Sailor Kobe #37 Harbor Island Blue

[white_lotus]

Sailor makes a number of store-exclusive inks for shops in Japan. The inks available fro, the Kobe Nagasawa shop is practically a line of inks all on it's own. Current up to 62 inks as of this writing. They are perhaps the easiest of the store exclusive inks to obtain, especially at reasonable prices. They can be found at Vanness Pen Shop online store, as well as Nagasawa's own page on Amazon. You can also get them through cool-japan on ebay.

 

This particular color doesn't seem to get much interest. I bought a sample while ordering some other inks. The name also appears as Minatojima Island Blue.

 

There's some reviews from a few years back that complain of excessively long dry times with this ink. I didn't experience that to be true, but the nib, while quite wet, was a fine. Perhaps it would be an issue with wider nibs.

 

The ink is fairly saturated, but not to the level of say Kobe #14 Maya lapis, which is often used as a point of comparison with this ink. This doesn't have as much red in it as that ink either, and it seems to have a bit more gray in it's value, it's not as bright blue as #14. There's some definite shading, some pink sheen that amazingly sometimes even appears on the absorbent paper such as MvL (which never shows sheen). It's a strong looking, professional blue. Depending on the paper, I don't think the dry times are that bad for papers such as Rhodia, Tomoe River. The ink is not water-resistant, it tends to spread to the back side of the paper and run, so don't count on saving any writing in such cases.

 

There are many blue inks in this line, over 27%, and they all vary in saturation, and relative degree of red vs green in their hue, it may well benefit the potential buyer to get some samples of inks they think they'll like. That way they can give an ink a reasonable test before an actual purchase. While a few of the most popular inks go out-of-stock on occasion, they are usually readily available.

 

Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel)

Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory.

Camera: iPhone 7

[domzals1]

This is a beautiful "true blue" that reminds me of my recently acquired KWZ Chicago Blue. Great review, as always!

[Cyber6]

This is a beautiful "true blue" that reminds me of my recently acquired KWZ Chicago Blue. Great review, as always!

 

 

I will kindly disagree.... KWZi Chicago Blue is almost ELECTRIC !!... Is sooo saturated and sooo smooth..

 

Nothing wrong with this blue of course...

 

 

 

C.

[pararis]

This is my blue. Out of all the ink world's blues, I've chosen this as my go to blue ink.

[domzals1]

I will kindly disagree.... KWZi Chicago Blue is almost ELECTRIC !!... Is sooo saturated and sooo smooth..

 

Nothing wrong with this blue of course...

 

 

 

C.

Ya know, now that I'm at the desktop, the color doesn't look as dark as it did on my iPad and doesn't appear as similar to Chicago Blue.

 

I have 2 bottles of the Chicago Blue, which will last a while but not nearly long enough as I too am in love with the ink!

Edited June 2, 2017 by domzals1

[white_lotus]

I'll review KWZ Chicago Blue "soon", but it's all sold out now. I don't understand why Konrad keeps making great inks, perhaps even the best inks of his line, limited edition/show specials. Chicago Blue and Northern Twilight need to be permanent additions!

[Cyber6]

I'll review KWZ Chicago Blue "soon", but it's all sold out now. I don't understand why Konrad keeps making great inks, perhaps even the best inks of his line, limited edition/show specials. Chicago Blue and Northern Twilight need to be permanent additions!

 

 

Is not Konrad's.... or Agnieszka... The Chicago Pen Show commissioned an ink from KWZi, that's it. No big conspiracy here.

 

Not different than when Sailor does a limited edition exclusive ink for one of the many Japanese stores.

 

 

 

 

C.

[white_lotus]

Well I'll disagree. Sailor owns all the formula's, production methods, and produces the inks. We can be 100% certain that none of those shops will ever have those inks except from Sailor.

 

Likewise with KWZ. The Chicago pen show organizers will never be able to make that ink again except from KWZ.

 

So just as Sailor Rikyu-cha is for all intents and purposes the same as Sailor Pen and Message Cigar, the Chicago Pen Show 2017 Blue could be made part of the regular line called say "Polish True Blue", or whatever name.

 

And as we have experienced with the Sailor store exclusive inks, once the resellers get into the game, ordinary people won't be able to get the inks. Ink is not precious. The dyes aren't precious. And people shouldn't have to buy them off evilBay just because they weren't in the loop at the right moment in their lives.

 

Anyway I know we won't agree on this, so we'll just have to amicably disagree. You say po-tay-toe, I'll say po-ta-toe.

[Cyber6]

I actually don't completely disagree with you on some of your points. I was just making it clear that this is not Konrad's master plan. (I feel comfortable speaking about this since I am the one behind Northern Twilight)

 

Would you consider a solution to have KWZi not involved in making any limited-exclusives inks anywhere?

 

 

Same as with Montblanc's Leonardo... I am very sad I was not able to secure a second bottle, but I feel my life is richer by having the ink and wouldn't wish for them to stop offering LE inks. My opinion of course.

 

 

 

I will also apologize for going Off Topic.

 

 

 

 

C.

 

 

 

 

 

Well I'll disagree. Sailor owns all the formula's, production methods, and produces the inks. We can be 100% certain that none of those shops will ever have those inks except from Sailor.

 

Likewise with KWZ. The Chicago pen show organizers will never be able to make that ink again except from KWZ.

 

So just as Sailor Rikyu-cha is for all intents and purposes the same as Sailor Pen and Message Cigar, the Chicago Pen Show 2017 Blue could be made part of the regular line called say "Polish True Blue", or whatever name.

 

And as we have experienced with the Sailor store exclusive inks, once the resellers get into the game, ordinary people won't be able to get the inks. Ink is not precious. The dyes aren't precious. And people shouldn't have to buy them off evilBay just because they weren't in the loop at the right moment in their lives.

 

Anyway I know we won't agree on this, so we'll just have to amicably disagree. You say po-tay-toe, I'll say po-ta-toe.

[white_lotus]

I think there is a difference between store-exclusive, limited edition, and show exclusives.

 

I know Montblanc in the last several limited editions produced more of the very popular inks, including JFK Blue, Shakespeare Red, and another one I think. They even told the retailers "This is the last batch". So people that had been thinking of getting a bottle could do so. To me that's very fair.

 

Noodler's Proctor's Ledge was a show exclusive, that now seems a Goldspot exclusive, as they bought whatever didn't sell at the show, and when they ran out, Nathan Tardiff apparently made more for them. It's still available. Again, very fair for the retailer, and for the customer.

 

To direct this back on topic, the Kobe Nagasawa inks are store exclusive (sort of) but are readily available, even some of the most popular colors such as #14 and #51. And re: no more show exclusive KWZ inks, I'd be for that if they were just added to the line. Northern Twilight and Chicago Blue are great and no ink lover should have to hoard it because they'll never get any more again.

 

I'm done!

[amberleadavis]

So, as much as I wanted love Island blue, I still prefer Maya Lapis and that's not only because I adore blurples, but Island Blue was dry compared to #14. Thank you for another wonderful review.