Sailor Shikiori Chushu (Four Seasons - Autumn: Mid-Autumn)

[A Smug Dill]

(Another quickie which is largely a by-product of my testing my desk pens...)

 

 

Colour: I like it, it's a very pleasant dark grey tending towards the cooler side of the spectrum. I think it sorta fills a gap between Iroshizuku fuyu-syogun and Iroshizuku take-sumi which isn't filled by any of the colours in the Iroshizuku range (including shin-kai). On the other hand, there is nothing outstanding about it.

 

Flow: Flows well enough, but not overly wet. That is a good thing.

 

Drying time: Very quick with my 'Japanese fine' nibs, with basically no smearing after 5 seconds. My pen with the fude nib seems apt to leave a blob of ink at the top of my zeroes, and those are still prone to smearing after 20 seconds.

 

Water resistance: Very good.

 

Ghosting and bleed-through: None whatsoever observed from writing on the Rhodia paper I used.

 

Shading: Some, but not very pronounced.

 

Sheen: Not that I can see.

Edited October 13, 2018 by A Smug Dill

[Tas]

Just too far towards the purple end of blue black for my liking.

 

Im finding your review layout a joy to glean information from. Thank you for your time and efforts.

[ENewton]

As a purple fan, I wonder how this ink compares with Robert Oster Purple Rock.

[white_lotus]

I originally bought a bottle of this ink thinking it would be a purple-gray. Every review, swab, etc seemed to indicate so.

 

I was wrong. It was gray.

[Tas]

I originally bought a bottle of this ink thinking it would be a purple-gray. Every review, swab, etc seemed to indicate so.

 

I was wrong. It was gray.

Ooo. May have to have a look at some now then.

Thank you.

[A Smug Dill]

@Tas, thank you! I still haven't made up my mind about how to do ink reviews that best present what I want to test and cover about each ink, and am always 'refining' my approach, so I'd appreciate feedback about what you find value in this layout^† as a content consumer, lest I might carelessly remove it from future review coverage.

 

As far as the hue of this ink goes, I agree there is a purple cast, even in the 'cold' light of day, but it's only noticeable to me when the ink is laid thinly (or 'dryly') on the page, such as in the lighter-coloured end of the q-tip swab and parts of the larger writing in the top right corner of the test page. I'd say the writing with the EF and F nibs just looks grey to me.

 

This is the Fude nib used in my ink review soaking in a shot glass afterwards:

 

 

^† OK, I'll just get this out of the way and be very clear (and, no, this part isn't in response to Tas): I'm not looking for feedback about what an ink review consumer wants to see in each review but doesn't find it in mine, e.g. the colour on off-white/ivory/cream paper (which I intend to include in my ink reviews eventually, because most of my new journals have off-white paper), displays of sheen on Tomoe River paper (to which I'm going to give a flat 'no' every time), writing with broad round-tipped nibs not designed to emulate brush strokes (I don't have one of those in a desk pen or dedicated test pen), etc.

Edited October 14, 2018 by A Smug Dill

[Tas]

I find the lines of text written with different nibs show the variation of colour and tone of the ink in a much more practical (real life) way than a swab (although I value the swab too).

 

I find the colour chart background a useful leveller. It stops ones mind wandering into what colour one would actually like the ink to be (this happens to me a lot).

 

Also you seem to achieve a lovely white balance correction without adversely affecting the contrast.

 

I know from my occasional ramblings how tough it is to represent an ink accurately on a screen with transmitted light as opposed to in real life where we are dealing with reflected light.

 

You seem to have cracked this. 😇 I, like many others Im sure, are thankful for this and will look forward to your reviews as a valuable resource and aid in choosing the fuel for our pens.

[white_lotus]

Also you seem to achieve a lovely white balance correction without adversely affecting the contrast.

 

Indeed that to me is what is always the most important, and an area where I was most weak at in my ink photos.

[rudyhou]

it is a nice grey ink, but leaning more towards purple. at least, that's how mine looks.

[pgcauk]

I like this ink very much.

I tried Purple Rock and Diamine Damson, but they both seemed audacious purples in comparison, yet my bottle is clearly a violet grey.

I was comparing a range of violet inks recently and was interested to find that there was one zone that was obviously particularly attractive to me, as I had a bottle of each of Chu Shu (not cheap!), Scabiosa (my first love!) and Birmingham Pens' Lilac Wind. I was a bit surprised how close Chu Shu and Scabiosa were, as I think of the former as grey and the latter as violet, but before Scabiosa "ages" they are surprisingly close!

[Carrau]

My Chu Shu is a purple gray approaching black. 3 Oysters Purple Gray is a slightly lighter shade, showing a bit more purple, but still much darker than RO Purple Rock, and not as dry.

[pgcauk]

Here's what I got for Chu Shu vs. Scabiosa:

Sometimes a brush or a super-wide nib (Pilot Parallel wide!), will help clarify things?

[Intensity]

So pretty! Would hang on a wall as artwork. Scabiosa is an excellent ink.

[A Smug Dill]

Looking for something similar but with less purple? How about Sailor Kujukuri Coast hamachidori:

 

[Mannyonpil]

...難矣哉!

[Mannyonpil]

I really like it. It reminds me of Diamine Eclipse.

[inkstainedruth]

Hmmm. This one looks interesting. I may have to try a sample of this one....

Sigh. I really need to stop reading ink reviews....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth