Posts filed under Sailor

Sailor 1911 Standard Royal Amethyst Fountain Pen Review

Sailor has perfected the art of the limited edition release. Case in point: The 1911 Royal Amethyst, designed in conjunction with Goldspot. It’s one of the prettiest releases I’ve seen since, well, their last release. That’s how much I love these pens.

As great as I find all of Sailor’s fountain pens, I’ll admit it took me a while to come around on the 1911 model. I was a Pro Gear guy, through and through. The smaller Slim size, or the larger Regular (don’t worry, I’ll yell about their naming conventions in a minute,) that was my Sailor. Until one certain 1911 changed me completely.

I didn’t buy the Royal Tangerine on launch. Shocker, I know. It is one of the most on-brand pens ever made, but it was a 1911. I’m a Pro Gear guy, remember?

I hemmed and hawed, but then the opportunity to try one out - from Goldspot, coincidentally - crossed my desk. I said yes, of course, and that one 1911 Standard changed everything I thought about one of Sailors primary product lines.

Ok, time to yell before we move on. Sailor’s naming convention for their two most popular pen designs needs to be synced up. The two smaller, 14k gold nib models are called the Pro Gear Slim and the 1911 Standard. The two larger, 21k gold nib models are called the Pro Gear Regular and the 1911 Large.

The two smaller pens and the two larger pens inhabit the same Sailor pricing spectrum, respectively. So why is a large one called Regular, and a small one called Standard? Your guess is as good as mine. As long as I have been using Sailor fountain pens, I still have to check if I’m using the correct descriptor for the pen I am using. Can we get a petition started for the two small pens to be called Slim, and the two large pens called Large? That would make my life so much easier Sailor!

Rant over - time to tell you why the size and shape of the 1911 Standard works so well for me: It is the perfect every day carry sized fountain pen. It reminds me a lot of the size and shape of the Pelikan 200/400 series of fountain pens. They are small, lightweight pens, but feel substantial and impressive when writing. Sailor’s 14k gold nibs provide a wonderful feel on the page, and the barrel of the pen molds into my hand like it was made for it.

I adore every moment I spend writing with this pen, and I am comfortable taking it anywhere and everywhere with me. The 1911 Standard is my choice of the two smaller Sailor pens, while the Pro Gear Regular is my choice for their larger models.

Knowing I was going to love this pen the moment I unboxed it, my biggest concern was what ink I was going to fill it with? My first thought was Bungubox Imperial Purple, making this pen the Royal Imperial Highness of the Purply Kingdom. I slept on that choice though, and I’m glad I did. As it turns out, Akkerman #28 Hofkwartier Groen is the perfect ink for me, and this pen.

Why? The vibrant purple and gold of this pen invoke the colors of my hometown, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And February in Louisiana means only one thing: Mardi Gras. With this pen lacking only green to complete the trifecta of colors that represent the season, I knew I had picked the right one.

And the Sailor 1911 Standard is the right one for me. It took me a while to get there, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to have my mind changed.

(Goldspot provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on February 10, 2020 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Sailor, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Sailor Ink Studio 960 Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Out of the many inks I own, there aren't any true greens. I've always enjoyed green, but never fallen for any green inks that I find while at pen shows or perusing online shops. Sailor Ink Studio #960 is about as true a green that I could ever want. While the color might not match exactly what "true green" is, it certainly comes close enough by my personal definition.

Sailor Ink Studio is a fascinating project and line of inks produced by Sailor's own Osamu Ishimaru, a professional blender of inks. The Ink Studio line is comprised of over 100 unique inks chosen from Mr. Ishimaru's thousands of ink creations. I can't imagine coming up with a handful of unique ink colors that span the color wheel, let alone coming up with thousands. This is truly fascinating to consider and makes the 960 on my desk even more special for that reason.

Aside from the clever concept and interesting branding behind the Ink Studio line, it's still a Sailor ink at heart, which means I was excited to try it out. 960 is a deep green that looks more like jade in lighter areas. It's not dark enough to qualify as forest green or British racing green, but it comes close to those shades when the ink pools up on the page. Let's just say this ink will not come into question on St. Patrick's Day.

This is a fairly saturated ink, which helps it pop from the page despite the dark-ish color. I've been using this ink in a 1.1mm stub nib mostly, and that's purely because I love to see the character of the ink come out more with a wider nib. There's some really beautiful and subtle shading that comes out with a broader nib. When using this ink in a fine nib, I barely noticed any shading at all and almost wrote the ink off as a dark green with very little character. I'm glad I was wrong.

Like all Sailor inks I've come across, this one is extremely well-behaved. The ink is smooth on the page, works great in the feed and nib system (meaning it starts quickly and doesn't skip or sputter), and dries really quickly on the page. In my unscientific tests, the ink is normally dry in under 15 seconds. And, as with all well-behaved inks, it's also easy to clean out of pens when it's time to swap in for something else.

The dark, subdued shade of this delicious green is something that makes me happy when I see it drying on the page. It's not a flashy ink, but it has a lot of hidden character that you can coax out with the right nib. It's dark enough to be appropriate in many business settings, but fun enough to use on a daily basis.

At $18 for a 20ml bottle, Sailor Ink Studio #960 is a bit on the pricey end of inks, but it does have a very unique story and some additional info on all 100 colors in the Color Studio line, as well as some blank cartridge converter labels so you can always remember what ink you have in a given pen. If this particular color doesn't strike your fancy, take a look at the other 99!

(Dromgoole's provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on February 5, 2020 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Sailor, Ink Reviews.

Sailor Ink Studio 773 Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Sailor inks are some of my favorites, but the new Ink Studio line that has released over the last year has really captured a lot of hearts. There are a few standout colors in the line, and I was so enchanted by those that I didn't notice number 773 at first. Now that I've had a chance to use it, I find it every bit as enchanting as those ultra-popular colors, and now I wonder if the entire rest of the Ink Studio line is just as amazing.

I thought this was an orange ink, when I first saw the bottle, and I wondered if it would be too similar to a dozen other orange inks. I love orange inks, but it's a color that I really don't need more than two of, as fun as they are. However, I've decided that this is really a coral ink, and therefore it bypasses any arbitrary color rules I may have set for my collection.

773 shows its nuanced character immediately on the page. It looks complex, even when drawn with a fine nib. The chromatography is bright and wild, with a bubblegum pink fading into saffron yellow--but it wasn't a surprising color split to see. The pinks and yellows come through in the coral color itself. The very saturated swab even shows a hint of gold sheen where the ink pooled. I haven't seen it in my writing yet, but the capability is there, given the right nib/paper combination. It shows wonderful shading, even in a fine nib, that looks like a soft guava color in the lighter areas, and a bolder coral where it pools.

It isn't very similar to any of the inks in my collection. It's much to orangey for comparing to the pinks, and too rosy for the oranges. I haven't, personally, tried any comparable colors.

The ink writes smoothly and doesn't feel dry, but it has a fast dry time compared to a lot of inks. It went from fairly lubricated at ten seconds to almost completely dry at 15, like there's a magical off-switch in its chemistry.

It has almost no water resistance, disappearing quite completely even when it's gently patted dry.

The Ink Studio line comes in small, 20ml glass bottles. They're sturdy and not difficult to fill from--much nicer than the squat, round bottles they sometimes use. But also much smaller, and 20ml retails for around $18, making this quite a pricey ink. It's an expensive line, but one with a number of colors that I don't think can be easily matched to another, less expensive brand. They're also not the easiest inks to obtain, as they're only sold through stores with a brick-and-mortar presence.

Many of the Ink Studio colors are captivating enough that people are tracking them down and happily paying the higher cost. I think 773 is one of those worth-it colors. I'm nervous, now, to meet any more of the Ink Studio line. If they're all this subtly lovely, we could be in real trouble.

(Dromgooles provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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