Review Sailor Jentle Black

[Randal6393]

Reviewing three inks, here is ink # 2, the Sailor Jentle Black. Wow! This is a fun ink to write with.

 

http://www.angelfire.com/linux/randalcarter/images/InkReview002.jpg

 

For everything but the quickest, most slap-dash writing, Sailor Jentle Black fills the bill. Just a bit fussy for quick messages and notes. But great for any quality writing.

Edited June 16, 2009 by Randal6393

[Signum1]

Randal,

 

Great review. I was going to purchase this black from Sailor, but I decided to reach deeper into the pocket to come up with the money for the carbon ink from Sailor instead.

[Randal6393]

Randal,

 

Great review. I was going to purchase this black from Sailor, but I decided to reach deeper into the pocket to come up with the money for the carbon ink from Sailor instead.

 

Signum1,

 

How's that working out for you? I have used Sailor inks off and on again over the years and always found them to be excellent. Somedaze, I may get a chance to try the Iro-shizuku inks from Pilot -- the reviews make them sound so good. The Sailor Jentle is nice but too expensive not to have greater cohesion. So I think the carbon may be the greater deal.

 

Enjoy,

Randal

[Lehnsherr]

I have the Jentle Black too. I find that it dries fast and is a good ink on lower quality paper. Somehow similar to Pelikan's black but it seemed to be smoother

[jbn10161]

The Sailor Jentle is nice but too expensive not to have greater cohesion.

What do you mean by "cohesion"?

[Idiopathos]

Jentle ink, in my experience, makes 'dry' nibs wetter, shades easily and is generally efficient.

 

If it were the only ink in the world, I would be quite happy. A pity, though, that the colour range is so limited.

[Randal6393]

The Sailor Jentle is nice but too expensive not to have greater cohesion.

What do you mean by "cohesion"?

 

Oh, I just knew someone would ask me about cohesion -- I'm coining a term here, maybe there is a better one for this. Inks have a tendency to wick into the fibers of the paper and expand "outside the line", ie, away from the actual contact point of nib with paper. Some inks have this tendency to a large extent, others to a small. So, if very little wicking, a low cohesion. Which is desirable.

 

If you magnify the ink review, you will see some "spreading" on the Sailor Jentle Black. Less on the Visconti Black that I reviewed, more on the Heart of Darkness. So, essentially, wish the Sailor ink was more like Visconti in this respect.

 

I hope that clarifies for all who are confused by my words.

 

Enjoy,

[Randal6393]

Jentle ink, in my experience, makes 'dry' nibs wetter, shades easily and is generally efficient.

 

If it were the only ink in the world, I would be quite happy. A pity, though, that the colour range is so limited.

 

Yes, the Jentle is an excellent ink and I could easily use it in several of my pens. At times and in certain pens, other inks have better characteristics for that pen and that purpose. So more than one bottle of black ...

 

As far as colors go, I saw Black, Red, Green, and Blue at Bertram's Inkwell. At least the basics are covered.

 

Enjoy,

[Randal6393]

I have the Jentle Black too. I find that it dries fast and is a good ink on lower quality paper. Somehow similar to Pelikan's black but it seemed to be smoother

 

Looks as if it will find a spot in my ink palette. But I have always had a fondness for Sailor products.

 

Enjoy,

[Signum1]

Well Randal,

 

The best feature about Sailor's carbon ink is that it doesn't bleed-through copy paper (20 lb paper), so I can write on the other side of the sheet. I'm just trying to make the best use of the entire paper. Now I have the Heart of Darkness from Noodler to compare and the HoD is darker than the carbon ink from Sailor. It really depends on what's a priority to you: either bleed-through or a dark...dark...dark...HoD.

 

One more thing about the carbon ink, which you probably notice from other reviews of it. When it comes in contact with water, those particles from the carbon ink starts to spread a bit. In a nutshell, I would not call Sailor's carbon ink as waterproof.

 

Now I'm using the eco-friendly paper from Staples and I would say: eco-friendly paper + HoD = a winning strategy for frugal fountain pen users.

 

Of course, for handwritten summaries to clients I use the nicer 32 pound paper to leave a good impression on them. The usual reaction is WOW coming out of their mouths. lol

 

Randal,

 

Great review. I was going to purchase this black from Sailor, but I decided to reach deeper into the pocket to come up with the money for the carbon ink from Sailor instead.

 

Signum1,

 

How's that working out for you? I have used Sailor inks off and on again over the years and always found them to be excellent. Somedaze, I may get a chance to try the Iro-shizuku inks from Pilot -- the reviews make them sound so good. The Sailor Jentle is nice but too expensive not to have greater cohesion. So I think the carbon may be the greater deal.

 

Enjoy,

Randal

Edited June 18, 2009 by Signum1

[Randal6393]

Yep, Signum1,

 

I have to limit my HoD to drier writers unless I am doing something that will only be one side. Which still gets a lot of work -- I like the HoD for phone messages and quick notes at work, showing concepts to clients, etc. But my usual journaling is done with other inks. I've moved the HoD into a Manuscript M -- very nice, somewhat dry writer. And I get decent line variation with that combination as well.

 

The Sailor is great for journals and any double-sided work. Have it in a Lamy Studio that is a cursive italic about 1.2 mm in width. Works great for packed black-letter forms.

 

Agree, HoD and Eco-friendly are a great combination. I am sending in a request to Staples that the Eco-friendly be sold as unlined sheets and pads as well as lined. Don't know if they will but ...

 

Enjoy,

[1000km]

I've been disappointed by Sailor nano ink. Although it's well-behaved, it's not very dark.

 

Regular Noodler's bulletproof is the best black ink I've found so far. Incredibly dark, super smooth, zero feathering/bleedthrough, totally permanent. It's only weakness is smudging on the highest quality papers.

[Lloyd]

I've been disappointed by Sailor nano ink. Although it's well-behaved, it's not very dark.

 

Regular Noodler's bulletproof is the best black ink I've found so far. Incredibly dark, super smooth, zero feathering/bleedthrough, totally permanent. It's only weakness is smudging on the highest quality papers.

I agree.

[Signum1]

Randal,

 

That would be an excellent idea if Staple would put those eco-friendly sheet in packs of 500 sheets that are blanks. I just prefer to print my own line paper.

 

I haven't got around to keeping a journal. However, I will certainly take you suggestion and use the Sailor inks I have for writing in a journal.

 

The set of Manuscript nibs are very affordable when compared to cost purchasing another Pelikan nib. At the moment I'm mulling over a full-flex Pelikan nib by Richard Binder and the oblique holder for the copperplate script.

[scribbler77]

I've been disappointed by Sailor nano ink. Although it's well-behaved, it's not very dark.

 

Regular Noodler's bulletproof is the best black ink I've found so far. Incredibly dark, super smooth, zero feathering/bleedthrough, totally permanent. It's only weakness is smudging on the highest quality papers.

 

The smudging can be greatly reduced by blotting before it dries completely. I occurs when more ink is deposited than can be absorbed in the paper (or blotter). Papers with heavy sizing resist the penetration of the ink.

[adam of bertrams inkwell]

Hello everyone! I just happened to notice our name mentioned here, and we have in addition to the already mentioned black, red, green, and blue; yellow-orange, brown, red-brown, and blue-black for your color enjoyment!

 

 

Jentle ink, in my experience, makes 'dry' nibs wetter, shades easily and is generally efficient.

 

If it were the only ink in the world, I would be quite happy. A pity, though, that the colour range is so limited.

 

Yes, the Jentle is an excellent ink and I could easily use it in several of my pens. At times and in certain pens, other inks have better characteristics for that pen and that purpose. So more than one bottle of black ...

 

As far as colors go, I saw Black, Red, Green, and Blue at Bertram's Inkwell. At least the basics are covered.

 

Enjoy,

 

[PatientType]

I use Sailor Gentle Black and its a good ink. However, I've been using it along with Omas black. The Omas is just excellent. It's dark and seems to deliver very good flow for either wet or dry pens. Of the two, I definitely prefer the Omas.

[Zoe]

I recently did a comparison of 5 black inks on Bagasse paper. It appeared as much "nib-specific" as the saturation of the ink itself. It also seems that different papers absorb more ink, or less, and that some of the papers I use (i.e. Clairfontaine, Rhodia pads, etc) react differently and the colour appears darker or lighter depending on which paper I use.

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v107/Parsifals/writing5blacks.jpg

 

And I personally found Nano to be as black as HoD, or at least with the naked eye and very close to Jentle.

 

I am happy with all five.

[Randal6393]

Randal,

 

That would be an excellent idea if Staple would put those eco-friendly sheet in packs of 500 sheets that are blanks. I just prefer to print my own line paper.

 

I haven't got around to keeping a journal. However, I will certainly take you suggestion and use the Sailor inks I have for writing in a journal.

 

The set of Manuscript nibs are very affordable when compared to cost purchasing another Pelikan nib. At the moment I'm mulling over a full-flex Pelikan nib by Richard Binder and the oblique holder for the copperplate script.

 

Signum1,

 

Just for fun, I looked up a dealer or two on Alibaba.com. The offer I had for bagasse-based copy paper was a minimum order of about 18,000 CASES of copy paper. Think we can get an order together if all of the FPN network joined in?

 

I have to hope that one of the office supply houses gets on the ball and starts carrying this type of paper in reams. From what I have seen, sugar-cane refuse started being used in the Orient somewhere around 1970 or so. I do remember how much I loved the paper in newspapers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan during the '70's and '80's. That was about the time most Asian countries switched from wood to sugar-cane, according to WikiPedia.

 

In America, bagasse-papers get used fairly often, in paper plates, napkins, toilet paper, etc. In fact, I feel that most of the papers that are listed as "80 % recycled" to "100 % recycled" are made with sugar-cane waste. Expect that, with the growing concern over environmental destruction and desire for green products, eventually we will see more Eco-friendly papers available.

 

Enjoy,

[Signum1]

Signum1,

 

Just for fun, I looked up a dealer or two on Alibaba.com. The offer I had for bagasse-based copy paper was a minimum order of about 18,000 CASES of copy paper. Think we can get an order together if all of the FPN network joined in?

 

I have to hope that one of the office supply houses gets on the ball and starts carrying this type of paper in reams. From what I have seen, sugar-cane refuse started being used in the Orient somewhere around 1970 or so. I do remember how much I loved the paper in newspapers in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan during the '70's and '80's. That was about the time most Asian countries switched from wood to sugar-cane, according to WikiPedia.

 

In America, bagasse-papers get used fairly often, in paper plates, napkins, toilet paper, etc. In fact, I feel that most of the papers that are listed as "80 % recycled" to "100 % recycled" are made with sugar-cane waste. Expect that, with the growing concern over environmental destruction and desire for green products, eventually we will see more Eco-friendly papers available.

 

Enjoy,

 

Randal,

 

You can take care of the minimum order of 18,000 cases. You have the money sitting in the "Petty Cash" account to handle this pocket change amount. :roflmho:

 

Better yet, put it on the credit card for the frequent flyer's points.