Iroshizuku Take-Sumi

[white_lotus]

As you may well know, there is a wonderful line of excellent inks produced by Namiki-Pilot under the Iroshizuku brand name. This is one of them: take-sumi variously called in English bamboo charcoal, charcoal mist, and the like.

 

This is pretty much a hand-written review. As usual, I review on Mohawk via Linen, Hammermill 28 lb inkjet paper, and Tomoe River.

 

As expected for an ink of this deep value it does not shade, at least on the papers I used. Doesn't seem to sheen. For folks that require those properties in an ink need look elsewhere. This is a good, solid black ink that says a serious business person or writer, or lends extra weight to the material being written. The bottles are extra heavy, and part of the price you pay is for those bottles, and their shipping.

 

This is a very good black, and one that I happen to like quite a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Dropping ink on a wet/damp paper towel and letting it dry, shows mostly black with some blue, yielding a cool black.

 

While the ink isn't labeled as being particularly water-resistant it seems to hold up reasonably well.

 

[haruka337]

As always, wonderful review--it's one of my favorite black inks.

 

I find that Take-sumi sheens on Tomoe paper, but the pen has to be rather wet. Tomoe aside, I've never seen it sheen.

 

While the shading is suble, it is there, but I've experienced this mostly on Rhodia/Clarfontain paper when using western fine and medium nibs.

 

And oh! What a gorgeous blue metal shade it is when diluted with water.

[Graphemer]

Flat out my favorite black ink out there. One of the things I particularly enjoy is the 'writing feel' of this ink. It is a wet ink, I think. But, over and above mere wetness, I experience a sort of velvety and very pleasant gliding sensation as my Japanese fines and western extra fines move across the paper. Does that sound familiar?

 

Anyway, thanks for the review -- the ink drop really shows off the subtlety of this ink.

[MathurinKerbouchard]

Thank you for the excellent review and great writing samples. Take-sumi looks like a solid choice for a black ink.

[white_lotus]

Thanks for the positive comments, and the additional info haruka337, as shading and sheen seem to be such paper and pen dependent. Yes, graphemer, I think you could say the ink is fairly wet and velvety gliding across the paper.

 

cheers!

[annettefhorn]

Very nice review!

 

+1 on this being a great ink for a Japanese fine. I buy this ink not for the bottle, or even the color (wonderful but easily substituted for with only minor loss of subtlety compared to other Iros), but the feel/performance.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

Take-Sumi is an ink that I really like the look of, but I'm not sure that I use black inks enough to justify the expense. I keep dithering; I expect that eventually I might take the plunge and get a full bottle of it (or at least hint really hard -- after all, it's only 70 shopping days till Christmas and my husband always says he never knows what to get me... ).

Graphemer's comment about it feeling velvety is very interesting, because my experience is that it also *looks* velvety on the page, IMO. I actually almost expect it to be almost three-dimensional, and soft like the nap on velvet or velveteen ribbon.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[haruka337]

Ruth, I just replentished my sample vial stock, so if you'd like me to send you 3ml of Take-sumi, send me a message and I'll mail it out tomorrow. Got some packages to mail out to FPN members tomorrow, so it not any trouble for me to do.

[inkstainedruth]

Ruth, I just replentished my sample vial stock, so if you'd like me to send you 3ml of Take-sumi, send me a message and I'll mail it out tomorrow. Got some packages to mail out to FPN members tomorrow, so it not any trouble for me to do.

Thanks, but I've tried the ink before. I'm just trying to figure out if it's worth getting more, simply because I don't use black inks a lot (which is weird because I keep accumulating them -- I have two unopened bottles that were swag from DCSS last year and the year before, plus an unopened bottle of Pelikan Fount India (mostly for the curiosity factor). I have a bottle of Noodler's Old Manhattan that I've barely used, and a bunch of black ink samples that have never been tried. About the only one that's getting regular use at the moment is Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I have it in the Charlie pen that came with the bottle, and because it's an eyedropper pen I keep refilling it every time it starts burping ink into the cap instead of trying to run it out. The only other black inks that get a lick of use are Quink Permanent Black (which is one of my tester inks for vintage pens) and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

Take-Sumi is a lovely ink, and if I start trying to do calligraphy I would consider getting a full bottle of it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[requiescat]

Man, now I'm tempted by this ink. Thanks for the rundown!

[Newjelan]

Thanks for the review. I'm also a fan of this ink and it's the only black ink I've paid for.