Noodler's Dragon's Napalm

[milanjuza]

This is the first ever Noodler’s ink I tried. I got a sample as a part of Goulet Pen’s Ink Drop. It is hardly the most mainstream colour, but it turns out it is not as unusual as it seemed to me when I was making the hand-written notes below. When I was writing the notes, I used an artificial lighting and as I later found out the ink appears quite different on daylight. Under a typical incandescent or even fluorescent light, Dragon’s Napalm it appears almost pinkish. However, in daylight its colour is much closer to, in my opinion somewhat more universally usable, peach or light orange.

Dragon’s Napalm behaved well in my tests. There was almost no feathering at all and only a very small amount of bleed-through. The ink even shows some shading as can be seen from the high res pics. It’s rather unlikely I would use this ink on a daily basis as I find the colour to be a rather too bright and, as mentioned above, ‘too pink’ under artificial lighting. But in terms of key characteristics, reliability and ease of use there is very little to complain about. Plus, I really love the name!

• Paper: Rhodia A4 notebook (90 gsm), tested also on 80 gsm Rhodia, Paperchase and Moleskine
• Pen: Montblanc Boheme M nib
• Water test: drops left on the paper for 1 minute

High res images are available on Flickr or on my blog.

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[Jeph]

Even though I had read this review, I ordered a sample to see if it looked differently using a needlepoint. It did not. It appears to me as a fluorescent peach. It behaves well and is interesting enough if you are into this type of color. I am not.

So a double thank you for an accurate review.

Edit: Spelling is hard.

[jacksterp]

That's quite a color. I think it may be out of my comfort zone though.

Thanks for the review.

[Llewellyn]

That's quite a color. I think it may be out of my comfort zone though.

Thanks for the review.

Agreed, looks more like a colour to be used for novelty value

[reprieve]

Dragon's Napalm is one of my favorite Noodler's inks.

It looks really different depending on nib width, flow, paper, and lighting. In wet broad nibs, it looks darker and more red-orange. In drier nibs or finer nibs, it looks pink. It looks different on white and cream colored paper. Sometimes it looks fluorescent pink on the page, but if you look at that same writing on that same page under a different type of lighting it'll look fiery orange.

Dragon's Napalm has lots of little particles in it and so it tends to settle quite a bit. I always shake my bottle vigorously before filling a pen. Shaking or not shaking the bottle will dramatically affect the color as well. I think it's all of those little shiny particles that lend this ink its odd brightness.

[ac12]

Thanks for the tip on shaking the bottle first.
I did not do that when I was testing it at the Pen Posse, so I likely got a false color.

[kidde]

I think it shines when used as a highlighter. But one caution, I didn't clean my pen as well as I should have and had a reaction with the DN and Skrip b/bl. It formed a sludge in the feed that required disassembly and a toothbrush to clean. I determined the cause by testing in a vial equal drops of each. Nothing was destroyed except my notion than a quick rinse should be "clean enough".

Paul

[chatminouche]

I also thought that it would be a great highlighter colour, but do not like to write with it... It does not have any type of shading and it stained my Ahab's converter when I rinsed it out...

[sparkinflint]

Do you feel like it'll hurt the eyes if used to write a paragraph or more ? o.0

[rangerfrog]

Not that my opinion will sway the jury, but agreed, it generally is very pink. I ordered a sample from Goulet expecting it to be a bit more on the orange-red side. Alast, it is not. I enjoy wild inks, but this is just too out there even for me. I've come back to it several times thinking it will be less shocking pink, but no, it stares back at me, taunting me, seemingly asking me, what are you really going to use me for? I think I will now try mixing it with another red and see if I get a more agreeable color.

[ravkesef]

I had the same experience as Paul, except in spades. I've commented on Noodler's inks before, most of which give me no problem at all. However, I must state a notable exception in the case of Napalm, a lovely red color that simply cannot tolerate being in the pen for very long. I filled a Noodlers Konrad with it, did some very enjoyable writing with it, and then returned to the pen three weeks later. After a bit I noticed that that my writing had begun to glisten, and had smudged somewhat where my left hand had brushed against it. This was on Tomoe River paper. I did a quick test on Clairefontaine paper, and the same thing occurred. I emptied the pen, gave it a good flushing, and refilled it. This time the pen wrote beautifully on both papers. I picked the pen up after six days, and the ink was glistening and smudging again--not as bad as before, but perceptible nonetheless. I've decided that where this ink is concerned, I'll need to plan my writing in advance, fill the pen, write, and then immediately empty and thoroughly clean the pen. This is a good caveat to offer the rest of you. Also wondering how many have had a similar experience wi

[ravkesef]

At the risk of overkill, I feel I must add something to my foregoing post. After giving the pen a light flushing, I was about to put it away when I observed that the feed was slightly clogged with particulate matter. This led to a thorough cleaning with ammonia, both inside and out. I gave the feed a good cleaning with ammonia and a toothbrush, and let the reservoir sit with a dilute ammonia mixture for several hours. Fortunately, I had used it in an inexpensive pen, but my opinion is that much as I like the color, this ink is a good candidate for a dip pen. If anyone reading this has more to offer about this ink, or is more knowledgeable about these matters than I am, (and that would be approximately 99.99% of you,) I would be most grateful to hear from you. Otherwise, I think I have two bottles of this ink to sell, one unopened, and the the other with two fillings used.
Eric