I don't really want to be a Noodler's basher

BUT, if an ink

1. has flow properties that are significantly improved by adding an additional 10-20% of plain water, and
2. sends large flakes cascading through the water when rinsing a just used dip pen, and
3. is infamous for falling out of solution, and
   
4. shows absolutely no loss of darkness when diluted with an equal amount of water
   

then it's not highly saturated, it's over saturated. I'm sorry, but in my humblest of opinions, at that point the additional dye is detriment.

I'm not thrilled with the flow properties of Noodler's black, but I do like the waterproof part. So I thought I'd add some Waterman Blue-black to it and see if I can't get something that flows nicely while still retaining a waterproof component. And if it gets any slight blue shading, bonus. But, before I did that, I wanted to see how far the Noodler's black could be diluted before the black started to lighten, since if it got wet, the Waterman's would wash away and only the Noodler's would be left. So, first I tested by adding plain water to 10 drops of Noodler's ink, one drop at a time, writing a sample with a dip pen after each drop was added.
I stopped at 10 drops of water, which looked identical to the pure black ink. Worse yet, the first drop of water made the ink flow MUCH nicer, and two was pretty good. (After that, it started getting a bit soggy).

I think once my sample bottle dries out, I'll mix up half Noodler's black and half Waterman blue-black and see what happens. It should flow fine, since the Waterman is more viscous than water. It's mainly a question of if the color gets any nifty shading effects, I think.

(In case you're wondering, blue-black is the only Waterman I have right now.)

Now I'm curious to try this with my Saguaro Wine. Maybe a little water would keep it from smearing so easily. But I should have a J. Herbin Rose Cyclamen sample coming any day now, so it may end up being a moot point.