Posts filed under Sailor

Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Fountain Pen Review

I bought my first Sailor King of Pen over three years ago, and since that first one - the Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Sky - I’ve added three more to the collection. It is one of my personal favorite pens, embodying everything I like about a product.

The thing about the King of Pen, or KOP for short, is that I’m not sure this is a pen I would recommend to anyone. That is why it has taken me so long to review it, I think. It is very much a “Do as I say, not as I do,” product.

Why do I love the King of Pen? It is the pinnacle of accessible Sailor fountain pens. Sailor is a brand I love, and the KOP has long been a fascination of mine. When I first started getting in to fountain pens, the large ebonite and urushi KOP models fascinated me, but starting at over $1000, they were too far out of reach to even consider. That didn’t stop me from fawning over them, but I knew I’d probably never own one.

Then a funny thing happened: Sailor released a newer, lower priced King of Pen based on their popular Pro Gear lineup. And, it was only a bit over $700! That is still an outrageous price for a pen, and I wasn’t interested in the standard black barrels that were part of the initial lineup at any price. So I waited, and watched.

Then they introduced limited edition barrel colors. Blue, translucent, and beautiful. The Sky ended up being the one, even though it was crazy difficult to fork over that kind of cash.

The thing that sets the KOP apart from the rest of the Sailor lineup is the nib. Not only the size - it is a HUGE #9-sized 21k gold behemoth - but the performance of it as well. On top of that, the built-in structure around the nib is something that I haven’t seen in any other pen.

The rest of the pen is sized around the nib unit, meaning it has a much wider barrel diameter and grip section than the Pro Gear Standard. Somehow, this all works. The King of Pen is a big pen, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like it when writing. The size of the nib and barrel, in conjunction, work perfectly.

Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Comparison — *Sailor Pro Gears. Slim (top,) Standard, KOP.*

So, why am I not rushing out to recommend it, despite how much I love it? The price, yes, but more specifically, the value.

What makes up the cost of a pen? Three things come to mind: Materials, mechanics, and craftsmanship. Let’s break each of these down as they relate to the King of Pen.

Materials: This the main talking point with the KOP. The large 21k gold nib is costly, and I imagine the nib setting and section adds a good bit of cost as well. The barrel is plastic. The same plastic you will find all the way down the line in the Pro Gear Slim model. The 14k Pro Gear Slim is an awesome pen, but it is also $180. the larger 21k Pro Gear Standard is my favorite, and they run around $310. Am I getting two-and-a-half times the pen in the KOP that I’m paying for?

Mechanics: To me, mechanics in fountain pens mostly lie within filling systems. The piston filler in a Pelikan. The vacuum filler in the Pilot 823. The bulk filler in the Conid. A cartridge/converter filling system - as found in the King of Pen - is essentially a lack of mechanics. That’s no knock on c/c filling systems, but we are talking about cost here, and the cost for c/c is far less that the other options.

Craftsmanship: In short, machine-made vs. man-made. Is the manufacturing process machine-driven, as is the case with most of Sailor’s plastic barrel pens? Or, it there a great amount of manual labor, such as urushi artisans applying layers of lacquer to a Nakaya?

Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Nib Comparison

Applying these thoughts to the King of Pen, the cost isn’t coming from mechanics or craftsmanship in my mind. And while yes, there is a large material cost in the nib and front-end assembly, there is minimal cost in the barrel. It’s a weird dichotomy.

And yet I love it knowing all of these things. Why?

I wish I had the perfect answer and could write the perfect review around that answer, either positive or negative. My life is a whole lot easier when I have black and white thoughts on products. The Sailor King of Pen is not one of those products. I get it, and it gets me. But can I explain it to you? That’s the challenge. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to.

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Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Capped Comparison

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Sailor, King of Pen, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Sailor 1911L Kagero Green (Pen Boutique Exclusive): A Review

Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I am a blue fountain pen girl. If a fountain pen is blue, I probably own it. But every once in a while, I surprise myself and fall in love with a different color. That's what happened when I saw pictures of Pen Boutique's exclusive Sailor 1911 Kagero Green. The pen is a deep olive green with gold accents that complement it perfectly.

Kagero means "mayfly" in Japanese and this was the inspiration for the color of the pen. According to the Pen Boutique website, mayflies can live for years as nymphs before they molt and become adults. They live only one month during the summer, during which they mate in huge swarms and lay their eggs. Because mayflies are eaten by various species, they are important to the ecosystems in which they live. In fact, they are a sort of "canary in the mine" because they react quickly to changes in water acidity and pollution.

We chose this naturally inspired color because we appreciate the outdoors. We value efforts to protect the environment and educate the next generation about the importance of conservation.

The pen comes in a typical Sailor box. But I was happily surprised to find a Yak Leather pen sleeve in matching green slipped in along with the warranty card and cartridges.

I opted for the 1911L, which is a cigar-shaped pen, measuring 5.5 inches/140mm capped, 4.84 inches/123mm uncapped, and 6.02 inches/153mm posted. It weighs 25 grams posted with ink. The 1911 is a cartridge/converter filler and comes with two ink cartridges and one converter.

The clip, cap band, and lower barrel ring are all gold plated. The engraving on the cap band reads: "Sailor Japan Founded 1911."

The 1911L pen comes in a variety of 21k gold nibs (EF, F, MF, M, B, Zoom, and Music), and I chose a Zoom nib. The Zoom nib is unique to Sailor. It has a triangular shape that allows for different stroke sizes depending on the angle you hold the nib.

Sailor 1911L Kagero Green Zoom Nib Tipping

I love the design of Sailor nibs. They are beautifully adorned and, of course, are high quality. This nib is a smooth writer, and I've had great fun writing and drawing with it. I inked it with Robert Oster Eucalyptus Leaf, which matches the pen perfectly.

You can see the different line widths you get when you change the angle of writing in the photos below. The lowest angle creates a double broad line. A medium angle creates a broad line. A high angle creates a medium-fine line. And, you can turn the pen upside down for an extra, extra fine line.

I found that the pen is easiest to write with at a low or medium angle, but I love the variety of widths it offers for writing and drawing.

Sailor 1911L Kagero Green Zoom Nib Writing

The Kagero Green Sailor is a stunning pen, and I think Pen Boutique did a wonderful job choosing this color for their exclusive. The pen comes in two sizes: 1911S for $220 and 1911L for $312.00.

(I purchased the Sailor 1911L Kagero from Pen Boutique at full price with my own funds.)

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Posted on September 25, 2020 by Susan Pigott and filed under Sailor, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Sailor Ink Studio 735: A Review

Sailor Ink Studio is a collection of one hundred inks (out of 20,000 created!) that were blended by inkmeisters at Ink Studio events. Each number represents a unique blending code (source: Sakura Fountain Pen Gallery). Sailor 735 is the second ink from the Ink Studio collection that I’ve gotten to try (the first was Sailor 123, review here). I discovered that the higher the number of an Ink Studio ink, the more shading and sheen it offers, and 735 definitely rocks the sheen.

As always, my ink testing begins with Rhodia Dot Pad paper. Although I like this paper for ink testing because it’s a true white and it’s fountain pen friendly, it tends not to show sheen very well. You can see a little bit of sheen in my first swipe, but otherwise it’s not apparent. Sailor 735 is a beautiful deep purple ink with lots of pink undertones. The ink is quite wet and takes over 30 seconds to dry. If you lay it on really thick, you’ll want to give it even more time. It’s not waterproof.

The sheen in this ink comes through nicely on my Col-o-dex card. It’s a gorgeous shiny green. There’s just something wonderful about the combination of purple and green. In fact, I have an entire section of my Animal Crossing island (Villanelle) planted with purple and green mums . . . but, like Isabelle, I digress. Sorry! Both the swirls and the ink splats show off the green sheen as do the swab and writing.

Chromatography demonstrates that Sailor 735 is a complex ink, with blue, lavender, magenta, pink, and purple hues.

Even more glorious sheen is exhibited when you use a ruling pen for big, fat, juicy lines. It’s almost as though the letters are gilded with green-gold leaf!

I used my Franklin-Christoph EF steel flex nib on Midori MD paper and was pleased at how beautifully the ink flowed. Even with such a fine nib sheen is evident.

I am absolutely smitten with Sailor 735. It is a wonderful purple ink, but what makes it extra special is that green sheen. Fortunately, Sailor Ink Studio inks are now much more readily available than they were when I wrote my first review last July. You can purchase a 20ml bottle of Sailor 735 from Dromgooles for $18.00.

(The Pen Addict purchased this ink from Dromgooles at a discount.)

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