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Ink Shoot-Out : Pelikan Edelstein Topaz vs Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki Iroshizuku kon-peki has long been my only cerulean blue ink, and I've been very fond of it. Recently, I obtained a bottle of Pelikan Edelstein Topaz and - lo-and-behold - this turned out to also be a nice cerulean blue. A great opportunity to put these inks into close comparison, and find out which of them I like the most. Here comes... the Ink Shoot-Out. A brutal fight where champion inks do battle for four rounds, to determine who is the winner. In the left corner - the challenger: Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. In the right corner - my current favorite: Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki. Which champion will remain standing at the end of the fight ? Let's find out... Round 1 - First Impressions Both inks make a wonderful first impression. I really like their color... a fine cerulean sky-blue. These inks give me a relaxed, vacation-like feeling. They remind me of the sunny day sky-blue in late spring, with me relaxing on a tropical beach soothed by the sound of crashing ocean waves. There are some differences though: Topaz is more of a morning-sky color, while kon-peki is more of an afternoon sky-blue. Topaz is definitely a shade lighter than kon-peki, which is most obvious in written text, not so much in the ink-swabs. For me, topaz is a fresher color, which appeals to me more.Both inks shade nicely, but the shading on topaz is less prominent, and - in my opinion - more aesthetically pleasingkon-peki is a wetter and more saturated inkBoth Edelstein en Iroshizuku are the top-of-the line inks of their respective brands. And both live up to their reputation: these are seriously fine-looking inks. But for me personally, I like the morning sky-blue of Topaz better. There is no obvious win by knock-out in this round, but I will yield this round to Topaz on points. Round 2 - Writing Sample The writing sample was done on a Rhodia N°16 Notepad with 80 gsm paper. Both inks behaved superbly, with no feathering and no show-through or bleed-through. You will find that the Edelstein ink is on the dry side - this is especially noticeable with the EF nib. The iroshizuku ink had no problem with the finer nib. With broader nibs, both inks wrote just fine with a nice ink-flow. It is well-known in this community that Edelstein inks are a bit dry. I won't hold this against topaz - just use an F nib or broader, and you won't have a problem. In my opinion, both inks are evenly matched, so this round ends in a draw. Round 3 - Ink Properties Both inks have similar drying times in the 15-20 second range on the Rhodia paper. Topaz needed a tad longer to dry completely. Both inks also did fine on the smudge test, where I draw a wet Q-tip cotton swab across the text line. There is some smearing, but the text remains perfectly legible. For the droplet test, I drippled water onto the grid, and let it sit there for 15 minutes, after which I removed the water droplets with a paper towel. As you can see, these are not water-resistant inks. But if you look closely, you'll notice that kon-peki leaves a bit more ink on the paper (and with some luck, you'll be able to reconstruct the written word). The chromatographies show that both are true blue inks, that are very water-soluble (in the chromatography the dyes migrate with the water to the top of the picture, the bottom part illustrates what remains on the paper after a good soak). You also notice that kon-peki appears to stick better to the paper. The difference between these heavy-weight champions is minimal. Again - no knock-out, but this round definitely goes to the Japanese champion - on points. Round 4 - The Fun Factor Welcome to the final round. Here I give you a purely personal impression of both inks, where I judge which of them I like most when doing some fun stuff like doodling and drawing. Here I must admit that I like Edelstein Topaz a lot better than Iroshizuku kon-peki. The more subtle shading on Topaz made for more interesting effects when drawing. And I definitely like the color of Topaz a lot better - a late morning sky-blue, while kon-peki is a deeper afternoon sky-blue. This is of course a purely personal judgment, but I'm quite convinced that - in the future - I will will reach faster for the bottle of Topaz, and that my kon-peki will be used less often. For me, this round definitely goes to the German champion. No knock-out, but a definite advantage on points. The Verdict Both inks find a proud place in my collection, and both are very well-behaving inks with a lovely sky-blue color. But counting the points, I find that Pelikan Edelstein Topaz is the clear winner over Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki. As far as I'm concerned, Topaz has convincingly won this shoot-out on points, and is my new reigning champion !

Well, my guess is nearly everyone has heard of Pilot Iroshizuku line of inks, if they have not had the good fortune to actually use them. Visvamitra did a review of all of those inks not so long ago. I've had this ink for some time but only recently worked through a review. Kon-peki is a fairly bright cerulean, or sky, blue. It is not light, but it is lighter in value than Asa-gao and Tsuki-yo. Some people might call this color a turquoise. I don't think it falls quite in that range, but I could understand the comparison. When I used a wetter/wider nib, I got a deeper, richer color. So this is something to consider. These inks come in both 50 ml and 15 ml bottles, and there are three bottle sets of the smaller size. Kon-peki is paired with Momiji (pink/bright red) and Yu-jake (orange) in a set. Not advertised as water resistant, so no surprise that it isn't. I've seen much worse though. This is a single dye ink. btw, dcwaites has posted a recipe for a faux PPS using Iroshizuku inks: 1 part Kon-peki 3 parts Asa-gao 0.1 part (or less) take-sumi.

Ink Review : Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki (deep blue) Pen: Lamy Al-Star Ocean Blue, M-nib Paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm "two eagles soaring in sun-baked deep blue sky shadows on the ground" When an ink review opens up with a haiku, you just know that it will cover a Japanese ink. And you would be right ! This review examines Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki, a wonderful cerulean blue ink. As most of you know, Iroshizuku is Pilot's luxury line of fountain pen inks - read: your wallet will feel it, these inks are expensive. The name Iroshizuku is a combination of the japanese words Iro (coloring) and Shizuku (droplet). The name is meant to bring forth the image of dripping water in a variety of beautiful colors. All the inks in this series are named after natural landscapes & plants, with each ink trying to capture the depth and essense of color of its namesake. Kon-peki is a stunning sky-blue ink. Think of yourself hiking a mountain trail on a bright summer day, just past noon, without a cloud in the sky. You hear eagles calling, and you look up. See that sky ? That's kon-peki ! A truly wonderful color, very similar to Pelikan Edelstein Topaz (which I personally like even more). Kon-peki is a true blue ink, as shown in the chromatography. It seems to be a single-component dye. Kon-peki exhibits some really nice shading - it's prominent, but not in your face. The overall effect is aestetically pleasing. Love it ! The ink is also very well lubricated, and writes well in all nib sizes - even with EF nibs. Writing becomes a pleasurable experience. Iroshizuku kon-peki is a well-behaving ink on a variety of paper. I didn't see any feathering, even on the cheaper Moleskine and regular notepad paper. On this fountain-pen unfriendly paper, the ink dries in the 5-10 second range - that's superfast ! (and probably why there is no visible feathering - the ink is just drying too fast for feathering to occur). Be aware though that significant show-through and some bleed-through are present with the cheaper paper - you won't be able to use both sides. Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm - drying time 15-20 seconds, no feathering, no show-through nor bleed-throughPaperblanks journal paper - drying time ~10 seconds, no feathering, no show-through and no bleed-through. Looks great on this ivory paperGeneric notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time ~10 seconds, no feathering, minimal show-through. Bleed-through only in heavily saturated spots (like with ink swabs)Moleskine journal - drying time ~5 seconds - superfast ! No feathering, significant show-through and some bleed-throughThe ink is smudge-resistant, but I wouldn't call it water-resistant. With a good soak, that lovely sky-blue swiftly dissipates. However, enough residue remains for you to make out your original writing (even after 30 seconds of running tap water) - not bad at all. Note that this might not be readily apparent in the scan, but trust me on this: you can easily read what remains on the paper. Conclusion Iroshizuku kon-peki is a champ ! stunning color, nice shading, well lubricated and a great behavior on a wide range of paper. You really can't go wrong with this ink. That being said - I must confess that for me personally, Pelikan Edelstein Topaz is a very similar sky-blue, and even lovelier - it's a tad lighter of color, and seems more vibrant to me. And in Europe at least, Edelstein inks are almost 3 times cheaper than the Iroshizukus. For more info on Topaz, and a comparison with kon-peki, see the following links: full review of Pelikan Edelstein Topazink shoot-out : Pelikan Edelstein Topaz vs Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki my overall score: A

I happened to have these three similar coloured inks so I did a quick comparison showing you some writing samples, sheen shots, and colour density. I hope it is helpful. My conclusion: 1. Sky High and Souten are very similar in regular writing, but I can see more reddish dye in Sky High which shows up as more sheen. 2. Sky High and Souten flows from the nib just about the same. 3. Kon-Peki is slightly greener than the other two, leaning more cerulean in colour. Difference is noticeable in regular writing. 4. Kon-Peki feels more fluid/watery coming out of the nib. As it is an Iroshizuku ink, known for their extraordinary flow characteristics, I consider it in line with other Iro inks in the great flow. This doesn't mean the two sailor inks (Sky High and Souten) are less flowy, they are well lubricated and has good flow but it's just that Kon-peki has more watery flow. Now on to the photos: Writing sample shows Kon-peki is lighter and slightly greener in colour. Writing sample from a different angle. Painted with watercolour brush, thin lines, thick lines, and words with flexy nib. 2 drops of ink from syringe spread out with blunt needle to roughly 2.5cm (1 inch) diameter. Words are in Noodler's Bulletproof Black. Photo is taken straight on. Same as above, but photo is taken from shallower angle to enhance the appearance of sheen.

I'd been meanining to write about this for some time, it won't be a revelation to anyone, but I was prompted into action by a recent and great review of Ama -Iro. This isn't a deep comparison of inks, I just want to deal with the topic of colour contrast. When I got this ink I though "oh dear", I felt I'd made a mistake, which is easy to do when you buy on the Internet, without the possibility of seeing the ink in person. But then a funny thing happened, this ink has grown on me, I really like it now, although nothing has really changed, except while writing I happen to use it next to Kon Peki, which was another "I'm not sure I like this" ink: to me they look really good size by side, they seem to bring out the best in each other, as well as next to other specific inks. So the lesson is to take into account the context of the ink, which includes the light, as well as the paper and the other inks you use it with. Kon-Peki looks a lot closer to Ama-Iro with a broader nib, in this case going from a lamy F to an M, so much so I would find it hard to use both at the same time.