EFNIR: Platinum Chou Kuro
Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Platinum Chou Kuro
This is review #280 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:
Post-recording notes: Most reviews focus on the blackness, waterproofness, and cleaning. Precious few actually talk about how it writes or behaves in the pen. So, I'll comment on everything I can think of about this ink.
I pre-cleaned with distilled water and the ultrasonic cleaner, then allowed everything to dry *before* I inked the pen. Given the images others have posted of the ink's reaction with tap vs distilled water, I thought it might give my pen a little better chance if any residue from tap water was cleaned off ahead of time.
When put on thin enough, this is a warm dark grey (see microscope smear). That surprised me - I thought it would be a black hole even in thin applications, but no. When enough is applied, it is blacker than my darkest inks (see video comparisons). In heaviest application, it looks wet - sort of shiny or almost silvery sheen (see video). My other blacks were mostly cooler, and quite a few turn grey in comparison. A few still seemed black, but not as black. Of note is the Pilot Black for Parallel pens - historically, that swatch has seemed solid black to me. Now it seems solid, darkest cool grey.
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.
This ink was gifted to me by an Instagram friend. In the sample vial, it sloshes around easily and stays together. It doesn't cling to or try to stain the walls. There was no sign of settling as some other pigmented inks do. It does form quite a lot of bubbles when you shake it up. Some dried to a solid on the threads, but it did re-wet, so it may not be the end of the world if it dries in a pen, but you'd have a hard time cleaning it out, so I highly recommend against that - use a pen that seals well.
When writing in my journal (generally in cursive and constant writing), I had no flow problems, but the longer the pen was inked, the less the pen liked to start writing - the first strokes were not as solid (you can see this in some images). Doing logic puzzles (about 48 hours after inking), the pen ran dry. The paper was thick copy paper. I was making dots, Xs, and lines, and writing constantly - it was a simpler puzzle, so no need for pauses and capping. Wiping the back of the nib on the paper and then scribbling some lines brought it back to life, only to happen a second time. After repeating the process, it flowed better. So, it seems like this ink won't take very long pauses without drying on the nib. A wetter nib might not have this problem. The problem did not recur on subsequent days, even when doing more logic puzzles. I did have flow problems near the end of the doodle and flossed the tines to get it flowing well again (that doodle was a demanding task for the ink).
Cleaning was not bad. I put some distilled water in a stainless steel measuring cup and dropped the nib and feed in there with the disc and agitator ball from the cartridge. I rinsed the section and cartridge with a couple syringe-fulls of distilled water, then put everything into an ultrasonic cleaner with a little distilled water and ran it once. I don't think that was needed, it was just easiest. The cartridge seemed stained (sort of a warm brownish grey), but nothing else. The ink seems to come off non-porous surfaces quite easily, though with agitation (e.g. I had to wipe it off my stainless steel sink when I got some on it). It also comes quite easily off skin (more easily than many even non-permanent inks)!
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.
Note on Shading and Sheen: Though I put "None", technically, it will shade in a dry-enough application, but I'm not sure a normal nib will get it that thin. The circular/disc dip nib I use for making swatches these days can do it. As to sheen, mostly, there's nothing, but in heavy application, when held at an angle to the light, you see what looks like sheen, or maybe like the ink is wet. I think it's just light reflecting off thick ink. I've seen this in some writing in my Hobonichi (52gsm Tomoe River paper) and on the swatch card. (See the video for an example from my doodle.)
All in all, if you want the blackest black and don't choke on the price or the distilled water for cleaning, this is your ink!
This is a very cool PDF from Platinum about this ink.
Zoomed in photo (I think the broken lines are because the ink sometimes dries on the nib. Once it gets going, the lines aren't quite as broken.)
Screenshot
Scan of Completed Review
Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper)
Line width ("1" in "10" in dry-time test. Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 248µm. With 280 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.) (Holy opacity, Batman! Note the red spots - that usually means sheen. I used a different line because the usual ones weren't representative (drying on the nib, I think), but it's still thin!)
Microscope image (100x. Looks very much like pretty much all pigmented inks look - granular, pattern that looks like the edges of clouds or the build-up of multiple layers of mineral deposits at a hot spring.)
Water Test Results
Other (Toward the end of this doodle (the curves at the top), the pen was struggling and needed a bit of flossing and rest to refill the feed - not sure we can fault pen or ink - I was putting down a lot of ink in a short time.)
Previous Review: Pilot Mixable Colour Light-green.
Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.
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Originally Posted by Sailor Kenshin
I had to check all the images, the video clips, read all the comments before I could settle down and read about Quin and the "high" / "low" wizard / Lizard 
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