Super solid, well-behaved, blue-black. On certain papers with a wet pen, you can even get some lovely sheen from it. Will shade slightly without it being distracting or making the writing hard to read.
Not waterproof/resistant, but like all Iroshizuku inks it is very easy to clean out of pens. Will not stain your pen and is safe for use in demonstrators.
Shin-Kai is a blue blue-black that leans a teensy-weensy towards the red side. It is not an overly saturated ink, so I obtained some shading, and it’s not undersaturated, so I obtained some red sheen, the latter visible with wet pens. The ink flows easily, coats the nibs well, and dries rather quickly; it cleans out easily as well.
I’ve observed no feathering or bleedthrough, just the typical ghosting on thinner papers. It worked flawlessly in all my Sailor 1911 L 21 kt nibs, from H-EF to H-B; it was even a pleasant writing experience with my 1911S 21 kt H-M, which is a dry writer, and the pen I like the least, and I was able to lay down a readable dark line without it being very saturated. Actually, this ink lays down a dark line regardless of nib tipping.
I like this ink very much; I find it’s more navy than blue-black, and it reminds me of Diamine Tchaikovsky from the Music collection. It’s darker than J. Herbin 1670 coll. Bleu Océan 1st edition without the sparkles, but lighter than J. Herbin Bleu des Profondeurs, which is blacker.
This is the first Iroshizuku ink I tried at my local shop, when they had the ink display with what looked like the Pilot Petit with a calligraphy nib. One pen per colour, and they all screwed back into the display. Of course, I had to try all the inks. The three I still remember liking the most are Shin-Kai, Kon-Peki and Yama-Budo; but I left with a bottle of Tsuyu-Kusa!
I bought a sample of Shin-Kai to make sure I still liked it. Yup!
I just bought the Wonder Pens/Edison limited edition "Le Beaumont" fountain pen & bought a bottle of this ink to go with it. I love the dark blue shade. It is in a fancy styled bottles well. You can never go wrong with Pilot Inks.
I absolutely love this blue-black. It has lovely shading and a soft red sheen. It goes down as a royal blue but dries to a softer denim colour. I feel like this ink is what Noodler's Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham wants to be when it grows up.
As with all Iro inks, its performance is perfect. Wet and smooth, makes every pen feel like a star.
Beautiful shading with an italic nib. Writes on as a bright blue but dries to a dark blue which makes it feel special to me. The bottle and packaging are beautiful as well this makes a wonderful gift for a fountain pen enthusiast.
