Ink Review: Sailor Shikiori Shigure

[Chrissy]

Today I’m reviewing Sailor Shikiori Shigure ink. Shigure is a very dark purple, almost black ink. As a purple it leans more blue than red and it is a well saturated ink. If you leave your pen filled with Shigure for any length of time it will begin to look even darker.

I found it quite wet with very good flow. Lubrication on the nib felt very smooth across the paper. You don’t need to use Shigure in a really wet writing pen. Inks of this type of colour are usually wet.

Shigure 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 very well-behaved.
It dried fairly quickly in approximately 15 seconds on the Clairefontaine Triomphe paper and didn’t smear after it was dry.

I didn’t see any sheen and only saw some shading with the finer nibs that I used. Shigure was previously in the Jentle line up and I think it maybe even looks a little darker in the Shikiori version. It wasn’t difficult to clean out of my pens nor off of my hands.

Available in 20ml Sailor glass bottles from The Writing Desk. Thanks to them for sending me a sample to review.

• Flow Rate: Very good. Wet.
• Lubrication: Very smooth.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Well saturated
• Shading Potential: Sometimes seen with finer nibs and drier writing pens.
• Show-Through: Sometimes 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 after 2 weeks - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Washed off of my hands easily.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows some water resistance.

Sailor Shigure.jpg