Sailor Fountain Pen, Pigment Bottle Ink, 1.7 fl oz (50 ml), Ultra Black 13-2002-220

Color & legibility: A rich blue-black that leans blue, with crisp contrast for notes and forms. Writes cleanly: Smooth flow with tidy lines; minimal feathering/bleed on decent paper. Water resistance: Once dry, text remains readable after a quick water splash/blot test. Everyday friendly: Professional look without being dull; great for journaling and work. IMPORTANT FYI ON THE INK IN GENERAL: Dry time: Moderately slow on coated paper; finer nibs mitigate this. Maintenance: It’s a pigmented (“nano”) ink—routine cleaning keeps pens happy. Tone expectations: More “blue-black” than “near-black.” MY TESTS Used in fine and medium nib fountain pens on standard office paper and a smooth notebook stock. No clogging or staining observed with normal cleaning. Attractive blue-black with readable contrast Very good water resistance after drying Clean outlines; controlled shading

I hesitated for quite a while before buying this - debating between this (13-2002-242, Seiboku) and the Souboku ink. While I don't have the latter now, deciding after reading many reviews and articles, to try Seiboku (this ink) I'm so very glad that I did! I LOVE the color. Often described as a blue-black, it decidedly leans to the blue, with a little green (teal, some say) but it's just "luxurious!" YMMV, but if you're debating, maybe seeing if you can find a sample to try it. One of these days I want to try a sample of its cousin Souboku, but I just love this one so much I'm not honestly sure of the need for anything else. My other favorite is Platinum Carbon Black (another pigment ink). I call them "security" inks because the pigments (nano particles) truly binds to the paper so that it's almost impossible to remove it (search "pigment vs. dye ink"). They are "permanent" without being long-term deleterious to the paper, as iron gall (at least the "old fashioned" iron galls) could be (at least over the decades and honestly no one will be reading anything I wrote decades from now!). And I find that this flows so much more nicely than the iron gall inks (e.g. R&K) that I have - they're really nice, but aren't as enduring - I've tested them as described below and they are NOT "permanent" in certain solvents as the pigment inks are). If you look up "check washing" you'll see what I'm talking about. There are articles and videos demonstrating it. I took samples of Carbon Black and Seiboku on standard (nothing fancy at all) writing paper, let them dry a day, and soaked them in: 1. Water, 2. Isopropyl alcohol (91%), 3. hydrogen peroxide, 4. acetone - the apparently "classic" ink washer - nail polish remover and 5. household BLEACH. Let them all sit for 3 days soaking. At the end, Carbon and Seiboku were TOTALLY legible in EVERY ONE of these liquids. Indeed, the bleach actually DESTROYED THE PAPER (it fell apart as I removed it from the container, but the INK REMAINED!). I also tested ballpoint inks, iron gall and dye inks in this experiment, some of them literally disappeared with soaking, but not these two! So anything you want to STAY on paper likely WILL with either of these two (Uni-ball pigment gel ink performed the same in my tests, that's my daily non-fountain ink). I only use these for writing, not drawing, so can't comment on that use; some seem to say that water bleeds them, but I can only suspect that it's if applied immediately after laying down the Seiboku. Once it dries, in my experiment there was no bleeding or ink loss whatsoever (but remember, I allowed the inks to dry for about a day before exposing them to those solvents). Some note that the ink dries and gums up the pen or is hard to clean. I've been using mine almost exclusively in Platinum pens (e.g Prefounte, Plasir; what can I say, I'm practical and go for nice, but inexpensive, pens!) and they have a proprietary cap that seals the nib tightly. All I can say is that I've had a converter filled for more than 2 months and the ink flows immediately and nicely with those pens/nibs! I haven't had any issues cleaning. I can't say the same when I've used other of my pens (for example Lamy Safari) - some without the nib seal have required a little work to restart if there's been a couple days since last use. All in all, one of my favorites! Best wishes!

I have been using this ink for years now, and won't use anything else, one reason is it's resistance to feathering on cheap copy type paper we use at work...for me, this works very well on cheap paper. Nice solid black color, flows well, looks great on the page...does everything well. I hope Sailor never discontinues this ink! Despite the "pigment" description, I have never had any issue with clogging feeds or nibs, and I've had pens sit for months with this ink, unused, and a little drop of water restores flow, like it never happened. It's worth mentioning that this ink has a distinct odor, it's not bad, but smells more like chemicals than the typical fountain pen ink...maybe that is its secret! Also makes it easy to figure out if it's Kiwaguro in the pen, just sniff the feed! Can't say enough good about this ink! A+++

I’ve been hunting for an ink that writes well with a pilot décimo! This was it. It’s smudge resistant, dries fast, affordable, and is a solid black. Well worth it although it does have a pungent smell.

This pigmented ink is great for cheaper papers. Doesn't bleed through most papers and is highly water resistant.

I've reduced my rating to 4 stars. Initially I gave it 5 stars because it is very black (it does not smudge blue either like some "black" inks), and it listed that it was water resistant. After having painted over it, I can say that it does have a slight bit more water resistant than my previous paint, but it's not quite there. Despite really liking this ink I do some watercolor paintings here and there and it's just not quite there for water resistance. As a left hander it does not smudge much under the hand though... and it is not impossible to wash off your hand while it does stick to paper pretty well. buuuut... Platinum carbon ink smudges less under watercolor paints with a lot of water. IF I did not watercolor I would be very happy with the color and flow of this ink though and it would be an easy 5 star.

My best performing ink on horrible paper. Well lubricated, permanent, etc. etc. Just note that of course you have to be careful with these permanent inks. Don't use it in a pen/converter that can't easily be disassembled/have a q-tip stuck into it to wash off leftover pigment particles. I personally found that letting soapy water sit in the converter for about a day did a good job of removing it from the walls of my converter, but please be careful. It doesn't actually interfere with anything once it's stuck there, but it does kinda look ugly lol.

Great ink! Works well with alcohol markers, doesn't smudge after it dries, and it dries quickly. Highly recommend having a bottle around, it works better for me than the Noodler's Bulletproof Black that I was using previously. The Noodler's would smudge even after a few days on my paper whereas the Sailor Kiwaguro ink dries within seconds. There is a faint smell that emanates from the bottle and even fainter from the pen itself when using this ink, but it's not a bad smell in my opinion. Someone in the reviews mentioned it has a "medical" smell. While it's a vague description, I find it accurate.