EFNIR: Noodler's Akhmatova

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Noodler's Akhmatova

This is review #260 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:


Post-recording notes: Cleaning wasn't bad for a permanent ink. It was a little clingy inside the section and cartridge, but a bit of rubbing took that off - pen flush might have as well. On the water test page, days 3-5 are paler because I was storing the pen horizontal but with the nib slightly up. Before that, feed saturation was responsible for the darker color. After that, I turned the pen around so the nib was slightly down.

Noodler's advertise this as: bulletproof, eternal, fluorescent, and forgery resistant.

Zoomed in photo (The color is fairly close, but not quite as green as the ink.)


Screenshot (Text is too dark and desaturated.)


Scan of Completed Review (This is the most accurate color reproduction.)


Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Both are pretty close to how the ink looks to my eye.)


Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 281µm. With 260 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.)


Microscope image (100x. Cell phone image. You can just see some strands of blue in with the bits of yellow. Most of the ink was straight green, but little bits of blue and yellow showed up here and there.)


Water Test Results (The color is desaturated compared to what my eyes see.)


Previous Review: Pilot Mixable Colour Orange.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

A turret of clouds rising in the neon green sky, while indistinct creatures snarl on the ground! And I'm on the edge of my seat with this story.

I like green inks. This is a given. But I already have Noodler's Evil Green Gator for a permament (ie: Indelible even on skin) green ink, and one of its few merits is that it dries FAST.

But even if I don't want the ink, I always look forward to your reviews. And the story! Stay strong, Dream Team!

Thanks as always, Liz, for the Tuesday Treat.

[LizEF]

A turret of clouds rising in the neon green sky, while indistinct creatures snarl on the ground! And I'm on the edge of my seat with this story.

I like green inks. This is a given. But I already have Noodler's Evil Green Gator for a permament (ie: Indelible even on skin) green ink, and one of its few merits is that it dries FAST.

I might be doing the world a favor if I quit measuring dry time. I suppose if an ink dries fast for me, it's sure to dry fast everywhere...

But even if I don't want the ink, I always look forward to your reviews. And the story! Stay strong, Dream Team!

Thank you!

Thanks as always, Liz, for the Tuesday Treat.

You're most welcome!

[Yazeh]

Wow what a fabulous review
Like @sailor I love these murky greens. Nothing like that sooth the soul and the writer.
I'm impressed by the microscopic image. That must be all the fluorescent bit illuminating, quite eerie
Thanks for making our Tuesday's so nail-bitingly fun

[LizEF]

Wow what a fabulous review

Thank you!

Like @sailor I love these murky greens. Nothing like that sooth the soul and the writer.

I'd prefer more brown or yellow, but it is pretty good.

I'm impressed by the microscopic image. That must be all the fluorescent bit illuminating, quite eerie

Oh, I didn't think of that. I figured the yellow and blue bits only slightly separated, but yeah, that could be the fluorescent ingredient...

Thanks for making our Tuesday's so nail-bitingly fun

You're very welcome!

[mizgeorge]

Oh my goodness! I was as unready as ever for it to be Tuesday, but what an instalment! And so much noise! I could never have imagined the gentle little snek having such oomph when it was needed.

Thank you for another fantastic review, and this time I really like the colour. Luckily for my willpower, it's Noodler's, so I'm not hugely at risk of accidentally slipping it into a shopping cart any time soon, but it is probably the ink I am most tempted by of the entire range. I remember seeing Yazeh's lovely review a couple of years ago and really enjoying it then.

The lady herself is also one of my heroes One of the reasons I went to live and work in Russia was the hope that learning some Russian would let me read her work, amongst others, in its original form. Then I found out about the language cleansing... I soon gave up on learning much more than taxi and bar vocabulary, along with the occasional curse. Almost everything had to be done in English anyway and then translated. Often several times. Anecdotally, I remember asking to have a phrase including four adjectives translated, and all four came back as the same word.

[LizEF]

Oh my goodness! I was as unready as ever for it to be Tuesday, but what an instalment! And so much noise!

Welcome to Tuesday! So glad you could join us. This was an airplane day. I was probably recording later in the day because Klaw wouldn't take a nap, or something.

I could never have imagined the gentle little snek having such oomph when it was needed.

Our little snek is very brave when he has to be.

Thank you for another fantastic review...

You're very welcome!

... and this time I really like the colour. Luckily for my willpower, it's Noodler's, so I'm not hugely at risk of accidentally slipping it into a shopping cart any time soon, but it is probably the ink I am most tempted by of the entire range. I remember seeing Yazeh's lovely review a couple of years ago and really enjoying it then.

It's thanks to Yazeh and his review that I did my review.

The lady herself is also one of my heroes One of the reasons I went to live and work in Russia was the hope that learning some Russian would let me read her work, amongst others, in its original form. Then I found out about the language cleansing... I soon gave up on learning much more than taxi and bar vocabulary, along with the occasional curse. Almost everything had to be done in English anyway and then translated. Often several times. Anecdotally, I remember asking to have a phrase including four adjectives translated, and all four came back as the same word.

I didn't know you'd spent time in Russia - so did I, in the 1990s, just after the USSR split apart. Now I'm curious what those adjectives were! Language is a funny thing - some have many nuanced words for a single word in another, and vice versa (like all the Eskimo words for snow).

[mizgeorge]

I didn't know you'd spent time in Russia - so did I, in the 1990s, just after the USSR split apart. Now I'm curious what those adjectives were! Language is a funny thing - some have many nuanced words for a single word in another, and vice versa (like all the Eskimo words for snow).

I was there for a couple of years in the mid-90s. I worked in advertising (on the creative side), at a time when it was pretty easy to sell anything provided it was labelled новинка or американский (though there was also a lot of appeal in 'heritage' brands for things like vodka, chocolate and ice cream).

The word that came back four times the same was (from memory) чистыта, but that was just one of many challenges - from introducing the concept of body odour as a bad thing (lots of reaching for high lift buttons and subway/bus straphanging going on there) to advertising period products (for the 'difficult days' as they were known). I won't mention the time I nearly sent something to the printers that I'd keyed in myself without having it proofread - suffice to say there was a very rude word in there along with some utter nonsense. I never did get used to the Cyrillic keyboards.

We lived on the Smolenskaya embankment (just along from where the new British Embassy was being built at the time) and our office was not far from the Pushkin Museum, so we did a fair bit of walking around the city, as well as 'borrowing' our office car at the weekends without a driver to get out and about as far as was allowed by our rather weird visas, which let us be in Moscow, St Petersburg and a couple of other places where we had clients, but not in between. We had a lot of American friends there - mainly photographers for some reason. We also had a fridge full of good vodka and eventually got bored with caviar

What was your excuse?

[LizEF]

I was there for a couple of years in the mid-90s. I worked in advertising (on the creative side), at a time when it was pretty easy to sell anything provided it was labelled новинка or американский (though there was also a lot of appeal in 'heritage' brands for things like vodka, chocolate and ice cream).

Sounds like you were there just after me.

The word that came back four times the same was (from memory) чистыта, but that was just one of many challenges - from introducing the concept of body odour as a bad thing (lots of reaching for high lift buttons and subway/bus straphanging going on there) to advertising period products (for the 'difficult days' as they were known). I won't mention the time I nearly sent something to the printers that I'd keyed in myself without having it proofread - suffice to say there was a very rude word in there along with some utter nonsense. I never did get used to the Cyrillic keyboards.

- yeah, I never did need to type in Cyrillic, thankfully.

We lived on the Smolenskaya embankment (just along from where the new British Embassy was being built at the time) and our office was not far from the Pushkin Museum, so we did a fair bit of walking around the city, as well as 'borrowing' our office car at the weekends without a driver to get out and about as far as was allowed by our rather weird visas, which let us be in Moscow, St Petersburg and a couple of other places where we had clients, but not in between. We had a lot of American friends there - mainly photographers for some reason. We also had a fridge full of good vodka and eventually got bored with caviar

What was your excuse?

I worked at the US Embassy - first as a driver and then as a dispatcher. If you ever saw big blue American school buses driving around, I drove those sometimes. Lots of time spent at airports, train stations, and government buildings. I once got to drive inside the Kremlin - a rare thing even for diplomatic cars.

[mizgeorge]

I worked at the US Embassy - first as a driver and then as a dispatcher. If you ever saw big blue American school buses driving around, I drove those sometimes. Lots of time spent at airports, train stations, and government buildings. I once got to drive inside the Kremlin - a rare thing even for diplomatic cars.

I remember them well. We had a lovely American account exec who liked to point out all things US related at every opportunity. I also had a friend who spent a disproportionate amount of her time at the embassy trying to sort out various passport issues related to her marrying her English husband and liked to have someone tag along. I'm sure it's all very different at the new embassy.

I also spent a lot of time at airports - though mainly in queues (I once got fined for getting a haircut and not looking enough like my visa picture) and looking for missing drivers. Mobile phone service was still pretty hit and miss then, so there was a lot of guesswork involved in figuring out whether they'd broken down, got stuck in a snowdrift, got lost or just not bothered to arrive at all. Taxis were even trickier, especially (as was the case on my first trip out) if you weren't quite sure what your address was - at the time we were staying in an apartment in a building with a huge Camel advertising sign on top, which eventually got us there...

Amazing to drive inside the Kremlin! I remember the first time I went there (December 95, I think) and realising that half way across Red Square, I could no longer feel my legs, despite about five layers of clothing and heavy boots.

I think I'm rambling now. I obviously don't talk to enough people any more. I need a cat.

[LizEF]

Amazing to drive inside the Kremlin! I remember the first time I went there (December 95, I think) and realising that half way across Red Square, I could no longer feel my legs, despite about five layers of clothing and heavy boots.

Yep. It was not politically correct elsewhere in the world at the time, but I tell you, there is nothing like a dead animal on your head to keep you warm! There's a reason they all wear fur hats! After a year or so, I was used to it and it didn't seem that cold. I also got lucky as my coat, which was absurdly thin, was also absurdly warm - I think it must have been made of some cancer-causing nuclear waste or something - best coat ever.

I think I'm rambling now. I obviously don't talk to enough people any more. I need a cat.

Rambling? Get a cat! Not rambling? Get a cat! Too many people to deal with? Get a cat! Not enough people to talk to? Get a cat! The solution is always to get a cat!

[Yazeh]

Yep. It was not politically correct elsewhere in the world at the time, but I tell you, there is nothing like a dead animal on your head to keep you warm! There's a reason they all wear fur hats! After a year or so, I was used to it and it didn't seem that cold. I also got lucky as my coat, which was absurdly thin, was also absurdly warm - I think it must have been made of some cancer-causing nuclear waste or something - best coat ever.

I think I'm rambling now. I obviously don't talk to enough people any more. I need a cat.

Rambling? Get a cat! Not rambling? Get a cat! Too many people to deal with? Get a cat! Not enough people to talk to? Get a cat! The solution is always to get a cat!

I don't about Klaw, but ours has the habit of using her vocal cords in most diverse ways. Yodelling, whining, chirping, cooing, you name it! Whenever, she wants, especially at night, or when I'm having a much needed nap. It sounds more like a teenage yelling what's up, for no apparent reason! Once I recorded her whining and she didn't take it very nicely and reported me....

[LizEF]

I don't about Klaw, but ours has the habit of using her vocal cords in most diverse ways. Yodelling, whining, chirping, cooing, you name it! Whenever, she wants, especially at night, or when I'm having a much needed nap. It sounds more like a teenage yelling what's up, for no apparent reason! Once I recorded her whining and she didn't take it very nicely and reported me....

Klaw is mostly a quiet boy, but meows when he wants to play or wants food. He does have a fair number of meow sounds - some endearing, some desperate-sounding , some demanding. I've never tried to record him. I'll have to give it a try sometime.