It's been a little while since I reviewed any non-fountain pens, and I have this cup full of pens that I mean to review, so today we've got the pointVisco from Stabilo. The pen isn't marked, but it's a roller-ball, and it behaves like a gel, or hybrid-gel, ink. It dries really quickly, and it doesn't skip or smear, so I think it's probably some sort of hybrid. Amazon's page says that it's a gel, but who knows where the seller got their information.
The pointVisco is a bit like the point 88 (which you can find at JetPens for $.80). They're both school bus yellow with white stripes and black text. They've both got a small cap that posts nicely. The pointVisco is a roller-ball, while the 88 is a porous point pen.
The pointVisco has a nice rubber grip that makes it more comfortable to write with, and the clip is nice and sturdy. I like the feel of this pen a lot, and the look isn't bad.
I've got this pen in three colors. I used to have a green one, but it's gone missing. I think I probably loaned it to an architect friend of ours. The green ink seemed a little pale to me, but these other three are great.
My camera just won't focus on the pen. Weird, but I'll pretend that I meant to focus past it.
The blue ink is just a touch violet, and that sets it apart from lots of the other blues in the office. Of course, the unique look to these pens will do that, too.
The rollerball of the .5mm is actually pretty wide. It feels more like a .7mm than a .5, but it's not subject to bleed or spread, so I quite like it.
Here's a fun little pen that I picked up a while ago as a "cart-stuffer" on Amazon. It's marketed as a kid's beginner fountain pen, but I sorta like it for myself. There are lots of kid-friendly features on this pen, and it feels sturdy enough for kids to use without worrying about it breaking.
It comes in bright colors (Anderson Pens has it in blue, red, yellow, and green), and it comes in both right- and left-handed versions. I didn't remember this until just now (so I don't have pictures), but the Pelikano Jr. comes with little sticker-strips for kids to write their names on the pen. If you look just above my middle finger in the picture at the left, you'll see a smooth area on the otherwise textured barrel. That's where the name stickers go. It's a neat feature for a pen that might be used in classrooms by several kids over time. I think this pen could last for quite a while, too. The nib is sturdy steel. It's not refined, but it works and it's not going to be damaged by a kid putting some weight on it. The plastic is thick enough to endure, but still fairly light.
It's also got a triangular grip with different lines and such to show new users where to put their fingers. It's a bit like the Lamy grips on the Safari and Al-Star, but it's also rubbery and textured. I like this sort of grip, but I know there are those out there who don't.
Posted, the pen is a good size for an adult, though a kid could totally use it unposted.
The nib is pretty broad, and it's pretty wet. I've been using it with my drier inks and those that are good at shading. It will burn through a cartridge, but it looks good doing it.
The Pelikano Jr. comes with a long cartridge in the Int'l style, and that's a good thing as the wide nib can certainly burn through the standard international carts in record time.
Here's the pen in hand: Posted.
Un-Posted.
And here's the Pelikano Jr. with Big Ben.
The Final Analysis: I like this pocket-sized pen, and it often finds its way into my pocket. I've currently got it loaded with Liberty's Elysium, and this blue really benefits from this nib. It's a fun nib that works just fine for adults, and it'll work for kids, if you've got some that you need to train in the art of the Fountain Pen. At $14, this isn't the cheapest pen, but I think it's way better than a Pilot Varsity or a Platinum Preppy. It'll last longer, and the nib isn't nearly as flimsy as those two.
So, sometimes I forget what ink is in a pen. It doesn't happen all that often, but it does happen. That's the reason that I started the Currently Inked page on my blog. It really helps me to keep track of my pens and inks. The story here is that I wrote this review after Christmas and set it aside. I'd forgotten to give it my customary smear of ink, and when I went back to do that, I noticed that the greens weren't at all alike. It took me a little time, but I figured out what ink I was actually using. If you'd like to see a smear of Shin-Ryoku, then check it out over here.
Iroshizuku's Shin-Ryoku is a deep, piney green. I used it for all of my Christmas cards this year, and it was kinda perfect for that. It's not a bright green, it's a deep green without being overly dark. It's my favorite of this line, I think.
As you can see, above, this ink just gets better with wider nibs. It's unexciting with the extra fine nib (which is a bit too dry), but when you get up to the stub it starts looking really nice.
This ink is a bit wet, so it does a little bit of bleeding on regular papers. I was using it on card stocks and other thick papers for xmas stuff, so it didn't present any problems. You'll want to use this expensive ink on decent paper, anyway, to see the shading that it can give you.
Yeah, this smear is obviously not the right ink. It's not even close. I've actually only just started to use the Mont Blanc Swift ink, and I don't think it's as good as Shin-Ryoku.
Here you can see the deep green of Shin-Ryoku compared to the much brighter Supershow Green from Private Reserve. This ink isn't going to look formal, and you probably won't use it at work, but it's a good ink if you're looking for a nice green with plenty of character.
You can find it in various places, but here's the link to Anderson Pens. At $28 for 50ml, it's pretty expensive. Occasionally, you can find this brand on sale at Amazon for about $20.
I'm not a huge ballpoint fan, but there are a few that I actually like. This is one of them. I've seen the Jetstream catch some flack for being a skippy writer and there are people out there who will say that there aren't any good 1mm ballpoints. They tend to skip because the ball has to be so big. The clicky version of this pen has this problem, but the capped version doesn't seem to do that. It's smooth and consistent.
I left off the cost of this pen because it's kinda hard to find, and I'm not sure where you can get them. I found mine at a local pen shop that sells singles. If you find some in your local stores, get a couple. They're not bad at all (for a ballpoint).
The grip area of this pen just a little rubbery and it feels good. The width is perfect for me, and a little wider than other ballpoints.
It posts really well, and the rubber texture of the barrel keeps it secure.
It's got some interesting internals. it's got a sort of silvery sheath that goes over the refill, and that's what you see through the window in the middle of the pen. I'm not sure why they bothered with this, but the longer-than-normal refill (it's not the same as the clicky version of this pen) fits in it and keeps the refill steady in the barrel. I really hate it when a ballpoint jiggles in the pen as I write, and I guess this odd arrangement keeps that from happening.
This collar is the same one that you find on the other Jetstreams. I kinda think it restricts the ink flow, but I don't really know for sure.
And here it is with the clicky version. This brown-black version is also good and smooth. These clicky ones are more common than the capped version, but this is one of the BLX series, and I think it's a little better than average.
My good friends, Brian and Lisa Anderson, sent me samples of all 8 new colors. I hadn't seen them before on the interwebs, so here are a bunch of swatches of these samples. I haven't got them in pens yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.
I usually take my pictures in natural sunlight, but it's really overcast today, so these are taken inside.
Doyou is actually a really dark brown, though it looks mostly black in this picture. Miruai is a dark green.
Oku-Yama looks a lot like Jentle Grenade, but it's a little brighter. It still has the same sheen, though.
Souten is really bright. I really like the look of that.
The last ink I reviewed was a green, so let's look at another. Private Reserve's DC Supershow Green is a bright, fresh green that looks great on good paper. It's shown here in a stub nib as well as a pretty wet fine nib, and the differences are pretty big. It's a much darker green from the small, wet nib of my Laban, and the stub shows the propensity of this ink to shade.
The generally wet flow from Supershow Green means that it's going to have a few problems if you use it on low-quality papers. It's prone to bleeding, feathering, and spread on them. On papers that are fountain-pen-friendly, though, you're going to get great performance (if slightly long dry-times).
We've been on vacation in Wisconsin (visiting some family), and a good time has been had by all. I'll have lots of things to review next week, and some really fun things coming up in the near future.
Yesterday, we got to hang out with Brian and Lisa Anderson (and their friend/apprentice Dave) at their store in Appleton. It's always nice to see them, and their store is fantastic. It makes me really happy when great folks do well!
We brought the whole family out to the store, and almost everyone got something. Cousin Parker got a sweet Sheaffer Ferrari pen, Little Cousin Brianna got one of the fountain pens from Lisa's PCA pens-for-kids program, Aunt Peggy and Cousin Amy came away with a pair of Monteverde Artistas in ballpoint and rollerball. I forgot to take pictures of everyone with their new pens, but I hope to have them soon. Audrey got some ink samples and one of the Lamy Safaris in the extra-bright coral color, and I ended up with a really sweet NOS Sheaffer Triumph and bottles of Sailor's Jentle Grenade, Epinard, and Apricot. (If you like those inks, then get yourself over to Andersonpens.net and snag them. They've got lots for now, but I'm sure it's going quick!
We're on our way to OH now, but we found some cheese and a Cheesehead at the Mars Cheese Castle. We'd looked all over for one of these, and they're much more difficult to find than one would think.
This is a sleepy dog:
And this is another:
We've also got a stuffed dog as our trip-mascot. Her name is Rootbeer, and she's psyched to lead the way.
Hey folks, I'm still away from home, but I took this picture before I left and I forgot to share it with you. Audrey got a Monteverde Impressa from the Andersons at the Raleigh Pen Show, and then I saw this replica of it on Pen Habit. I decided to grab one from eBay. Not a bad pen for ~$6. I haven't had a chance to ink it up yet, but it feels pretty solid. It doesn't post, though, which is odd.
Hey folks, I just saw that there's a sale over at Anderson Pesn. It's only for the rest of the weekend, so go over and see if there's anything you like.
This ink was provided to me, free of charge) by JetPens for review purposes.
There's just a little bit of sheen at the top right of this picture.
There are only two of the Sailor Jentle inks that I hadn't tried (and reviewed). One is Epinard (which I just got, and will write up soon) and the other is Peche. Both of these inks are on the "cancelled" list from Sailor, so if you like what you see, you need to get on the stick and pick up a bottle or two of your favorites. At the time I'm writing this, JetPens only has 5 bottles of Peche.
Like the other Sailor Jentle inks, this one behaves really well on a variety of papers. Unlike them, this one isn't very saturated at all. It's a really pale pink that reminds me more of the peonies that I had this year than of peaches. The only other light Jentle ink is Apricot (reviewed here), and that one is certainly dark enough once you start writing with it. This one might not be.
The paper that I used for this review is from Staples, and it's a wheat-paper of some sort. It's almost as good as sugarcane papers, but it does tend to be more absorbent. I printed the dots using a pdf that I made based on a link I found on Reddit.
As you'll see below, the ink is a really pale one. I wrote most of this review with a dipped Pilot Plumix. I usually avoid using dip pens because they tend to put down way too much ink, and they're not (usually) an accurate representation of saturation and such. This time, though, it's pretty much the same. Peche is pale from a dip-pen and pale from a fountain pen.
The darkest parts of this review are written with a Conklin Crescent that had been sitting for a while. That pen tends to let the ink dry in the feed more than some other pens, and it made some of this ink a really neat brown-ish color. That darkness wore off eventually, and the ink lightened up again. It's worth noting that the pen started up just fine even after sitting for a long while.
Here's a close-up of the ink comparison. You'll see some of the new Sailor inks in there. Those reviews are coming soon.
I've been talking to Lisa and Brian Anderson, and there are lots of good things coming to their store in the near future. They have really expanded their offerings in recent days, and there's more to com in the very near future.
Hillary at Diplomat Pens was kind enough to send me this fountain pen for review on my blog. It was unsolicited, and that's really kind of her. I hope I can do this again for them in the future, as Diplomat makes good pens that most people don't hear about.
This isn't my first Diplomat pen. I reviewed my wife's Traveller a while back, and my mom liked the review so much that she bought one. Then she bought another. That pen was too small for my hands, but I really liked the fine nib. The Optimist is definitely more of a man-sized pen, and it's a classy one, at that.
Packaging
The Diplomat Optimist comes in some nice packaging. Cardboard box, metal case with another cardboard case. Not bad at all. This is a box that might go on the shelf.
This is the metal box.
The Look and Materials
This is a brass-body pen with a black-lacquer overlay and a Rhombus design. I capitalized "Rhombus" because it doesn't really look like a rhombus to me. It's a nice black and silver cross-hatch, but I don't see the rhombus in it. (Maybe my math-teacher-sister will correct me.) This Rhombus design is broken by a sliver ring that separates the section from the barrel. This breaks up the design, and I'm not entirely sure why it's there. In fact, I just put the pen together without the ring, and I think it looks a bit better. I wonder if it serves some purpose that I'm missing?
The Optimist with the center ring.
This is the ring, and that's how you'll lose it.
The Optimist sans center ring.
This is certainly a pen that you can take to a meeting with you. It's office-classy, but not boring.
The finial of the pen is the classic Diplomat logo on a white background. I like this detail because it ties the line together. Mont Blanc has the snowflake, Sheaffer has the dot, and Diplomat has the flower. A good emblem is the sort of thing that lets you have an understated design that remains recognizable.
The clip is also distinctive. It's the same sort of clip that is found on most of their pens. Like the Traveller, the clip on this pen is really stiff. I don't think it's going to loosen up, but it'll fit over a shirt pocket. It's too tight to fit over a jeans-pocket, though. It doesn't feel flimsy,and I've no fear of it breaking.
The section is plastic, though, and that's a mistake, I think. It feels a bit cheap on a pen this nice. It's not a bad section, and I don't feel like it's going to slip in my fingers (though it lacks any texture). It just feels like it should be on a cheaper pen. This pen isn't cheap, and buffing up this section would go a long way towards making the pen feel solid and rich.
The Fit and Finish
This is a nicely made pen. The barrel is solid, but fairly light for a metal barrel. The finials aren't going to come off, and I don't worry about the clip. The lacquer is smooth and glossy. It doesn't feel like the sort that will be scraped off by posting the pen, either. In fact, I usually post it and there's not so much as a scratch to show for it.
The cap is not threaded, so this pen is going to live in a pocket and not on a placket. It snaps on securely, but I'm one of those people who are paranoid about the pen falling out of the cap and ruining a shirt or being lost for ever. This isn't a complaint. There are plenty of people out there (my wife, for one) who really don't like screw-on caps because they're fiddly to get on and off when you're writing sporadically.
Inside the cap.
Inside the barrel.
There are a couple of quibbles in this category, though. First, the bottom edge of the cap feels a little rough. It's not finished at the edge, and there's no banding down there to make the transition smoother. The other problem is the ring at the center of the body. It's loose, and not connected to either the section or barrel. It looks fine, but it falls off every time you unscrew the section and it will be lost at some point. I think that both of these problems could be fixed by removing the ring from the body of the pen and adding the ring to the bottom of the cap. That way, you could still see the ring and it would make the edge of the cap smoother. Or, they could just get rid of the ring and make the cap cover the section-break. That would look smoother, I think.
The Nib
This isn't the nib that came with the pen, but I'll tell that story later on.
The design of the nib is the same as the other nibs that I've seen from Diplomat. The flower is there, as well as the company and a nib size. Not to complicated.
The bottom of the feed is a bit boring, and there's no breather hole. I think I prefer the finned-look of most other fountain pens, but how often does one look at the bottom of the feed, anyway?
The fine nib on this pen is really nice. It's kind of semi-soft, like the fine nib on Audrey's Traveller. The medium isn't soft at all, but the fine has some spring in it. If you can get a fine nib in a Diplomat, I encourage you to do that. One caveat, though, is that the Diplomat fine nib is more like a medium width. I've got it paired with Aurora Black right now, and that ink is particularly wet, so that might be part of the "issue." I don't see it as a problem, but it's something for a buyer to keep in mind. They run a bit wider than some other Western nibs that I've used.
I made a video of myself writing the hashes and squiggles above, and here's a link. I warn you, this paper is the loudest paper around. I didn't realize that until I made the video.
Here are a few different nibs that I had on the desk, and they mostly look a bit alike until you get close to them. The Diplomat fine definitely looks a bit wider than
Diplomat on top, Lamy on bottom. Pretty close, right? Still, I think the Lamy is more fine.
The following are my thoughts after using the pen for a few days. I wrote this with the original nib, which was a medium. I didn't love it.
The nib that this pen came with was a medium, and it wasn't good. It's hard to describe what was wrong with it. The nib was alternately wet and dry, and it would change within the same word. It was weird. It was also a little rough. I was trying different inks in it and using different papers, and all sorts of things. It just wasn't working out. When I told Hillary about this, she had a fine nib sent out to me, and it was in my mailbox in a couple of days.
Then there's the fine nib. It's head-and-shoulders better than the medium was.
Final Thoughts
This pen doesn't come with a converter, and that's a surprise to me. At the $135 price-point I expect that there should be a converter. I wish that this pen was a bit less expensive. I like the pen (now that it has a good nib), but there are so many other pens available in that price range. It's such a big field of pens at that level, and I'm not sure that this pen has what it takes to compete. It looks cool, it's metal, and it writes really well. It's also a c/c pen with a steel nib that doesn't come with a converter. On the plus side, it is backed by excellent customer service, and the construction and finish are solid. You'll also like the fine nib, as long as you expect it to be a bit broader than average.
Go over to the site and check out the line. There are some really cool pens over there. I'm especially drawn to the Balance and the Aero, but I really like the unusual looks of those pens.
Check out the video review if you'd like to see this pen in action and hear me talk about it while manipulating it with one hand. I gotta get a tripod or something.
Thanks again to Hillary at Diplomat Pens for sending me this pen to review. The pen was sent to me free-of-charge, but the review reflects only my own experiences and impressions.
Everyone needs a pocket pen (or a purse pen), and the Pilot Petit1 might be the best one for someone who is just starting out in fountain pens, or for those who tend to lose things a lot. You wouldn't want to lose the Pilot Custom 74 in the picture below, or even the Kaweco Sport, but I wouldn't cry about losing my Petit1. They're $3.80 at JetPens, so they're not going to break the bank. They also come in a bunch of colors. There are also brush-pen types, but I've never tried one.
Pilot Custom 74 shown for scale. It's a pretty medium sized pen.
Size wise, they're about the same size as the well-known Kaweco Sport. They're fractionally longer than the Kaweco, but they're slightly thinner. The Petit1 comes with a clip, though, so there's that. Both could be an eyedropper, but that's not my preference.
I think it's a nice little pen, and they're sturdy enough to take some pocket-abuse. It's one of the pens that does a lot of time in my pocket, and it doesn't show much wear. You can see just a little bit of wear on the cap-sticker and on the "P" of Petit1 in the picture below. You'll also see some condensation inside the cap. That's just a consequence of being in a pocket. It's nothing to worry about.
The nib is like a smaller, finer version of the nib on the Varsity. I like it better than the Varsity's nib, which has always been too broad for me. The nib is a nail, but it's good for a pocket pen. I was using it out in the garden today, and I didn't have to worry about bending the nib. It's stiff, but it's strong. That's also good if you need to lend your pen to someone who doesn't know fountain pens. They're not going to hurt it. (And it's cheap if they do.)
Another interesting thing is the transparent feed. I've got a couple of other pens with a feed like this, and I dig it. This pen came with a blue/black cartridge, so you can only really tell that it's clear from this side angle.
The cartridge is a smaller version of the proprietary Pilot carts, and the feed sits in the same sort of half-pipe that other Pilot pens use.
In the hand, you really want it posted. The posted cap feels solid and sits in the web of your hand quite well.
It's too short without the cap posted.
Here's a short write up on the pen with a Quattro pad for scale. It's a good pen. Go get a few.
I got this pen from JetPens a while before they started sending me stuff to review, so it was paid for with my own cashes. Everything in this review is based on my own experience with the pen. Word.
These gel pens should look fairly familiar to you. Their black and blue and red cousins are ubiquitous in US office supply stores. They're great gel pens. Easily my favorite over the even more ubiquitous G2, for their smoother points and better line. I should mention that the clips on this version feel a little flimsy in comparison to the silvery clips on the regular 207. I don't know why exactly. I haven't had one break on me yet, though.
This set is from the BLX line, which offers several colors of ink mixed with black. I've long been a fan of blue-blacks and such in fountain pen inks, and this set of gels comes close to those offerings. (There is also a set of these in the Vision line and the Jetstream line, but I'll have to handle those some other time. These are the best of the bunch, anyway.) Elaine from JetPens says that the green/black version is her favorite. I haven't tried that one yet, but I probably should.
The Brown/Black is probably my favorite, though all of them are good inks, and they all behave the same way. I lent one to a student one period, and I noticed that she had her own the next class.
Go and check out this review. I've not been an eyedropper fan, but the pictures on this review are changing my mind. I haven't gotten this pen because it would be a shame not to use it as an eyedropper, and I probably wouldn't. I might come around eventually, though.
Hi folks, This is the first of the "new" Sailor inks that just became available in the US this summer. Lisa and Brian Anderson kindly provided samples of each of the new inks (free of charge!), and I'm excited to be able to show them to you. (Previews available here.)
Tokiwa-Matsu is a light-medium green with just a touch of a sheen to it where the ink pools. I tried to catch that sheen in my pictures of the ink smear, but It's kind of hard to see. Present, but not the focal point of this ink.
You'll notice that I misspelled the ink's name every time I wrote it. I don't know why I did that.
As I say in the written review, this is a really smooth ink. It tended to skate just a bit in this nib, but that might be due to the Custom 74's really smooth nib. Its' a nice green with lots of shading.
This ink is also really well behaved. In fact, all of the new Sailor inks that I've tried are real well behaved. They don't seem to bleed, feather, or spread on any kind of decent paper. I have a couple of pads of really bad paper, and it will feather some on that paper, but it doesn't do any of that on common office copy paper (Staples 20lb paper is my tester paper.)
This isn't quite a replacement for Sailor's Jentle Epinard. It's not quite dark enough to replace that ink for a lot of people, I'd guess. It's still a pretty nice green.
Thanks to the Andersons, this ink sample was free. No money changed hands and no promises were given. The opinions expressed in this review are mine, alone.
Another new Sailor ink! Hooray! This one is a deep maroon called "Deep Mountain." It's a very smooth ink and there's a lot of sheen in this ink. More sheen than I've seen in any other ink, probably. (I haven't tried those J. Herbin 1670 inks, yet.) It's actually my favorite ink in this pen, so far.
This ink was sent to me free-of-charge by Anderson Pens for review purposes. The thoughts expressed in this review are mine, alone.
In addition to looking great, it also behaves well on run-of-the-mill papers. The next couple of pictures show the ink on a regular office copy paper, Staples 20lb copy paper. You can see just a little bit of bleed on this paper, but this is also a pretty wet pen, so you can probably chalk it up to that.
Here's a pair of pictures of the ink smear wet and dry.
Here are a bunch of pictures of this ink that try to capture the sheen you'll see from it. For some reason it's a bit difficult to catch it on camera.
The next couple of pics are of a bit of writing I did on the back of a Mnemosyne Word Card. They're a bit off-white, but otherwise stellar for ink swatches.
Letting this ink sit in my Skyliner for a week or so makes it write in almost pure golden-green sheen. It's pretty awesome. It didn't clog up the pen, or anything, so no need to worry about that.
Next up is Souten (or "Blue Sky"). This is a bright, but light, blue. Unless you use a really wet nib you're probably going to think that this is a bit too light for everyday use. It's a nice blue, but it ends up being my least favorite of all these new inks. Don't get me wrong, it's still a really nice ink. It's just the least great of a stellar collection.
Thanks goes out to Anderson Pens for providing these samples to review.
It's a nice looking ink that behaves really well, even on copy paper. There's a little show-through, but that's about all.
Front and back on copy paper.
Ultimately, I'm fairly sure that my Pilot Custom 74 is having a bit of a flow problem, and I really wanted to like this ink, so I tried it in a variety of other nibs.
It looks pretty good from the Kaweco's broad nib, and it looks pretty okay from my Rotring 600, but I'm just not a big fan. This is almost certainly supposed to replace the awesome Sailor Jentle Sky High, and I can't help but compare them. As you can see (above and below), Sky High is both darker and deeper than Souten. I think that's the extra bit that makes me like Sky High more.
I might end up liking Visconti's Blue more than either Sky High or Souten...
I was curious, so I did some simple chromatography.
I think it's the extra dark blue component that makes the difference.
Water Drop Test & Review Video:
**This ink sample was provided to me, free of charge, for review purposes. The opinions expressed are all mine.**
Another Sailor ink! Who'd a'thunk it?! Again, thanks go out to the Andersons for providing me with these samples. I don't know if you're getting sick of seeing these Sailor inks, but I'm not. I'm just sad that I'm almost out of new Sailors to try out.
This time we've got Doyou. This is a dark, complex black-brown ink that mostly looks black. It's probably my new favorite black. It's not a real black, but it's close.
I actually wasn't excited about using this ink. I'm just not a fan of black inks. Most of them are boring, and I thought that's how it would be.
Seriously. Look at all the colors that it takes to make this ink.
Okay, here's the written review. Lots of pictures. Lots of them.
That's the pen I was using for this review. It's a pretty wet nib, and that was what I wanted for this ink. If there was going to be any shading I wanted it to show up.
I'm so jealous of other people's review drawings. I decided to draw something. This time it's (clearly) (obviously) an owl sitting on a tree branch. You knew that.
Not only is the color cool and complex, it's well-behaved. This is the ink in a wet nib on Staples copy paper. There's very little bleed through. I'd say it's more like ghosting. You could totally use the other side if you wanted to.
As you can see below, it's not as black as it appears. It's a super-dark brown. This picture was taken under fairly bright lights and really close up. Mostly, it looks black.
The Water Drop Review Video:
Spoilers:
Yeah, it's got some water resistance. Great color, great performance, and it doesn't just wash off? Super.
Yama-Dori is a pretty excellent teal ink. It's on the dark side of teal, with plenty of shading and a bit of sheen. All of this actually comes out in the swatch below.
I'm taking advantage of the new, bigger area on my new blog template.
Check out that sheen! It's a bit purple.
As with the rest of this Sailor collection, Yama-Dori is well-behaved and interesting. It flows well from the nib, and it doesn't really bleed, though it does come through just a bit more than the other inks.
That's a Pheasant.
These next couple of photos are close-ups taken of this ink on Staples 20lb copy paper.
You don't really see the sheen on this paper, and it doesn't shade nearly as much as it does on Rhodia.
This ink had just a little bit of ghosting with a few spots coming through the back of the copy paper.
Lots of inks compared. 5 Sailor inks, included. This one stands out as the only teal.
I've enjoyed doing the chromatography on these inks. Some of them are complex, but this one is a bit more simple. Mostly it's the same sort of blue that you find is Souten, but the dark notes at the top are what set it apart. Is that green in there?
