Lattice and reverse lattice? They are two new types of inks...when mixed they
have properties unlike any others - including unrivaled color fastness when
balanced properly. If you treat both kinds of inks as you would other inks,
and properly care for your pen - rinse them now and then, don't store the ink
for years without rinsing the pen out first....EXACTLY AS THE MANUFACTURERS OF
FOUNTAIN PENS ADVISE... It was a risk to get into ink - given that purists
wanted an ink they could "drink" and that smelled like roses or perfume....but
the practical people desired something to keep our hobby alive. In all
seriousness, I believed the fountain pen as a writing instrument was quietly,
slowly and inevitably - being fundamentally undermined! The most obvious sign
happened to be your average college kid. When I was in college - it was
relatively easy to "convert" professors and students alike to the wonders of
fountain pens. Within the past five years? No chance. First: "Those things
cost too much." Once upon a time a $10 tip-dip, $2 cartridge pen, or $25
admiral with a gold nib solved that concern... However, #2 was devastating:
"Nathan, I know these are nice writers and all...won't fill up landfills,
refill again and again, super smooth, and has a real nice solid gold nib to
resist corrosion until I am 80 years old...BUT the damn ink feathers on EVERY
piece of paper I use in my classes and it is just not ever going to be a daily
user. Sorry."
If you are a pen collector - like it or not...if EVERY college kid rejects
fountain pens...the hobby WILL decline in time. It used to be "Get a nice pen
in their hand for sophomore year and they are a collector during grad school.".
So - lattice inks and anti-feather inks MUST be made available to the public
if our hobby is to survive in my humble opinion. Feathering on recycled papers
and cheaper grades such as newsprint (which is often used for exam
documents/pages and most government forms) has to be countered....and forgers
must be countered with lattice inks. The forger/identity fraud threat was
absolutely killing fountain pens with certain people who were in the habit of
signing contracts and writing terms with certain chain store inks that wash off
documents with 6 to 12 seconds run under tap water....or a few minutes of
bleach. Either they have confidence in the fountain pen, or they will seek out
and use some other instrument!

If you care to throw stones at Noodler's Ink, I hope you at least consider the
alternatives we were facing before it came into being....as a long term hobby.

Lastly, this does not even mention the inks that have NOT been introduced to
the public. Glow in the dark "Nigh****chman's Ink" will not be introduced
because it reacts badly with other manufacturer's inks - if mixed even slightly
with residues from their inks, this particular ink fails in its primary
property (it must glow 100 hours per 1/2 hour charge of sunlight - repeatedly,
and be clearly visible to the naked eye both in the dark and in various
artificial and natural light sources). It is also completely unlike any ink
ever made before, and until it gets long term testing behind it - Noodler's Ink
will not release it. There are members of the public who would cast
dispersions upon such a prototype ink before it was even given a chance...so
I'm not giving them a bottle to do so with until/unless it is immunized. It
is too different - if you saw a bottle (one pictured next to prototype water
based white ink) you would know what I mean.
http://members.aol.com/scaupaug1/glow/whiteGlow.jpg
The Luddites would also seek to besmirch any of the white, pastel, and
pearlized inks (green pearl, true gray pearl, rose pearl are shown in the
following picture - they were made because of their visual effects in visuated
pens...a transparent pen has the appearance of having 1930s pearltex effects -
as well as having true pastel effects on the written page)
http://members.aol.com/scaupaug1/marbled/marbledInk.jpg
- which similarly are in long term testing before they will ever be released
to the public (different feeds, different mixes with other company's inks, as
many variables as possible need to be accounted for - or somebody online
somewhere will say: "My such and such does not like the white ink."...I want to
avoid that!). Perhaps a lack of confidence after realizing how severe the
public can be - but now certainly necessary - as such inks must stand up to
some pretty nasty perpetual critics.

As for washable inks and inks that "you can drink"...if you want dye contents
that low, don't buy Noodler's. Period. Noodler's is going to continue to pack
as much value in dye content and permanence as is possible for a water based
fountain pen ink (with NO salts and NO crystalline acids!)...& with no weak low
dye content washable inks contemplated.... Noodler's will also continue to
make it's black ink (and other lattice inks such as "eternal" and "contract")
as fraud proof as is possible for a fountain pen ink - if you want a weak black
that feathers on recycled paper and newsprint - buy something else! I'm sorry
that it is not possible to please everyone......but the efforts to help the
hobby, and the viability of the fountain pen itself...will continue.

Also...no need to shake! If when the bottle is finished, the bottom looks like
the bottom of a finished 1950s style ink bottle...it's normal. It's not normal
if you add contaminants such as salts to the ink...don't do that! Also, cap
the bottle soon after filling - it is NOT "tap water" that makes the ink...it
is beyond distilled - the most purified one can make with today's technology.
Otherwise the dye contents would be lower ratios due to "other" substances
getting in the way that don't belong in ink anyway. So, if you left the bottle
cap off for a week long vacation - it is OK to replace the lost fluid with tap
water...but in testing tap water is just not as good as distilled. It would be
90% performance instead of 100% performance.