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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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