Sailor started releasing a new lineup – the 50 States collection – early in 2019 with California and Colorado inks. Recently New York and Texas followed. I was surprised when Virginia and Illinois joined the set so quickly with only about 2 months between releases. Thank you to Dromgoole’s for sending over both Virginia and Illinois so we could show the newest two states.
As with each ink in the Sailor 50 States collection, Virginia comes with a brief description of the reason behind the color choice. Virginia’s state bird, the cardinal, is a welcome sight to see, especially when standing out from the snow in the winter. The red is so striking that the Catholic church named Cardinals after the bird rather than the other way around!
The colorful backdrop of ink splatters on the labels is a wonderful touch for continuity through the States collection.
The sheen in Virginia can be seen as soon as the bottle is open with the first look at this orangish red ink.
I was quite happy seeing Virginia is so close to one of my favorite inks – Bungubox Ink of Naotora, although it is closest to Diamine Communication Breakdown but has less sheen. Brown undertones are brought out with the brownish-gold sheen.
Illinois is a brilliant blue that was inspired by the Chicago skyline. Even the drawing of the skyline makes me want to head out and catch a glimpse!
Again, the theme of the ink splatter background is a great touch with this series.
When first opened, there seemed to be a slight sheen on the bottle threads, but more understated than most of the previous States inks. Even just in the bottle cap the blue is brilliant blue rather than showing up as a dark navy.
Sailor Illinois is very close to Pure Pens Saltie (which is only sold from Pure Pens in England) and slightly darker than Robert Oster Flaming Blue. I was actually surprised to find more sheen in Illinois than in the Flaming Blue. Illinois’ sheen is very subtle, however. But it does show in normal writing – enough that it brings a special quality to your writing but not so much as to be obvious at first glance.
In writing, Sailor Virginia was on the dry side while Illinois was just barely on the dry side of normal.
The difference in the amount of sheen between Illinois and Virginia is easy to see when the two are beside one another. I did find I needed to be a bit careful with Illinois when it was drying. Even when I thought it was dry, it smeared a bit. After it had dried for an hour, however, this didn’t happen. I was didn’t have the same issue with Virginia, but I do recommend extra drying time for any sheening ink. I always keep a piece of blotter paper in the back of my notebook to ensure no ink transfers to the opposing page when I close it. If I can’t leave the book open after writing, I slip the blotter paper in front of the most recent page. It also doubles as a quick bookmark.
The price for the Sailor 50 States collection inks is $25 for 20mL at Dromgoole’s, making the inks rather expensive even for Sailor. But I do believe that a state ink from a special state is a special item to add to your ink collection or a wonderful gift idea for a fountain pen enthusiast. Do you have a favorite state that you want to see as the next ink from Sailor?
Tools:
- Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
- Ink: Sailor Virginia and Sailor Illinois (20mL, $25 each)
DISCLAIMER: Some items in this review were provided free for the purpose of this review. Except for the Col-o-ring which was provided to me by a wonderful person who pays me to write blogs by keeping me supplied with Col-o-rings. Please see the About page for more details.
Whatever the reason, I have one desk in my office currently designated for all things work, and one desk designated for all things ink. I typically use paintbrushes and glass pens for ink swabs. I consider the paintbrush the “gold standard” of swabbing an ink, but brushes require time and dedication to clean properly between each ink. The same is true of 
Playing with ink is meant to be fun and relaxing, so I’m not saying speed and efficiency should be prioritized. But when you have minimal time to take breaks, you find creative ways to maximize that time. That “creativity” had me wondering if there were other options I had not previously considered.
Spoiler alert: Massive rabbit hole ahead.
It started rather simply. I found a 
The first goal was to find a suitable replacement for my newly beloved foam swabs. I tested the plastic square tool from the cake decorating set and the tiny metal makeup spatulas.
I also tested the silicone brushes from the clay sculpting set and the tiny purple silicone spatulas.
Overall, all of the above tools get the ink onto the paper, but the end result varies a bit from tool to tool. Some show a little more shading than others or shading in a different part of the swab. The major difference between the paintbrush/foam swab and the rest of the tools comes when you are trying to make a straight line. Nothing really comes close to the clean lines of the swab or the brush.
However, if you’re going for a more abstract approach, the re-useable tools produce results that are much closer to the brush or swab.
The cake decorating and clay sculpting kits also came with tools with ball tips of various sizes.
It takes a little bit of practice, but these tools produce lines similar-ish to what you might get from speedball nibs of various sizes. The main difference is that you need to re-dip the tool into the ink every 1-2 letters. The upside is that means they are a breeze to clean.
The cake decorating set also came with some other wacky tools, and let’s just say I had some fun with these.
Unfortunately, many of the pointy tools that look similar to the tip of a glass pen are not very useable with ink. The ink just doesn’t get transferred to the tip of the tool with enough consistency to produce any kind of normal writing.
However, several of the tools here were particularly fun when you applied ink to the page first and then used the tool to spread the ink across the page. This was especially fun when multiple inks were applied to the page at one time.
Out of all the tools I used, there are a few that stand out as the tools most likely to get regular use in my ink rotation.
The silicone and metal spatulas are probably the most practical. They both suffer from the need to repeatedly re-dip into the ink, but they certainly get the job done. None of the tools replicate a paintbrush or the foam swab perfectly, but the 
The two tools that surprised me the most and produced the craziest results were two additional cake decorating tools. I used a pipette to put two different inks on the page and used the tool to drag the inks across each other. The results produced some gorgeous colors. The blue curved plastic tool actually produces some really nice character and variation in the lines it creates.
I may not have found the perfect reusable solution yet to replace my foam swabs, but I definitely added several new unconventional tools to my ink desk.
I think I would call that a successful trip down a rabbit hole. Do you use any unconventional tools to test your inks?
