Pilot Iroshizuku, Asa-Gao (Morning Glory)

[rsq001]

A nice blue.

[jk0592]

Thanks for your review. This blue is my preferred blue, and I do have many blue inks.

[mgutman]

RSQ001: The paper looks like Staples Bagasse (Eco-easy) because of the brown lines. It is a very thin paper. Great for FP's.

 

Asa Gao is a favorite of mine also. It is hard to miss on a page.

 

Thanks for the review

[FloridaMike]

This looks like a gorgeous blue—is the drying time really as long as it seems?

[IWantThat]

I use my pens a lot at work and switch inks often, though I stay within a range of blues usually. Whenever I go through older paperwork and I see asa-gao, I think, Mmmmm, nice color It's a great ink.

[MrClegg]

I've only seen a small example of Asa Gao writing on a card included in the parcel of a pen I bought, but I've always thought it looked close in colour and shading tendency to Diamine Asa, perhaps not too surprising considering the names of the inks.

 

Whilst a side by side, same pen comparison would highlight the differences, the Iroshi would have to be significantly nicer to justify the additional $/ml cost.

 

Craig

[saskia_madding]

Actually, I don't see Asa-gao as similar to Diamine's Asa Blue at all. In fact, in my comparison page for each colour, Asa Blue goes on the "light blue" page, and Asa-gao goes on the "dark blue" page.

 

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af97/Saskia_Madding/FPN%20comparison%20shots/DSC08736.jpg?t=1310066290

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af97/Saskia_Madding/FPN%20comparison%20shots/DSC08735.jpg?t=1310066301

[MrClegg]

Actually, I don't see Asa-gao as similar to Diamine's Asa Blue at all. In fact, in my comparison page for each colour, Asa Blue goes on the "light blue" page, and Asa-gao goes on the "dark blue" page.

 

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af97/Saskia_Madding/FPN%20comparison%20shots/DSC08736.jpg?t=1310066290

http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af97/Saskia_Madding/FPN%20comparison%20shots/DSC08735.jpg?t=1310066301

 

You'll forgive me if I remain unconvinced about the huge difference between these two inks, I'm sure there is more variation in reality but your photos don't make it abundantly clear.

The "A" looks a little darker and I'd say the Asa-Gao appears to form a dark outline to the letters that is not as pronounced with the Asa. Perhaps it is more obvious when looking at blocks of writing than just a few letters.

 

Regardless of my opinions, I'm sure Asa-Gao is a nice ink, but having tried a couple of colours in the Iroshi range (to my eye MB Lavender is nicer than Yama-budo and Noodler's Habanero is more interesting than Fuyu Gaki) I am yet to be dissuaded that they're anything more than "nice enough" inks in fancy bottles. Whilst I'm not prepared to pay 2 or 3 times more than Diamine want for a fancy bottle that has similar looking ink in it, "each to their own".

 

If Pilot dropped the price by four fifths and sold 30ml plastic bottles I might try others in the range just to experience them, who knows I might even find an Iroshi ink I like. As I'm sure Pilot are concerned more with "brand image", fancy bottles being a part of that, than they are with my thoughts, I won't expect to see plastic bottled Iroshi "re-fills" on line any time soon. And you know what? I bet neither they or I will lose any sleep about it.

 

Craig

[saskia_madding]

I'm not encouraging you to buy them. I don't care who buys what inks, and I have no personal emotional attachment to any brand of ink. I honestly don't love Iroshizuku inks enough to own more than a few (I really do like Ku-Jaku, and I got a "great" deal on it).

 

But I do think it is abundantly clear from my photos, and in particular from the lighter portion of each word (the top of the G and the top of the B, for example), that these inks are a completely different *shade* of blue. That's all I was trying to show.

[James P]

I'm a huge fan of the Asa-Gao and have had at least one pen filled with it ever since the Pear Tree Pen Company started carrying these. Although from my pens, the blue appears richer and more vibrant than that which I'm able to detect from the posted images. Of course, that could be the POS monitor I'm using, rather than an issue with the scan quality or the paper on which the sample was written.

 

In any event, I absolutely love the color and the Iro inks in general.

 

I'm curious what you and others think of its tendency to feather, though. Do you notice that at all?

 

James

[lapis]

Thanks for this review. I don't know of any ink which is more well-behaved.

Still, it isn't my favourite blue because I myself see even just a touch of chalkiness here (with my pens on my papers).

 

Mike

[mstone]

But I do think it is abundantly clear from my photos, and in particular from the lighter portion of each word (the top of the G and the top of the B, for example), that these inks are a completely different *shade* of blue. That's all I was trying to show.

 

Heh, I was thinking it was a good illustration that most people wouldn't tell them apart looking at just one of them on a page.