Ink Review: Noodler's La Couleur Royale

This is another fantastic ink that I fell in love with almost instantly Noodler’s La Couleur Royale is a great very rich and saturated ink that is blue with a hint of purple to it. Now the name color royal makes you think about royal purple and this is not really royal purple however as royal purple is much warmer, but that aside I still love this color.

There is very subtle shading to the color and overall it behaves well. There is no feathering and no bleed through at all. There is a little bit of show through on the other side of the paper but it would not stop you from writing on the other side.

It dries relatively fast for a Noodler’s but a Lefty would still want to be careful. It does not stand up to water well at all but is not advertised to so that is to be expected. Over all it is a great rich ink that offers a nice wet line and will add some uniqueness to your letters without being “over the top” if you don’t like the “weird” colors.


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Ink Review: J.Herbin Rouge Caroubier

Picture from Inky Journal

This is a nice shade of red over all, but it is not one that I personally see myself using a lot. I tend to prefer deeper reds, but if you like lighter reds this one may be more to your liking. The flow started slightly dry but as I wrote, it improved so it may have been a nib problem instead of an ink one. I could not see much shading on it, there is very slight feather on very wet sections no bleed through. Slight shadowing that might keep you from writing on the other side.

The ink does get much less intense with a finer nib and that is one of the reasons I do not like it as much. The dry time is reasonable and this ink would be okay for lefties.It does not deal well with water at all. While it is not my favorite Herbin, I would not turn anyone away from using it if they like the shade. The ink behaves well it just is not a shade for me.

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Paper Review: Staples Bagasse Composition Book

Here we go with another first for the Ink Rack, the first paper review. Since I have been, doing all of my reviews in one notebook it seems only fitting that my first Paper Review is the Paper that I have been using for my reviews. You will have to excuse the miss spelling on my written scan I have a bad habit of spelling Bagasse wrong.

The Staples Bagasse Composition notebook is 9 ¾” X 7 ½” with a bright white paper that has tan/ orange lines that are easy on the eyes. The cover is an Eco friendly Kraft kind that can also be decorated if you like a little bit more spice if you prefer it. Each book contains 100 sheets and I paid $2.49 for mine so it will not break the bank and I find it to be a good deal.

I used two pens and two inks on the paper for testing a Dollar SP-10 with Noodler’s Tiananmen ink and the Jinaho F Nib with Noodler’s Polar Black ink. Both inks faired very well. The paper is perfectly smooth and crisp; there was no bleed through and no feathering. A little bit of show through happens when the ink flow is wetter. The paper is thin but that does not seem to have any affect on how well it takes ink. The paper is very fountain pen friendly.

Overall if you are looking for a good note taking book or a journal and of course, if you are looking for a book to do your ink reviews on if you ask me this is a perfect book. Moreover, the fact that it is Eco-Friendly makes it even better in my book.

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Ink Review: J. Herbin Perle Noire

Photo from a Flickr Photo Stream



Black ink number two for me and back to the J.Herbin that I enjoy very much (not to say Noodlers isn’t good). The Perle Noire is not as saturated as the Noodler’s Polar black, but it is still a good deep true black. I used my Jinaho F5 M nib once again and it flowed smoother than the Polar Black and still laid down a very nice wet line. I felt that it behaved better but the PB also behaved fairly well. There was no feathering or bleed through on the bagesse paper. There was some slight shadowing but I feel you could still write on the other side of the page.

Using my Jinaho fine point dried up the line some but it still laid down a nice black line that would be good for any professional work. I really do prefer colors over all but the right black works for me when I need black. Perle Noire dries a bit faster than the Polar Black IMO so it would be preferable for a lefty. If I had to pick between the two inks to have just one this Perle Noire would be my pick. It also has a fair resitance to water the residue does come over but you can still clearly see the words.

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Ink Review: Noodler's Polar Black

My scan bleached a little bit of the color out of this ink. I have needed a black in my ink arsenal for a while and I now have two. J. Herbin Perle Noire and Noodler’s Polar Black. The Noodler’s is the one I decided to try first as I have taken a liking to their saturated colors. I like nice thick saturation with my wet writers.

When writing with this ink my very first thought as it came out of my Jinaho F5 M Nib and onto my Staples Bagesse paper was wow THIS is BLACK. Moreover, that opinion held as I continued to write. There is light shading with my M nib, and none with the fine nib. But over all I found it to be a well behaved ink. It did not feather, nor bleed through on my Bagesse paper although it did shadow some.

It is a good black with a standard drying time for saturated inks. The only thing I did not yet get done is the water test however; I will be completing that soon and updating the review. This is labeled as a Bulletproof and Freeze proof ink.

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Ink Review: J. Herbin Lie de Thé

This is an ink that I have been considering for a while but having read some reviews about it being baby diaper green shaded when wet made me nervous. Nevertheless, when I was picking up a bottle of Perle Noire I decided to pick it up as well and test it out. I love to copy historical documents and I am always looking for the perfect brown to place on my Ivory Parchment.

Tested again with my Jinaho F5 M nib and on Staples Bagesse composition notebook to try to keep variables on the ink tests similar.

The ink behaves very nicely on this paper laying down a nice wet line. It has no feathering and no bleed through although there is some dark shadowing on the other side of the paper. There is a subtle but pretty shading to this brown. And it stands up fairly well to water although it is not bulletproof. There is a green hue to it but on paper without a darker brown near it, you will have a hard time noticing it.

The ink dries at a decent “standard” time faster when a laid down with a drier writing pen so lefties may want to think about using a finer nib that writes a little drier.

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Ink Review: De Atramentis Caramel

An FPNer who wrote me a letter and used this color on one page introduced this ink to me. Instantly I knew I had to have it. Which is a little strange because I generally only use Antique browns and this is not one? Nevertheless, I loved it I had to have it. The ink is a smaller company and harder to get but once again thanks to an FPNer I found it at Art Brown (no affiliation) and ordered it.

This review was written again with my Jinaho F5 M nib and written on Staples Bagesse
composition notebook paper. This ink behaves nicely and lays down very wet. While it is wet it does not feather and did not bleed through on this paper, it did not show any shadows on it either. It has in my opinion beautiful shading.

The dryer line was written with a No name Fine nibbed pen that is usually very dry. Again, the ink behaved nicely, you will notice that the shading is not as noticeable but the pretty golden brown is still clear and even with my dry pen it laid down a wet line.

Dry time is a little high because of how wet it sets down so lefties will want to be careful again. But this is such a beautiful ink I think it is worth the extra care and dry time. And a bonus is that while your writing it smells like a yummy Caramel candy. The scent only lasts 10 minutes so it is for the writer not the person who will get the writing.

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Ink Review: Noodler's Tiananmen

Here it is my first review of an ink for the blog. As my first, I chose Noodler’s Tiananmen and what an ink it is. Tiananmen is a fantastic dried blood red once it is laid down on paper. It behaves nicely and does not show any feathering on the Staple’s Bagesse paper that was used for my review.

The pen used was a Jinaho F5 with medium nib and offered some shading while laying down a very nice wet line. When I switched to the Dollar SP-10 with fine nib, you could see less shading and a slightly drier line but it was still a nice rich red.

You will have to pardon the scan quality I am still adjusting to using my scanner. Overall, you can get a general idea of this ink by looking at my scan. It does not stand up very well to water, but it does not make any promises too, and it does take a little long to dry something for lefties to think about.

Over all I would recommend this ink if, you are looking for a nice deep rich blood red.

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Welcome to The Ink Rack..

Welcome to the Ink Rack I hope you enjoy your look around. There is not a lot here at the moment but I promise that soon there will be some reviews. There are several Inks in line for their turn in the Rack.

Soon we will have several J.Herbin Inks…and Noodlers.

Check back soon I promise the Rack will be in full swing soon.