Sailor Souten

Next up is Souten (or "Blue Sky"). This is a bright, but light, blue. Unless you use a really wet nib you're probably going to think that this is a bit too light for everyday use. It's a nice blue, but it ends up being my least favorite of all these new inks. Don't get me wrong, it's still a really nice ink. It's just the least great of a stellar collection.

Thanks goes out to Anderson Pens for providing these samples to review.

It's a nice looking ink that behaves really well, even on copy paper. There's a little show-through, but that's about all. 

 Front and back on copy paper.

Ultimately, I'm fairly sure that my Pilot Custom 74 is having a bit of a flow problem, and I really wanted to like this ink, so I tried it in a variety of other nibs. 

It looks pretty good from the Kaweco's broad nib, and it looks pretty okay from my Rotring 600, but I'm just not a big fan. This is almost certainly supposed to replace the awesome Sailor Jentle Sky High, and I can't help but compare them. As you can see (above and below), Sky High is both darker and deeper than Souten. I think that's the extra bit that makes me like Sky High more. 

I might end up liking Visconti's Blue more than either Sky High or Souten...

I was curious, so I did some simple chromatography. 

 I think it's the extra dark blue component that makes the difference.

Water Drop Test & Review Video:

**This ink sample was provided to me, free of charge, for review purposes. The opinions expressed are all mine.**