*Please note this classification is not for use with water color paints*
  1. “Freeze Resistant Inks” include Polar Blue and Polar Black, which will resist forming a solid mass of ice within a glass ink bottle during most cold weather conditions (though they will form some harmless ice “slush” when very cold). The first “Polar” ink was “freeze proof” to -114° F, but the reformulated Polar inks made from 2006 and later have a faster dry time, better flow rate, and are basic “freeze resisting” inks to avoid expansion barrel cracks in pens and broken bottles in mail boxes on cold days. They is no guarantee “never to freeze regardless of the temperature” but, they are made to resist the damaging expansion that water based products can be subject to when exposed to freezing temperatures and harsh winter weather.
  2. “Eternal” refers to any Noodler’s Ink that resists the effects of time – moisture, humidity, UV light, acids, water exposure, and many common detergents such as dish soaps and household ammonia, as well as alcohols and acetone (which conventional ball point pens have no resistance to – often rinsing off a newly written check within 8 seconds of being washed with acetone). Many Noodler’s inks such as “eternal” and “bulletproof” inks are made with the ideal of reaching out as far into immortality as the written word permits us to reach – the only way to speak to future generations remains the written word durably made upon the page (a VCR tape is simply not as durable or as universally readable through time!).
  3. “Bulletproof” refers to any Noodler’s Ink that resists most but not all all the known tools of a forger, UV light, UV light wands, bleaches, alcohols, solvents, petrochemicals, oven cleaners, carpet cleaners, carpet stain lifters, and of course…they are also water resistant once permitted to dry upon cellulose paper. Some inks are more bulletproof than others – generally in descending order (most bulletproof with the most testing – to less bulletproof): blacks, blues, yellows, invisible (“blue ghost” and “White Whale”), greens, browns, purples, reds….all are equally bulletproof with one exception: the resistance to strong industrial bleaches to the point where the paper structure itself decomposes. Reds are prone to more fading when exposed to strong bleaches (sometimes fading to a yellow) than the other colors.
  4. All Noodler’s Polar Inks are also classed as “Bulletproof”, as well as such inks as “Lexington Gray”, “Black”, “Heart of Darkness”, “Golden Year of the Pig”, “Hunter Green”, “Luxury Blue”, “X-Feather”, and “Fox Red”. Worldwide (including custom issue inks specific to certain countries or individual retailers) there are now more than 220 “bulletproof” and partially bulletproof (mixed ink formulations) Noodler’s Inks. References to ink properties are generally printed upon the labels (with the exception of “X-Feather” – which is a white label issue with very little text).
  5. Water resistant vintage style ink: “Baystate Blue” (this ink is not resistant to UV light or bleaches).