Goulet Pens March 2011 Ink Drop - Part One

The March Ink Drop from Goulet Pens was a chance for the members of the club to vote for the inks that they wished to sample. I was eager to see if the other members of this exclusive club had the same tastes as I do. I have to admit that I didn't vote myself. I follow Tolstoy's practice nowadays when it comes to voting. As it turns out I was very happy with the selections of ink. The only problem was a leak from one of the sample bottles which spoiled the labels on the bottles. Brian Goulet would replace the sample which leaked, but to tell you the truth, if he did it would only make more work for both of us. For Brian to send it and for me to test it. Did I ever mention that I'm very lazy?

The inks of the March 2011 Ink Drop are:

Noddler's Baystate Blue - This ink got 23% of the vote.
J.Herbin Rouge Hermatite - This ink got 11% of the vote. It is the 1670 Anniversary ink.
Diamine Red Dragon - This ink got 10% of the vote. This was the one that leaked.
Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng - This is one was chosen by Brian and Rachel.
Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman' Sepia - This is another one chosen by Brian and Rachel.

The first ink I tested was the Noodler's Manjiro Hakahama Whaleman's Sepia. I love the name, even though I worried that I would run the pen out of ink before I finished writing the name out. I used the Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue to pair it with. The Noodler's Sepia was a good ink. It went on the page very wet, but dried quickly. It was fairly easy to avoid smearing. It was not as brown as I expected. It seemed to be more of a bluish gray at least when paired up with the Supershow Blue. According to the note sent with the Ink Drop it is bulletproof, and it might be. I wouldn't count on it being so if I was standing in front of a firing squad though. And it did run a little on a paper that got wet at work. Not badly, but enough to notice.

Here is the scanned and lightly edited version of my simple test maze.

Along with the five sample bottles, the Ink Drop comes with a sheet which describes the inks. For the Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia the sheet mentions that it is based on the whaler's logbook ink of the 1840s. Pretty cool! I'm a sucker for anything along this line.

There was also a bookmark, a business card and two nice stickers. Once the rain stops I will put the Ink Drop Club sticker on my motorcycle. Here is the maze in real life.

There you have one of the inks. I will have more for you later.

Jon