I can see why people like this ink. Of the three black inks I have tried thus far, and can I tell you I was filled with anticipation as I filled a pen with this ink this morning, this is most true to the color, which is to say the ideal I have in my mind of "black ink." What is that? It is black, with no other color or shading present.
Like the Waterman black this ink has a cooler feel to it where the Mont Blanc ink was definitely warmer. Noodlers differs from Waterman black in that it is more deeply saturated. Having said that there is definitely room for a deeper black. If I look at the swab I made on the three by five card I can see just a bit of shading coming through, color if you will other than black. There seems to be the faintest bit of -- what? -- perhaps yellow, coming through, not much at all but enough to give the ink the faintest bit of translucence. I have to look at the swab to catch that though. If I just focus on the text I wrote above, this ink looks wonderfully black.
The drying time on this ink is very quick too. I can write a line and by the time I start the next line the one above is dry. This is important because when I write I naturally rest one hand towards the top of the page I'm writing to keep the paper firmly in place. Some inks with a long drying time will smudge when I do this causing me to change my writing style, not a good thing.
While I can't of course choose the black I will stick with until I have tested all, and I have at least three more to go, I can say that this is an excellent shade of black, if what you are looking for is a true black, nice and dark with no other color or shading present.
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