Sailor's Full Ink Lines Including Shop Exclusives Compiled In A Post?

[jmccarty3]

Another sign of the times. Vanness's web site shows all the Bungbox inks "out of stock."

[Tinjapan]

Algester

 

Are Kobe inks mass produced? Thay may be, but even if they are mixed individually, the supply problem I learned of would not effect them.

[Tinjapan]

I meant to post this earlier, purhaps I did, but Bung Box's web site says 6 month wait for their inks.

[lgsoltek]

Why might that be?

 

If so, I think I can guess what that supply problem is...

[Algester]

Algester

 

Are Kobe inks mass produced? Thay may be, but even if they are mixed individually, the supply problem I learned of would not effect them.

I would guess the 52 Inks of Kobe are mass produced but the special ones

Turner Brown, Monet Violet, Ur Lapis etc...etc... are hand mixed

Edited July 8, 2015 by Algester

[Frank C]

I recall reading about ink mixing at the old Sheaffer Plant in Fort Madison, Iowa. They used 50 gallon ceramic crocks which would yield about 3,200 two-ounce bottles of ink. Two ounces is about 59 ml. So they even hand-mixed ink, in very large quantities. In those days, every corner store in America sold Sheaffer ink in bottles.

[amberleadavis]

 

If so, I think I can guess what that supply problem is...

 

Surely it doesn't take that long to make those bottles????

[tinkerteacher]

Surely it doesn't take that long to make those bottles????

It's not so much a lack of supply as it is a pricing issue for these nifty Sailor SE glass bottles, and what the vendor wants to charge Sailor for a new shipment of 'em.

 

Remember, in Japan these Sailor SE inks only go for around USD 9 a bottle wholesale. Sailor's profit (if there is any) must razor thin.

[lgsoltek]

I personally really don't mind those Sailor inks in other bottles. Rose by another name...

[Tinjapan]

The short squat bottles of ink as used by Kobe are ¥1000. The tall, faceted bottles of ink, BB, KN, Maruzen are ¥2000.

[tinkerteacher]

The short squat bottles of ink as used by Kobe are ¥1000. The tall, faceted bottles of ink, BB, KN, Maruzen are ¥2000.

That's Japanese market retail retail prices, Sailor's wholesale prices (and where their meager profits are coming from) are USD 6 and 9 respectively.

 

The advantage that the tall, jewelry bottles have over the small squat bottles are that they are much more friendly to large pens, and especially large nibs. Trying to fill a pen with a #15 Pilot nib out of the squat bottles is a frustrating experience. You have to take the little plastic ink trap thingie out, and then carefully tilt the bottle.

[thudthwacker]

They couldn't say for certain that it was the same with other shops, but Mr. Ishimaru hand mixes each bottle of KN inks individually, bottle by bottle, not by color than fill multiple bottles.

 

I'm sorry that I'm essentially repeating what you just wrote, but there's a chance (a likelihood, I'd think; if the master lavishes this much care on one set of inks, I'd assume he does it for all of them) that Mr. Ishimaru hand-mixes each bottle of every store-exclusive ink individually? I'm staggered.

[tinkerteacher]

 

I'm sorry that I'm essentially repeating what you just wrote, but there's a chance (a likelihood, I'd think; if the master lavishes this much care on one set of inks, I'd assume he does it for all of them) that Mr. Ishimaru hand-mixes each bottle of every store-exclusive ink individually? I'm staggered.

 

Yep. By hand, and by bottle not by colour.

 

See the photo of his work station I posted up a page or two back to get an idea of the process. Given that he has created 15,000 ink receipes for Sailor over the length of his career with them (life-long employment with the same company, how old school) I'm sure he has plenty of practice and has his technique pretty well perfected at this point. Plus, a cocktail shaker is apparently a quite nifty tool for mixing small batches of inks, or so I am told.

 

Also, I doubt that he is mixing up much more than a few dozen or so bottles of each colour at one time. These Sailor SE inks are quite limited in number after all. Ah, number of bottles I mean. The number of colours is, however, staggeringly large.

[Tinjapan]

I knew he mixed each bottle individually at the ink mixing events and that he would for the first bottle of a new color but thought that afterwards they would be mixed in larger quantities and poured into the awaiting bottles. I too was quite surprised to learn that he himself mixed each and every bottle individually. Even after learning he did so for the inks he mixes at the events, I am still surprised that he does so for the shop exclusive inks as well.

 

Hopefully thesupply problem will be solved very soon, but plan on a long wait all the same.

[swanjun]

Good news for anyone contemplating Usagiya Kojima Denim--Kobe #51 appears (admittedly by a very cursory comparison) to be quite close, and half the price.

[sidthecat]

I jumped for the Bungbox Eel on the Vanness site; it's my new favorite ink. I put it in my flexiest Waterman - it looks like medieval faded black ink, which is a quality I love. Here's a sample: ignore the pen.

[amberleadavis]

Looking good.

[FinalEleven]

So Massdrop has a whole bunch of BungBox ink up for sale on their website. These inks are going to be shipped in the sailor Jentle Ink bottles instead of the more familiar bottles they're usually packaged in. According to massdrop, they recently changed their packing so...yeah. Someone in the discussion page stated that Sailor is having issues with the producer of said diamond bottles.

 

Can anyone confirm/deny?

Edited July 14, 2015 by FinalEleven

[haruka337]

Confirmed. Whether or not this change is temporary is uncertain.

 

Got my two bottles (was the third purchaser)!

Edited July 14, 2015 by haruka337

[swanjun]

Well, I like the swanky bottles, but if this is a remedy for the backlog, I'm all for it!