Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink - Kiri-Same 50mL

Very nice ink that dries somewhere between a cool grey with a hint of purple to cool grey with a hint of blue depending on the paper.

Kiri-Same is a beautiful grey that leans purple, but not as purple as Diamine Earl Grey, Sailor Shikiori Chushu or Kobe #10 Mikage Grey. Some say Kiri-Same has a brown undertone, but compared to inks that are brown-grey—Montblanc Oyster Grey and Stipula Grigio Lava, for example—this one definitely doesn’t. Kiri-Same sits nicely between Fuyu-Syogun and Oyster Grey, being warmer than Fuyu-Syogun but nowhere near a neutral or a warm brown… to my eye.

Has high saturation, moderate to mid-high shading and dries quickly. I haven’t seen any sheen with my paper and pen combos, not even in heavily saturated areas where the ink pools, but I did see some faint magenta haloing under the loupe. It worked flawlessly and is readable in all my Sailor 1911 L and S pens, with all nib sizes from H-EF to H-B, even in my dry 1911S 21kt H-M.

I like using this ink most on white paper, as it borders a neutral grey on ivory and cream paper. Also, it has an undertone that makes it distinguishable from graphite pencil leads.

Kiri-Same is a lovely grey that leans purple with my pen and paper combos. I was afraid it was going to be similar to Montblanc Oyster Grey, which, to my eye, seems to lean brown or taupe. Some people refer to Kiri-Same as a warm grey, but I think it is a cool grey; not as cool a grey as Fuyu-Syogun that leans blue, but still on the cool side of the colour spectrum.

Kiri-Same is lighter than my beloved richly coloured Diamine Earl Grey. Kiri-Same is the same tone as Kobe Mikage Grey #10 but much lighter. Like the rest of the Iroshizuku inks, this ink performs flawlessly in all my Sailor 1911 L and S pens, with all nib sizes from H-EF to H-B, even in my 1911S 21kt H-M, which is a dry writer. I prefer using Kiri-Same with my wet H-MF Lefty nib and my Kaweco Anthracite AL Sport sporting an F steel nib because the ink shows subtle shading in these two.

I’ve observed no smearing (it dries quickly!), skipping, hard starts, nib dry-out, bleedthrough, or feathering; there is some ghosting on thin stationery from heavily saturated areas. It is readable in all nib sizes and on all papers; the only paper that gave me grief was the Oxford Optik paper, on which many otherwise well-behaved inks tend to feather on it to begin with.

Very smooth, quick drying time, such a beautiful colour!!