Yama-Dori - Sailor Jentle Ink

[visvamitra]

In 1911, Mr. Kyugoro Sakata, an engineer from Hiroshima in Japan, was introduced to the fountain pen. Mr. Sakata was so intrigued by the design and function of the pen he decided to begin a company to craft the finest writing instruments in the world. In honor of his British friend, he chose to name the company Sailor Pen.

The Sailor Pen Company has maintained this heritage of quality and technical perfection over the years. Apart from offering very well made pens, the company has employed an ink master - pure genius who's managed to create greates fountain pen inks ever (it's my opinion not validated by research but shared by many of us). I would guess that during the years Sailor created approximately 600-800 inks (most of them under other names).

One of internatioonally available line of Sailor inks is Sailor Jentle line. At the moment we have two of them. The older one (2014? I'm not sure) has eight colors:

1. Doyou
   
2. Miruai
   
3. Nioi-sumire
   
4. Oku-yama
   
5. Shigure
   
6. Souten
   
7. Tokiwa-matsu
   
8. Yama-dori
   

Today I'll say few words about

Yama-dori

From a utilatarian perspective, this is a very well-behaved ink that dries relatively fast, doesn't feather and cleans rather easily. It shades a lot, even in finer nibs. Also it has strong sheen that some people adore. Personally I rarely care about sheen so it does nothing to me. There's a lso the color - well if you like blue-greens chances are you'll enjoy yama-dori a lot. As I mostly dislike blue - greens I'm not really thrilled. It was ok in my Lamy 2000 medium nib, but in most pens I rather dislike it.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Color range

Tomoe River, kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Leuchtturm1917, kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Kokuyo Campus Myo, Lamy Al-Star, stub 1,5

CIAK, Lamy 2000, medium nib

Water resistance

[LizEF]

Thanks for the review, visvamitra. I find it fascinating that for me, this ink was so dark out of the bottle that it was almost black - I had to dilute it to get the colors you're showing. But otherwise, the colors match my experience. I'm not sure yet what I think of this color - will have to use it more and experiment with different dilutions.

[migo984]

One of the best Sailor inks, & sets a high benchmark. Gorgeous colour, although in my experience it is a deeper & richer colour than the review pics. Thanks for the review of a classic ink.

[lapis]

I'd say one of the best-known (i.e. most talked about) Sailors. But I was never very hot about it because for me it is too "neutral". Needs more blue (with only a touch of green) or the other way around. Not very subtle. But it is very well behaved.

[migo984]

I'd say one of the best-known (i.e. most talked about) Sailors. But I was never very hot about it because for me it is too "neutral". Needs more blue (with only a touch of green) or the other way around. Not very subtle. But it is very well behaved.

Commiserations on your colour-blindness Mike ;-) Hehehe :-)

[white_lotus]

vis's Yama-dori doesn't look like mine which is more blue. It definitely seems to be blue with some green in it to me; it's never appeared as a green with some blue like say Akkerman #23 Zuiderparkgroen. I agree with migo984 about this ink. And it sheens quite heavily for most people.

[AndyYNWA]

One of the best Sailor inks, & sets a high benchmark. Gorgeous colour, although in my experience it is a deeper & richer colour than the review pics. Thanks for the review of a classic ink.

+1

 

One of the best inks out there! Gorgeous sheen!

[amberleadavis]

Generally, Blue-Green's don't motivate me, but I really like this ink. The behavior is flawless and the sheen is amazing even on non sheening paper. Thanks Vis for another great review.

[Jjf1989]

I really love this ink. My favorite sailor ink by far and one of my favorite inks, period. But mine looks so much darker than yours for some reason. It doesn't seem to matter what pen I put it in, it is much darker.

[mehandiratta]

Haven't you reviewed this ink earlier....

anyways ... this is a nice review... Thank you ...

I do like this ink a lot...

[sakshi__reddy]

How does it compare to Emerald of Chivor, R&K Verdigris, and Diamine Eau de Nil? Sorry, I know that's a lot of colours but I'm looking for the perfect teal. Any help would be appreciated

[LizEF]

How does it compare to Emerald of Chivor, R&K Verdigris, and Diamine Eau de Nil? Sorry, I know that's a lot of colours but I'm looking for the perfect teal. Any help would be appreciated

 

I don't have the others, but Eau de Nil is almost the same color as diluted Yama Dori - in my case seriously diluted. Without dilution, it was practically black - what the OP shows in this topic, I had to dilute to get to (and it's very close to Eau de Nil).

[fireant]

One of the best Sailor inks, & sets a high benchmark. Gorgeous colour, although in my experience it is a deeper & richer colour than the review pics. Thanks for the review of a classic ink.

 

Same here-my ink is normally much richer. This is one of my favorite Sailor inks.

[LizEF]

So, today I decided to test my aunt's newly fixed Cross Metropolis (fine nib), and decided to ink it up with this ink (which I haven't tried in a long time and barely used when I first got it). The color from this nib is much closer to visvamitra's OP, though still a little darker, but light enough to see shading, although everywhere that there's shading, there's sheen, so I'm thinking maybe it's not shading, but sheen. Except sheen happens where there's more ink, so I'm thinking it's shading and sheen, and I'm thinking we need a new word:

 

Shaening?

 

Sheeding?

 

Sheending? (nah, too much like shindig)

 

Shadingeen?

 

Shadening? (nah, not a clear enough link to "sheen")

 

Shadeen? (Just look at that ink shadeen! )

Edited December 18, 2016 by LizEF

[Old_Inkyhand]

I like it, but I would like it more if it wasn't that green. I like the bluish colour it has when it's still wet. And yes, this is a very sheeny-shady ink.

[cattar]

I like this ink - the shady sheeny on cheap paper.

[crescent2]

As a couple of others have posted, the Yama-dori I have is much much deeper in color. With a wet 1.1 stub, it's so dark it doesn't even look blue-green. I think it leans toward a deep greenish teal in a finer nib, or perhaps it's because I use Kon-peki so much. Kon-peki is definitely a lot more blue. I can't decide if I love Yama-dori or not; I need to use it in some other pens. Thanks for your review.

[mauckcg]

Love this ink. Three of my favorites are this, Ku Jaku, and Aquamarine. Seems i have a thing for this color type of ink.

[Gazcom]

I like this ink a lot.

Good performance, a not standard fascinating colour, work appropriate (mine's actually looks darker and more on the blue side), and sheeny on the right paper.

Thanks Vis for the review!

[juulz]

How does it compare to Emerald of Chivor, R&K Verdigris, and Diamine Eau de Nil? Sorry, I know that's a lot of colours but I'm looking for the perfect teal. Any help would be appreciated

 

I was testing ink samples today on Staples Bright White Laser paper 98 bright, 28lb.

 

Top two lines are with Noodler's Bad Blue Heron. I was testing using a Lamy Vista, fine nib. The Aquamarine and Pilot Blue are already inked in other pens.

 

The scans came out with more blue than the colors appeared in natural light.

 

http://515-park.com/images/Blue-greens.jpg