DeA Doc red vs. Noodler's Polar Blood Falls and Platinum Carbon Black vs. Platinum Chou Kuro

[SeeksAdvice]

It has been a while since I have posted on these fora.  While I am not, by any stretch, a fan of Noodler's products, I do recognize that many of them are quite durable.  

 

My go-to for permanent black, blue, blue-black ink has traditionally been Japanese pigmented products, with the spattering of R&K document inks and DeA document inks.  Sometimes Diamine Registrar's Ink too, just because it is really well behaved on government grade paper. 

 

Been looking for quasi-archival red ink for annotations, etc. in matters wherein there are long document retention requirements.  Would be interesting if you could still buy the formulation used by the clerk of court out here for some of their 1910's record books, whatever red they used still has the coloration of roughly Noodler's Empire red or Platinum's rose rose pigmented ink.  Granted, it really hadn't been exposed to light, but still, I've had inks just simply fade over time, even when on stuff stored in light-less vaults.

 

I'm strongly tempted to go with the DeA Doc Rd over the Noodler's just because I am well aware of the problems I've had with Noodler's products over the years.  As somebody who lives in the northern high plains, I laugh at Noodler's claims regarding the freeze resistance of their "Polar" line... at -24F, it definitely freezes solid.  While I haven't tested it at the point where both -F and -C are the same number, given that an entire bottle freezes solid at -24F, never saw the need to put a bottle out at -40F and below.  I'd be looking at it for more of the durability characteristics and any cold weather durability claims.  Anybody had a chance to play test the Polar Blood Falls?

 

Also, Carbon Black vs. Chou Kuro... is there really that much difference in intensity to justify the 2x or so cost?  I used to use Noodler's Olde Manhattan Blackest Black for those times when I wanted to "paint it black," however, after getting a shipment of Old Manhattan Blackest Black and Old Dutch Sepia that didn't exactly match what I remembered, I started looking at other intensely black inks.  My concerns with Chou Kuro are potential smudging, flow/nib clogging, and dry time.

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, SeeksAdvice said:

Also, Carbon Black vs. Chou Kuro... is there really that much difference in intensity to justify the 2x or so cost?

 

I went on at length, comparing Chou Kuro to the other blacks I've reviewed (note the absence of Carbon Black in this bit) (this is about the swatches):

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Also of note are De Atramentis Document Black, Noodler's Heart of Darkness, and Noodler's Black (when applied heavily). These three held up best against Chou Kuro. And Noodler's Black was most similar in color and in how much blacker it is in heavy application.

 

But also:

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NOTE: Given the claim of blackest black, I went ahead and compared not only swatches, but also the review pages from all my former blacks to see if one can distinguish this from other blacks in writing from a Japanese EF.  There were so many blacks that looked just as black to me that I didn't bother to try to capture comparison photos - any differences are likely too subtle to distinguish. There were also many that looked distinctly greyish.  But IMO, if you're using a Japanese EF nib, this ink may not be different enough to justify the cost.

 

Chou Kuro might be worth it if you're using lousy paper (it and Noodler's Black are the only black inks I've used that are perfect on even the worst paper - Carbon Black is awful on poor paper), if your pen is dry, but you still want a dark black, you don't want to use Noodler's Black, and you're OK with the cleaning requirements: Chou Kuro will glom onto any particles in your water, so if your water has mineral content, using your water (rather than distilled) will actually make cleaning harder.  There are videos out there showing how Chou Kuro behaves on contact with distilled vs tap water, if you want to see it in action.

 

Short version: probably not worth it.

[yazeh]

I wasn't aware of the new Polar ink by Noodler's. I have reviewed all but Blue. What I like about these inks (I have a bottle of Brown & Green and two pens permanently filled) is that they are fast drying (not the Black though).  

What is not so good, is that they don't work very well with wide nibs and if memory serves me right they don't like cheap paper or wet pens in general. 

I have reviewed a lot of waterproof red inks. They are either too eye searing and waver around the pink/ orange spectrum or full bodied red.

Fox red and Esenin were well behaved if memory serves me well. 

I would suggest you getting samples and see which one suits your needs.

Octopus has a series of Write and Draw, waterproof /light fast inks too. 

I've reviewed many and they are all excellent (but the white). For some reason these inks have an expirey date of two years, though, which is weird.

I wouldn't recommend Kakimori pigment inks, (unless you like the bottles). They have long drytimes in general and are low in lubrication).

I believe Diamine would release also a line of pigment inks  in April, if you are patient enough.

Happy ink hunting 😊