NOODLER'S Ink 90ml Dark Matter

For those who don't know, Noodlers ink is a brand of fountain pen ink that originates from Massachusetts, USA. The company is pretty much a one-man operation. All of the ink is hand made and hand bottled by Nathan Tardif, the founder of Noodlers. The company stands for a fair price on ink (maybe not so true if you have it shipped to UK), which nowadays can be a bit overpriced. it comes in a large 3.oz (about 90ml) bottle. This should be enough ink for a few years even for the heaviest of writers so don't expect to be buying another bottle this year. The story behind this particular ink is that Mr. Tardif has been sent a bottle of a vintage ink from circa 1940s with deceptively simple label: “U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, LA NM BLK WF 43”. According to him, this stands for; Los Alamos, New Mexico, Black Writing Fluid - 43. If you paid attention in your history lessons, you will know that Los Alamos, New Mexico is the place where the Manhatan project took place in the 40s. Hence that's why one would believe that this ink is a replica of the same ink used by the people who created the nuclear bomb. As an ink, it behaves quite well. it is a black ink, but not necessarily deep black. It has an aspect of grey and when you look very closely, a bit of green maybe. It dries fairly quickly and can feather the tiniest bit on more absorbent paper but it works superbly on papers like Rhodia. Since it is a vintage ink replica, it is not as waterproof as other Noodlers inks, but it is fairly water resistant once dry. I'm not gonna lie, I bought the ink mainly for the novelty factor of it, but it is also a pretty good black ink that can be used for everyday writing and possibly a good conversation starter.

I've got enough black inks. Heart of darkness (bulletproof), black quink(old faithful), X feather, and a bunch of greys to round it out. I always wanted to try dark matter, mostly out of novelty. But I quickly realized that it's just a great black ink. I'm not the biggest fan of blacks, but the novelty of this made me buy it, and I'm glad I did. The history of this ink is that Nathan Tardiff (the man behind Noodlers) got a bottle of ink from someone, that was pretty certainly traced back to the ink used at Los Alamos, New Mexico between 1942 and 1945 (during the manhattan project, the ink used by the scientists working on the nuclear bomb.) He replicated it exactly, from the color to its exact waterproofness and flow characteristics. So here it is, the same ink used by the minds behind the atom bomb. The bottle is inscribed with "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" - a quote from J. R. Oppenheimer, director of Los Alamos during the development of the bomb. With a pilot metro fine on the absolute WORST paper I've ever seen (some see-through printer paper I got from the grocery store that's basically kleenex) it feathers noticeably, but not terrible, and that paper is worse than anything you'd be likely to find, even out of a copier at work. On regular paper, it writes just fine, like any black should. A little more feathering than quink black (which itself is only a little worse than X feather) but better than heart of darkness. Dry times on most papers is great, under 5 seconds for the pilot on rhodia and instant on anything more absorbent No smudging. The color is really, truly black, with none of the colored undertones of other blacks. When you rinse this ink it just goes black to grey. basically zero shading. Very professional. There's some decent water resistance, not quite as tough as heart of darkness or any real bulletproof ink, but it's actually quite reasonable. I used it all week in the field writing patient charts on kinda bad paper and getting rained on without issue. I think the real standout feature is the flow. This stuff is slippery and WET. It flows better than quink, which is an outstanding quality ink from a flow standpoint. My metro does have some proclivity for dryish writing, and this stuff turns it into a very wet writer. Same goes for my fine platinum balance. If you have a dry writing pen and just can't seem to like it, try dark matter, this stuff flows better than any other ink in my collection of 30+ inks. I'm not a huge fan of blacks or blues (I much prefer dark reds, browns and green for my professional work) but like heart of darkness in a noodlers charlie, I have a really strange love for this ink. I REALLY like wet writing inks, and this is the wettest black I've ever written with (Even though it doesn't matter as a black, I like the slight glint of the sun on wet ink as I write) add that to the history (this is a copy of the black ink used during the Manhatten project) and I am really happy I bought it.

After a great experience with another color from Noodlers, I opted for Dark matter over a bulletproof black. granted, my waterproof black ink experience was from another product, I chose Dark Matter because the other would dry in my nib. This ink flows beautifully and dries quickly. It's not as black of a black, but certainly black enough.

Good wet ink that dries quickly with no feathering. Also has a cool backstory and bottle. Go to ink for me.

Nice black. Semi water proof. Very super saturated so proper pen hygiene is a requirement. It's not a black black but a decent one nonetheless. According to Noodlers this is a recreation of an ink that was used in the facilities for the Manhattan project. Flows well. Over all a decent ink.