Heart of Darkness
Noodler's Ink 


     After the review of Noodler's Black ink I have been in search of a good water resisting ink for sketching with washes. I wanted to test another black from Noodler's inks with similar "bulletproof" qualities for cleaning/staining as I was rather shocked by the result of my preivious experience with Noodler's Black. Heart of Darkness turned out to be a better ink to this regard.
    

Heart of Darkness Test Plate after 3 ml water

     The shade of black is dark and takes on an almost charred or burnt character. The ink doesn't shade when writing but shows signs of it when applied in light amounts. The ink flows nicely and dries rather quickly which surprised me on an ink resistant paper like Clairefontaine. There was ghosting and slight feathering on Hilroy papers. Like the Noodler's Black; I experienced nib creep regularly. Once dried on the page the ink is waterproof, so much so that the paper would dissolve before the ink would. If this is a quality you are looking for in an ink it definitely delivers. On the test plate it left a residue that I found a chore to remove. A water flush alone will NOT remove this residue, you need to physically wipe or scrub it off to remove all traces of the ink. When removing from the tester; neither a soap or ammonia scrub would not remove the ink from the roughest (sanded with 100 grit) section. In this case I needed to re-sand the tester to fully remove all remnants of this ink. For me, this is an issue for pens or nib assemblies that cannot be broken down for cleaning and naturally limited the number of pens I felt comfortable using the ink in.

      Heart of Darkness from Noodler's ink is a great performer with very durable qualities. Nib creep doesn't bother me about this ink, it is the cleaning of it. I only use this Black in the pens that can be easily disassembled and scrub cleaned because a flush alone will not remove the residue it leaves behind. The waterproof quality of this ink is not enough for me to recommend it based on how hard it is to clean, my search continues to find a better option for those looking for a good waterproof ink.

H.O.D. on Hilroy Paper

H.O.D. on Clairefontaine Paper

Ink diagrams prepared using:
1.  Speedball C-4 nib in dip pen
2.  Esterbrook #0 nib in dip pen