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Sailor

In 2010 Sailor updated their line of ink. I must admit, I did not appreciate all aspects of the new bottle until 2014 when I purchased some Epinard Green (see review below). But that being said, the bottle is too shallow in depth for to easily fill a large pen/nib.

Sadly, now I read that Sailor is discontinuing many of the current colours. They may be replaced with other colours, or they may be focusing on only blue and black. A fair amount of conflict information out there. If any of the current colours are in your favourite colour list, stock up now.

The colours noted to be discontinued include: Apricot, Black, Blue, Blue Black, Epinard Green, Grenade Red, Peach Pink, Sky Blue, Ultramarine Purple. In the Nano line, they make Blue Black and Ultra Black. The latter are twice the price.

Sailor Kiwa-Guro Black

Sailor Black

This is a rich, dark, well -performing black ink. It comes in an attractive square glass bottle. The same ink can also be found in the short round bottles. I am not sure if that round bottle for this colour is being phased out or not.

Good flow, reasonal dry time. I think it is just a tad less black that Aurora Black.

This is a pigmented ink, meaning the colour arrives from pigments rather than dyes. Some users have concerns with pigmented ink with a concern that the small particiles could clog the ink feed. I have not been using it that long, or more importantly, leaving the ink in a pen for an extended period of time, to determine if this is an issue. All I can say is that pigments are extremely small. I think the ink drying would be the major concern.

 

 

Okay, I have returned to Sailor. I picked up a bottle of Epinard Green at Vancouver Pen and I must say I like the leaning towards advacado green. It is a little more soft than say the harsher Montblanc Irish Green and I found a full page of writing was easier to take.

The performance of the ink is good. The sample above is written with the Kaweco DIA, also available at Vancouver Pen. The ink writes a bit on the dry side, so even with a double broad nib, the ink is not flowing in a uncontrolled manner.

Take care when picking up a bottle as unfortunately all the boxes have a blue label. There is a small circle that shows the actual colour of ink that will be inside.

The ink bottle is very attractive and has a very smooth and elegant feel to the hand. Even the cap is designed top-notch. It is the smooth black pastic you will feel in your hand. Here is a case of: Hey Glenn, read the instructions. I only realized with this bottle that there is a plastic internal resevoir insert. Close tightly, tip over the bottle and ink fills the resevoir. For some pens this is great. But for a larger pen, for example by Delta Dolcevita with a #6 nib, , I can hear the air being sucked up, the resevoir is simply not deep enough.

 

 

 

Sailor Inks

Sailor Ink

 

Epinard Green

I picked up a bottle of Epinard Green at Vancouver Pen and I must say I like the leaning towards advacado green. It is a little more soft than say the harsher Montblanc Irish Green and I found a full page of writing was easier to take.

The performance of the ink is good. The sample above is written with the Kaweco DIA, also available at Vancouver Pen. The ink writes a bit on the dry side, so even with a double broad nib, the ink is not flowing in a uncontrolled manner.

Take care when picking up a bottle as unfortunately all the boxes have a blue label. There is a small circle that shows the actual colour of ink that will be inside.

The ink bottle is very attractive and has a very smooth and elegant feel to the hand. Even the cap is designed top-notch. It is the smooth black pastic you will feel in your hand. Here is a case of: Hey Glenn, read the instructions. I only realized with this bottle that there is a plastic internal resevoir insert. Close tightly, tip over the bottle and ink fills the resevoir. For some pens this is great. But for a larger pen, for example by pens with large nibs, I can hear the air being sucked up.

Epinard Grfeen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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