Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

I've often called Noodler's ink very functional and not very beautiful. And even though that is mostly true, some of their colors are definitely challenging that opinion. Black Swan in Australian Roses is a beautiful ink and when I saw Habanero on Reddit, I knew I would have to buy this ink too. A color that is mostly suitable for personal writing, but with the Corona lockdown, you can use anything for work notes while in a video call.  High shading, no feathering, no significant show-through, and decent lubrication. The ink writes really nice. However, it is very wet and has an extremely long drying time. On Tomoe river paper it looks wet for more than half an hour and smears very easily, even after 45-60 minutes. This of course does limit the possible use of the ink, less suitable for a notebook or journaling.  Once dry, a little bit of water will ruin it, but the ink remains legible if you're quick enough with a kitchen towel.  Compared to other orange ...

Black Swan in Australian roses. What to expect from an ink with that name? It's definitely not black, nor does the color remind me of roses. I'd say it's a light purple color, leaning towards red. One explanation I've read for the name was the high degree of (almost black) shading. In any case, it's a nice, subtle color. It's definitely more a color for personal use than for use in the workspace, but you will still get away with taking notes in this color. No one would take offense or even frown.  The ink is well behaved. Noodler's is a no-frills ink brand. It does what it has to do. Atypical for Noodler's are the high shading and the long drying times. Very different from the inks of this brand I used before: Tchaikovsky, Heart of Darkness, Esenin, and Kingfisher. It wasn't easy to find a color that comes close. It reminded me most of Diamine's Syrah (much darker) and a little bit of Iroshizuku's Bishamonten and Montblanc's Lavend...

Tchaikovsky by Noodler's ink is part of their Russian series. I couldn't find out why they associate Tchaikovsky with purple, Diamine has a blue Tchaikovsky ink, but having an ink named after you is a great tribute in almost any color.  Being a purple ink this ink is useful only for personal use of course and should be kept far from the office. The most striking think about this ink is the HUGE difference between a dip pen (1mm OB nib) and a regular nib on a Parker Sonnet. The color changes from a lowly saturated, bland purple into a well-shaded deep purple.   The ink itself is a typical Noodler's ink. It does what it has to do, no-frills.  The color is neither ugly nor beautiful, the bottle is chock-full (careful), the ink dries quickly enough and it behaves decently in almost every pen and on every paper. Plus, it's not very expensive.   Show through is minimal, shading is low, water resistance is high.  The dip pen was a surprise, a...

My collection of black inks is limited. In a previous review I discussed Aurora black, a very fine black ink. But I also wanted a permanent black. So I ordered Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I have a few other inks of this manufacturer and while they do their job, I am not a fan. The inks are very wet, have little or no shade and the colors are OK at best. Never marvellous. They have one advantage that is worth mentioning but of lesser importance to me... the inks are very forgiving on cheaper paper. Bleed-through of course, but hardly any feathering and normal drying times. On the super smooth Original Crown Mill Vellum, the ink almost floats. This ink is no exception. I didn't like it much in my Parker Duofold (medium nib). In a TWSBI Eco (Fine nib) it is a decent black. Darker than I expected, little or no shading, some bleed-through even on Rhodia. Drying times on (smooth) paper are very high, more than a minute. When comparing the ink to other blacks I was surprise...