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 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?
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.
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
