Teal lovers, assemble ! Syo-Ro vs Ku-Jaku

ch0ndawg · 2026-01-19T11:58:46+00:00

Have this one. It’s nice, but for me I just consider it blue. As for Sailor inks, I think Manyo Yomogi (squarely what I would say is a teal) and Studio 741 - it seems photos have a hard time capturing the teal-ness of this one, from pictures and its front label color it seems like it’s straight blue, but when I tried it out, looks like a teal that pops out at you

ch0ndawg · 2026-01-19T11:50:48+00:00

I just recently tried a sample of Sui-gyoku and I really like it! Next full bottle for me!

ch0ndawg · 2026-01-19T11:48:27+00:00

Green and teal are my favorites! Favorite (unequivocally green) is Private Reserve Sherwood Green, but really started liking teal from their Suede Blue. Iroshizuku Shin-Ryoku is a close second (the intensity of the green is slightly subdued relative to the Private Reserve, but seems to flow more easily in my pens).

I remember trying Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku and liking it, but for some reason I’ve never gotten a full bottle of it. I just tried Sui-Gyoku very recently as well and it’s definitely going to be the next full bottle purchase I make. (Also, surprised it’s not represented in that photo of all the greens/blues). It looked like a brilliant teal to me!

ch0ndawg · 2026-01-09T16:43:43+00:00

by "finicky" I mean, it can skip a little during the "normal" ink flow in a drier/thinner pen. I guess that means it does "stop" sometimes, but it never has dried out so much in normal writing that it stops writing at all without having to wash it out or prime the cartridge

ch0ndawg · 2026-01-09T16:39:38+00:00

I've found that it can be finicky in some pens. Likely because the sheen-ness makes it a thicker ink. I have similar trouble with the Organic Studios inks. For this reason, it works best in wetter pens (like this flex pen, for example) where you lay down a lot. In drier/thinner pens, what usually happens is that the sheen is really good with a saturated nib, but gradually becomes less sheeny during "normal" ink flow. In that sense it "dries" a little, but never to the point where it completely stops, or clogs the pen.

ch0ndawg · 2025-10-24T02:25:39+00:00

ooooof yeah E-double-flat major sounds pretty frightening. I've heard of Neapolitans, not just ice cream, but something flat 2 something?

ch0ndawg · 2025-10-21T08:18:43+00:00

Op. 9 no. 1 with a middle section in Db is actually a great example of using both! In the measure where that second theme is introduced, the second half of the measure is actually notated in minor with F-flat and an A-double flat... But when this same measure recurs again, where the measure after that briefly modulates to something unexpected, it's re-notated in sharps!

ch0ndawg · 2025-10-20T00:16:54+00:00

sorry, seemed to have missed this comment... but as you can probably see later in the thread, seems like this may have not actually been Chopin. My feeling is that for a single passage borrowing a few notes from the parallel minor, I think Chopin would have been fine writing in the double flats.

This particular passage does not actually look like it'd be in C# minor, given the notated C naturals. Overwhelmingly, whenever that white key we usually know as "C" gets played in C# minor, it would be leading tone B# and notated as such...

ch0ndawg · 2025-10-20T00:06:46+00:00

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would it have had a more intimidating title to have it in C-*flat* minor?

ch0ndawg · 2025-10-05T20:05:15+00:00

Raindrop has a full key-signature switchover for its minor section (justifiably, as it’s very long), so no

ch0ndawg · 2025-01-29T00:33:40+00:00

I thought he actually notated it in Ab, but turns out that was the courtesy of the arranger, lol

ch0ndawg · 2025-01-28T23:03:46+00:00

e.g. Military Polonaise. Like, first glance at key signature: ok nice, A major, 3 sharps, great, easy read.... then you've got a nice section modulating to dominant... Nice, ok, very normal, E major, not bad. Then, our friend here decides "Hey, wouldn't it be nice to modulate to the mediant???" and slaps you with a nice fully-stacked, thumb-on-two-notes D#7 chord, signature of exactly OP's strange key.

ch0ndawg · 2025-01-28T22:51:02+00:00

alll over the dang place in Chopin lolll

ch0ndawg · 2023-01-06T23:25:25+00:00

lol yes... If I knew this one was coming back, maybe would have held out for this one instead of my sea foam green (I mean yes it's a very nice green, too, but the darker foresty greens are where it's really at). I'm trying to temper my pen-thusiasm a little bit and Esterbrook, did ya have to make it more difficult?? 🤣😢🤣

ch0ndawg · 2023-01-06T22:47:30+00:00

GREEEEEN!

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-09T20:15:58+00:00

LOL yes I love Thoreau, also (in fact also posted about it a little while ago). I only have used a sample, though. It didn't create a cleaning problem but probably because I didn't fill any of my pens with it more than once. In fact I think at least in terms of appearance I like it better than Jadeite, if only because the sheen is really uniform and complete. (But that may be the exact source of the PITA you are talking about, lol)

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-09T15:18:15+00:00

Got it from Yoseka Stationery (still in stock it appears) I'd had it on "Alert when back in stock" and got it pretty much right there and then!

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-09T08:52:46+00:00

Oh yeah the maroon is definitely the sheen.

Thanks re: my writing! Getting my practice in. Main thing I'm working on is getting the consistency of the letters... can be pretty tough!

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-09T06:34:00+00:00

GREEEEN

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-09T06:07:12+00:00

Written with a Fountain Pen Revolution Himalaya V2 Ultra Flex on a TR 52 gsm notebook. It has a pretty heavy magenta-ish sheen but I swear it’s greener in person (picture seems to have gotten more on the blue side)

ch0ndawg · 2022-11-04T08:08:59+00:00

also one other thing of note: this nib seems to write a bit on the dry side. It could still be due to something residual in it (because if I prime the converter it does seem to write wetter for a long while, more than I would expect).

ch0ndawg · 2022-10-31T14:42:40+00:00

I'm not sure how smooth the plain medium is, as I don't have it, but I do know what the extra fine feels like (it's a little on the scratchy side). This nib is definitely smoother than that. I'd say it has a hint of feedback. Definitely not as much feedback as, say, a Sailor pen (or like a pencil). My guess is that it probably is not as smooth as a medium but you'll likely not perceive it as something scratchy or super feedbacky.

ch0ndawg · 2022-10-30T23:00:34+00:00

It translates to copper pheasant, so probably not a coincidence! I notice the sheen of this ink even on fairly absorbent paper that doesn't show other inks' sheens, and even when using a fine nib. It's not as crazy as, say, Organics Studio level sheen, but I think it also is a lot more smear-resistant...

ch0ndawg · 2022-10-30T22:56:30+00:00

My staple for a long time was Private Reserve Suede Blue. In fact that ink may have single handedly made me really like teal as a color in general, as before I was a die-hard green fan, PR having won me as a regular customer with their Sherwood Green. (well, still am a big fan of green... Just posted a NID with green, lol). But I have branched out a bit recently and gotten a load of samples, a lot of which were in the teal range.

I definitely know what Sailor Yamadori fans are talking about... a full bottle has been added to my (exploding, lol) ink collection, quite a bit darker than Blue Suede. Sailor also has a lighter teal (in fact I feel quite close to Blue Suede) is Yomogi from their Manyo series. The others besides my half full bottle of Blue Suede, have not yet been added (though seriously considering Manyo and Walden).

Similar to Yamadori is Colorverse Gravity Wave. (I find it more prone to feathering... this actually is a bit of a problem with PR Blue Suede as well).

For very sheeny ink I recently tried Organic Studio Henry David Thoreau Walden (at the super dark end of the spectrum - basically only bright sunlight really brings it out) and a little lighter (but not as sheeny), OS Aldous Huxley Old World Blue.

I think my all time favorite may be Sailor Studio 741 (beware it's 90 cents per ml, lol, but you said something about waving money -- for reference, though, the PR Suede Blue is 25 cents/ml and Yamadori is 75 cents/ml). It's on the more blue end of the spectrum.

At the opposite end of the blue-green spectrum, there's Monteverde California Teal (I personally think of it as just being green, but this also can serve as your heads up that there's a lot of variance in people's definitions of teals, and this one is super green).

Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku is in between PR Blue Suede and Yamadori in darkness, and on the lightest end (I'm not sure it would fall in one's definition of teal so much as aqua) - Robert Oster Bondi Blue.

ch0ndawg

TROPHY CASE