Ever since I saw the Noodler's video about this ink, I was hoping to try it out. And then the good folks at Pen Boutique offered to send me a bottle in exchange for my usual honest review. Well, here it is!
I wasn't really expecting to like this ink all that much. I like Noodler's inks, and I like red inks, but I'm really hesitant about fast-dry inks. There are a couple of ways that fast-dry inks can be made. Their either soak in to the paper quickly or they evaporate from the paper quickly. Nathan says (in the video) that this does a bit of both. That worried me a little. Soaking-in inks are bleeders and feather-ers. Evaporating inks evaporate out of your pen and leave you with a crusty mess. Fortunately, this ink doesn't do much of those things. I haven't seen it evaporate out of the pen yet. It does bleed/feather/spread (as you'll see below), but it isn't nearly as bad as some of the other fast-dry inks that I've used.
The other plus for this ink is that it is an awesome color. I had it in three very different nibs, and I graded a bunch of papers with it. It bled through the student's low-quality paper, but I kept using it because the color was just so good.
Check it out below and let me know if you think an awesome color and the fast-dry quality make up for the bleedy nature of this ink.
Written Review
Close Ups!
Color Comparisons
Copy Paper Test
Here's the back of the page of Rhodia that I wrote the review on. It kinda bled through the paper where I made that smear, and it tried hard to bleed through in a few other places. Discount the bit at the bottom where I did the water test, though, as that had water poured on it. Mostly, though, it didn't really bleed. It did feather some, oddly.
Another ink smear...
...because I had it.
Chromatography
Video Review
So, if you're a lefty or you want a fast-dry ink and you don't mind a little bit of bleed and feather then this is a pretty cool ink. The color is great. It does dry quickly (as you saw in the video). Feel the Bern.
Find it at Pen Boutique at $12.50 for a 90ml bottle. Super full. Be careful with this one, folks. My bottle was crazy-full.