on saleNoodler's Empire Red - Ink Sample

My first impression with the Noodler's Empire Red Ink was that the color was not what I was hoping for. The swab on the website made it look like a more true red. But it's a very flat, boring, light red that definitely skews to the orange. The ink had varied results based on the pen used and the paper written on. Since I greatly appreciated the really thorough reviews others left on here, I want to do the same. PEN: Monteverde Innova EF Nib (drier writer of my two pens)- Copy Paper: It writes really light in both color and flow with this pen's nib. It writes dry and scratchy on copy paper. - Exceed Notebooks: Dries quickly, but it's way too light in color for me to be willing to work with it. PEN: Hong Dian Black Forest EF Nib (from Amazon) (wetter writer of my two pens)- Copy Paper: It puts down a lot more ink, quite wet. The color improved with the saturation, but it came with noticeable spread and feathering, plus bleed through and heavy ghosting. It flows smoothly, but it doesn't work well on copy paper. - Exceed Notebooks: This was the combination I liked the most. It wrote wetter than in the MV Innova, and I liked how it felt and looked a lot more. The ink showed up darker since it put down my ink, and improved the overall color, as well as adding some shading variations. I still not enough to push me to buy a bottle.OVERALL NOTES: - Color is too light and too orange. I'm just not a fan of it at all.- Dried very quickly with both pens on all paper.

Noodler's Empire Red is a nice red, but washed out. I assume that was why they tied it to the British Empire. A political historical statement. I prefer a solid color. The only washed out color I like is Noodler's 54th Massachusetts because it makes my journal look like an antique, and the blue-black ink is just pleasing to read.

I used this ink in a Edison Collier with a medium nib. The color was closer to the bottom of the goulet ink swab, kind of a muted chalky red, and I found it to be very easy on the eyes for long writing sessions. The more I used it the more it grew on me. It flows well, no feathering and very water resistant.

Noodler's Empire Red is more a warm mid to light-pink. A nice color, but not the forceful red of a conquering power. It does stay put, with water and is otherwise well-behaved, therefore the 4 rating.

The ink dries quickly (for a Noodler's) and it's very waterproof (as a water-colorist I appreciate that), but the color is more coral than red, when swabbed it looks like fresh blood. I'd rather something a little bit darker, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to test a sample.