Taking a week off

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be light on the blog this coming week (starting today). Rachel and I have had a really busy last several months (moving the business, having a baby, moving the business again, now moving personally), so we're going to take some time off for the next week or so to get our new house in order and take care of family things. We'll still be accessible by email and working from home, but I won't be blogging as much as usual until we're settled in. I'm pretty sure I'll still be doing Mailbox Monday this coming week, but FP101 today and Wed. Review next week probably aren't happening (FP101 next week is up in the air). Don't worry, I'll be back up to it all again soon, but I have to take care of my family and my home right now :) Thanks for understanding, and write on!! ~Brian Goulet

Wed. Review - New Noodler's Flex Colors

Noodler's has (yet again) come out with more pen colors, this time in all three pen models. In the Nib Creaper Flex, there's Red, Navy, Turquoise, Green Mountain, and Burgundy. The Ahab is seeing Gray Fox, Green Mountain, and Tiger, and the Konrad has some exciting smoke and blue demonstrators! It's hard to keep up these days, isn't it? All of the pens are the same as the previous versions, just new colors. I just wanted to share them with you, what do you think?

Noodler's Konrad Hudson Bay Fathoms Blue demonstrator flex pen

Noodler's Konrad Pequod's Smoke demonstrator flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Gray Fox flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Green Mountain flex pen

Noodler's Ahab Tiger flex pen

Noodler's Nib Creaper Burgundy flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Navy flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Red flex pen (same color as the old non-flex nib creaper)

Noodler's Nib Creaper Turquoise flex pen, reformulated to be darker than the 'old' turquoise

For comparison, the 'original' Noodler's Nib Creaper Turquoise color (since discontinued)

How many more colors will there be? Who knows, Nathan Tardif (of Noodler's) has hinted at the almost unlimited possibility of color combinations. These are just the latest ones :) What do you think?

Write On,
Brian Goulet

Mailbox Monday #13

My email inbox gets a plethora of interesting pen related questions, and I spend a good deal of time crafting thoughtful responses to each person who writes to me. A lot of times, the questions I get are good ones that I feel are worth sharing with you! I'll be posting highlights of some of my more interesting email questions every Mailbox Monday. These are some emails of mine from the past week or so: 

In the Platinum Preppy, there is a clear plastic, cylindrical support section that seems to be designed to support the rear of the feed stem and perhaps is designed to provide some support and alignment for the Preppy ink cartridge. The Preppy that Noodler's supplies doesn't have this feed support section. Is this some sort of insert that can be removed? Or, is it a permanent piece that cannot be removed? Should I just ignore that it is there? Seems like ink would feed better if it weren't in place. I tried to gently remove it by attempting to use the slot at the top of it to see if it would unscrew but didn't have any success.

You're one of the few people ever to ask me about this, believe it or not! All of the Preppy's come with this plastic support....it's there to hold cartridges in place. The reason it isn't there on the pens that come with Noodler's inks is because Nathan fundamentally doesn't 'believe' in cartridges, so he removes these plastic supports from the pens he puts in his ink bottles! It doesn't really make a difference in terms of the flow of ink, but it obviously makes the pen useful only as an eyedropper. You can remove it from your other Preppy's, but it's not necessary, and I don't believe it can be put back once you take it off. Mystery solved :)

Before the revamp of your site one could narrow the list of inks by style or whatever they were called. For example show me the Eel line or the Russian links. Where did that go?

We actually still have this feature, but it's not named as Noodler's-specific terms like 'Eel' or 'Russian'. If you go to any of the brands (or the 'Shop All Bottled Ink') pages, you will see drop downs just below the header where you can filter your searches. The ones you'll want to focus on will be 'shop by ink property':

Perhaps we can look to integrate Noodler's-specific searches in the Noodler's groupings, I'll talk to Rachel about that.

This one will give you lots to do for Ink Nouveau. It kind of looks like some of the De Atramentis inks, especially the famous persons are duplicates of regular inks, just with a new name. If so can the duplications be cross referenced?

De Atramentis....yeah....you're not the first to ask for this! This is a project for sure, something I plan to do but not right away. It's going to be a huge undertaking. I'm basically on my own with it, because Dr. Jansen (who makes the ink) doesn't even speak English, he has to have his daughter translate all of our emails going to and from him.....and it's not always super-clear what's being said and it takes a week or two to get a response to an email. I'll have to do a lot of investigating myself to see about the inks and their similarities, and it will happen...at some point.

Hi Brian: I just ordered a sample of Noodler's Black from you. I have read a couple of posts on the Fountain Pen Network that this ink can be diluted and not change it that much. Just wanted to hear your take on this, and what I can expect, with reference to saturation, shading, etc.

It's true, a lot of the Noodler's inks can be diluted to improve flow and increase the cost effectiveness. You can usually do a 10% dilution of distilled water to ink and not notice any significant change in color. You can dilute to your heart's content up to about 50%, but of course the more you dilute, the thinner the ink will get and the lighter the color will appear. It's something you can play around with, I just recommend diluting in small quantities until you find the right ratio for you :)

Can the Noodler's Konrad Flex pens and Rollerball pens accept each other's nibs/feeds?

Unfortunately, the diameter of the inside of the two Konrads (rollerball and flex pen) are slightly different, so the nibs aren't interchangeable with each other :(

I received today the Noodler’s 4.5 oz Lexington Gray with the enclosed eyedropper pen – thanks for the quick delivery. As I understand it, the pen can be converted to a rollerball (as delivered, the fountain nib was installed). I can’t figure out how to do the conversion – I’ve looked on the web but the videos I’ve seen don’t look like the pen that was delivered to me, and the papers delivered with the pen don’t appear to provide any direction.

Can you tell me how to do the conversion?

Nathan briefly covers the Preppy rollerball tip in one of his videos. It's a video on Baystate Blue, which also comes with that same Preppy fountain pen with the interchangeable tip. You'll want to skip ahead to 22:20 and watch until about 23:15: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOws7QsdQMM 

The basic idea is that the nib/feed pulls right out of the pen (it's friction fit), and you just replace it with the rollerball tip in the pen. I will probably end up doing my own video on this at some point.

Can I go ahead and buy something that is Out of Stock - and just wait for it to come in?

Unfortunately not, sometimes we are out of stock of items for months at a time due to unreliable supplies (Noodler's flex pens when they first came out, TWSBI's, etc), and it would be a logistical nightmare for us to try to keep track of backorders. The way we go about it is we have an email notification list, and we are willing to combine orders if you'd like us to. I have a video that explains how to do the email notification sign-up, as well as our philosophy behind why we do it: http://www.inknouveau.com/2011/11/gouletpenscom-email-notification_362.html

I have started up a blog at TheInkedNib.com. It's a hobby blog, but I am trying to do the blogging thing right by creating a good number of decent quality reviews. I intend to review a mix of pens, paper, and inks on the blog.

I own a decent amount of paper as it is now. However, the only Clairefontaine paper I own aside from a couple of really tiny Rhodia pads is bound in such a manner that using it for reviews would be a challenge. I am scanning my reviews, so I really need something either loose or perforated. I'm just not willing to take apart a Habana or a Webnotebook to be able to easily scan the paper.

I'd prefer not to go down the path of Rhodia because I don't like the finish of that paper as well as the Clairfontaine. I admit I haven't looked too carefully at the selection you have, but is there any paper with the Clairfontaine-type finish that can be perforated for my use? If not, I'll just have to grin and bear it with Rhodia for my pen and ink reviews and get a little creative for paper reviews.

First, you'll need to decide what size you want, I'd recommend no smaller than A5 and no larger than A4. Here would be my top choices for Clairefontaine papers for you: 

Top wire bound A4

Top wire bound A5

Top staplebond A4

8.5x11 side wire bound

These are all micro perforated, and the same 90g Clairefontaine paper you know and love. Good luck with the blog! :)

Thanks for taking the time to read my emails! I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. I'll be compiling this coming week's emails into next week's Mailbox Monday post!

FP101- Storing Fountain Pens

I get asked a lot about the 'proper' way to store your fountain pens, particularly the orientation of the pen's nib. The honest truth is that you can store them however you want, it's really up to you. There are some loose guidelines I've learned, so I'll pass along what I know.

Generally speaking, there are 3 ways to store your pens:

1. Nib pointing up
2. Nib pointing sideways (horizontal)
3. Nib pointing down

Me personally, I store all my pens horizontally, in leather pen cases or in pen rolls. But that's me. I find storing pens horizontally keeps the nibs wet enough to start writing right away, without leaking into the cap. When I take pens with me in my pocket or laptop case, I'll store them nib up, usually, so that ink doesn't leak down into the cap like it would if they were nib down. I don't store anything nib down, but I would if I had a pen that tended to dry out a lot when left sitting. 

You can store your pens in the boxes/cases they come in, but that's usually not practical if you're going to use them often. I like leather cases because they're durable, portable, and can hold a lot of pens. I know some people who have wood cases, though not as many people as I would suspect. 

Even after several years in the pen business, I haven't found one particular way that everyone prefers to store their pens, it really varies a lot by individual, and I've seen some really creative ways of storage! How do you store your pens? 

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

Video timeline:

• Meaning behind the label (0:55)
• Ink performance (5:25)
• Comparison to Baystate Blue (8:53)
• Bleach torture test (10:01)

Liberty: freedom from external or foreign rule; independence

Elysium: the abode of the blessed after death

Here's the newest ink from Noodler's, our Goulet-exclusive ink called Liberty's Elysium. This is a brand-new ink, not a reformulation or repackaging of any previous Noodler's ink. We have been working with Nathan Tardif for some time now on this ink, and what we wanted was a bulletproof vibrant blue, on par with Noodler's Blue (one of my personal favorite colors) that was inspired by Patrick Henry. Our Goulet shop is located in Ashland, Va., which is just minutes down the road from Scotchtown Plantation where Patrick Henry was born. In fact, I went to Liberty Middle School and Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Va., so early American history is quite prevalent in our area!

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium bottle label, inspired by Patrick Henry, Mary Dyer, and Nathan Hale.

The label is done in typical Noodler's fashion, steeped in history, deep meanings, and somewhat in-your-face images. There are three people featured on the bottle, Patrick Henry, Mary Dyer, and Nathan Hale. Each of them had a strong impact of the formation of early America, and they all devote their lives (or lost them) for the cause of liberty and freedom. I strongly encourage you to read up on each of them, they're quite fascinating!

We had Nathan put together the most vibrant bulletproof blue that he possibly could, and we're thrilled with how it turned out. So here it is:

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, reviewed by Brian Goulet.

There are a couple of slight drawbacks to the ink, it takes a little while to dry on ink-resistant paper like the Rhodia that I tested. It's a pretty vibrant and saturated color, and its bulletproof properties make it so that it needs to soak into the paper and bond to the actual paper fibers, as the way that Noodler's inks are bulletproof is by cellulose reaction. Because of this, there may be some excess ink that sits on the top of the page that can smear a bit when wet, as you see in my drip test. However, there isn't another blue this shade that even comes close to this level of water resistance, so we're happy with this result. As the ink dries over several days, it'll become even more permanent.

There are only a couple of other bulletproof blues, and they're really much darker. Bad Belted Kingfisher and Bad Blue Heron are both bulletproof but are really more blue-black. Noodler's Blue and Blue Eel are close in color, but not waterproof at all (see my review here). Diamine Asa Blue and Private Reserve American Blue are also close in color, but again, not waterproof at all.

Now I knew we wouldn't be able to come out with a vibrant bulletproof blue and have it NOT get compared to Baystate Blue, so I went ahead and swabbed up the two side-by-side. Baystate Blue is more vibrant, and has more of a purple-tinge to it, but Liberty's Elysium is going to be more permanent and a little more conventional than the infamous BSB.

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium and Noodler's Baystate Blue, compared.

Liberty's Elysium is bulletproof, which means that it's fraud-resistant and will fight against aggressive chemicals like bleach that are used to wash ink off paper. I wanted to test this out for myself, so I soaked a q-tip with straight household bleach and rubbed it on the ink. The ink held fast, but the paper did not! As long as the ink is making contact with the fibers of the paper, then it's going to create a permanent bond that is so strong that the ink will hold fast to the paper right up until the end:

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium bleach torture test

Many Goulet fans out there suspected this would be a blue that would be dubbed as 'Goulet blue', matching our ink splatter in our logo, as well as the blue stretch-wrap that we use for packaging up products as we ship them out, and I think that's a pretty dead-on description :) This ink is distinctively Goulet, distinctively Noodler's, and one that I am hoping will help to fill a much-needed gap in the ink world. You can check out more info and pick up your bottle of Liberty's Elysium here.

I would love to hear what you think, please post in the comments!