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INK REVIEW: Pilot Iroshizuku Tsukushi

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Ink Swab – Pilot Iroshizuku Tsukushi
With the start of autumn, I thought it would be fun to review a fall color. I reached into my bag of brown inks and pulled Pilot Iroshizuku’s Tsukushi.
I’ll start by saying – it writes wonderfully.
Pilot Iroshizuku Tsukushi Writing Sample
I’m just not a huge fan of brown inks.  And brown inks with red undertones? Not for me, thank you.
Tsukushi is not a super-saturated ink
Tsukushi – does it shade well? Yes, it does!
It’s really a terrific ink in many regards.

Bottom Line: If you like the color, you can’t go wrong with this ink. It’s fabulous in all regards.

Oh, and in case you want to see it next to Diamine Chocolate Brown, here you go and here’s another look at some brown inks.

QUICK LOOK WEDNESDAY – Six Pretty Colors

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Sometimes, I want to play with my pens, inks, and papers, but can think of nothing to write.

The first step is to write the name of the ink and the name of the pen (see above). I just noticed that each ink is from a different manufacturer – nice.

Apparently, the last resort is to write things that I overhear from the television (see below).

It was actually quite a bit of fun – watching and scribbling, changing pens and writing a bit more. I love the way the entire sheet of paper looks – each color is pretty amazing on its own, yes?

Let’s take a closer look . . .

Above – DeAtramentis Alexander Hamilton. I love this purple. It’s so rich and deep in color – nice saturation. I don’t see this ink discussed much on the various forums, but I think this is a purple that could be used anywhere.  (more on that another day)

Below – Private Reserve Spearmint. One of my favorite green inks. It looks a bit dark here to my eye, but it is usually quite cheery.

Do you have a guess as to which show I was watching at the time?

Below – Montblanc Hitchcock. A gorgeous blood red ink if I ever did see one. Some really pretty shading in there, too. I have to confess, I have a quite a lot of this in my cabinet. Shall I keep it forever? Use it as if I’ll never run out? Or maybe even sell some?

Below – Noodler’s Habanero. A favorite. That shading. The brightness of the color. Need I say more? Mm..wait, I already did right here.
 

By the way, the above quote is the one that seems like the one that would tell the secret of what I was watching. Have you guessed it yet?

Above – Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun. I wonder if I only could have one ink, if this would be it. Check out my big review here. It is crazy CrAzY to think that I, lover of bright and beautiful colors, would be so taken with a gray ink, but there you go.

Above – Diamine Majestic Blue.  Easy to see why it’s one of my favorites, yes?  So pretty.

And, so, there we have it – six pretty colors. All so different from one another and yet all so wonderful.

Which show was I watching?  Downton Abbey, of course!  Have you seen it? Highly recommended.

INK REVIEW: Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun

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Oh. Goodness.

Gracious. Me.

Oh. My.

Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun Swabs (3, 2, 1)

Have mercy.

Fuyu-syogun Shading
Not too light.
Not too dark.
Nothing but gray. No icky red or green undertones.
Gorgeous shading. 
Decent dry time.
Writes beautifully.
I’m in love.  In love. Head over heels.
If this ink isn’t in your collection, it certainly should be. Certainly.
Have a look at my other grey/gray ink reviews and then run out and get this one.
Seriously, I have nothing negative to say about this ink.

Ink Review: Pilot Iroshizuku Tsutsuji

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A quickie look at Pilot Iorshizuku Tsutsuji this morning.

First thing’s first – Tsutsuji means Azalea.  Does anyone know how to pronounce Tsutsuji? Help.

I LOVE this color. Look at the saturation.  Yow.  That is some screamin’ bright IN YOUR FACE color!

It reminds me a bit of Momiji, but more purple and more saturated. And while you may not be able to tell from my scans, it’s not at all like Diamine Flamingo Pink. Flamingo has a bit of orange in it.

Tsutsuji is a great ink – the color and saturation are just part of that.  It writes beautifully and is well-behaved on a variety of papers.  There is zero (zero!!) smearing.  It doesn’t resist water very well, but this is one of those colors that typically don’t do well with water.  (I forgot to do the highlight thing – oops.)

Looking for a pink ink that leans to purple – Tsutsuji is just that. How would you use this color?  I definitely have no practical use for it – but that doesn’t matter!

INK REVIEW: Stipula Sapphron

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Holy cow. 
I hate Stipula Sapphron.

It shades like a son-of-a-gun. Sounds like I should love it, right? Or at least like it. But no, I hate it.

It’s not often that I say that. In fact, here are all of my posts with “hate” as a tag.  
In the sample vial, the ink looked like a pretty (though not saturated) orange. When I swabbed, I thought the ink looked a little on the yellow side, but was still pretty enough.  (See my first impressions on the handwritten review.)

Then I started writing with it. I was sure my pen must have been dirty. But at the same time, I knew it was a brand new pen and a brand new converter. No ink had ever touched either and both were cleaned prior to use. I twisted a bit of ink out onto another piece of paper – and it sat there looking like a bubble of yellowish mud!  When I smeared that mud around with a cotton swab – it looked like the Ink Swab in my review.
Ca-razy! I don’t get it.

You know what else I don’t get? I couldn’t find even one other review for this ink. Not on Fountain Pen Network, not on Goulet Pens, and even Google came up empty. It’s like I’m in the twilight zone over here.

Hard to believe I’m going pass by shading like this. But I am.

Pretty weird. That’s my first impression – and coincidentally – my bottom line for Stipula’s Sapphron. (By the way, I have no Stipula aversion – I own and love several of their fabulous pens. This ink is just weird.)

In fact, I wanted this to work badly enough that I tried it again another day. With another kind of paper.

Always looking on the bright side, however, Apache Sunset has been on my list of inks to review forever and I’m excited that it’s coming up sometime soon!  And that De Aramentis Gandhi? Isn’t that pretty? 
Time to ‘fess up! Do you have Sappron? Do you love it? Hate it?

INK REVIEW: Noodler’s Turquoise Eel

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Noodler’s Turquoise Eel

Now. This is what I’m talkin’ about!

Some real, in-yo-face, color.

And, bonus! It writes like a dream.

Noodler’s Turquoise Eel rivals Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-peki in every way. It has great color and saturation. It writes beautifully – flow from the pen is just right.

Smear factor isn’t bad.  Not much shading. Is there a turquoise that shades wonderfully? Guess I’ll have to try them all and find out!

Back to the ink . . .

. . . I really don’t have anything negative to say – if I don’t talk about the water test – ha! It’s a great well-behaved ink that I would consider purchasing if I didn’t already own a couple of other turquoise inks. (I test from sample vials, but you probably knew that already.)

A bunch of side notes…

…this is my first review with my new form. Totally excited. Let me know what you think?

…my ink reviews all fall into broad color categories (new this year). This one ended up with the blues because it’s more blue than green. Maybe I need a turquoise – but then I’d need a teal – and sometimes it’s hard to decide. I’ll just keep doing the best I can.

…omg, did you notice the first Compare Square? De Atramentis Hyacinth. I’m excited about reviewing that one sometime soon. Pretttttty.

…Waterman Mysterious Blue felt watery compared to the other inks on this page. Wonder how that will translate in a pen when I get around to testing it.

INK REVIEW: Pilot Iroshizuku – Syo Ro

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Another very pretty teal color from Pilot Iroshizuku.

Pricing is pretty much the same at $28 all over the place. When pricing is the same in all of my usual places, I generally go for the one that offers the best customer service (heck, I’ll even pay a few dollars more for excellent customer service).

One thing I didn’t mention in my other Pilot Iroshizuku reviews is how lovely the bottle is. Here’s an image I dug up on Flickr from user InkyJournal. Gorgeous, yes? I can almost feel the coolness of the thick thick glass.

Still, I’m not going to invest in a full bottle of this ink. I’m holding out for something different – something with more bOOm bOOm pOw. Hopefully, I’ll find that perfect ink – or have fun on the search.  Hahah..it’s definitely the journey when it comes to inks.

Syo ro writes very well.  No problems with flow. Not much sheen. Decent saturation.  There’s little feathering on my Hammermill Premium paper. And there’s even a tiny bit of shading.

Dry time was perfectly acceptable.

I was surprised at how well it did on the water test. Not perfect, but not too bad for a non-black.

Wrapping things up…I like it, I don’t love it.  I’m looking for love.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what others are saying about Syo ro:

Fountain Pen Network Review 1

Fountain Pen Network Review 2

INK REVIEW: Pilot Iroshizuku – Fuyu Syogun

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Wrapping up a couple of reviews before we move on to the new form…

Another sweet shade of gray from Pilot Iroshizuku – Fuyu-syogun does not disappoint!  I’m usually a purist when it comes to colors – I don’t dig muted shades, for example, give me a real, full color! But this gray (grey?) with a touch of blue is jussssst right.

I’ll spare you suspense. I’m totally ordering a bottle of this. It’s available most everywhere for $28 per bottle. Kind of expensive, right? But it’s such a joy to write with. Some of this must be the pen – I’m a sucker for a broad nib – and you know that I love me some Lamy Safari – but still. I’m swooning over here.

Not too wet. Didn’t seem too dry either.

Really. Look at this shading? And there’s not much feathering – even on this mid-quality paper.
 And .. my (limited) understanding is that this ink is also known as Old Man Winter. How cool is that?

And! The news just keeps getting better. Look at that water test. What water test, you ask? Exactly!  (Actually, look in “from,” that’s the droplet test area and you can see just a bit of fading.)

I’ll stop blathering on so you can see what others are saying…
Inky Journal
There aren’t a lot of people talking about this one. Have you tried it?