Is Iroshizuku Ink Worth The Price?

[Kuhataparunks]

I'm looking particularly for a blue ink, and I'm considering the Iroshizuku line of ink. Does it perform and behave like $40 ink (okay, it's very close to 40 after tax.)? Or are there better, more cost-effective options available?

 

As for comparison, does anyone prefer Asa Gao or Kon-Peki?

[indigoskye]

I'm more a fan of Ama-iro or Tsuki-yo when it comes to blue. All the Iro inks are beautiful and well behaved. At the price, I don't own many bottles of it, but the two I have I love.

[Lyander0012]

Well, considering I got two bottles for the equivalent of $11-12 apiece, I'm perhaps a bit more forgiving of it than most people who end up paying nearly four times the price for a single bottle; shipping adds a lot to the cost of those inks, really.

 

Anyway, as far as the ink itself performs, cost aside, it's the best behaved ink I have; lubrication and flow are impeccable, hard-starting is a thing of the past, and bleed/feathering is limited to extremely poor papers. My only critique of the range in general is its lack of water-fastness. The range of colours is widely varied, to boot, so you're likely to find something you like. I personally opted for Tsuki-yo and Asa-gao, since Kon-peki is a bit too light for my preferences. Asa-gao is a rich, velvety blue that looks great on both white and off-white papers— perfect for correspondence or business use. I like Kon-peki's shading, though, which is something Asa-gao lacks.

 

 

Regards,

 

Kevin

 

 

EDIT:

Had two pens filled with blue today, one was Asa-gao. The other is Cross/Pelikan Blue, which is a fairly prolific ink. I hope this comparison helps. I find the Iro ink to be much more saturated than the Cross one after drying, since the latter turns almost lilac after extended periods of time (imagine my surprise when I just got this ink, haha):

 

Cross is on the top, Iro on the bottom. I made this by smearing around a drop of each ink on Rhodia paper using different fingers (using the same one might change the appearance of the second one, after all )

 

 

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb396/Lyander0012/IMAG55811.jpg

Edited August 16, 2014 by Lyander0012

[Icywolfe]

I have Kon-Peki and I love it. It makes half your words or letters a light blue and the others a very dark blue.

 

I'm only my second bottle of KonPeki. The old mans gray (I forgot the name) is useless it just looks black and something that looks like your pen just skipped.

[lowfiwhiteguy]

I've tried about 10 of them and I love each one. Kon Peki is my favourite blue, Tsuki Yo is my favourite turquoise and Yama Budo is my favourite crimson/purple. And Yu Yake is my favourite... Oh you get the idea.

[Lyander0012]

I have Kon-Peki and I love it. It makes half your words or letters a light blue and the others a very dark blue.

 

I'm only my second bottle of KonPeki. The old mans gray (I forgot the name) is useless it just looks black and something that looks like your pen just skipped.

 

Fuyu-Syogun? I believe it translates to :Old Man Winter". Yeah, I thought it looked great in-bottle, but writing samples made it out to be unusably light. Perhaps it'd be good for inking drawings? Anyway, it better resembles a pen that was inked with black, despite not being properly dried after flushing, haha.

[stevesurf]

+1 on Kon-Peki, but I do love all the Iro's (see all the way at the bottom of the swabs)

 

Just wonderful on Rhodia, but then again, what isn't

 

[Kuhataparunks]

Well, considering I got two bottles for the equivalent of $11-12 apiece, I'm perhaps a bit more forgiving of it than most people who end up paying nearly four times the price for a single bottle...

It's the best behaved ink I have; lubrication and flow are impeccable, hard-starting is a thing of the past, and bleed/feathering is limited to extremely poor papers. My only critique of the range in general is its lack of water-fastness. The range of colours is widely varied, to boot, so you're likely to find something you like. I personally opted for Tsuki-yo and Asa-gao, since Kon-peki is a bit too light for my preferences. Asa-gao is a rich, velvety blue that looks great on both white and off-white papers perfect for correspondence or business use.

 

Kevin

Esteemed Kevin,

You very well may have been the deal breaker for me getting Asa-Gao! Honestly, you described what is an ideal blue ink to me (rich blue color, good on multi colored paper as I sometimes use yellow legal pads, good for business use; I write a lot of letters, etc.). I basically wanted someone to validate my eventual purchase.

Thanks for your detailed opinion!

Edited August 16, 2014 by Kuhataparunks

[Kuhataparunks]

According to responses, it appears Iroshizuku carries a reputation that upholds its worthiness of costing so much to some. After all, the bottle itself is quite a spectacle!

I think I'll get Asa Gao to use in a Pilot Prera. Will cost $60, but I'm excited!

[sarahfar]

Pretty subjective, but on the whole easily my most loved and used ink. Flow is the strongest characteristics and I love almost all of the colors, even the pink. As Steve says, yes the ink is incredible on Rhoda, Tomoe River, and most Japanese papers. It often shades very well and gets unique sheen on some of the colors. The thing besides duty and pricing policy that makes it so expensive is the bottle. To me the flow alone make it worth it, but that is as I say subjective.

[Lyander0012]

Esteemed Kevin,

You very well may have been the deal breaker for me getting Asa-Gao! Honestly, you described what is an ideal blue ink to me (rich blue color, good on multi colored paper as I sometimes use yellow legal pads, good for business use; I write a lot of letters, etc.). I basically wanted someone to validate my eventual purchase.

Thanks for your detailed opinion!

 

Glad I could be of help! Modified my earlier post to include a sample with a fairly popular ink for your reference. It's nothing like stevesurf's amazing resource, though— I'm definitely getting a bottle of Ku-jaku someday now, haha. I wanted one to go with my previous buy, but they were out of stock then :/

 

sarahfar— I agree, the bottle is amazing! I brought a bottle to the office once, and people mistook it for a high-end perfume. The beautiful silver box alone was enough to make them think of such, I was told. It's quite large, larger than I expected from photos, and the ingenuous design makes both filling and transportation easy. I think J. Herbin could stand to learn a thing or two from Iroshizuku, haha.

[Icywolfe]

Well i was sort of close to the name.

 

Same. I seriously thought I didn't dry it correctly or my pen was broken and was skipping.

 

The thing is for comics you supposed to use really black ink. Often pigment based. The grayness is not gray ink it's like these tinted clear stickers you put on.

 

 

Fuyu-Syogun? I believe it translates to :Old Man Winter". Yeah, I thought it looked great in-bottle, but writing samples made it out to be unusably light. Perhaps it'd be good for inking drawings? Anyway, it better resembles a pen that was inked with black, despite not being properly dried after flushing, haha.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Icywolfe

[Chi Town]

I have about 8 bottles of various colors and just love the stuff.....BUT, I would recommend to you that you go to Amazon.com to buy it as you will find it there for around 22.00 / Bottle, or close to that? It's what i did........Saved a bunch of $$$

[tarheel1]

I have 11 bottles and love them.

[canibanoglu]

They are extremely well-behaved inks and I love writing with my Kon-Peki. I'm contemplating Ku-Jaku and Tsuki-Yo right now. I have tried some other colors but the biggest problem with the Iroshizuku line is that their colors are not exactly the best. Most of their line has left me disappointed in the color, like Asa-Gao and Yama-Budo, I was really hopeful of those colors. Asa-Gao looked amazing in swabs etc but actually writing with it has left me extremely underwhelmed because it's one of the most boring blues I have ever seen. And Yama-Budo just isn't that much of a burgundy, it's more like a pink with over-the-standard red in it, I was expecting something a lot darker than that, closer to Diamine Grape in fact.

[Blue_Moon]

I also love Iroshizuku inks, and have four bottles currently, with three more on my wish list. I agree with Chi Town - buy from Amazon or eBay. You'll generally find better prices. Of the current inks I'd like to purchase, eBay has the better prices right now. As you know, Amazon's prices change frequently, based on the seller. Of the two inks that you mentioned, Asa-Gao is my favorite. Iroshizuku inks generally write better and have a better flow than many other inks.

[Lyander0012]

Well i was sort of close to the name.

 

Same. I seriously thought I didn't dry it correctly or my pen was broken and was skipping.

 

The thing is for comics you supposed to use really black ink. Often pigment based. The grayness is not gray ink it's like these tinted clear stickers you put on.

 

 

Yeah, don't worry, I don't know half the names of the other Iro inks; I just remembered this one cuz I took a particular interest in it before )

 

Sorry, I must've been half-asleep when I typed that. I meant for inking in grayscale, since I'm working on practicing that now, haha

[brunico]

According to responses, it appears Iroshizuku carries a reputation that upholds its worthiness of costing so much to some. After all, the bottle itself is quite a spectacle!

I think I'll get Asa Gao to use in a Pilot Prera. Will cost $60, but I'm excited!

 

Not to me. I find Sailor at least as good, and it's less than half the price here in the UK. I can also look at my Rohrer und Klingner and know that even if Iroshizuku somehow has more care and attention lavished on it, there's no way on earth it can cost Pilot an extra $30 a bottle to do so, or even an extra $10, if you can get them at Japan prices.

 

Still, I have a bottle because I liked the colour: we can't always pay sensible prices for the things we want. Yet, while Pilot obviously isn't packing $800 of research and chemistry into each litre of its ink, it has very commendable prices for a wide range of inexpensive pens (and nibs, including five italic sizes) that work as well as anything. This might well change, of course, once Pilot starts swaddling the Plumix in a silver box and garroting its squid head cap with a pretty ribbon...

[tarheel1]

Not to me. I find Sailor at least as good, and it's less than half the price here in the UK. I can also look at my Rohrer und Klingner and know that even if Iroshizuku somehow has more care and attention lavished on it, there's no way on earth it can cost Pilot an extra $30 a bottle to do so, or even an extra $10, if you can get them at Japan prices.

 

Still, I have a bottle because I liked the colour: we can't always pay sensible prices for the things we want. Yet, while Pilot obviously isn't packing $800 of research and chemistry into each litre of its ink, it has very commendable prices for a wide range of inexpensive pens (and nibs, including five italic sizes) that work as well as anything. This might well change, of course, once Pilot starts swaddling the Plumix in a silver box and garroting its squid head cap with a pretty ribbon...

Well when you look at my ink coloection an relize my 7 Sailor inks were between 18 and 20.00 each and the pikot are in the 22.00 range off amazon, it is not that big a difference.

[Menzobaranzan]

I would gladly pay $100 for a bottle of Iroshizuku Kon-Peki.