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Noodler’s Ink Antietam

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Lily of JetPens sent me a bottle of Noodler’s Ink in Antietam. When I first opened the bottle, I thought it was going to be a very red ink, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Noodlers Antietam

For those who can’t read my penmanship:

A reddish orange that dires like fresh blood. Loaded into a Fine Pilot fountain pen nib, it has great variation of shading, going from a light orange to a dark red.  In some lights, I could see this going as a burnt sienna. Dries a bit slow, but that could be my paper, not the ink.

I’m not usually a fan of using red inks for everyday writing (notes, journals, and such) but this is far enough from an editting red to make it into my daily rotation.

I like the variation in shade even with my fine tipped pen.

I’ve read elsewhere that Antietam is a very fickle ink that looks different depending on what pen and what size nib you have. For those, like me, who are mortally afraid of writing in too red of a red, I’d suggest loading this into a pen with a fine nib for more of an orange hue.

Ink Review: Noodler’s Ink Red Black

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Soon to be written about

Noodler’s Ink Red Black in Lamy Safari on Quattro artist pad

If you can’t read my writing:

This ink is such a chameleon. On first glance, it’s just brown. Then I start to notice its subtle shading. (It’s more apparent on less toothy paper.)  It’s less red and less black than I had hoped. I wanted a nice, dark red that shades into black. This reminds me more of sepia — good for those who like the old-timey color.  In some lights, it looks a little purple.

Flow is great in the Lamy Safari and drying time is a few seconds. <– I smeared it right after the words we(re) written.  Not bad.

I’m not buying a full bottle of this because I’m not that excited by brown.

I picked this ink as one of the sampler inks from Pear Tree Pens, which lets you choose 4 samples of inks from their huge inventory of inks to try out for about $4 + shipping. I wanted to look for a red ink that wasn’t so bright red that it looked like a corrections ink, so on paper, Noodler’s Ink Red Black sounded like a great idea.

The ink is definitely more brown than I expected in most lights, but under ideal lighting, it takes on a dark purple tint, kind of like the old Chinese purple clay teapots. Unfortunately, most of the time I’m writing, it’s not under perfect lighting, so it just looks brown with some excellent shading.

Soon to be written about

It’s a good thing I ordered a sample of this before buying the whole bottle or else I’d be stuck with a whole bottle of ink that I wouldn’t use. I wanted so much to like this ink since it behaved so well in my fountain pen and dried at a decent speed, but at least I can take comfort in the fact that there are still a dozen or so Noodler’s inks that I want to try out that might be a color that suits me better.