Noodler's General of the Armies.

[Yazeh]

General of the Armies

I wasn’t planning to review General of the Armies. Musicman has done such a complete review there’s nothing more to say really, or I thought so.

Disclaimer: This is one of my desert Island inks. The only thing I don't like about it is the name, it could have used a more poetic name.
Bottle
General of the Armies -bottle.jpg
The ink is green but the blue permanent dye settles at the bottom of the bottle.

However, what I’ve experienced is that it writes blue and then it turns into a soft muted green on good paper, with time and especially sunshine the green turn blue. On copy paper it writes green and soon turns into a soft “sea glass” colour. On cotton paper the transformation is almost immediate.

This is one of the Noodler’s best-behaved inks. Despite being wet it dries fast. It writes best in my experience with broad/double broad/ flex combination, but it is equally enjoyable in fine and extra fine. Personally, I prefer it on Japanese papers, Midori, TR or even Mnemosyne.


It’s also a bit gimmicky it’s a fluorescent ink. Feathering and bleed through are minimal but present on copy paper.

The ink could be surprising at times and write in an odd overcooked broccoli soup colour, which can be disconcerting but soon it’ll return to what it was.

It can be a distracting ink, when writing your great “whatever” novel with a double broad nib on Tomoe River paper and you’re struggling with a certain plot twist. I could just write nonsense to see the ink dry…..



• Pens used: Ef Chinese pen, Pilot Metropolitan fine, Noodler’s nib creaper, Kaweco double broad
• Shading: Subtle with double broad nibs.
• Ghosting: Yes, especially with flex /double broad but acceptable…
• Bleed through: On copy paper….
• Flow Rate: Nice and wet
• Lubrication: Good
• Nib Dry-out: Nope.
• Start-up: No problem.
• Saturation: A soft, muted green, then sea glass blue…
• Shading Potential: With broad nib, faint….
• Sheen: No
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: On rare occasions
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: On fine/extra fine nibs yes. On Nib creaper a little, on Kaweco none…
• Staining (pen): Nope. Easy to clean…
• Clogging: Nope
• Water resistance: The green component washes away….
• Availability: Only in bottle.

Chromatography:
GOA -Chroma 1.jpeg

Swabs - Note a fresh swab will look different...
General of the Armies-Swab.jpg

Amazon copy paper Note how it espouses the original colour...
General of the Armies-Copy paper.jpg

Midori
GOA - Midori.jpeg

Fluorescence
Fluorscent.jpeg

Watertest
General of the Armies-watertest - 1.jpg
Note the fluorescent part washing down
General of the Armies-watertest-fluor - 1.jpg
The next day
General of the Armies-watertest-fnext day - 1.jpg

Sheen on Tomoe River 68gr - It's not a sheening ink
General of the Armies- Sheen on TR68.jpg

[Armstrong]

Yes, definitely on of my favorite inks. Reliable writer and its fun to see how it turns on new papers.