The Grail Has Landed: Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen

4/25/15 Sailor Doyou ink, Sailor 1911 with Naginata Fude de Mannen nib,
Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook (sketched from vintage photo in a magazine)

If you have been reading my blog throughout my Epic journey and even before it, you know that my decision to buy my grail pen didn’t come lightly or impulsively. If you are just now joining me, this moment will seem more climactic if you go back to read the Epic series first. Regardless, I’ll say this: It was worth waiting for.

Once I made the decision to buy Sailor’s 21kt gold Naginata (“long sword”) Fude de Mannen nib, choosing the pen’s body was relatively easy. Using the Platinum 3776 Century has taught me that I prefer a somewhat large yet lightweight pen, so I looked for a Sailor body that came closest to the Platinum in dimension and weight: the “1911” (named for the year Sailor was founded) full size. The color and finish, too, were easy choices for me – I’ve always loved the elegance of matte black. The options were relatively limited, as Sailor won’t put its specialty nibs on just any body it makes. For example, rhodium trim on the matte black body would have been my first choice, but I was told that Sailor would only pair the yellow gold fude nib with the gold-trimmed version.

Sailor 1911 full-size pen, matte black with gold trim.

With the easy part done, I submitted my order to Nibs.com with a lengthy note to proprietor and nibmeister John Mottishaw, whom I had met back in February at the L.A. Pen Show. I had a hunch from that meeting that he would be responsive to my high-maintenance concerns, which were that the Naginata Fude de Mannen nib I had tried several times at his pen show table felt a bit scratchy to me.

Certainly the sample I’d used wasn’t unacceptably scratchy, but because I’d grown accustomed to the steel nib on my cheap but faithful Sailor “calligraphy” fude pen, which isn’t necessarily the smoothest, I’d expected one made of 21kt gold and hand-tuned by a Sailor nibmaster to be as smooth as silk. The reversed nib, in particular (which I depend on for the finest line), felt scratchier than I liked. Aware that every pen Nibs.com sells is “optimized for the individual writing characteristics of the end user” (based on the thorough questionnaire each purchaser completes with the order), I wrote to John, “Is it possible to make the fude nib smoother than the one on your sample pen, especially in the upside-down position? I would like to talk more about this when you are at the point of finessing the nib.”

The 21kt gold Naginata Fude de Mannen nib

The order was placed on March 14. The hard part, then, was waiting: Sailor’s custom-order nibs can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. But on April 17, before I (hardly) had time to grow impatient, I received an e-mail that my Naginata nib had been received at Nibs.com!

And that’s when I got a phone call from John himself. Having read the note I had included with my order, he asked about my concerns, and I reiterated my experience with his sample nib. We talked a while, and John assured me that my nib was indeed very smooth. I took his word for it. And three days later, the pen was in my hands!

The curved Fude de Mannen nib 

Other than its material, how is this new nib different from the one that comes on Sailor’s inexpensive models? The top has a lot of fancy curlicues and flourishes as befits a 21kt gold nib. But the real difference is seen from the side. While the budget models look bent at a sharp angle, the Naginata Fude de Mannen nib is curved (similar to the very inexpensive Duke 209’s fude nib). In addition, the Naginata has a rounded tip on the top surface compared to both the inexpensive Sailor fude and the Duke, which have flat tip tops.

As you know from my previous pen reviews, I generally don’t go on and on about a pen’s body and appearance; the nib is the important part. Still, if a pen isn’t comfortable to use, I’m the first to dump it, so I can’t say I don’t care about a pen’s body.

Top: the curved fude; bottom: the "bent" fude

I’ll be as elegant in words as the pen appears: This 1911 has a matte black finish as lovely to hold as it is to behold. The pen’s weight and balance are comfortable. And most important to me: The cap posts perfectly.

Oh, yes – and how does the nib write?

I needn’t have worried. It’s smoother than any pen I’ve used (except perhaps the extremely broad Platinum music nib) and much smoother than my old Sailors. Upside-down, right-side up, and at every angle, it glides easily on any paper. I’m especially excited about how smooth it is when making the finest, reverse-side stroke – fountain pens invariably get scratchier as the nib gets finer. Since it operates exactly the same as the cheap Sailor fude I have known and loved for years, I pick it up and use it intuitively, and it is the same – and yet somehow different. It’s solid and muscular, while my old Sailor feels bony. It’s familiar and at the same time fresh. It’s exactly what I expected – but better.

This is a good time to mention the stellar customer service I received from John Mottishaw and his Nibs.com team. Although it turned out that my nib is perfect as is, I am confident from my interactions during my purchase and at the L.A. show that if I hadn’t been happy with it, they would have made it perfect for me.

The grail is home.

Updated 3:45 p.m.: (smack in the head) I almost forgot to sketch the pen! (That matte finish sure is tricky to paint.)

4/26/15 Platinum Carbon ink, VanGogh watercolors, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Updated 8/22/15: Now that I’ve used it almost daily for four months, my Sailor Naginata fude has become part of my hand. I’ve discovered over time that it is a very wet-flowing pen – not a proverbial firehose like the Pilot Falcon (FA), but it definitely puts out more ink than the economy-model Sailor fude. After trying water-soluble inks as well as my usual waterproof Platinum Carbon Black ink with the Sailor Naginata, I’ve decided this pen is best used with water-soluble inks – for two reasons. When I use it with waterproof ink, the additional ink flow the nib puts out requires additional drying time before applying watercolor – additional time that I don’t want to have to wait. However, that additional ink flow is exactly what I do prefer when using a water-soluble ink, which I almost always wash with a swipe of the waterbrush to deepen shading in a sketch. The extra ink on the line deepens shading even further.

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 11 (Conclusion): My Dorothy Moment

3/19/15 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor fude pen,
Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook (Sketched from photo.
Until I sketched Dorothy, I had no idea she wore so much eye
makeup, including false lashes, for a little girl from Kansas.)

(This is part of a multi-post series about my search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

Remember this scene from the end of The Wizard of Oz? The wizard’s balloon, which was supposed to be Dorothy’s ride out of Oz, has just floated off without her (no thanks to Toto). Then Glinda informs her that Dorothy has had the ability to take herself back home all along – but she had to learn this for herself. Dorothy muses on her learnings:

“Well, I think that it wasn’t enough just to want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. And that it’s that - if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with. Is that right?”

Glinda confirms that she is right, and then with a tap-tap-tap of her ruby slippers, Dorothy takes herself back to black-and-white Kansas.

1/16/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Petit1 pen, VanGogh watercolors,
Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

My old faithful Sailor fude – the one I found myself comparing to all other pens I tried and reviewed – has been in my backyard (and in my bag) for the Epic’s duration, patiently waiting for me to return. Indeed, I often reached for it when another pen I was experimenting with frustrated me. Has it been my grail all along?

I still curse the Sailor fude’s poorly posting cap (and the ugly piece of tape I adhere to the pen’s tail end to keep the trim ring from getting stuck inside) – even as I’ve use it nearly daily for the past couple of years. I like it so much that I have several, and recently the oldest has gotten scratchy. (Could it be wearing out?)

12/28/14 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Petit1 pen, S&B Alpha

If I just splurge on the 21kt gold version – the “mother of all fude nibs” that I’ve been lusting after for months – will that take care of my yearning (not to mention the posting issue)? An essential difference between the gold version and the inexpensive stainless steel one is that the latter is bent at a sharp angle, while the gold one I tested at the L.A.Pen Show is gradually curved, which enables beautiful transitions in line width. It seems to be everything I love about my old fude – but better.

Mostly. My only disappointment in its performance was that it seemed scratchier than I would have expected. Could that scratchiness be polished away with some judicious fine-tuning by Nibs.com’s John Mottishaw, who inspects, tests and optimizes every pen (to the customer’s requests) before shipping it?

I’m counting on it. My order has been placed. Now I just have to wait patiently for the next several months for the nib to be made! (Sadly, the legendary Sailor nibmaster Nagahara-san passed away on March 11.)

(Updated 4/26/15: The grail has arrived!)

In the meantime, like Dorothy, I’m pondering all that I’ve learned from my epic journey:

1. The “grail” doesn’t have to be one single pen. I obviously had it in my head that finding one perfect pen was the ideal. But I’ve come to accept that it’s OK to favor more than one variable-line-width nib, using each to do what it does best. For example, based on the pens I’ve reviewed in this series, a combination of the Sailor fude plus either the Platinum music nib or the Franklin-Christoph music nib might be a grail pairing – the fude taking care of the thin-to-thicker range and the music nib taking care of the mid-to-thickest range.

2. I used to think that a wide-ranging flexible nib would be the perfect sketching pen, responding to the hand’s intuitive changes of pressure to regulate the line width. In some hands, that must be true, but not in mine. As much as I love the Pilot Falcon nib’s flexiness, sketching with a flex doesn’t come intuitively to me. Strange as it seems, tilting the angle or direction of the nib (as is done with almost all the other nibs I tried) feels more intuitive and responsive.

Writing samples made with Sailor fude nib.

3. More than almost any other sketching tool or material, fountain pen nib preferences are highly personal and idiosyncratic. I knew this before my Epic began, but my belief was reinforced by my research. Although I can usually count on others’ evaluations about the general quality of a pen, how it behaves in my hand while sketching is all about me. An urban sketcher whose work I admire, Teoh Yi Chie (better known online as Parka), recently compared nine pens, all with fude nibs, in an interesting and informative video. I’ve tried nearly all of those same nibs, and my conclusions were exactly the opposite.

4. Let’s face it: I love fountain pens. Obviously, I’m very picky about what I sketch with, but I’m far less discriminating about what I write with. Other than the ones from eBay that I trashed, I’ll probably keep all the pens I tested, because even though none turned out to be the grail for sketching, every one is a delight for writing.

5. I found that the looser, more confident and more expressive I allow my sketching line to be, the more a variable-line-width pen can do for me. If I am unsure, tightly clutching my pen and trying to draw with small, tentative marks, no type of pen nib will turn those marks into flowing, confident lines. On the other hand, if I put the pen to the page and draw as if I know what I’m doing, almost any pen will produce a more beautiful line.

1/3/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Sailor fude pen, Stillman &
Birn Gamma sketchbook (antelope sketched from photo)

6. Perhaps the most delightful lesson learned was confirming how much I enjoy using the line as a sketching element. All the sketches I produced to experiment with various pens taught me this. Early in my urban sketching life, I saw the pen line as nothing more than a coloring-book outline that would be immediately filled in with watercolor. Fairly quickly I realized that color can’t compensate for a weak drawing, so I started focusing on making better renderings. Eventually I learned that a strong sketch incorporates many other important elements – composition, value, shape – and my goal is to put all of them into practice simultaneously with each sketch. But through it all, I’ve come to a greater appreciation for the line on its own – and the potential expressiveness of variable-line-width nibs is what has brought me here.

It’s a good place to end my Epic Search and Discovery. Thanks for coming along!

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

My trusty Sailor fude nib pens. . . there's no place like home!

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 10: The Unworthy and the Incomplete

Top to bottom: Jinhao 599A "Safari," Lanbitou, Zebra Comic G flexible nib

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

The spirit of my blog has always been to post the less-than-successful sketches right along with the ones I’m pleased with because the point is to document the process – not to present a portfolio of only the “best.” With that same attitude, and in the interest of being complete, I’ll briefly summarize here a few other pens I tried that weren’t even worth writing complete reviews of. The last item is a Frankenpen experiment that has yet to be completed. (If anything eventually results, I’ll report back.)

Jinhao 599A “Safari” calligraphy fountain pen: This pen, purchased for about $5 on eBay (including shipping from China), is probably the single-most worthless fountain pen I’ve owned. (The bold and shameless pirating being displayed in the product’s name doesn’t surprise me.) Ironically, its bent, fude-like nib isn’t half bad. It doesn’t have the same range of line variation as my Sailor fude, of course, but it’s smooth and has a decent flow. The immediate deal-breaker is that the body and section won’t stay screwed together! I’ll write a couple of words or scribbles, and the pen continually unscrews itself. Into the trash it goes.

Lanbitou calligraphy nib fountain pen: Purchased on eBay for about $7 (including shipping from China), this pen was one I learned about from someone in the Seattle Pen Club who also has an interest in variable-line-width nibs for writing western calligraphy. Like the previously mentioned Jinhao “Safari,” the Lanbitou has a decent fude-like nib. In fact, I’d say it’s comparable to the Sailor fude in terms of line variation. The body isn’t bad, either (for seven bucks). However, it sometimes goes dry after only a day or two of idle time, and it displays (sometimes profuse) leakage every time I open it. Another one for the trash.

I don’t like to make sweeping generalizations such as “you get what you pay for” and evaluate fountain pens by price. After all, the Pilot Petit1 and Platinum Preppy, which can be purchased for about $3 to $4 each, are stellar examples of amazingly high quality pens for the price. But in the case of those Chinese pens, $5 is overpriced: You get even less than what you paid for.

2/26/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Petit1 pen, Canson XL

Zebra Comic G nib: Putting the Franklin-Christoph music nib on a Jinhao X450 pen body was my first foray into making Frankenpens. My second was going to be putting a Zebra Comic G nib on the same Jinhao. The Zebra G is a flexible nib designed for dip pens that people are putting onto the Jinhao – creating a fountain pen with dip pen flexibility! A quick search on Amazon showed that the price of the Zebra G nibs is 10 for $10. Let’s see – five bucks for the Jinhao and another buck for the nib. Six bucks for a flexible-nib fountain pen (and nine nibs left over for my friends)? I’m in!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. Although the Jinhao was supposed to be a compatible body for the Zebra G, no amount of finagling on my part would make the two work together. The curve of the nib is tighter than that of the Jinhao’s feed, so although the feed would be full of ink, the contact with the nib wasn’t sufficient to fill the nib. I had the same problem with the Nemosine body that fit the Christoph nib so well. Apparently people have been filing away the sides of the feed and making other modifications to force the Zebra G nib to fit. I could do that too, I suppose, but frankly, I’ve lost interest. When I want a flexible nib, I’m happy with my Pilot Falcon.

(Updated 4/21/15: I’ve decided that a fountain pen body for the Zebra G is worth pursuing after all! It’s a fabulous nib.)

You can tell that this series is drawing to a close, can’t you? I won’t even make you wait until next week.

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 9: Franklin-Christoph Music Nib

2/24/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Pilot Petit1 pen, Van Gogh watercolors, Stillman &
Birn Alpha sketchbook

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

The only experience I’d had with an inexpensive Chinese fountain pen was the Hero 501-1 calligraphy pen, which has a bent nib similar to the Sailor fude. I used it briefly more than a year ago and then rejected it, mainly because it did the same things the Sailor did, but not as well, was much heavier, and dried out quickly when left idle. As a result, during my Epic Search, whenever I’d heard mention of the Jinhao – another inexpensive Chinese brand – I generally dismissed it from consideration. Reviews varied widely – everything from “best-pen-I’ve-ever-used-even-better-than-my-$100-Pilot” to “piece-of-junk-threw-it-immediately-in-the-trash.” Who needs a pen with that kind of inconsistent quality?

2/13/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Pilot Petit1,
Fabriano Studio 140 lb. hot-press paper

Apparently, I do.

During a casual reading of the Fountain Pen Network’s Facebook group, I happened upon a thread that mentioned using the Jinhao X450 fountain pen body, which costs a whopping five bucks on Amazon.com, as the base for other nibs. I knew that people were doing this with Goulet’s nibs, but what turned my head was the Franklin-Christoph music nib (also known as the “Christoph”). That music nib, which has been getting rave reviews, could be purchased independently (for $35 from Franklin-Christoph) and put onto a cheap Jinhao body? Suddenly that five-dollar pen was sounding more interesting. I bit. It was my first step into the “Frankenpen” world.

Writing samples made with Franklin-Christoph music nib.

The mechanics of this particular Frankenpen combo were easy: Pull the nib and feed out of the Jinhao, align the Jinhao’s feed with the F-C music nib, and place both back into the Jinhao’s section collar. (GourmetPens.com has an informative post about this.) To my surprise, they fit perfectly without any tweaking. And to my greater surprise, the combo writes beautifully (considering its Frankenpen origins) – smooth, wet and luscious.

The No. 6 size Christoph nib, which is essentially a 1.9mm stub nib, has two slits, making it a traditional music nib. According to Franklin-Christoph’s marketing copy, “The advantage of this nib is that the slits draw ink not only from the feed channel but from the comb as well, and spreads the ink evenly and consistently very well for a broad italicized tip.”

All I know is that compared to the Lamy 1.9 stub nib, which I tried briefly last fall, the F-C music nib is much smoother – the Lamy has sharper corners – and keeps up with the ink flow better. It was delightfully responsive when I sketched a pair of evergreens in Shoreline last month (see below), giving me interesting line variation without much effort. In my very first sketches with the Christoph, I was pleased that by using its thin edge, I could get enough control to sketch facial details in people (see the man below).

Line-width comparison of three music nibs.

You may recall from my review of Platinum’s music nib that I was surprised by how broad it is compared to the Sailor’s (my only previous experience with a music nib). The Christoph is even broader (see the sample at right comparing line strokes from all three) and acts more like a calligraphy stub nib compared to the Platinum, which has a rounder tip. I can write “normally” (whatever that is) with the Platinum, but the F-C nib requires making very large letters (and the writing would certainly be more attractive if I knew how to write in an italic script).

2/24/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, F-C music
nib, Clairefontaine notebook

In terms of line variation, the F-C nib really has only two: thick on the down stroke and thin on the horizontal stroke. I wasn’t able to get the finest of fine lines for the Arctic fox’s whiskers and fur (at left) as I was with other pens. I don’t think it would serve me as an all-purpose sketching pen, as it has no gradual change from thin to thick as the Sailor fude or zoom nibs do. It also has no extra-thin point when reversed as some other nibs do. Still, I have grown very fond of the Christoph’s broad yet easy-to-control line. I think it’s a keeper, if only because I have so much fun sketching fir trees with it.

Since this review is focused mainly on the fantastic music nib, I won’t dwell too long on the Jinhao X450 itself, which I chose in the marbly gray-brown “Magic Fog” pattern. I inked up its original nib (size M) briefly, and it is surprisingly flexy and wet. It would probably be a good writer and even a decent sketcher (though it isn’t flexy enough to consider it a variable-line-width nib in the same way that the Pilot Falcon nib is).

2/24/15 Trees sketched with F-C music nib.

But I don’t have much good to say about the rest of the pen. Although I like the size and girth, it’s too heavy for that size, especially the cap, which makes the pen feel unbalanced when posted. Even worse, however, is that the cap doesn’t post securely (a huge pet peeve of mine!). For some, the solution would be to simply use the pen unposted, which would probably improve its overall balance. But the only time I’d be using that pen is sketching on location, and if I can’t post the cap, I’ll probably lose it. (In fact, the first time I used it in the field, the cap fell off, hit the pavement and chipped.) An unpostable pen is a deal breaker for me.

The solution? I got a Nemosine Limited, another reasonably priced pen compatible with the Christoph nib. Indeed, not only does it accommodate the nib as easily as the Jinhao did – it is also lightweight, its cap posts perfectly, and it comes in purple!

Alas, it was too good to be true. The Nemosine’s feed apparently doesn’t fit exactly right with the nib, because the pen leaks profusely sometimes and goes dry at other times. It’s infuriating.

2/19/15 Iroshizuku Take-sumi ink, Canson XL 140 lb. paper

At this point, I don’t recommend either of these pen bodies (at least to pair with a Franklin-Christoph nib), and I’m beginning to regret that I didn’t simply spring for a Franklin-Christoph body initially, which would certainly support the F-C nib. But the lowest-priced F-C Model 27 Collegia is $69.50 – just a tad more than the five bucks I spent on the Jinhao or the $18 I paid for the Nemosine. There must be other pens that are compatible with No. 6 nibs. I’m going to keep looking.

Hmmm. I wonder if Dr. Frankenstein had these problems. (Next week: my Epic concludes!)

Updated 3/24/15: I tried the Christoph nib on another Jinhao X450 – exact same model, just a different color – and the cap on this one posts securely. It’s just as heavy as the first, but as long as the cap posts, I can tolerate it. I guess the trick with these inexpensive pens is to try several, and they are made with such low quality control, that your chances are just as good of finding a good one as they are of finding a bad one.

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

Franklin-Christoph music nib on Jinhao X450 body.

Franklin-Christoph "Christoph" music nib.

Franklin-Christoph "Christoph" music nib on Nemosine Limited body.

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 8: Sailor 1911 Profit with Zoom Nib

1/21/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolors,Stillman & Birn
Alpha sketchbook

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

The Sailor zoom nib is a strange animal. It’s not temperamental like the Sailor music nib I reviewed last week, nor is it as bold and elegant as the Platinum music nib from the week before. As close to the Sailor fude nib as anything I’ve used, in both line variation and operation, the nib can make a hair-fine line when held nearly perpendicular to the paper that widens gradually as the angle to the paper is narrowed. At my normal writing angle, the line stroke isn’t quite as broad as the Platinum music nib; it’s probably closer to the Sailor’s music (see the skull of Kennewick man, sketched from a photo in the Smithsonian magazine, below). By contrast, the fude held at a normal writing angle renders a slightly finer stroke. At its broadest, it’s close to the fude’s widest line.

1/21/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, S&B Alpha

Although the motion that the nib requires to change its angle and therefore its line width is somewhat intuitive to me (since I’ve grown accustomed to the fude), it looks more like a “normal” nib (unlike the fude’s dramatically bent tip), so sometimes I forget that I can change its angle while using it. I’m not in love with it, but it’s definitely growing on me. I especially like using it to sketch bare trees, below (see a larger version of this sketch).

One thing I noticed right away is that – unlike the fude or most of the other nibs I’ve tried recently – the zoom’s upside-down stroke is scratchy and unreliable. It seems to be saying, “Don’t hold me upside-down, you idiot – don’t you know how to use a fountain pen properly?” If a nib talks to me, I listen; I don’t use this one upside-down.

Writing samples made with Sailor zoom nib.

On the other hand, I don’t have to. When held in the nearly perpendicular position, the nib produces a very fine line that’s even finer than the fude’s finest upside-down stroke. You can see the finest strokes in the whiskers and hairs on the arctic fox cub sketched from a calendar photo and the man’s hair, below (see a larger version of him at Zoka Coffee).

Here’s the tricky part, though: While the fude’s finest stroke (right-side up or upside-down) is smoothest when going side to side, the zoom’s finest stroke is most pleasantly made on the downstroke. I’m finding that switching from the fude to the zoom is something like getting a new purse: They both work for all the same functions, but I keep forgetting which pocket holds the keys. I’m sure I’d have better results if I stuck with one or the other. (Nearly impossible for a fickle sketcher like me.)

2/11/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Sailor zoom nib,
Fabriano 140 lb. hot press paper

I was pleased to discover that, unlike the Pilot Falcon nib, the zoom seems to put out a normal flow (rather than a fire hose stream), so when I use it with Platinum Carbon ink, I don’t have to worry that it won’t dry by the time I’m ready to use watercolor.

Worth mentioning about the pen’s body: Some call the Sailor 1911 Profit Standard’s cigar-shaped style “classic.” I call it “plain black fountain pen.” It’s clean and sleek, but there’s nothing distinctive about it, and it looks like the plain black fountain pen with a cigar shape that nearly every pen manufacturer has a model of. I didn’t know it before I started this Epic Search, but it turns out that I prefer a slightly larger and heavier pen body, such as the Platinum 3776 (see that review for more comments on this subject). 

2/12/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Sailor zoom nib

My Epic Search so far has included the Pilot Falcon, Platinum music, Sailor music and now Sailor zoom nibs. These are all nibs I researched carefully and at length before purchasing. Although I began the series with the statement, “Impulse buying is not something I’m known for,” at some point in my quest, I took a more spontaneous as well as adventurous turn. A few chance threads in the Fountain Pen Network Facebook group opened up a whole new world of “Frankenpen” modifications that began with an incredibly low-priced Jinhao . . . (stay tuned next week).

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

2/9/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen, Baron Fig
notebook (from a Smithsonian magazine photo)

2/9/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, S&B Alpha
(from calendar photo)

1/24/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen, Baron Fig notebook
(from calendar photo)

1/24/15 Sailor Tokiwa-matsu ink, Sailor zoom nib pen,
Clairefontaine notebook (from calendar photo)

Epic Pen Search and Discovery, Part 7: Sailor 1911 Profit Standard with Music Nib

1/16/15 Platinum Carbon ink, Van Gogh watercolors, Stillman & Birn Alpha

(This is part of a multi-post series about my ongoing search for the ultimate variable-line-width fountain pen. To read other posts in the series, choose “Epic Pen Search” in the label cloud at right, below.) 

Despite finding a perfectly reliable and even elegant music nib in the Platinum that I had decided was a keeper, my mind kept drifting back to that Sailor I flirted with briefly once. (Yeah, I know how that sounds – it’s an apt metaphor in several ways.) I had read numerous reviews about how the Sailor music nib’s “sweet spot” was too narrow, causing frustration for many users. Yet for that brief moment that I had that pen in my hand, it seemed altogether sweet. . .

I should have listened.

1/10/15 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn Alpha

Perhaps the pen I borrowed briefly had been altered somehow, because the one I purchased, the Sailor 1911 Profit Standard Demonstrator with a music nib, is definitely not the same. (That experience reinforced my belief that pens must be used in an actual sketching situation – not just scribbling or writing – to really know how they will behave.) And as those reviewers tried to warn me, it also isn’t the same as the Platinum’s music nib.

First of all, the Sailor music’s range of line-width variation is much narrower than the Platinum’s – the broadest stroke isn’t nearly as bold, and when I try to use the nib upside-down to get the finest line, it’s not only not as fine – it also feels scratchy, like it’s not really supposed to be used that way. (I don’t care if none of the nibs are supposed to be used that way; if they work, why not use them that way?)

Writing samples made with Sailor music nib.

Second, that small sweet spot others mentioned? It’s true. If the nib isn’t held at just the right angle to the paper, the ink skips or fades away. I encounter this issue most while simply writing in my journal, but it’s also noticeable when sketching – to the point of distraction. I’m constantly thinking about staying within the sweet spot instead of thinking about my sketch.

Perhaps with a longer workout, I could learn to get used to the Sailor music nib; after all, the Sailor fude took me months to fully love. Or I could dump it right now and decide that it was a flirtation that was never meant to be anything more.

(By “dump,” I don’t mean literally; I mean that I could try to resell it on the secondary market, which seems to be very active for pens in this price range, and probably be successful. It’s one reason I haven’t hesitated in experimenting with all these different nibs.)

1/13/15 Sailor Shigure ink, Sailor music nib pen,
Canson XL 140 lb. paper

One comment about the Sailor 1911 Profit Standard Demonstrator’s body: Its size and shape are identical to the plain black Sailor 1911 Profit Standard (coming up next when I discuss the zoom nib). The fully transparent “Demonstrator” model, however, is a lot more fun to look at. The standard Sailor converter has silver colored detailing, but this pen’s converter has gold detailing to match the pen body’s gold features – a nice touch.

The fountain pen world is full of music nibs to explore. But does a girl need more than one music nib? (Gourmet Pens would say yes – she is trying to collect a music nib by every manufacturer who offers one.) The only other one I would consider trying at this point is Pilot’s, just to complete my education about Japan’s “big three” pen manufacturers’ music nibs. But after my disappointment with the Sailor, music nibs have lost some of their appeal in my explorations.

Besides, I still have the zoom to consider. . . (stay tuned next week).

1/29/15 Sailor Shigure ink, Caran d'Ache Museum water-soluble
colored pencil

(Just in case it’s not obvious, unlike many blogs that review fountain pens, my blog has no sponsors or affiliates. Every pen I mention here was purchased by me at retail price.)

1/10/15 Sailor Shigure ink, Clairefontaine notebook (from photo)

1/15/15 Sailor Shigure ink, Clairefontaine notebook (from photo)