Sailor Storia Fire Red (Pigmented Nano-Particle Ink)

[lgsoltek]

As you may know, Sailor has recently released a new line of ink, the STORiA inks, which are pigmented nano-particle inks like Sei-boku and Kiwa-guro.

 

The packaging and the frosty glass bottles are quite lovely.

 

 

The official swatches show them to be quite interesting.

http://sailorshop.jp/pic-labo/13-1502_colorsample_395.jpg

 

The reality is cruel. Fire Red is the first I tried, because I like vibrant red inks. But this one is TERRIBLE. It's poorly saturated, it's chalky and it doesn't flow well. It's more viscous than regular inks. The colour is horrible: it's a pink, as you will see in the writing samples below. It's even lighter than that infamously undersaturated J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier. I've never been so disappointed in Sailor inks.

 

Splash

The splash is the only beautiful thing you'll see about this ink. There is a lot of ink on the paper so the colour is much better saturated. Wait till you see the writing.

http://s1.homezz.com/201504/5915/50644_o.jpg

 

Sample

I've never seen a pink fire in my life. Why on earth will they name such a bland colour "Fire Red"? If it were named otherwise I wouldn't dislike this ink so much.

It's written with a Pilot Falcon SF. It's not a super wet pen but I wouldn't say it's dry. The two words under "sample" are written with a dip pen.

As it's a pigmented ink, water-resistance is as advertised.

 

http://s0.homezz.com/201504/5915/50646_o.jpg

 

Comparison

Swab comparison with all my reds. Fire Red is the palest of all.

http://s0.homezz.com/201504/5915/50645_o.jpg

 

 

Dip pen writing

These STORiA inks however, work quite well with dip pens. They are relatively viscous so will stay better on the nib. And since it's wetter the colours are nicer than what you'll get with fountain pens. The brown, the yellow green and the blue are not too bad.

I don't have Balloon Green. It's not a colour I like anyway.

 

 

 

Final words

Don't buy this ink. If you want to own a STORiA ink, go for the blue, the yellow green, the brown or even the yellow. The purple is as chalky as the red. Don't be fooled by the official swab. Look at the lightest part of the official swab and imagine it to be even lighter.

If you really like this kind of colour (I don't think anyone does), go for J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier, or R&K Fernambuk which is a better looking pink.

 

 

 

[visvamitra]

This looks really, really bad.

[Frank C]

Thanks for the review. You just saved me from buying some ink that I won't like.

[lgsoltek]

This looks really, really bad.

 

You can imagine how I felt when I opened the package and filled my pen with excitement waiting to see a vibrant fire-like red only to get this pale pink. I even suspected if I had made a mistake and filled my pen with the pink.

[ethernautrix]

Oi. It's a pretty color - just not red.

 

The Night Blue looks very pretty.

 

Thanks for the great review!

[cybaea]

Looks really good in the dip pens. Maybe I should use dip pens more

 

Thanks for the review.

Edited April 28, 2015 by cybaea

[Algester]

at its most saturated point its a good colored ink though... but one would need an extremely wet pen... I think my Faber-castell can handle it but as of this writing their is still no advise from our local Sailor retailor

[Patrick L]

Thanks a lot for this excellent review, I appreciate that you say things in a straightforward way. That's not always the case on this website, For me it's a real disappointment that this new

Sailor ink is not a vibrant red ink. I also have the J.Herbin Caroubier ink and I understand perfectly what you mean when you write that it's worse than Caroubier. I don't know if you tried it, but a few years ago Sailor produced a Red ink named "Sailor Irore". For me this ink was, and still is, the most intense beautiful red ink ever produced. Unfortunately, this ink was a limited production product, and is now very difficult to buy it. You might perhaps try on ebay from a German buyer. This shows that Sailor can actually produce a true red ink. For me a Pigmented Nano Carbon true red ink would be perfect as there is no bleedthrough with these kind of inks and they are, I think, also waterproof. Anyway, let's hope that Sailor will revise their formula and be able to offer us the real thing.

Thanks again for your great review.

Patrick

[jasonchickerson]

Yes, these look like they will work quite nicely dipped.

 

Any idea how they compare to calligraphic inks from W. Newton or Sennelier, etc?

 

I might get a set of these just for dipping.

[amberleadavis]

It reminds me of the Platinum Flame Red.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Tests/Fade/2012/Subjects/07-2012_10_29.jpg

[inkstainedruth]

It reminds me of the Platinum Flame Red.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Tests/Fade/2012/Subjects/07-2012_10_29.jpg

It actually doesn't look as bad in the scan as Flame Red. I got a bottle of that on a whim (they were having a special at isellpens a couple of years ago, and giving away bottles of overstock Mix-free with Noodler's Konrads).

Your scan (at least on my screen) of Flame Red is kind, to say the least. For those who haven't seen it in person, Flame Red was this eye-searing neon Mercurochrome color. Truly awful. I ended up giving the bottle away to someone who wanted to grade papers with.

That being said, Nano Red isn't a color I think I'd like (the way I ended up not liking De Atramentis Document Red). Not really "red" enough. But thanks for the review, Lgsoltek -- you've saved me some money.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ghost Plane]

Ugh. Saved as well

[SeeksAdvice]

Thread necro:

 

Thank you for the review. I was contemplating buying the red and the "dark" green for document markup. I see that buying them would result in a sad clown face. I real shame, was looking for something very durable in red/green. The "Fire" ink looks a bit like Noodler's Empire Red, just a lot more expensive.

[NicolausPiscator]

Retro or not, your review shows the problem of storia inks... they are pale and don't convince me. But maybe I don't understand the composition.

[Connly33]

I got the night blue for one of my first water resistant inks. On the paper i use i have been very happy with the color and performance. But based on the writing sample, red really does not appeal to me.

 

My only issue is cleaning pigmented inks out of a pen without taking it apart.

[minddance]

Imagine these inks in Sailor's own dry nibs, wonder if they tested them in their own pens at all.

[lgsoltek]

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