Noodlers - Antietam

​I have recently been reading about Abraham Lincoln which led me down the rabbit hole of learning about the American Civil War.  The name of this ink, Antietam, for a non-American means little.  I then did some reading and went and bought a sample of the ink.

​The battle of Antietam (battle of Sharpsburg in the South) took place on the 17th of September 1862, it was fought between Robert E Lee’s army of Northern Virginia and George B McLellan’s Army of the Potomac.  The battle is famous for being 

• The first field army engagement in the Eastern theatre to be fought on Union soil.
• The bloodiest day in American history with over 22,000 injured, dead or missing.
• Tactically inconclusive 

Though tactically inconclusive it was seen as a strategic victory by the North and gave Lincoln encouragement to issue his emancipation proclamation.

The packaging of all Noodlers inks is the same  a 90ml square bottle and a picture on the label representing something about the inks name.  For this ink  the label is The Battle of Antietam by Kurz and Allison (1878)  It depicts the scene of action at Burnside’s Bridge.  

I was disappointed with the last two Noodlers inks I tried and was expecting to be disappointed with this but it has turned out to be a hit with me and now I need to buy more.
The ink when you write really does capture the colour seen in the label on the bottle so the chromatography was a surprise - the colour combination.  The red brick of the final ink is dominant but there is some yellow, pink and khaki green / brown.  

Col-o-ring and Tomoe were similar, they brought Noodlers cayenne to mind but cayenne is more orange than this.  This is a bright brick red – at least thats how I would describe it.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe

For the writing I use a pen with a medium nib, papers were copy, Rhodia and Tomoe.

​Starting with the copy paper.  I thought it wasn’t too bad and even said there wasn’t much feathering but up close you can see there is some.  Its usable on cheap paper but you couldn’t use both sides of the page

Rhodia was next and I was very surpised as to how long it took to dry, there was some nice shading though.

Very very slow drying on Tomoe but it hasn’t stopped me from using this ink I just don’t use it in my Tomoe journals.   The shading on Rhodia was surprisingly better than on Tomoe.

I like this ink but not on Tomoe, I do wonder if part of my enjoyment was the disappointment with 54th Massachusetts and House Divided.  I will certainly buy another sample but I am not sure about a 90ml bottle – mainly becasue I already have so much ink.  I couldn’t find anything in my collection that was / is similar to this ink.
In summary 
Saturation – high
Shading – yes
Sheen – no
Shimmer – no
Flow – good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – ok
Feathering – yes, slight on cheap paper
Drying – slow so very very slow
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – a standard Noodlers ink with no archival or bulletproof properties