thINKthursday – Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday
Sailor Kin-Mokusei

The 8 new Sailor Seasons inks are here… soon. We were lucky enough to get bottles of the soon-to-be-reissued Sailor Four Seasons inks and we’ll be reviewing the colors before they become available in October.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday – Sailor Kin-Mokusei

Kin-Mokusei was the first on my must try list and it does not disappoint. The heir of the sought after Apricot ink, it is a beautiful bright yellow-orange that has a generous amount of shading. This review was done with a Conklin All-American F, Lamy Safari 1.1, and on Rhodia blank no.18 paper.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

I should state right off the bat that I have not tried the original Sailor Apricot* – I have only seen reviews online so any comparisons made should be taken with a grain of salt. That being said, for all those wanting to get their hands on a bottle of Apricot, Kin-Mokusei is a very, very, very close match.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

Kin-Mokusei shades well in both fine and broad nibs. In a finer nib the color was a carrot orange with areas shading to a near honey color. A broader nib brought out a significantly more vibrant apricot color. The ink still had the carrot/honey colors found with the finer nib, but it had a larger range of color that most would associate with the old Sailor Apricot.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

Like any Sailor ink the flow was good, with low feathering and bleedthrough. Saturation was moderate and dry times were in the 20-25 second range. Kin-Mokusei had low water resistance, but a great range of shading.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

The longer I use Kin-Mokusei the more I appreciate how it is simultaneously vibrant without being bright. Many orange/red inks can strain the eyes with their saturation and how they contrast with white paper. Kin-Mokusei is eye catching and vivid, without falling into the trap of being obnoxiously intense.

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday - Sailor Kin-Mokusei

As with any ink review, the pen, paper, and person doing the writing will influence the way the ink looks. If you’re not sure about a color, try a sample to see if it’s the color for you.

Ink it Up!
Chris

New to thINKthursday?  No problem – I explain the formatting of my reviews here.

* Minutes before this review was to be published, two milliliters of Sailor Apricot miraculously appeared. A quick side by side comparison makes me believe that if Kin-Mokusei and Apricot are not actually one in the same, they at the very least share practically identical DNA:

thINKthursday - Sailor Apricot vs Sailor Kin-Mokusei

thINKthursday – Sailor Apricot vs Sailor Kin-Mokusei