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Sailor Kingdom Note "Crustacean series" Macrocheira kampferi (Japanese Spider Crab) Thanks to an inky friend in Japan I've received a sample of this ink from the Kingdom Notes' Crustacean series. Most English-speaking people refer to this ink as "Japanese Spider Crab," but the label actually uses the scientific name given above. Regardless of the name, this is a muted orange ink, and somewhat desaturated as are many of the inks in this Crustacean series. It is drier than the inks in the previous Bird and Insect series, but that's just by comparison. I doubt anyone would actually say this ink is "dry" though I presume if you have a dry pen, this might not be the best ink choice. Most of the orange inks I have are either the bright, retina-searing kind (Sailor Kin-mokusei), the dark blood orange kind (Cult Pens Deep Dark Orange), and a couple others that might be more normal (KWZ Orange, KWZ Grapefruit). This ink is somewhat between KWZ Orange and Sailor Style Dee Delta Sonezaki Orange, being a little closer to the latter. If you don't know the Sonezaki Orange, it's similar to Cult Deeps Deep Dark Orange, but a bit lighter. The ink is drier than some of the super wet Sailor inks; this was common with the Crustacean series as was their less saturated color. But that doesn't mean the inks were light such as certain S-K inks, just that they were more normal in their saturation, especially compared with the others. Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 The problem I see with the images is they didn't really capture the muted orange character of the ink. They all look too red to me, and don't have that "chalky" appearance, they look too saturated compared to the actual writing. The Waterfastness test actually seems pretty decent representative of the color, though perhaps a little too pink. This is closer to the "chalky" appearance the ink has, but perhaps with too much pink. I don't know what happened on the one droplet with the weird circles, maybe some flaw in the paper towel composition.

Kingdom Notes second series of bespoke inks from Sailor was themed "Wild Birds". This was back in 2013 I believe. When I fell down the rabbit hole of bespoke inks I was fairly selective and for whatever reasons I didn't get many from these series, except of course, Lidth's jay. Recently an inky friend in Japan sent me a couple KN samples so I could review them. Falco peregrinus is one. Normally gray inks don't interest me even though they probably shade better than black inks, but I always prefer the latter as they are decisive. Black is an ink for serious writing and correspondence. To me, black always looks so right on the page while grays typically make me shudder and cringe, especially those that look like pencil. If I wanted to write with a pencil I would have used a pencil! Anyway, this gray does not suffer from that deficiency. In my wet Edison Premiere, this wet ink writes very dark, dark enough to be near black. It's a kind of "cool" black as I see a little bit of purple/violet in the dye mix. I was thinking when I asked for a sample of this ink that I wouldn't like it because it's gray, but in fact I do. It's very wet, very saturated. Perhaps in a dry pen it might become more "gray-like". Pen: Edison Premiere (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

In the beginning of the Sailor bespoke ink journey, the Pen and Message shop generated quite a bit of interest with their inks. They actually have two “lines” of specialty Sailor inks: the Pen and Message line and Writing Lab, the latter a collaboration with another shop. I’ve never tried to obtain the Pen and Message inks; surprisingly some of them didn’t appeal to me. They quickly became hard to get once the craze for Cigar, a Pen and Message ink, took off. So this post is about the Writing Lab inks, which intrigued me greatly. They have three inks in the category and I’ll review them all, though I’ve reviewed one of them, Old Burgundy, in the past from a sample kindly provided by an FPNer. Quadrifoglio Vintage Denim Old Burgundy These inks are more expensive than other Sailor bespoke inks at ¥2,700 per bottle, which is about $23.86 US as of today (2/20/2017). This price doesn't include shipping to the destination or any charges incurred using a forwarding service. Each person is limited to purchasing one bottle. Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 This is a deep, muted blue-black ink. More muted than the Sailor Shoushikan Seiran or Bungbox 4B. But it's not as muted (i.e., neutralized) as the Noodler's FPN Van Gogh Starry Night Blue. So that gives you an idea of the color, if you have any of those other inks. The handling is very typical of Sailor inks, so no problems at all, quite wet in writing. This ink has a fairly high dye load which shows up in the waterfastness test as a blue wash. Personally I really liked the ink, but I'm a fan of blues except for those turquoise colors. Not impossible to obtain, but requires effort, and is going to be fairly expensive. Maybe Sailor Blue-black would work almost as well for a lot less money. An attempt at a comparison between Sailor Jentle Blue, Pen and Message Vintage Denim, and Shoushikan Seiran "Indigo Blue" to give an idea of the color within a range. There is also spread to the back of the paper with the ink.

For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them. The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book. Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor. Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice. Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel. Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna. The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections. Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement. The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book. Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel. The ink appears to be of single dye, not water resistant; and the flow here is a bit less than other Sailor inks, not to be point of being dry or anything but just not as wet. My Mina with a fine nib, that's usually quite wet, wrote with a nice fine line with this ink. It was somewhat shady, but not in a dramatic way. In the very wet medium-nibbed Mina we got more dramatic shading. The color probably isn't very exciting for many people as the color when dry is closer to Noodler's Monkey Hanger, Sailor KN Porpita porpita, and the like. This is not a deep, dramatic blue. But I still find it charming and a nice change. It's closer to the color of the sky as it nears the horizon. Even with the fine nib there is red sheen in the loops and punctuation of the letters, very distinct. This ink is a good deal more expensive than other Sailor bespoke inks, but not quite to the Bungbox level. Only available in Japan, so some sleuthing and persistence necessary to get a bottle. In gylyf's review, he states that this ink is somewhat close to Sailor Kobe #17 Shioya Blue, which will be a cheaper, more readily available alternative. Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel), Edison Mina (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

Sailor Style Dee Delta "Water City" Tsuyuten Murasame (Purple Rain) I have to say I'm not completely sure of the English translation for the name of this ink. Perhaps one of our Japanese FPN friends can illuminate us. Recently one of our Japanese FPN members pointed out some Sailor bespoke inks from a shop called STYLE DEE in Osaka with a brand called DELTA Original Ink. I was confused because there is also an Italian pen maker called Delta with a few inks available. But these are real Sailor inks. The inks seem to go along with an inexpensive demonstrator pen ¥4,300, and unfortunately I didn’t put one in my shopping cart. There were originally four inks, based on the seasons of Osaka. “Water City” Umeda Yasei (Umeda Night Blue, a deep blue, perhaps a blue-violet) “Water City” Doujima Ryokkin (Doujima Green-gold) “Water City” Nakanoshima Shunryoku (Nakanoshima spring green) “Mizuho” Kitashinchi Beniya (Kitashinchi Red Sea, a burgundy or wine hue) The two latest inks released August 2016 are “Water City” Sonezaki Teuteu (Sonezaki Orange, a burnt orange) “Water City” Tsuyuten Murasame (Purple Rain, a purple or violet) These inks are the same price as other standard Sailor bespoke inks at ¥2,160 per bottle, which is about $19.10 US as of today (2/11/2017). This price doesn't include shipping to the destination or any charges incurred using a forwarding service. Each person is limited to purchasing one bottle of each ink. Recently I was able to obtain three of these inks: the burnt orange, the purple, and the green-gold. I was very lucky with the Doujima as the shop said this ink was sold out, but when the purchaser went to buy the inks, there was one available. I don’t know the availability of the earlier inks, so there’s no guarantee that any of them are available, but I think the two latest inks released may be available. Pen: Gate City Belmont (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 In my handwritten review I note this ink seems similar to PV19, Quinacridone violet. This is a very lovely purple color, not super bright per se, but not at all dark like Ink of Witch, or other purple-blacks. I don't have anything like this, but I'm certain there must be something similar. There is green sheen on Tomoe River in artificial light. I was a little worried that the ink might stain the barrel of my Belmont but that didn't seem to be the case at least after a few days. I'm pretty happy with the way the ink wrote, no problems at all. Don't trust it to be water resistant if that's important for you.

Sailor Style Dee Delta “Water City” Sonezaki Toutou (Sonezaki Orange) Recently one of our Japanese FPN members pointed out some Sailor bespoke inks from a shop called STYLE DEE in Osaka with a brand called DELTA Original Ink. I was confused because there is also an Italian pen maker called Delta with a few inks available. But these are real Sailor inks. The inks seem to go along with an inexpensive demonstrator pen ¥4,300, and unfortunately I didn’t put one in my shopping cart. There were originally four inks, based on the seasons of Osaka. “Water City” Umeda Yasei (Umeda Night Blue, a deep blue, perhaps a blue-violet) “Water City” Doujima Ryokkin (Doujima Green-gold) “Water City” Nakanoshima Shunryoku (Nakanoshima spring green) “Mizuho” Kitashinchi Beniya (Kitashinchi Red Sea, a burgundy or wine hue) The two latest inks released August 2016 are “Water City” Sonezaki Teuteu (Sonezaki Orange, a burnt orange) “Water City” Tsuyuten Murashime (Purple Rain, a purple or violet) Recently I was able to obtain three of these inks: the burnt orange, the purple, and the green-gold. I was very lucky with the Doujima as the shop said this ink was sold out, but when the purchaser went to buy the inks, there was one available. I don’t know the availability of the earlier inks, so there’s no guarantee that any of them are available, but I think the two latest inks released may be available. These inks are the same price as other standard Sailor bespoke inks at ¥2,160 per bottle, which is about $19.10 US as of today (2/11/2017). This price doesn't include shipping to the destination or any charges incurred using a forwarding service. Each person is limited to purchasing one bottle of each ink. I'm really happy with this ink. I've learned that this kind of orange, what some might call burnt orange, really is quite delightful. Typically it's a bit deeper in value than many oranges, not so bright, so it's quite readable. This particular ink is in between Diamine's Cult Pens Deep Dark Orange and the Kyoto TAG Kyo-iro 04 Higashiyama Moonlight. I'm finding it to be really yummy; it's a nice rich color; very shady. Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

Sailor Style Dee Delta “Water City” Doujima Ryokkin (Doujima Green-gold) Recently one of our Japanese FPN members pointed out some Sailor bespoke inks from a shop called STYLE DEE in Osaka with a brand called DELTA Original Ink. I was confused because there is also an Italian pen maker called Delta with a few inks available. But these are real Sailor inks. The inks seem to go along with an inexpensive demonstrator pen ¥4,300, and unfortunately I didn’t put one in my shopping cart. There were originally four inks, based on the seasons of Osaka. “Water City” Umeda Yasei (Umeda Night Blue, a deep blue, perhaps a blue-violet) “Water City” Doujima Ryokkin (Doujima Green-gold) “Water City” Nakanoshima Shunryoku (Nakanoshima spring green) “Mizuho” Kitashinchi Beniya (Kitashinchi Red Sea, a burgundy or wine hue) The two latest inks released August 2016 are “Water City” Sonezaki Teuteu (Sonezaki Orange, a burnt orange) “Water City” Tsuyuten Murashime (Purple Rain, a purple or violet) Recently I was able to obtain three of these inks: the burnt orange, the purple, and the green-gold. I was very lucky with the Doujima as the shop said this ink was sold out, but when the purchaser went to buy the inks, there was one available. I don’t know the availability of the earlier inks, so there’s no guarantee that any of them are available, but I think the two latest inks released may be available. These inks are the same price as other standard Sailor bespoke inks at ¥2,160 per bottle, which is about $19.10 US as of today (2/11/2017). This price doesn't include shipping to the destination or any charges incurred using a forwarding service. Each person is limited to purchasing one bottle of each ink. This is yet another murky green. It seems to me one of the murkiest greens. I don't have every murky green ink, but this one is quite greyed down, more so than KWZI Green Gold. In a way it's somewhat like KN Tanna japonesis, but more greyed than that. Maybe this isn't a color that many would like, but it is pretty good to me. But I'm not the Mother of Murk, so this isn't a definitive statement. The ink didn't exhibit hard starts, etc. It's not water resistant. It didn't like the inkjet paper that much, at least it wasn't very interesting there, losing much of its good qualities. No staining on the barrel of the Pelikan observed. In Japan this ink may be available. Outside Japan, it may be obtainable, but the cost and effort will deter most. There are many murky green inks available, often at reasonable prices. Pen: Pelikan M400 (F) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

In the beginning of the Sailor bespoke ink journey, the Pen and Message shop generated quite a bit of interest with their inks. They actually have two “lines” of specialty Sailor inks: the Pen and Message line and Writing Lab, the latter a collaboration with another shop. I’ve never tried to obtain the Pen and Message inks; surprisingly some of them didn’t appeal to me. They quickly became hard to get once the craze for Cigar took off. So this post is about the Writing Lab inks, which intrigued me greatly. They have three inks in the category and I’ll review them all, though I’ve reviewed one of them, Old Burgundy, in the past from a sample kindly provided by an FPNer. Quadrifoglio Vintage Denim Old Burgundy These inks are more expensive than other Sailor bespoke inks at ¥2,700 per bottle, which is about $23.67 US as of today (1/22/2017). This price doesn't include shipping to the destination or any charges incurred using a forwarding service. Each person is limited to purchasing one bottle. Pen: Pelikan M400 (F) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 Quadrifoglio is one of three inks in the "Writing Lab" series of inks made by Sailor for the Pen and Message shop in Japan. It is a somewhat muted green, leaning towards blue rather than yellow. I personally prefer the latter, but this is very nice, not a bright color at all. The ink comes in the vase bottle still, perhaps one of the few left doing so, but the ink is also more expensive. I was somewhat surprised in the waterfastness test where there wasn't so much ink washed away by water, and when water droplets were blotted something was left behind. Perhaps enough to recover one's writing. No guarantees however as the ink isn't rated as water resistant. Sorry that the bottle image pic was so big, I thought I'd made it smaller than that.

For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them. The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book. Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor. Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice. Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel. Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna. The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections. Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement. The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book. Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel. Pen: Gate City Belmont (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 This is my third review of the inks from the Hougado Pen Galley shop in Japan. This is a muted green in the green gold range, more like between KWZI Green Gold 2 and Green Gold. It's slightly lighter, more yellow, and more muted than the KN Tanna japonesis. It is not near as light as the BB 88 Green Tea. There's nothing problematic with the ink regarding handling, all is good as expected from Sailor. Not water resistant. Very shady, but no sheen at all even on Tomoe River paper. The ink seemed a little watery at times, which helps with it's being shady. For most folks (US/EU) I'd say go with the KWZ Green Gold or something in that range. If you're in Japan, it may well be worth your consideration. btw, in the images it does seem that following upload they are a bit darker than my actual images. The image for MvL is really a bit lighter than shown.

An extremely kind FPN inky friend sent me a sample of this ink. I'm not sure I have the spelling of the name of this shop in Japan correct as I've seen several different variations. I think they have only two bespoke inks, and neither is available online; one must personally visit the store. I really like this ink as it's a nice deep blue, slightly greyed. Very sharp and good-looking. I could see this ink in heavy use down on Wall and Broad Streets. I have nothing but good thoughts about this ink. But since it's so impossible to obtain we'll have to use something else on a regular basis. Pen: Aurora Ipsilon Deluxe (M-14kt) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 Sheds quite a bit of ink when wet.