Soleil 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.

Soleil is a yellow ink and for many people the color will make it unusable. For others, those who actually tend to use yellows from time to time the ink will be also unusable due to extreme misbehavior. I won't get into a lot of details. This ink is badly engineered and will feather and spread strongly on most papers. It's wet and has ultra smooth flow but it changes absolutely nothing. Sure, you can use it on best quality papers but, you'll easily find cheaper yellow inks that can be used on most papers so why bother? Save yourself money and stay away from this ink.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Color range

Rhodia, Kaweco Sport, broad nib

No-name notebook, Kaweco Sport, broad nib

Leuchtturm1917, Kaweco Sport, broad nib

[domzals1]

Not my favorite color and that performance is dreadful!

 

Nonetheless, great review as always!

[Old_Inkyhand]

I don't understand why a company famous for its selection of great inks would produce such a lemon.

[jmccarty3]

I don't understand why a company famous for its selection of great inks would produce such a lemon.

 

I see what you did there.

[conib]

My swab of Bung Box Soleil is very close to my swab of Nagasawa Kobe #33 Rikyuu Moon Yellow. So if this color appeals, it turns out that there's a better-behaved (according to Vis' review) Sailor-made alternative.