Sailor Shikiori Yamadori: Ink Review

Sailor's Yamadori fountain pen ink, formerly of the Jentle series and now part of the Shikiori series, is a dark blueish teal ink with lovely shading and rich coloration. You can even get some sheen on specific papers with enough ink.

Ink Review 

Supplies Used:

• LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib
• Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, 80g white paper
• Tomoé River 52 gsm white paper
• Leuchtturm1917 80g notebook

Smear Test (Dry Time):

• 5-10 seconds – Yamadori has a quick dry time on Rhodia and makes for an enjoyable writing experience. It dries a bit slower on Tomoe River, so be careful about smearing when using large nibs on this slick paper.

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

• Low – After the test, the water left a smudged, faint blue line behind. It may withstand some water, but not much.

Saturation:

• High – Yamadori starts off pretty dark, and you can see the gradient between 1, 2, and 3, but the coloration gets a little darker with more ink on the page.

Ease of Cleaning:

• Medium – Yamadori is easy to flush from the pen, but the darker blue color will take just a few seconds more to flush compared to a lighter ink color.

Shading:

• Medium/High – Yamadori has lovely shading in larger nibs. The LAMY medium nib gave a pleasant shade and even a hint of sheen.

Flow:

• High – Yamadori feels a touch wetter than some of Sailor's other inks. The Jentle line was a wet writing set of inks, and their movement to the Shikiori line has not changed their qualities.

 Packaging and Aesthetics:

• The Shikiori line comes in a gorgeous glass bottle with a gold-colored faceted cap. The labels feature a calming pattern on the front, clearly marked with the color's name.

If you're interested in similar colors, check out our Swab Shop where you can compare shades side by side.

Summary:

The Sailor Shikiori Yamadori fountain pen ink is a vibrant, blue-green color featuring some sheening capabilities, depending on the paper used. This medium-saturated ink won't take a lot of elbow grease to clean, but additional rounds of flushing water out of your feed unit might help avoid mixing ink colors or pen malfunctions. 

This color is available in 20ml bottles and cartridges along with our sample size.