Tortoise Shell Brown Sailor Bung Box Ink

[visvamitra]

Sailor is my favourite ink maker (ex-aeque with J. Herbin). Sadly their most interesting inks are available only in Japan or from internet retailers. There are few japanese shops famous for their wide and interesting range of Sailor inks. One of most well-known is Bung Box. A lot of people were taken by interesting bottles and intriguing colors. It seems however that recently many ink enthusiasts started to shy away from this line since Bung Box inks became much more bitterly expensive than other Sailor inks.

 

 

The line consists of quite a few colors. My list is incomplete and most of the names aren't translated well. If you have full list of BB inks and/or could help me with correcting english names, help me sort this out

1. 4B Blue/Black
2. BB Espresso
3. Dandyism
4. Ebisu Gold
5. Emerald
6. Enshu Black
7. First Love Sapphire
8. Fresh Oranges of Lake Hamana
9. Fuyiyama Blue
10. Hamanako Eel
11. Imperial Purple
12. Ink of the Witch
13. L’Amant
14. Luminous Green
15. Melancholic Gray
16. Mocha
17. Music Black
18. Nostalgia
19. Oamezaki Sunset
20. Omaezaki Ocean
21. Omaezaki Blue
22. Orange
23. Pink
24. Ruby
25. Sapphire
26. Silent Night
27. Soleil
28. Tears of Clown

Before I write few words about the ink allow me to start by saying thank you mmg122 for sending me samples of different inks.

 

It seems Tortoise Shell Brown is one of least popular Bung Box ink - I didn't manage to find a single review but I didn't look very hard.

 

 

The name got me hooked. Tortoise shell, especially on living turtles, looks stunning. I wasn't sure what to expect as tortoise shell is seen in variety of hues in the nature. Sadly Sailor and Bung Box chose one of less intriguing hues. The color could be described as a mix between deep coffee and taupe. It's not bad but somehow I feel it lacks character a bit.

 

Apart from that, the ink is well behaved (no feathering, no bleedthrough, reasonable dry time, nice lubrication, smooth flow) and shows good water resistance (color fades but the text is easily legible even after two hours of soaking the paper in water).

 

Personally I would never buy this ink as the color doesn't appeal to me stronly enough to shell more than 40 $ for it but if you can afford it and like similar hues this one will be good choice. If you like the color but the price is an issue, maybe J. Herbin's Cacao du Bresil could be a reasonable choice for you?

 

 

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

 

 

Software ID

Color range

Rhodia, Lamy AL-Star, medium nib

Leuchtturm1917, Lamy AL-Star, medium nib

Tsubame, Lamy AL-Star, medium nib

Maruman, Hero 5028, stub 1,9

Maruman, Lamy Al-Star, medium nib

Water resistance

 

 

[cleosmama]

Thank you for the review, Vis, though I don't much like this color of brown. I'm more of a Montblanc Toffee or PR Chocolate kind of person.

Edited March 1, 2017 by cleosmama

[lgsoltek]

I think it's one of their more recent releases. That's why there aren't many reviews out there.

I seem to remember this ink was release along with Bung Box starting to sell Pelikan M400 (?) Tortoise shell brown. I believe they were trying to sell this ink as a matching ink.

However, the colour is too red to match the tortoise shell, in my opinion.

 

 

 

[Edit]

Yep, found an Instagram post from them:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BK0azrlB42W/

 

Some google translate:

Pelican special product M400 Brown stripe (Tortoise shell Brown) arrives soon (^ _ ^

TORTOISE SHELL BROWN, the original ink being created for that, is going to be chasing after σ ^ _ ^;

Edited March 1, 2017 by Lgsoltek

[Barkingpig]

The ink hasn't been released very long. According to information on the Vanness Pen site, it was made for retail in November 2016, in conjunction for the "Autumn release of the Pelikan M400 Tortoise pen."

 

I wasn't excited about the price for "another Brown ink" initially, but I finally weakened & bought the first bottle, enjoyed it & sent it to a friend who also enjoys Brown ink. I also after using the first fill in a very wet nibbed pen, liked it enough to purchase the second bottle. (No one ever said I was "careful with $" when it comes to ink!)

[mmg122]

I'm with BP...I like this ink a lot. I currently have it in an Esterbrook J with #9284 (Signature Broad) nib. In fact, I liked it enough to buy a back up bottle.

Thanks so much for your review, Vis.

[ca49reber]

I also like this ink. I ordered it as soon as I saw it was available at Vanness. I never thought that I really liked brown but I seem to buy brown ink often.

[white_lotus]

I must admit to resisting the call of this ink. In looking at the writing samples, it seems to me that I must have inks similar to this already, though I cannot remember the names.

[conib]

iroshizuku tsukushi?

[inkstainedruth]

That's an odd color. I'm still trying to make up my mind as to whether I like it or not. This would have to be gotten as a sample, but there's so much other stuff I want to try first ink-wise.

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mulrich]

Not what I had in mind when I read tortoiseshell. I'll probably pass on this one. My go to browns are MB toffee and lie de the. Still waiting for a good challenger.

[Uncial]

Phew, I'm glad I didn;t pull the trigger on this one. I saw it a couple of weeks ago and thought it might be nice and was quite tempted. Now that I see it; it aint for me.

[jmccarty3]

I like it well enough, but I have so many browns, including the Maruzen Athena Sepia that I got recently, that I can't justify another. We truly have an embarrassment of riches in this color range.

[white_lotus]

We truly have an embarrassment of riches in this color range.

 

Yes indeed. Seems a bit like yet another warm brown.

[bstnnyc]

Thank you for reviewing this one! I've been curious about it since it popped up on the BB website. As others have mentioned, I already have one or two Sailor browns that seem like they would be close enough to be able to hold off on making yet another pricey ink purchase!