My gorgeous YELLOW Sailor Pro Gear / Sapporo Mini arrived on Saturday - and I love it!
The Yellow just pops!
It has a sensational 14K EF nib - maybe my best Sailor EF so far. A huge thank you goes to Jim for arranging the purchase for me. :D
A couple of days ago I received my Sailor Kiwagura ink, and so I eagerly loaded it into my Sailor "Manga/Comics" desk pen (which has a fantastic EF steel nib) and tested it. I put samples from all three of my black waterproof inks (Sailor Kiwagura, Pilot Security and Platinum Carbon) down on some Arches 185gsm Watercolour paper and also some cheap office paper, and let the ink dry for 10 minutes. Disappointingly, the Sailor Kiwagura samples released a small puff of black ink upon contact with water, while as usual the Pilot and Platinum inks did not.
Further testing is required... maybe a longer drying time is also needed for the Kiwagura ink. Any update information will be posted here.
03/03/2008 Update:
I sampled the Kiwagura further on my watercolour papers, and have discovered that paper makes a bit of a difference here (which is unusual in my experience with this kind of ink). After allowing the ink to dry for two hours or so, I soaked the paper for twenty minutes, and this time the the Kiwagura was fine, with only a barely-visible swirl of black released by the Kiwagura on the Arches 185gsm Medium. On Fabriano 300gsm and Art Spectrum 210gsm Medium papers no black was released.
I am very pleased to report that the waterproof black inks I recently purchased have given me no trouble at all in my fountain pens! When I use watercolour paints or water-soluble pencils on sketches drawn with these inks, no black ink is released by the water and brush.
Pilot Security Black is marginally darker than Platinum Carbon Black - although this is only apparent when the inks are carefully compared side by side. I'm using Security ink in a regular DPP-100 Pilot Desk Pen, and the Carbon ink in a Platinum Carbon Pen. Sometimes the Pilot won't start on the first stroke, but that's the only thing I've noticed. Neither ink appears to settle or do anything unwanted inside the pen.
Ujuku were out of Sailor Kiwagura stock, so I should get that ink in a couple of weeks, but so far I'm thrilled - these inks have worked out perfectly!
...an electric pencil sharpener. But here I am, spending AUD$115 on one.
I own a lot of Derwent pencils, and for years I have happily sharpened them with a normal hand sharpener. Yesterday, all that changed when my Prismacolor order arrived - almost 200 pencils, and not one of them pre-sharpened! I knew this to be the case when I ordered the pencils, but I didn't realise the implications at the time...
Looking at my beautiful new pencils, I knew I had a problem: I have rotator cuff and wrist tendonitis in both arms - so there was no way on God's green earth that I would be hand-sharpening ~200 coloured pencils!
So, I am now the proud new owner of an X-Acto SchoolPro Electric Sharpener:
The end of 2007 brought five exciting new inks from Pilot - Iroshizuku Color Drops, a range of blue inks with hues derived from nature:
While blue is not my favorite color preference, the Iroshizuku inks asa-gao, ajisai and tsuki-yo have soft undertones of blue-violet and green-blue, making them quite appealing.
I hope the initial Color Drops range is a sign of things to come from Pilot - imagine a small series of this ink in beautiful reds or greens!
Ah... 2008 is now upon us, whatever shall it bring?
Well, for starters I know 2008 will bring me the following goodies from the Ujuku Shop:
I can't believe I forgot to post this, but the Nakaya website has been updated with the details of the Special Order Piccolo I received in October!
Special Order » Original Color » Olive Green Tamenuri.
In my last post I mentioned my latest Sailor - a Professional Gear Special Edition produced for the Japanese market.
The white trim is perfect, even though I am normally a fan of gold trim, and the nib is very attractive. PR Fiesta Red has turned out to be the perfect colour for this pen, and now I can't think of inking it with anything else. This is really a very striking pen, and I'm so pleased that I paid a little extra to acquire it. :)
Happy, happy, happy!
November has been a fruitful month for Japanese pens. In a very short period I have acquired several pens I have wanted for some time now! Most of these are stainless steel Sailor pens which are not too common.
The most magnificent pen of them all is the Sailor Egyptian Hieroglyphs model. 
I was very lucky to be able to add the Hieroglyphs pen to my collection, and once again, such a thing was made possible by the wonderful Stan Klemanowicz, who has provided me with some of my best-loved Japanese pens.
Another interesting pen heading my way is a Limited Edition Sailor Professional Gear - in a Red Metallic lacquer finish!
More about the Sailor LE later... ;)
Life in pendom has been quiet of late, but I have a couple of small pen and ink notes to report:
