Noodler's Walnut — 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: Noodler's sell this as a dark brown, and most published reviews describe it that way. My swatches don't quite agree. On Tomoe River it lays down as a brick red to oxblood — a deep, warm red with a mahogany core rather than a true brown. Heavier pooling drops toward dark chestnut, while thinner areas break warm and rusty, with a distinct orange-tan halo at the edges of swabs and droplets. Written out it's browner than the swabs suggest, but still noticeably red. Buy it expecting a red-brown, not a chocolate brown.

Shading: Moderate. Clear tonal banding across the swabs, from rust through to dark mahogany, and visible variation even in the nib squiggles. 

Sheen: None.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Wet.

The interesting bit: Noodler's Ink is a one-man operation run by Nathan Tardif in southern Massachusetts, and the name comes from noodling — the American practice of catching catfish barehanded, which is why a catfish appears on the packaging. Walnut's label carries a botanical engraving of a walnut branch, a nod to one of the oldest drawing inks there is: real walnut ink, made from the green husks around the nut, was used by artists for centuries and is prized for its archival qualities. Noodler's inks are also made in small handcrafted batches, which is one reason colour can shift a little from bottle to bottle — worth knowing if you've seen this ink swatched elsewhere and it looked browner.

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.
Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.
I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.