Pilot Iroshizuku - Fountain Pen Ink (50mL) - Kon-Peki

It's blue. So, it might not feel all that special when there are so many brilliant colours and shades and shimmers and sheens on the market. But, it is captivating and invites you to write far more than you might have otherwise. It isn't a "standard" blue but also doesn't feel "out there". It feels completely work appropriate AND special enough to pick on purpose for journaling or letter writing.
It has incredible flow and consistency and works across a wide range of papers. It bleeds through the absolute lowest quality paper...but pretty much everything does. Easy to clean, easy to use, easy to love.
Out of a field of more than half a dozen blue inks, this one won out and is my staple, go-to blue. Sure, it isn't as saturated as Asa-gao or have as much shading a Lamy Blue or have the value proposition of Namiki blue...but it quietly stands out as the best for me.

I liked it as soon as I saw it, even before knowing how much ink enthusiasts loved it. It was the second ink I tried, after Shin Kai, at my local shop, when they still had the Iroshizuku ink display with what looked like 24 Pilot Petit with calligraphy nibs, which all screwed back into the display.

I can’t call Kon-Peki a sky blue, because that title goes to Ama-Iro, and it’s not green enough to be a turquoise, especially when pitted against J. Herbin Kyanite du Népal (w/o sparkles), Diamine Asa Blue or Robert Oster Bondi Blue. It’s a mid-blue, perhaps close to cyan, similar to Sailor Jentle Sky High (or Shikiori Souten).

Kon-Peki has red sheen visible in all nib widths and dries rather quickly for such a wet ink; it works well in all my pens even in my Sailor 1911S 21 kt H-M, which is very stingy in supplying ink; it cleans out of pens easily despite its high saturation level—well, a bit of elbow grease is required for inky fingers, though!

I’ve observed no skipping, hard starts, nib dry-out, bleedthrough, and also no feathering on all but one of my papers: Oxford Optik; to be fair, all the Iroshizuku inks I’ve tried feather on it. Kon-Peki did wonderfully well on Rhodia, Clairefontaine, TR, Graphilo and other Japanese papers. There is some ghosting on thinner paper in heavily saturated areas, but very little with my generous Sailor 1911L 21 kt H-B. It is readable in all nib sizes.

I particularly like it on white paper, out of any rhodium plated 21 kt Sailor nib!

This blue is unusual enough to be interesting, but usual enough to be a good daily-writing ink. It's a deep sky-blue, as if you were writing with liquid blueing (an old-time laundry whitening rinse), and the colour is deep enough to provide strong contrast on the page, for easy reading.

It also has fantastic nib-cling, making it ideal for my antique flex-nibbed fountain pens, and even the super-flexy G-nibs in my dip-pens. If an ink has enough cling to do Engrosser's Script without railroading, it's really impressive. This ink is impressive!

I absolutely agree with Kwen that $40. is absolutely crazy for any 50ml bottle of ink. I would never pay that much though I do use Iroshizuku inks by ordering the odd bottle of a particularly loved color from Japan. Much less expensive that way and lets me purchase way too many bottles of Diamine, Noodler's, Waterman, J. Herbin amongst others from my favourite store...Wonder Pens.

Of course that is not Wonder Pen's fault, either the price nor my overindulgence of ink. Pilot pricing is crazy like this across the world. Only the U.S. and Japan seem to enjoy reasonable pricing in their own currency.

On the other hand, I disagree that the ink is overrated. The colours are stunning in hue, shading ability and depth. They exhibit little feathering and bleed-through on most papers and are well behaved in pens, causing no staining and have easy clean-up. Maybe not a concern in a Metropolitan but it is in a Custom 823 or other similar demonstrator pens.

cnt'd part 2

This ink happens to be really good with shading, and is really well behaved! So whats the problem?

The price. $40 is insane. There really isn't anything special about this ink other than the bottle. And at that, the bottle is tiny.

Furthermore (not specific to Kon-peki) there aren't the basic ink colors you would find. Where's a true black? True red?