Nathan Tardif is an interesting man. A very outspoken New Englander with strong Libertarian convictions, he runs his entire organization by (mostly) himself. Makes ink. Sells the ink. Packages the ink.
I think that’s pretty neat. I also think it’s pretty neat that he has an incredible ink variety. And that he sometimes does things like challenge researchers to erase his strongest archival ink and once they do, turns around and creates an ink so permanent it’ll outlast Chabelo and Keith Richards.
It was a Noodler’s ink that first showed me all the dimensions that ink could potentially have. I went to Dromgooles, Houston’s only fountain pen-centric store and only store in the state that employs an ink sommelier. I asked for some recommendations and he told me about Noodler’s Rome is Burning.
And then he showed me.
This ink has a decent shading, behaves well, is mostly waterproof, and when it gets wet the gold wash turns the ink purple.
I didn’t pack my test strips correctly so I’m only testing it out on 3 papers, and the pen I used was a TWSBI Eco with an M nib.
The other great thing about Noodler’s is that they’re some of the most affordable inks out there. You can get two Noodler’s for the price of a single Pilot Iroshizukiu or Sailor 50 states.
