Polar Blue

Blue ink. It’s traditional, standard, in most cases expected. Many describe it as ‘favorite,’ many won’t consider anything else. Earliest memories are of the old blue and yellow boxes of Sheaffer Skrip Blue from Griffith’s Drugstore, the place where I also bought Sheaffer fountain pens for around $2.00.

But as one of the cigarette commercials used to say, ‘You’ve come a long way baby.’ These days there are more brands and shades of blue ink than I can count. A quick look in my sample book shows thirteen shades of blue in seven brands. Some of my favorites have for several years been Waterman’s Florida Blue, De Atramentis Guiseppe Verdi Blue and Iroshizuku Ajisai (hydrangea). And while thirteen shades of blue ink will sound to some like way too many, there are a few of us for whom ‘too many’ is hard to get a handle on. Take for example the blue ink sample I got today from Brian Goulet.

NOODLER’S POLAR BLUE

Looking at the name on the bottle, the reaction was something like, “Oh, another blue.” I was also not too impressed by the fact that the blue had come from Noodler’s… Time now for me to wipe out that first impression and admit that this Polar Blue from Noodler’s is not only an exceptional shade of blue, but also a well-behaved ink.

A word about the name—Polar Blue may very well be the perfect name for this chilly shade of blue. It has a cold milkiness that hints at the white of snow, or the fur of polar bears. From the first moment the ink colored the page, I saw a blue resonant with the idea of ‘polar.’ Good name.

I’ve felt some ambivalence about Noodler’s ink in the past, and there aren’t many bottles of it in my collection. Most often in my experience an appealing color was not often matched with good performance in one or several fountain pens. Too often it had a dry, un-lubricated feel, a lack of the preferred wetness. Not sure what they’ve done, but the more recent samples of Noodler’s ink display an altogether different quality. Noodler’s Red and Noodler’s Walnut are good examples of what I sense as an improvement. Now the Polar Blue has come along to reinforce my evolving opinion of Noodler’s ink.

I tested the Polar Blue in a Pelikan Souverän 600 on two kinds of Clairefontaine paper—cream colored paper in the Rhodia Webbie and white Triomphe stationery. Results were better on the white Triomphe, which had less feathering. The cream paper showed only a very slight tendency to bleed, probably to a degree most people would overlook. On both papers the ink is wet and well-lubricated. The one thing missing is any noticeable shading; this is not an ink that offers much in that area. There was also a measure of bleed through on both papers. I suspect that writing front and back with Polar Blue might result in a less than ‘clean’ look.

One quality of the ink that will please many is the fast drying time. Believe it or not, Polar Blue dries before you can reach out and swipe a finger across the just written numeral. Obviously an ink that will make left handed writers happy.

Looking around at other blue inks, finding a match or similar shade of blue wasn’t easy. The Polar Blue has nothing like a twin, but the closest could be the Lavender Scented ink made by De Atramentis. The two are pretty close in my view.

Overall, the Polar Blue rates a high score. This frosty blue will make a great holiday gift or stocking stuffer. Thanks again to Brian at the Goulet Pen Company.

Wishing all a very merry Polar Blue.

Noodler’s Nod to Autumn

Apart from a change in the air, the crispness and the transition to a gentler time of year, color has always been a trademark of autumn. Leaving aside the fun of Halloween and the family warmth of Thanksgiving, most of us have associations that link color to the season in a strong way. During my years in Japan, a country almost as famous for its autumn foliage as the springtime pink of flowering cherry trees, for me the strongest and most enduring color image of autumn was the persimmon, the bowls of vibrant orange fruit, the persimmon trees bowed with globes of ember. But that orange is as transitional as everything else, and soon slips into darker shades. We see it as a cycle slipping from green to yellow, orange to red, and finally red to brown.

In the past week my thoughts have centered on orange, on two autumn-tinted inks, Pumpkin (from Diamine) and the slightly darker, more shaded Orange Crush (Private Reserve). As the passing days affect the autumn palette, so my thoughts turn to another signpost of autumn—RED.

There is no shortage of red ink in the neighborhood of my four walls. As I write this, the number of bottles—red this and red that—number around fifteen. But then, most of us ink junkies have too much ink to ever use in a lifetime. Ask Julie at Whatever and she might tell you the same.

Today’s featured color is Noodler’s Red, a shade that I think of as less than bright red, with no hint of the orange seen in the very reputable Sheaffer Skrip Red, yet none of the darkness in Noodler’s Rattler Red. The best quality of the Noodler’s Red is the absence of vibrancy, the look of an almost dull red that is moving toward, but not yet a dark red—one step in the turning cycle from red to brown.

Not a whole lot of shading in this autumny red, but enough to keep it from blandness. It flows smoothly from the Pelikan 200 I used for testing, and I wasn’t bothered by the time it took to dry. Left-handed writers will have trouble with the drying time, I suspect. My test was on 90g Clairefontaine paper, so feathering or bleed through were not an issue. Even for the very wet Q-tip swab, the show through was minimal. This is a fine ink, and should get some notice from those with a fondness for reds.

For a more detailed review of Noodler’s Red, once again I will point you to Brian Goulet at Ink Nouveau.