Ink Review : Iroshizuku Kon-Peki

[namrehsnoom]

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-through
• Paperblanks journal paper - drying time ~10 seconds, no feathering, no show-through and no bleed-through. Looks great on this ivory paper
• Generic 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-through

The 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 Topaz
• ink shoot-out : Pelikan Edelstein Topaz vs Pilot Iroshizuku kon-peki

 

my overall score: A

 

 

 

 

[lgsoltek]

Thank you for another thorough review! Great job!

While I like this colour, I don't find it special. A really similar and cheaper alternative is Diamine Mediterranean Blue.

[visvamitra]

Excellent review. Funny thing with lamy nibs is that fines are often wetter tan mediums and it seems that's also the case with your pen and nib I have also Lamy fine that's broader than Lamy medium. I guess they don't really try to align with german precision idea.

[Chrissy]

I have also found Diamine Mediterranean Blue a suitable and much cheaper alternative. I sold my only bottle of Kon-peki for this reason.

[namrehsnoom]

Funny thing with lamy nibs is that fines are often wetter tan mediums and it seems that's also the case with your pen and nib I have also Lamy fine that's broader than Lamy medium. I guess they don't really try to align with german precision idea.

Yeah.... time to do some nib-swapping to obtain a set with more consistent size progression. Fortunately Lamy nibs are cheap to replace :-)

When writing with one pen this goes undetected, but it does indeed become visible when putting the different nib sizes side-by-side. Thanks for pointing this out - I think I'll put some time into preparing a dedicated and consistent ink review pen set.

[Fabienne]

Great review. You really put a lot into it. I wish I liked Kon-Peki, I have tried it numerous times and always end up liking Navajo Turquoise so much better. :|

[gylyf]

Wonderful review! Kon-peki was a favorite until I discovered Sailor Sky High (sniff...). Very solid ink.

[Pensei]

Good review. Notice how different it looks in different parts of your report, depending on the nib and paper. That's true of all inks, I guess, but seems more pronounced here.

[senzen]

Great review. I love this ink, it does have a lot of variation, if I haven't used it for a while it looks a lot darker, on smaller nibs it looks very close to Ama Iro.

Edited June 29, 2016 by pseudo88

[MHBru]

Great review.. I agree it's pricey but if I'm on this path I'm on it all the way. I fell in love with the color when I saw it and even more when I used it.

[namrehsnoom]

Great review.. I agree it's pricey but if I'm on this path I'm on it all the way. I fell in love with the color when I saw it and even more when I used it.

If you like kon-peki, you'll probably love Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. Check out https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/308761-ink-shoot-out-pelikan-edelstein-topaz-vs-pilot-iroshizuku-kon-peki/ to help make up your mind (here I compared the two)