Noodler's Blue Nose Bear: Ink Review
Nathan Tardif has created his third ink in the Black Swan series. Though Blue Nose Bear doesn't have a Black Swan in its name (thank goodness, it's confusing enough just with Australian Roses and English Roses!), it certainly has the characteristics that make in a Black Swan. This ink is a teal blue color, with a halo of sky blue. Nathan designed this ink to have an increased amount of halo compared to the other inks, and he has most certainly achieved it.
The ship on the bottle is the Bluenose schooner, which is on the Canadian dime (and some stamps) and was the fastest racing ship in the world in its hayday. You can read more about here. Winnipeg the bear, pictured on both sides of the bottle, was the bear that Winnie the Pooh was created after as well as the mascot for a Canadian Cavalry Regiment. The bear was owned by Lt. Harry Colebourn and it became the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh because A.A. Milne's son (Christopher Robin) loved visiting the bear in the Zoo in London.
I decided to use a flex pen for this review, it just seemed appropriate. Forget all about dry time with a flex pen though, you're going to have to just set it aside and come back after a good 10 minutes or more to have everything dry. Flex pens put down a lot of ink, and it just takes time to dry. I was most impressed with the ease of cleaning for this ink, that's not something I expected.
Another interesting thing I found was that the color washed away in the Drip Test, but a gray/black line remained after the drips were gone. I suspect this means this ink is partially bulletproof (or at least waterproof), much like the two Black Swans. If you're wondering why the Drip Test grid looks so funky, it's because I was trying a little flexing on the lines to create a pattern of sorts. It kinda didn't work out like I hoped :P
Since a flex pen is such an uncommon pen in the writing world, I decided to compare it to some Lamy nibs to see how the ink looked different.
The inks is definitely darker in the flex pen, and the shading is quite muted in ‘normal' nibs. You can really see the hardcore halo effect in the word ‘out' too, I made sure to try to exaggerate it. In normal use, the ink has a very nice blue-green color.
Iroshizuku Syo-ro is the only ink that really comes close to the same color, and even that's not exact. Blue Nose Bear is a color all it's own, certainly with properties unlike any other ink!
I'm eager to see this ink get into everyone's hands. It's such an interesting ink, unlike any other I've tried before. I suspect it will end up finding its place more in the drawing/art work than the writing/business world, but who knows? With such an unconventional ink it's hard to say where it will be most useful. I'm eager to find out!
