I was totally caught by surprise when I saw the new North American exclusive Sailor ProGear Line Friends CONY Fountain Pen ($312). I squealed with delight at how cute it was! I am not familiar with the Line Friends series, but the characters look a lot like Sanrio-esque cute Japanese characters. I grew up as a Hello Kitty kid (quite the opposite to the goth teen I became, right?).

There have been some previous characters like a bear and a duck but oh, the pink CONY bunny! The design of the pen was more interesting as well.  I haven’t bought a new fountain pen for myself in awhile and then in the same week, I found the BENU Skull & Roses Crow and the CONY — the two sides of my Gemini personality, one half cute and the other, a little spooky. I hit Buy It Now and didn’t look back.

Are the current Sailor Pro Gear fountain pens quite expensive? Yes. Should I be supporting this kind of financial excessiveness? No. Did I buy it anyway? Yes.

The pen body is a mix of material colors: the cap is translucent pink with an opaque pink end cap, the body is a milky white with an opaque black end cap. The grip section (shown in a photo below) is a milky pink. The whole pen features silver hardware.

Through the milky barrel, it’s possible to see the color of the converter.

So, of course the converter is pink!

The end cap on the cap feature the smiley face of CONY.

And the best part? The engraved CONY on the nib.

I love the Sailor 14K EF nib and despite efforts to expand my nib options, for everyday journal and daily writing, I always go back to the Sailor 14K EF nib as my go-to. My first ink pick for the pen was Sailor Studio 237 but it was a bit too light with the EF nib. Monteverde Kindness is a much brighter pink than I had wanted to use but is way easier to read.

My conclusions: do I recommend that you drop over $300 for a limited edition Sailor ProGear Slim? Only if you have the cash and want a pink bunny pen. Do I recommend a ProGear Slim in general? Yes. Despite the escalating prices, the Sailor ProGear is still one of the best pens I’ve ever owned and there’s a reason why I have more than one.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Fountain Pen Review: Sailor Line Friends Cony (NA Exclusive) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Other than exterior colors, the key differences between a stock Sailor pen offering and a Nagasawa branded Pro Gear is the engraving on the nib and cap band and the custom low flat ink bottle icon on the end cap. From the perspective of “is this a real Sailor pen?” the answer is unequivocally yes.

The model I chose is the Gakuen-Toshi Fresh Green. The color is 100% me. Why I waited so long to purchase it is beyond me. I purchased the last of this particular color left on JetPens. It was originally sold at the same time as the coordinating ink along with several other ink/pen combos. While I don’t think the Gakuen Toshi pen and the ink of the same name are exactly a perfect match, I can live with that. Mostly because I love the color of the pen barrel.

While Gakuen Toshi and its fellow models are mostly sold out at this point, Nagasawa recently released its newest collection of Sailor Pro Gear Slim models, the Onomatopoeia series: Doki Doki (Pink), Puka Puka (Light Blue), and Kasha Kasha (Gray) ($299 each) which is a delightful collection and is only slightly more expensive than the pervious line (which sold for $253 on JetPens).

The Nagasawa nib is just as smooth as a Sailor-branded Pro Gear Slim. The writing experience was exactly what I’ve come to love about the Sailor 14k nibs. While I do get mushy when I get a 21k nib in hand, the 14k is still an excellent option. Since I was purchasing the absolute last Gakuen Toshi available at JetP

ens, I got the F nib which is one of my favorite Sailor nibs anyway. I really do need to branch out a bit.

If you have ever wondered, “What’s the deal with those Nagasawa/Kobe Sailor Pro Gear pens?” I hope this helped to clear it up a little and provide you with yet another channel to seek out unique and unusual Sailor models.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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When Pen Boutique originally reached out to me, I got a little confused. I thought they were sending the new North American Exclusive Pro Gear 2022 Pen of the Year Soda Pop Blue ($392 for standard, $280 for Slim). At a quick glance, it’s easy to see how I might mix the two up but there are some key differentiators: Soda Pop Blue has full transparent glitter body and gold hardware. The Bora Bora Waters pen features a turquoise blue material with dark, translucent blue end caps and grip section. The hardware is rhodium plated creating a cool waters vibe.

I confess, I much prefer the color combo and sliver hardware of the Bora Bora Waters over the Soda Pop Blue models.

The full size Pro Gear pens feature a beautifully etched 21K nib. I got the H-MF nib which is the “hard medium fine”. As far as I know, Sailor is the only pen manufacturer to offer a medium fine nib as a standard option. Since Japanese nibs are finer than Western nibs, the MF nib is probably the equivalent of a Western F nib.

Most of the Sailor Pro Gear pens I’ve acquired up to this point have been the Slim variety but having the Bora Bora Waters in my hand made me realize there is not really that much difference in the size of the “full size” Pro Gear versus the Slim. The above image shows the Bora Bora flanked n both sides with my rainbow of Slim models.

Of my Pro Gear Slim models, all of them are from Sailor directly except for the citrus green model which is a special Nagasawa Kobe Pen Style so the nib engraving is different. Otherwise, all the Slims feature the same 14K nibs. So, since the size difference between the full-size and slim models is relatively minor, most of the price difference for a full-sized Pro Gear is for the upgraded 21k nib.

For even more perspective on how small the full size Pro Gear is, above is an image of the Bora Bora Waters next to a Lamy AL-Star, Pilot Metropolitan, TWSBI Eco, Platinum 3776 and an Opus 88 Coloro (which is the smallest of Opus 88’s full-sized pens).

Even posted, the Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters full-size is shorter than most of the other pens shown.

Writing with the Bora Bora Waters, I realized how much I missed writing with my Sailor pens. I particularly like the 21k nib and I know that makes me a nib snob. While the 14k nibs are amazing to write with, they have some noticeable feedback when writing. The 21k nib reduces the feedback somewhat without creating an unpleasantly slippery writing experience and maintains the fine crisp lines of the 14k nib. It’s a fine balance between a nib that writes smoothly but provides necessary feedback and a nib that makes you feel like you’re ice skating.

Since I do have quite a few other Sailor pens at my disposal, I decided this would be a good opportunity to do a little nib width comparison. Of the Sailor pens shown previously, I have almost a full range of nib sizes (just missing a standard M and B and a Zoom).

I find that the difference between my custom ground EF needlepoint and the F nibs are minimal. The MF is a little bit wider but even with my small handwriting, the line is not so wide as to blot out my letter counters (the insides of a’s and e’s, for instance).

The Music nib is considerably wider but when compared with other music nibs, the Sailor music nib is not overly wide.

The Robert Oster Bora Bora Waters Ink (Pen Boutique Exclusive)

Along with the Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters fountain pen, Pen Boutique also had Robert Oster create a matching ink. If you want someone to make you a water-inspired ink, you want Robert Oster involved. So it was a wise move.

Robert Oster developed an exclusive ink color to coordinate with the pen, aptly named Bora Bora Waters (50ml bottle for $17).  The color is a bright aqua blue with a little sheening around the edges of letters and a whole lot of shading.

When compared with some of Robert Oster’s other aqua blues, Bora Bora Waters has some of the sheening of Blue Water Ice but the lighter shading of Blue River. When compared to other brands, Diamine Turquoise is similar as is Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. Lamy Pacific Blue is a little lighter.

If you have as extensive an ink collection as I do, you may not need another aqua blue but if you’re looking for one of Oster’s epic aquas, this one is a good option.

As for the Bora Bora Waters fountain pen, if you’ve never tried a 21k gold Sailor, this would be a great place to start.

Final little detail is the new logo on the box. It definitely caught my eye so I pulled an old box to show the difference. Do you like the new logo?

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters Fountain Pen (Pen Boutique Exclusive) ($392 for the Standard Size)
• Ink:  Robert Oster Signature Ink Bottle Bora Bora Waters (Pen Boutique Exclusive) (50ml bottle for $17)
  

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DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Pen Boutique for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Shikiori is Japanese for “seasons” or “four season” and the colors included in this set are the same colors as the colors as the inks in the Shikiori bottled inks: Irori, Sakura Mori, Yuki Akari, Kin Mokusei, Yodaki, Okuyama, Yozakura, Chu-Shu, Souten, Doyou, Yonaga, Tokiwa-Matsu, Waka-Uguisu, Rikyu-Cha, Shimayo, Fuji-Mujime, Miruai, Nioi-Sumire, Shigure, Yamadori.

It was a bit of a challenge to match the pen colors to the names listed on the back of the package since the only writing on the pen barrels, besides “Sailor Shikiori” and “Fine” and “Brush” was written in Japanese.

The dots of color on the caps, hint at the colors but do not always accurately represent the ink inside. I would recommend swatching the pens yourself and keeping scratch paper handy in case you need to verify which color is which or making labels for the pens in your own language.

The brush cap end of the pen include a small nub that acts as a roll stop for the pen. The brush cap end also posts on to the fine tip end with no issues but the fine tip cap does not seem to post very well. The raised LEGO-style stud at the end of the cap appears like it should fit into the end of the brush cap end but it feels very unstable when I tried — like wearing a floppy hat on a windy day — like any second it’s going to fly off and hit someone in the head.

The brush tip is a bullet-shaped, fiber/felt tip that’s fairly stiff but has some spring. The material of the tip will probably fray on toothier paper or under a heavier hand. Luckily, in doing additional research, I found that Pen Boutique is stocking Shikiori marker pens individually ($3.99 each).  If you do find yourself using one particular color more than others and need to replace just one or two, rather than having to buy a whole new set, you can buy replacements or if you would rather just try a couple of your favorite colors, this might be a good way to try out a few.

I’ve noticed several of the Japanese pen manufacturers are using this style of fine tip on their markers these days. I’m assuming its a type of nylon tip with a translucent white housing. Even with a loupe I can’t quite tell what sort of tip it has. The fine tip end writes comparably to a Sharpie pen or LePen putting it at about a 0.4-0.5mm tip.

Looking at the colors without comparing them to their fountain pen ink brethren, the color range is more sophisticated and mature. For the same reason I tend to prefer the color range of the LePen brand, the Shikiori markers also have a more muted, subtle palette. It’s been described elsewhere as being based on nature, the seasons, etc. and I can see some of that. Some of these softer colors do not work quite as well in the fine tip pens as they are too light to write with but might work for drawings, underlining or other purposes.

Since I am so familiar with the colors of the Sailor fountain pen inks, I wanted to compare the colors with their fountain pen inks and there was only one way to do this fast and efficiently: a video. The video below shows the inks with the brush pen equivalents, in the same lighting I do all my samples, on Col-o-ring paper together for the most efficient comparisons.

While I like the physical look of the pens and they perform fine as brush and fine tip markers, comparing them to the fountain pen inks in any way diminishes them in my esteem greatly. Sailor fountain pen inks, particularly THESE colors are some of the most important ink colors in my ink collection. I’ve told the story many times but Sailor Irori is THE INK I used to find the “perfect paper” for our Col-o-ring books. If Irori did not sheen, the paper did not make it into our next test bracket. I continue to Irori as my test ink for paper-to-sheen. It is not the sheeniest ink but it does sheen and if a paper can capture the sheen of Irori than its an exceptional paper. Yamadori is one of my favorite inks and for the brush pen version to be so faded a version of the fountain pen ink… let’s just say if Sailor had released a brush pen set and named it “Seasons of Japan” and given all the inks in the pens different names or numbers I would have given these pens a much more glowing review.

So, my biggest issue comes from my historical ties to the fountain pen inks. If you have no emotional ties to the fountain pen inks, go forth and buy these slightly overpriced Japanese brush pens. Should you ever cross over into the fountain pen inks, you may have a reverse reaction and think the fountain pen inks are too saturated and dark. Imagine the irony?

Tools:

• Paper: Nanami Cafe Note B6 Slim Grid
• Pens: Sailor Shikiori Brush Pens  (set of 20)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Dipper Cards ($5)
• Ink: Sailor Irori, Sakura Mori, Yuki Akari, Kin Mokusei, Yodaki, Okuyama, Yozakura, Chu-Shu, Souten, Doyou, Yonaga, Tokiwa-Matsu, Waka-Uguisu, Rikyu-Cha, Shimoyo, Fuji-Musume, Miruai, Nioi-Sumire, Shigure, Yamadori ($13.50 per 20ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The item in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Brush Pen Review: Sailor Shikiori Brush Marker (Set of 20) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The new Sailor Compass fountain pen ($39.20) is Sailor’s latest low-priced fountain pen. I’m still trying to figure out the difference between the Compass and the Shikiori fountain pen which appears to be a rebranding of the ProColor. There are higher end models of the Shikiori with gold nibs and Pro Gear styling so the product line is confusing, to say the least.

The Compass, on the Sailor’s official website for Japan or the UK (global), do not even list the Compass so, as I write this review, I have to wonder if Sailor will even continue with this particular pen line. Do you see why it’s taken so long to write this review? It’s still available in the US and I’ve had questions about it. So… onwards we go!

First, let’s discuss the features and packaging.

The Compass ships with a converter and two cartridges (nice touch, thank you!). The converter that shipped with my Olive Transparent had a green twist mechanism (color coordination, another bonus). I suspect that Sailor has attempted to match the converters to each Compass pen. It’s a nice touch.

The converter is in the pen in this photo (sorry, I got ahead of myself!). The pen and accessories come in a box, lined with foam and wrapped in a clear plastic sleeve. IMHO, the packaging is a bit excessive for a pen at this price point. It also meant that I’m left with non-recyclable materials (at least in my part of the world) — foam, plastic and coated board box. Sigh.

When placed next to a  (from left to right) ProColor, the Compasss, a different model of ProColor and a Pro Gear Slim, it’s clear to see some aesthetic differences. The Compass more closely resembles the ProColor on the left than the one on the right. The black ProColor on the right looks much more like the new Shikiori models listed on Sailor’s web site with the wider cap band and metal trim around the point where the clip joins the cap at the top. The Compass and the clear ProColor both have less metal hardware on the exterior of the pen.

When looking at nibs (ignore the 21K nib on the clear ProColor. I upgraded it. This is not the stock nib AT ALL!), the two nibs in the center show the visual differences between the current Compass nib and the earlier ProColor steel nib. While the earlier ProColor nib was narrow, it looks like it was molded to be a lot more curved and there is more decoration pressed into the front of the nib.While the decoration doesn’t necessarily make the earlier ProColor a better nib, it certainly makes it appear that Sailor put more care into making it.

This all leads up to my initial writing tests with the Compass MF (medium fine) nib. I prefer nibs with a little tooth, a bit of feedback to them but this nib tested the limits for me.  I had to continually turn and twist the nib in an effort to find a good writing angle that didn’t feel scratchy or that didn’t require excessive pressure to get ink on the page. In general, this is not my experience with the higher end Sailor pens. The lightest of touches will deposit ink on the page with most Sailor 14K and 21K nibs and that is how I prefer it. So struggling to ink on the paper — let’s just say, I was getting frustrated. I also realized it was unfair to compare a steel nib to $100+ gold nibs. But I know that Pilot Metropolitans and Preppy pens are far easier to use. My Platinum Carbon Desk Pens do not cause me this kind of difficulty either. None of these pens cost as much as the Compass so either I got a dud nib (it happens) or the Compass nibs are sub-par.

I got my loupe out and took a look. Now, I know that for a lot of the people buying a pen like this, doing something like this is beyond their experience of expertise but, after some debate, I decided it was worth doing. If someone new to pens buys a Compass and runs into this issue, can they fix this on their own? So, if you look at the photo above, the tines have a little bit of space between them near the breather hole but as you look closer to the tip, there’s less and less space between the tines. It basically chokes the flow of ink.

I did two things. I flossed the tines with a brass shim* and then I used my finger to gentle pull one tine forward just a bit. Using your fingers can sometimes be your best tools. Notice how now you can  see the line between the tines all the way from the breather hole to the tip of the nib?

My second attempt after opening up the tines just that tiny bit made the actual act of writing much less of a chore. The nib was still a bit scratchy so the next step would be to attempt smoothing the nib on some micromesh but just getting the ink out of the pen made the pen usable and that’s huge.

When comparing the Compass to other fountain pens in the $50-and-under category, the competition is fierce. My instinct it to compare the Compass to its Japanese rivals: Pilot and Platinum first, but there are also many European makers in this category as well. The pens pictured above are not all the options in this price range but certainly represent a good range of plastic and aluminum barrel as well as a variety of price points.

From left to right: The Faber-Castell Hexo, Faber-Castell Grip, Pilot Metropolitan, Sailor Compass, Pilot Prera, Lamy AL-Star, and Platinum Preppy.

Capped, the Compass is similar in length to the Hexo, Metropolitan and Preppy measuring approx. 5.25″ (133mm). Uncapped, the Compass is 4.3125″ (109.5mm). With converter filled, the Compass weighs 16gms capped or posted and 11gms uncapped. It’s a pretty light pen, but well balanced and not too big, even in my small hands.

Posted, the Compass is most similar in length to the Metropolitan at 5.75″ (146mm).

At $49MSRP ($39.20 retail), the Compass is up against Pilot and Platinum specifically in the under $50 Japanese fountain pens which is not somewhere that Sailor has really tried to compete much in the past. Pilot has dominated this market with the Pilot Metropolitan. Pilot also has their budget-friendly Varsity and more recently the Explorer. Platinum woos many with their budget Preppy, fancier Plaisir and more recently with the Prefounte and Procyon.

And when shopping for that “first big fountain pen” consumers aren’t likely to limit themselves to just Japanese brands so Faber-Castell, Lamy, Kaweco, Diplomat, TWSBI and Caran d’Ache all have legitimate candidates in this price range.

My experience with the Compass would need lead me to recommend that someone run out and buy one. Of course, I have a sample size of one and I could be the person who got the dud. I say this as the person who has the TWSBI curse. Ask me about it sometime. So, I would just say that, at the moment, it is not bumping any of other fountain pens off my “best pens under $50” list.

*Brass shims (0.002″ / 0.05 mm) can be purchased from hobby supply stores that specialize in model building and miniatures. Or try using a small piece of acetate from an old 35mm slide or negative.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by Goldspot Pens for the purpose of review. Some items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Fountain Pen Review: Sailor Compass (MF Nib) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Recently I wrote a post about a local art supply store (Meininger’s) that happens to have a wonderful selection of ink and fountain pen friendly paper. Well, I did forget to mention it also has a huge variety of pens. Among these pens I forgot to rave about are Sailor pens. But last weekend, there were so many more Sailors!

On February 9th, Sailor sent a representative (Rachel) to our little corner of the world to offer Coloradans a chance to use all of the standard Sailor nib sizes, see all of the standard Sailor pens side by side, hold and see up close the newest North American exclusive Sailors, and to even see a few King of Pens and Bespoke nibs. The event was called the Sailor Trunk show and there was a great turn-out of pen folks.

Later in my visit, I learned that my new friend Rachel (the Sailor representative) had the privilege of being the one to choose the names for the most recent North America exclusive Sailors – the 4am and the Lucky Charm pens.

I had a terrible time trying to decide between these pens. The ruthenium trim on the Sailor 4am called to me, even though I typically stay away from the 1911 series in favor of the Pro Gear Slim (these two models only differ in the shape of the end cap and finial). But it was the teal color and the two-tone nib that won me over in the end. Pro Gear Slim pens do not often offer a two-tone nib and it looks amazing on the Lucky Charm pen.

The size of the nib was another factor that pulled me toward the Lucky Charm pen – a music nib. Over the years, I have acquired each Sailor nib size offered in the standard line-up (no special Bespoke nibs). Since I typically prefer fine line widths, I stayed away from the Zoom and Music nibs – these produce a much broader line. But last year I dove into a Zoom nib and found that I loved the experience.

The Sailor Zoom nib is a nib that changes line width based on the angle at which it is held. When the pen is held at a low angle (closer to horizontal), the width can be quite broad (broader than a music nib). As the angle increases (going toward 90 degrees away from the page), the line changes to fine. The nib can even be flipped over – reverse writing – and the line is extra fine. The nib on the left is a Zoom nib.

I have yet to find a Sailor nib that I dislike. Below are nib sizes (from left to right) Zoom, music, broad, medium, medium-fine, fine, and extra fine.

Here’s a view of the pens themselves.

I was a bit tickled when I found out that I had several Sailor models that my new friend Rachel had never seen! With the incredible number of Sailor variations and special editions available, it shouldn’t be surprising, though. Sailor seems to have a special talent for colors and combinations that make each pen into a story.

Thank you to all of the staff at Meininger’s and our Sailor representative Rachel who had to deal with many very excited pen fans! I hope this gathering is not the last of its kind!

DISCLAIMER: All of the items included in this review were purchased with my own money for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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