Ink Review: Pilot Iroshizuku chiku-rin (Bamboo Forest)

[Chrissy]

Today I’m reviewing Pilot Iroshizuku chiku-rin ink.
From Japanese this translates to Bamboo Forest and is a pale, bright green colour.

I remember trying a sample of this ink a long time ago, but thought it a bit light to write with. Now I have a few paler inks that I regularly use and quite like this colour.

Chiku-rin didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. The ink was well-behaved.

It felt a little drier than some of the other P.I. inks I have recently written with, as I noticed a bit more feedback with my steel nibs, but it had good flow and still felt fairly smooth while writing.

It dried in 10 seconds on the Clairefontaine Triomphe paper and didn’t smear after it was dry.

Available in attractive Pilot Iroshizuku 50ml and mini 15ml glass bottles from many outlets Worldwide. Prices vary quite a bit so it’s wise to shop around.

• Flow Rate: Good - felt slightly dryish.
• Lubrication: Fairly smooth.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Not saturated
• Shading Potential: Some nice shading seen.
• Show-through/Bleed-through: A little seen on cheaper papers.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: None seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Washed off of my hands very easily.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but the underlying dye shows very good water resistance.

PI chiku-rin.jpg