I am rarely a fan of orange inks but Noodler’s Antietam is special. Antietam is a very unusual rust orange/red with great shading. I have been using Antietam this last week and I love it. The color varies red to orange in different pens and on different paper; it is a real chameleon ink. The flow is good, not too dry not too wet.
I tested this ink on Maruman Smooth to Write paper (my go-to for use with fountain pens) and used dry cotton swabs to test the dry time. Even after 90 seconds it wouldn’t fully dry; I got bored and gave up. The Maruman paper is quite smooth and for most ink I see an average dry time around 15-25 seconds. I did try later on more absorbent Exacompta 60gsm paper and it was near dry in 15 seconds and completely dry in 25. The ink is not waterproof; to test this I waited 5 minutes for the ink to dry and wiped the paper with a damp cotton swab. If you can put up with the long dry time Noodler’s Antietam is definitely worth a try.
Here are some great reviews of Noodler’s Antietam Ink:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
The Eccentric Orange Gentleman – Noodler’s Antietam
NakedSushi – Noodler’s Ink Antietam
But the lazy dog bit the quick brown fox anyways and there was blood all over the page. Antietam is the closest thing to blood red I’ve ever seen; perfect for Halloween invites and poison pen letters.