Posts filed under Sailor

Sailor Ink Studio 960 Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Out of the many inks I own, there aren't any true greens. I've always enjoyed green, but never fallen for any green inks that I find while at pen shows or perusing online shops. Sailor Ink Studio #960 is about as true a green that I could ever want. While the color might not match exactly what "true green" is, it certainly comes close enough by my personal definition.

Sailor Ink Studio is a fascinating project and line of inks produced by Sailor's own Osamu Ishimaru, a professional blender of inks. The Ink Studio line is comprised of over 100 unique inks chosen from Mr. Ishimaru's thousands of ink creations. I can't imagine coming up with a handful of unique ink colors that span the color wheel, let alone coming up with thousands. This is truly fascinating to consider and makes the 960 on my desk even more special for that reason.

Aside from the clever concept and interesting branding behind the Ink Studio line, it's still a Sailor ink at heart, which means I was excited to try it out. 960 is a deep green that looks more like jade in lighter areas. It's not dark enough to qualify as forest green or British racing green, but it comes close to those shades when the ink pools up on the page. Let's just say this ink will not come into question on St. Patrick's Day.

This is a fairly saturated ink, which helps it pop from the page despite the dark-ish color. I've been using this ink in a 1.1mm stub nib mostly, and that's purely because I love to see the character of the ink come out more with a wider nib. There's some really beautiful and subtle shading that comes out with a broader nib. When using this ink in a fine nib, I barely noticed any shading at all and almost wrote the ink off as a dark green with very little character. I'm glad I was wrong.

Like all Sailor inks I've come across, this one is extremely well-behaved. The ink is smooth on the page, works great in the feed and nib system (meaning it starts quickly and doesn't skip or sputter), and dries really quickly on the page. In my unscientific tests, the ink is normally dry in under 15 seconds. And, as with all well-behaved inks, it's also easy to clean out of pens when it's time to swap in for something else.

The dark, subdued shade of this delicious green is something that makes me happy when I see it drying on the page. It's not a flashy ink, but it has a lot of hidden character that you can coax out with the right nib. It's dark enough to be appropriate in many business settings, but fun enough to use on a daily basis.

At $18 for a 20ml bottle, Sailor Ink Studio #960 is a bit on the pricey end of inks, but it does have a very unique story and some additional info on all 100 colors in the Color Studio line, as well as some blank cartridge converter labels so you can always remember what ink you have in a given pen. If this particular color doesn't strike your fancy, take a look at the other 99!

(Dromgoole's provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on February 5, 2020 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Sailor, Ink Reviews.

Sailor Ink Studio 773 Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Sailor inks are some of my favorites, but the new Ink Studio line that has released over the last year has really captured a lot of hearts. There are a few standout colors in the line, and I was so enchanted by those that I didn't notice number 773 at first. Now that I've had a chance to use it, I find it every bit as enchanting as those ultra-popular colors, and now I wonder if the entire rest of the Ink Studio line is just as amazing.

I thought this was an orange ink, when I first saw the bottle, and I wondered if it would be too similar to a dozen other orange inks. I love orange inks, but it's a color that I really don't need more than two of, as fun as they are. However, I've decided that this is really a coral ink, and therefore it bypasses any arbitrary color rules I may have set for my collection.

773 shows its nuanced character immediately on the page. It looks complex, even when drawn with a fine nib. The chromatography is bright and wild, with a bubblegum pink fading into saffron yellow--but it wasn't a surprising color split to see. The pinks and yellows come through in the coral color itself. The very saturated swab even shows a hint of gold sheen where the ink pooled. I haven't seen it in my writing yet, but the capability is there, given the right nib/paper combination. It shows wonderful shading, even in a fine nib, that looks like a soft guava color in the lighter areas, and a bolder coral where it pools.

It isn't very similar to any of the inks in my collection. It's much to orangey for comparing to the pinks, and too rosy for the oranges. I haven't, personally, tried any comparable colors.

The ink writes smoothly and doesn't feel dry, but it has a fast dry time compared to a lot of inks. It went from fairly lubricated at ten seconds to almost completely dry at 15, like there's a magical off-switch in its chemistry.

It has almost no water resistance, disappearing quite completely even when it's gently patted dry.

The Ink Studio line comes in small, 20ml glass bottles. They're sturdy and not difficult to fill from--much nicer than the squat, round bottles they sometimes use. But also much smaller, and 20ml retails for around $18, making this quite a pricey ink. It's an expensive line, but one with a number of colors that I don't think can be easily matched to another, less expensive brand. They're also not the easiest inks to obtain, as they're only sold through stores with a brick-and-mortar presence.

Many of the Ink Studio colors are captivating enough that people are tracking them down and happily paying the higher cost. I think 773 is one of those worth-it colors. I'm nervous, now, to meet any more of the Ink Studio line. If they're all this subtly lovely, we could be in real trouble.

(Dromgooles provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sarah Read and filed under Sailor, Ink Reviews.

Sailor Nagasawa Pro Color Fountain Pen Review

The Sailor Pro Color has a new special series from the Nagasawa Stationery Center in Kobe, Japan--this time in a lovely array of seven slightly shimmery pastel colors. I'm a big fan of the Pro Color model. To be fair, I'm a big fan of most Sailors that I've used. From their low-end, entry-level pens to their fancy-pants budget-breakers, there's an attention to detail and dedication to quality that makes all of them special.

The Pro Color isn't quite entry-level. With a price tag of $87, it's a stage past that, into the "generous gift" category, by my scale. It just crosses the impulse-buy threshold, though these pretty pens could easily blur that line with their charm.

Like the Shikiori Tsukuyo-no-Minamo that I reviewed last year, the primary difference between this pan and its fancier cousin, the 1911 Standard, is the nib material. The 1911 has a gold nib, while these models have a gold-colored steel nib. The resin of the body also feels, to me, a little bit less substantial. The edges are just slightly less finished. All of these differences have to be studied to be noticed at all. The steel nib is so smooth and perfectly tuned that I had to double-check that it wasn't gold.

The nib on this Nagasawa edition has different stamping than the regular Pro Color series. Instead of the scroll work and anchor, there's a rooster weathervane with 1882 on it, with Nagasawa and Kobe written around it. Sailor is written below that. It's a really lovely nib, and it's fun to see something different and special on it. The looks would mean nothing, though, if it wasn't also a dreamy writer. It is perfectly smooth, even with this fine nib, and it has the perfect wetness to show off the characteristics of whatever ink you're using. I don't often see much ink shading with a Japanese fine nib, but I do with this pen.

This model is the Kobe Water Blue color. It's a lovely, soft, robin's egg blue. It's also available in Ijinkan Mint (I need this color also), Nunobiki Lavender, Rikyu Moon Yellow, Hatoba Coral Pink (this one, too), Samura Sand Beige, and Oji Cherry. They're all gorgeous. The spring colors bring a nice pop of cheer to the deep winter.

All of the pens have gold-colored furniture. The cap band says "Nagasawa" and "pen style den". The clip is plain, but functions well. The grip section is comfortable, and made from the same plastic as the body. It can use Sailor cartridges or a Sailor converter. It comes with both, so you can choose your preference. I loaded mine with Sailor Ink Studios 773, which I'll be reviewing next week.

In my experience, you can't go wrong with a Sailor pen. It might be possible to spend too much on one, though. This Pro Color model gives you a wonderful writing experience for a fraction of the price of their middle- and high-end pens. If you haven't tried a Sailor yet, and are in the market for a step up from entry-level, this is a fantastic choice. Having a wonderful, inexpensive Sailor will not, however, make you immune to the allure of high-end Sailor pens. While this pen is perfectly good enough, there are never enough Sailors.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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