PILOTNamiki Iroshizuku Crimson Glory Vine Ink Bottle

I have to admit that my go to Blue Black at the moment is the extremely lovely Diamine BB, which is really effective through all my F and EF nibs. It's saturated, super lubricated and shades beautifully. I saw the Tsuki-Yo and had to buy it at the price offered here on Amazon by Santa in Japan, and I'm glad I did.Don't be misled by translation of 'Moonlight Turquoise' - it's not turquoise - Pilot Tsuki-yo is a beautiful blue black with a hint of turquoise that, through my fine nibbed pens has a lovely greyish green tint to it that is midway between the Diamine BB and a blue that leans towards turquoise slightly, (Diamines Majestic Blue being a case in point).I've just dipped five different fine nibbed pens, and (sad face) unlike my other Irishozuku inks, I can't get it to shade, but the upside is it hardly feathers even on the cheapest papers (T*sco squared notepad being the lightest I tried).And the more I look at it in natural light, the more it resembles Sailors Sei-Boku in colour - just a few shades darker, especially on cream paper, and that can't be a bad thing.It gives a nice crisp line to my script, and it's very satisfying to use, it dries quickly and shows no fading after 48 hours on the windowledge in bright sun.Although it performs well through fine nibs, I know Tsuki-Yo would be stunning through M and B nibs (especially a stub) as this the extra flow would really show this ink off at it's best. I have one B nibbed jinhao that I use purely for comparison purposes and Tsuki-Yo through that is a truly gorgeous blue black without any hint of grey/green, I wish my handwriting fitted fatter nibs, but hey ho.The bottle is beautiful also, with its trademark crystal glass and internal indentation for the nib, and I always smile at that silver grey cord...very classy.Am I pleased with this purchase? Absolutely, this is a nice addition to my collection and an ink that could be used for both personal or business use. Buy it with confidence, it really is that good.Hope this helped.

This is the most beautiful ink. It is a gorgeous colour of vibrant blue, and is so fluid. It dries quickly on the page, even with a broad nib. It's a huge bottle which will last and last, and the jar looks really elegant. It is also a heavy jar, making it great for a vacuum filler pen, as there's no chance of knocking it over. I would never have bought such an expensive ink before, but as it will last so long, and as it is such high quality, it was a very good purchase. It looks so vibrant on the paper and flows beautifully.

I do love me some orange inks, but I was put off getting this because it had a rep in the fountain pen community of 'ooh yucky'. I was tempted to take a punt though because it was on sale for £15 - a bargain against the RRP for Iroshizuku inks. I am so glad I did. I LOVE this ink. The colour is gorgeous - aptly named as sunset orange - and the shading is amazing, with a marvellous range of colours anywhere from pale peach to deep orange. This is an Apache Sunset that you can actually *use* as a writing ink. The flow is effortless and the pen just glides across the paper, laying down a wet, juicy line. I can't stop looking at a page of writing once I've done it, which is always a good sign that I've bagged myself a top-ten ink.I use this as a letter-writing ink and for drawing. At work, I use it with a fine nib for margin notes and annotating - stand-out but not in-your-face. It makes reviewing documents a joy instead of a chore, and somehow suggestions/corrections written in a beautiful colour seem to be taken much more graciously! It's not waterproof, but it behaves impeccably on all the papers I've tested it on so far, and that includes cheap copy paper at work. I've added a writing sample (which doesn't do the ink justice) and some comparisons against other orange-y inks in my collection.

There are many good inks, some not so good and some that are superb.This is the latter.Firstly, the quality. As you creep up the fountain pen quality you start to see what a real writing instrument can do. That is not to say you have to have a great pen to appreciate this, no this ink performs well full stop. As you start using great quality pens however (and I don't mean expensive) you notice that ink can make a very noticeable difference to your handwriting.You wouldn't put supermarket fuel in a sports car, and you really shouldn't use poor quality ink in your pride and joy fountain pen. Well you can, but why would you?The flow of this ink is sublime, and this ensures a steady predictable flow as you write. You really can't get much higher quality and there would be no need; this ink will give superb results time and time again. Compatible as far as I am aware with all types of pen with all types of filling method.I could be wrong, but I have used this with Pilot, Pelikan, Parker, Lamy, Waterman, Conklin, Graf von Faber Castell, Scheaffer, Cross, Swan and even Mont Blanc (ew). Yes I dislike Mont Blanc intensely in all it's incarnations but that's a different story...This ink is the business.Colour wise, it is a wonderful deep shade that really stands out from the usual suspects (Waterman/Quink etc) and definitely has a premium look. I also really like the Bamboo Charcoal black in this range too, if you can find it. It can be a pig to get sometimes.I would give this 10 stars if I could, a great line with some superb colours. I also really like the Ina-ho Rice Ear too, for something quite unique.Enjoy!