Brand, Color: Iroshizuku's Tsuki-Yo, compared briefly with Chesterfield Night Sapphire
Paper: Clairefontaine grid.
Price: More or less $28/ in big fancy bottle for the Iro; about $8 for the CNS.
Intensity: Deep for both
Flow: CNS was a reluctant starter. Not so Iro.
Shading: Good for both
Summary: Want a bargain? Try the CNS. Want trouble-free? Go Iro.
Pen: Pilot Metropolitan Silver Dot
Price: Usually around $15. I paid too much at $18.Fill system: Cartridge/Converter. We hates Pilot converters for ever, Preciousssss.
Color, trim: Silver. And dot. With a black section.
Size, shape: Smallish, rounded ends.
Nib: Smooth, wet M
Heft: It's metal, so it's got some.
Summary: People love the Metro. Dr. Inkenstein is meh. Cap doesn't post well. Section is small, with a noticeable step that I did get used to after some time. It's metal.
Moar blue-blacks! That's the cry around Dr. Inkenstein's lair. Muahahaaaa.
And while we have managed, with the aid of costly lab equipment known as 'pipettes, eyedroppers, and plastic vials,' to laboriously create some pleasing variations of blue-black with a teal edge, out of completely different inks not at all related to one another, we feel that parading these inks around would make our dear readers insane with jealousy, uhm, we mean, would not well serve our dear readers, who, when they saw the loveliness of the concocted inks, could not, alas, be able to rush out and purchase them.
So here is Iroshizuku's Tsuki-Yo, in a Silver Dot Pilot Metropolitan, with a scribble of Chesterfield Night Sapphire on the side, for comparison's sake.
The Chesterfield NS is surpisingly close in color to Tsuki-Yo (especially on the page, not in the scan), at a fraction of the price, and especially when the Tsuki-Yo had not been accidentally diluted by water-dips to start at first, because it had been loaded in a cart rather than a con.
CNS is, however, a reluctant starter. A bit of dilution or a nib-dip solves that problem, but Dr. Inkenstein urges caution in using CNS in dry writers.
Tsuki-yo did not exhibit such reluctance. While the ink sample behaved itself, we must note that the only full bottle of Iroshizuku we have purchased is Ku-Jaku. Which may tell you something.
As for the Pilot itself, the step in the section bugged me but I got somewhat used to it. The more I used it the better I liked it but Dr. Inkenstein is casting a jaundiced eye on metal-bodied pens these days anyway. The pen looks 'significant.' The nib is smooth enough, the pen writes well enough, but I would reach for my Pilot 78G before this.
Dr. Inkenstein apologizes for the unintentionally bolded text but can do nothing to alleviate it. Stay tuned for further ink-splorations.
