Ink of the Week – Sailor Ink Studio 573

I know that we all have at least one, and for me this is it. That’s right, I’m talking about a bottle of ink that you purchased and never even used. This week we’re going to take a look at Sailor Ink Studio 573. A while back I was in Washington D.C. for work and made my first trip to Farhney’s Pens. I wanted to buy something, but couldn’t decide what to get. I figured a bottle of ink would work, but then couldn’t decide which one to get. I guess I was in an indecisive mood that day, probably due to being exhausted from exploring the city. Anyway, I randomly chose a Sailor Ink Studio color that looked interesting and went on my way. It went into my ink storage when I got home and didn’t come out until this week. Let’s experience this ink together!

Sailor Ink Studio 573

To start, let’s take a look at the ink itself. Based on the color on the bottle, I expected a rich, mustard-yellow color. It’s actually more of an orangey brown. It’s not quite pumpkin orange, not quite caramel brown. I guess it is pretty close to the label color, I just expected something a little different for some reason. I like it, but am not sure if it’s much different from a few other inks that I already own like Diamine Terracotta or KWZ Honey (I think it falls somewhere between the two).

This ink has a very interesting chromatography that I did not expect. When allowed to dissipate with water, pinks and yellows appear! The yellow is very intense and caught me off guard when I first saw it. I’m sure some people could make some really interesting art with this ink and some water.

It doesn’t have bad dry times, but like most Sailor inks is fairly wet and doesn’t dry super quickly. It does have a bit of dark sheen that shows up with wet nibs and really makes the ink pop. In other great news, it doesn’t tend to smear once it dries! This came as a surprise to me. It isn’t exactly waterproof, but a good amount of red stays behind on the pager after this ink is exposed to water, so it should still be legible if it gets wet.

The Pens I Used

Each week I choose five different pens to fill with the ink I’m testing. My goal is to get a variety of nib sizes and styles, as well as a mix of modern and vintage pens. Here are the pens I chose this week and some writing samples from each:

Lamy Safari – F nib

The fine nib in this Safari isn’t super wet and pairs nicely with this ink for writing. The ink looked lighter than with most other nibs, but still showed some shading. I also enjoyed doodling with it.

Secretary (vintage) – M nib

This vintage pen has a wetter nib that really makes this ink look great. It brings out the sheen, which helps make the ink look darker than with some of the other nibs. Probably my favorite of the week for writing.

Parker 45 (vintage) – M nib

This nib started out really wet, but settled into a slightly drier writing mode after a few lines. Once it dried out a bit it really started showing the shading of this ink.

Lamy 2000 – Custom grind Architect nib

This Lamy nib was too wet for this ink. I found it difficult to write with, which is interesting as I’ve never had that experience with this nib. I also tried doodling with it and didn’t have much luck. I guess some inks are just too wet to use with some nibs.

Sailor Pro Gear – Zoom nib

Speaking of wet nibs, I would have thought this combo wouldn’t work very well either. Sailor Zoom nibs are pretty wet, but maybe the extra surface area made this easier to write with? It’s a huge nib and not very practical for writing, but I didn’t experience any type of flooding issues like I did with the Lamy. It was a lot of fun to doodle with and made the ink look great!

Paper

On cheaper paper, this ink did tend to bleed a bit. I didn’t see much feathering. On good paper, it behaved very well with no observed bleedthrough or feathering. I think with a pen that’s not too wet, it would be fine to use on any paper. With a wetter nib, stick to fountain-pen-friendly paper.

Cleaning The Ink Out Of Pens

Inks that have red in them are usually difficult to clean out of pens. Surprisingly, this ink didn’t take too much work to get out of the pens this week. Of course, they weren’t clean with the first flush, but I had them all cleaned up fairly quickly. I would probably use this ink in any of my pens.

Conclusions

I am really glad that I finally used this ink! I always enjoy caramel-y, orange-y colors like this. While it is similar to Diamine Terracotta, which is a color that I already have, Sailor Ink Studio 573 is a fine ink. It has fantastic shading and doesn’t smear once it’s dry. It also has a really interesting chromatography. I’m excited to spend some time experimenting mixing it with water. It feels like an autumnal color, but I think I’d be happy to ink it up any time of year. I’m looking forward to using this “new” ink more often!