Jim P.

Father, geek, serial hobbyist.

Sailor Yurameku Date Gokoro: A tale of two colors, or: WTF?

Yes, this is the same ink swatched the same way. Not only does it look like a completely different base color, the sheening looks different as well. I like both, thankfully.

Scans

On Col-o-ring it looks purple with a lot of red sheen, even in the scan. On Iroful the ink looks dark blue. On MD it’s much more purple.

Scan of an ink swatch card made from Col-o-ring paper Scan of an ink swatch card made from Iroful paper Scan of an ink swatch card made from MD paper
Swatch Card Scans. Click to enlarge.

The shading on MD makes it go between violet and plum, which is another significant shift.

Photos

More sheen shows on the photos. On Col-o-ring it looks purple with a lot of red sheen. On Iroful the ink looks dark blue with a little red sheen. On MD it’s much more purple with less sheen.

Swatch card reading "Sailor Date Gokoro", a couple pen scratches, and large blobs of ink made with the back end of a glass dip pen. On this paper the ink appears to be a dark red/purple with some reflective sheen overall. Swatch card reading "Sailor Date Gokoro", a couple pen scratches, and large blobs of ink made with the back end of a glass dip pen. On this paper, the ink looks like a midnight blue/purple with some red sheen in places where more ink has settled. Swatch card reading "Sailor Date Gokoro", a couple pen scratches, and large blobs of ink made with the back end of a glass dip pen.
Swatch Card Photos. Click to enlarge.

Comparisons

I tried it on different paper but none quite had the dramatic extremes of Col-o-ring vs Iroful. That at least tells me while neither one alone will necessarily demonstrate an ink’s true color, together they provide a useful bracketed frame of reference.

There were some nice variations between certain parts on different papers, especially MD/Life Noble which showed multi-shading well.

Clairefontaine Triomphe. Writing is more uniformly red. Ink blob is more blue on left, red on right. Life Noble Note. Similar to MD with three areas. MD MD Notebook. Writing has three different areas. Heavily shaded areas are more red, some that are in between, and some areas with lighter shading are more blue. Paperage Notebook. Writing is more blue, shading is more red. Left side of blob is purple, right side is much more red. Tomoe River S Kanso. Writing is mixed, some areas more blue, shaded areas more red. Blob is more neutral overall, but a little more blue on left, red on right where more ink settled.
Comparison Photos. Click to enlarge.

Microscope

Ink under Magnification. Click to enlarge.

Chromatography

Scan of chromatography paper. It has some purple around the edges and in the transition area between red and blue.
Chromatography strip scan

The Chromatography is mostly blue and then transitions to red, with some purple along the edges. As I’ve noted on other swatches, you can sort of draw a line down the middle of the chromatography strip and Iroful shows the lower portion more prominently in the background of the paper while the upper portion is in the paper fibers and edges of the lines.

Photo of chromatography paper under UV light.
Chromatography strip photo under UV light

Nothing too noteworthy under UV light, but there is a slight blue glow in the empty area near the leading edge and around the front.

Verdict

Color trickery aside, the ink is really good. I’ve used it in EF and stub nib pens and it’s done well in both. It is a tad on the dry side, but not too dry. In an EF Kakuno it makes a great ink to write on super absorbent paper such as my chromatography strips. It’s the ink I’ve used to label almost all of mine.

Based on a Mastodon Post

Updated:

Questions or comments? Contact me on Mastodon

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