lot like a golden sparkler has sort of gone off on your page. On my Marumann Mnemosyne, which resists feathering well, its a not-subtle effect. On fiberous/matte note cards, it seems almost unusable except as something for party invitations or artistic intent. This ink is too active for simple words.
If you need black, there is no ink more black than Heart of Darkness. It is the quintessential Noodler’s ink for me. It flows so well, leaves unbroken lines and is just basically perfect for black. It does dry slower than Quink, which was my old go-to black, but Quink is grey in comparison. I love how Heart of Darkness looks like i could peel it off of the page with a razor, after its gone on.
Heart of Darkness is also Eternal.
Noodlers Ink 1 Oz Luxury Blue Eternal via Amazon
Noodlers Ink 3 Oz Rome Burning via Amazon
Noodler’s Ink Fountain Pen Bottled Ink, 3oz, Blue Nosed Bear via Amazon