Ink Review: Pilot Iroshizuku yama-budo (Crimson Glory Vine)

[Chrissy]

Today I’m reviewing Pilot Iroshizuku yama-budo ink. This translates from Japanese to Crimson Glory Vine and is a bright deep magenta colour.

Although this colour may be a bit bright for some users, I think it’s fun to use some bright colours like this when writing letters or pages in journals.

I wrote mainly with a Lamy Al-Star pen with medium steel nib. Flow was good and felt neither wet nor dry, while lubrication at the nib tip was nicely smooth across the page. I thought it was a well-behaved ink.

Yama-budo isn’t a saturated ink but it exhibited a little shading with finer nibs and I noticed a bit of greenish sheen with broad nibs and coated paper.

• Flow Rate: Very good.
• Lubrication: Nicely smooth.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Not saturated
• Show-Through: Some seen on the cheaper additional papers I used, but I could write on the reverse of all of them.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after a couple of weeks in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Washed off of my hands after three washes.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, and shows little water resistance.
• Available in 50ml or mini 15ml glass bottles from many outlets worldwide.

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