Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Kai

[jhylkema]

This is my first go at an ink review, and my first entry in my ink journal, so please be gentle.

 

Also, sorry for iPhone photo.

[ENewton]

Congratulations on your first ink review. You have captured a lot of information that, if you persist in this practice for inks you try, will make your ink journal a valuable resource for you and others to whom you show it.

 

I entirely understand the challenge of getting good photographs of writing samples and have never dared to post an ink review myself, because my skills at photography are insufficient for a reader to get an accurate idea of how an ink looks. (I just did a quick search to see whether there is a thread on how to obtain good photos for ink reviews, and I didn't find one, but maybe if I had made a more extensive search, I would have found something.)

 

I assume that the paper is Leuchtturm 1917 because you refer to only that and copy paper in the review itself.

 

I am sorry you don't especially like the color of the ink, given that you seem to have acquired a whole bottle of it. Maybe you will find someone who is willing to swap an almost-full bottle of Shin-Kai for an almost full bottle of a brighter blue.

Edited April 27, 2019 by ENewton

[chromantic]

Great job on your first review! You've covered all the bases and the information is well laid out, and the photo is quite acceptable. I share you lack of enthusiasm for the color and this is a good example of how reviews can be just as helpful in helping us decide what not to buy.

[namrehsnoom]

Great job for a first ink review, and I wish you lots of fun moments with your ink journal. Be warned that inks have a tendency to multiply uncontrollably, one day you may wonder where all those inks came from :-)

 

Concerning shin-kai... I personally like blue-blacks, and this one looks great.

Edited April 28, 2019 by namrehsnoom

[Newjelan]

Great review, thanks. Shin-kai is one of my favourites.

[amberleadavis]

Great job on the first ink review ( I did remove a word ).

 

I'm glad you shared this with us. Keep up the good work!

[rosmarinaus]

Thanks - this is helpful. I really like indigo type blues, and it looks like Shin Kai falls into that category (hence your comment re. denim). It reminds me of the blue-black color I got from the cartridges I used with my Schaeffer FP many years ago in college.

[TheDutchGuy]

Thanks! Nice to read! Some personal observations about this ink:

 

1-When wet on the page (and when in the bottle), it shows lots of blue, yet when it dries on the page the text looks mostly grey-ish to me.

 

^—This is what it looks like in the bottle, with light shining through. Sorry for poor iPad photo.

 

^—-This is what it looks like on the page. Oxford 90g paper. Visconti HS Midi F pen. Light coming from the left.

 

2-The ink is drier than I expected. I find Sailor and KWZ inks, for example, to be much wetter.

 

3-It’s not a very lubricating ink. In terms of lubrication, I find that Waterman and some Sailor inks offer much more.

 

All things considered, I find shin-kai to be an intriguing, understated ink that’s a pleasure to write with, but I can’t really justify its price point. In my opinion the ink is too expensive.

[DrDebG]

Very nice review! Congratulations on your first one!

 

Shin kai is one of my favorite inks. I find it to be a good ink for business as well as note-taking. I like that it isn't too heavily saturated, and cleans up nicely even though it is a bit more water resistant.

 

Well done!

[Aelie]

Thanks for a great review! Shin-kai is the first bottled ink I ever bought. Just like you, I wasn't too impressed by Shin-kai's color initially. But after trying out various inks for few months, more subdued colors (like blue-black) really started growing on me. I ended up really liking Shin-kai, and I was glad that I had bought a bottle of it. Do an another review of Shin-kai in six months and see how you like it then!

[KyleClapton]

Thanks a lot! It is very nice and detailed review.
I like all Pilot Iroshizuku ink but have not tried all of them yet.
Shin-kai is one of the ink I have chance to try. I am not a fan of dark blue ink like Shin-kai, but it still gets me.

[A Smug Dill]

Thanks for the detailed review. What you tested and covered is very good. However, you may want to consider actually writing (or just transcribing) some of the information content in the text of your post, not the least because written words presented in a photo of a page in your journal is essentially not findable by keyword search.

I was (briefly) testing Pilot Iroshizuku shin-kai a few hours ago myself, alongside Sailor Shikiori shimoyo and Diamine Denim (to find the 'best' match for the barrel colour of my new Nemosine Neutrino Sub-Zero), and on both Maruman m.memo DMP-A7 notepad paper and Canson Drawing 220 Pad paper (which I use for swatches), I found shin-kai to be quite apt to show sheen. Its water resistance, on the other hand, is a bit lacking; while it doesn't wash off leaving nary a trace after a long soak like Diamine Denim does, the writing on the Canson paper after 15 minutes under water is so faint that I can barely make out the content of the words.