Noodlers Ink 4.5Oz Heart Of Darkness

After doing a ridiculous amount of research (and I mean RIDICULOUS) I finally made up my mind and went for the Noodler's "Heart of Darkness" as my first bottle of fountain pen ink. I'm new to the game and wasn't sure about what was really the best. Everywhere says something else is always the best bet. Either way, I went with the Noodler's for a few reasons, one of which is not silly:1.) I'm from Oklahoma. I love to go fishing. The box has a picture of a catfish on it which we are known in these parts to catch by a method called (I'm not making this up.) NOODLING. No, really. There have been numerous reports, articles, and memes about it, and even a documentary. (Okie Noodling: A Documentary by Bradley Beesley...available on DVD through Amazon or Amazon video. Check it out. Your mouth will hang open in disbelief through the entire duration of the film. Get some buddies and some beer and prepare to be amazed.) I'm assuming that's where the name and image correlate. If not, then the designer who designed the box is one lucky designer and should probably start buying lottery tickets. Hopefully they don't read this and go buy a bunch of lottery tickets when they're actually recovering from a terrible gambling addiction and my flippant comments and attempts at humor cast them adrift in a maelstrom of self destructive behavior, petty crime, and Columbo re-runs where they wind up trying to pawn their Civil War chess set for just one more spin on the "Makem Big Wampum" slot machine at the Buffalo Butt Tribal Casino and Taxidermy College. I feel so ashamed.2.) It comes with a free pen! "Free pen?" you say with surprise, disbelief, delight, and just a slight hint of fear. I don't have any problem with free pens. I Love free pens! Some of my best friends are free pens. Yes, a free pen. No catches, conditions, or gimmicks. The free pen is Noodler's own pen. I know because it says "Noodler's Ink" on the clip. It's a good pen, though it does feel pretty light and delicate in your hand. It seems to have a rather fine nib, which is good for minimizing bleeding, shadowing, feathering, and what I call "BLURPS". It holds a good 2ml to 3ml of ink and will only need to be refilled occasionally. The lines are fine and consistent with with minimal skipping, if any at all. It's also very responsive to hand pressure. *Insert inappropriate "your mother" joke here*3.) It's now been personally verified; this ink is awesome. It's name is completely accurate. This is some dark, black, and bold stuff. I spilled a drop on my desk and it looked like one of those "portable holes" you would see in the old cartoons. Seriously, I swear, you guys, I dropped some on my desk and the paperclips and pen caps and post-its and loose stuff, like started to move toward it. Like, you know, one of those space things where the, like, gravity increases exponentially and, like, not even, like, light can escape and we still haven't found the cat. The bottle says "ETERNAL" so I'm assuming it lasts, like, a really long time and stuff. On bright white paper it's very bold, so a finer line will be easier to read for long periods of time. I also use it in a Pilot Metropolitan with a medium and nib and it flows quickly and easily. This ink flows easily enough that thin or cheap paper will have a good bit of shadowing and bleeding, but that is more of a statement about the pen and nib, rather than the ink itself.4.) You can't argue with the price. I'm not even going to try.I.just.can't.even.

I've waited almost 6 months since my purchase to review this item because I wanted to make sure I was giving a well rounded review.I had never used a fountain pen ever. I love writing and I thought a fountain pen would spark my inspiration and get me writing more. I was right. I purchased this ink bottle because I saw it came with a free pen. I figured if the pen sucked, at least I'd be set on good ink and I could buy another pen. I bought a very nice leather bound journal and began my personal quest to rediscover my inner-author.I read the directions several times and took the pen apart and put it together a few times. Yes, it felt sort of cheap and I was a bit fearful, but I filled and sealed it and set to writing. I didn't have to coax the ink through the nib for long. It began to flow very nicely in a short time. When not in use, I store the pen inside of my journal, where I can keep it wrapped happily in the leather shell which wraps around the book.I began writing daily in my journal and I must say the ink is very black, not a watery black/grey and it dries instantly. I very rarely have a smear. I have filled a few hundred pages with writing and I love the pen/ink so much I've begun using it at work for all of my daily writing needs. I will say that if I need to highlight over it, it's best to let it sit for about 15 minutes before I do so or it will smear.I have refilled this pen, I believe, 4 times. I feel like I haven't even made a dent in the ink bottle.I had an issue one time when I didn't re-assemble the pen properly and it leaked on my hand. I was able to simply unscrew it and put it back together more carefully and it was fine. That time I also over-filled it and it was blobbing ink on my paper as another reviewer said. Once I used some of the ink up it wrote perfectly again.I would buy this again and I would recommend this to anyone. I believe I have purchased a bottle of ink that will last me a couple of years and a pen which will, hopefully, last as long. I honestly think this is one of my favorite purchases of 2012. I use the product every single day and it's stood up to heavy usage. The rich, quality ink inspires me to write and draw. The high quality pen has surpassed every expectation. Overall, 5 months after purchase, I'd consider myself an incredibly happy customer.

It's VERY Black, it flows well, dried reasonably quick, and in my testing on regular papers its so waterproof that the paper will disintegrate before the ink smudges or feathers from water (although water colorists using their special paper report problems). This is the black ink I use daily. I'm still looking for that perfect blue, but black is settled. I will also say that this bottle having an eyedropper actually helps for me since I do cheap things like refill cartridge on my platinum preppy instead of buying a converter that costs more than the pen. You might want to look into an inkwell if your pen would be better filled by dipping it or the converter into the ink (or buy the next size down since that does not have an eyedropper)This ink also comes with a Noodler's Charlie pen which is only packaged with these big bottles of ink. It's a pretty good pen, nib even has a tiny little amount of flex to it. My only problem with it is that it is a twist off cap making it a pain to use for quick notes (unlike a Lamy Safari of Platinum Preppy that have nice snap on/off caps for quick access) and as an eyedropper pen it inherently has vulnerability to burping up ink due to temperature changes...although this was not a common problem for me. That all said, I've done a lot of writing with it and it's a perfectly pleasant experience. I just don't use it as my walking around pen due to the delay cause by the twist off cap.