Sailor Fude Nagomi Brush Pen Extra Fine Review

I like the fact that I am seeing more and more Sailor pens of the non-fountain pen variety become available. It's possible these pens have been all over Japan for years, but I feel like it is a special treat when someone like JetPens imports them and makes them available to more people.

The Sailor Fude Nagomi Brush Pen was made in conjuction with a popular Japanese calligrapher named Ryofuka. She had a hand in the design of the pen, including the curved grip section, which I quite enjoy. In looking at the pamphlet of tips that came with the pen, it appears she prefers holding the pen at a very vertical angle. I find that interesting because I do that when writing, but for the broader strokes required with brush pens it seems odd.

It may work well with this extra fine model though, because there is very little line variation to be had. It reminds me a lot of the Kuretake Fudegokochi which I love for its general writing ability. This Sailor is very much the same, and will be primarily used for tasks that require smaller, more defined styles.

Many other, more standard, brush tips are available too, so be sure to take a look at all of the options that Sailor has brought to the table if you like the shape and style of this barrel.

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

Sailor 1911 Standard Music Nib Review

What is a music nib? That is a question I have wondered for years. I know generally what they are all about: A wider than normal nib suited well for writing musical scores. But how does it work, and most importantly, how will it work for me? Thanks to my friends at Goldspot Pens, I was able to get a Sailor 1911 Standard with Music Nib on loan to see what it is all about.

When you have a non-standard nib like a music nib, it becomes the singular reason you are buying the pen. The barrel feel and design are obviously important in the grand scheme, but they are secondary considerations to how the nib performs. As is the norm with all of Sailor's nibs, the music nib performed wonderfully.

From a design perspective, the majority of music nibs are designed with two slits and three tines. This is to allow for big ink flow, which is a staple of music nibs. Sailors music nib is more traditional in that it has a single slit and two tines, but the tip of the nib is designed in such a way as to keep that same big ink flow. That was clear once I started writing with it using Sailor's Shigure ink. There were no issues putting this beautiful purple ink down on the page.

Top view

As I learned while researching this nib, music nibs are designed to hit the page more vertically than standard nibs, and at approximately a 90 degree angle. Picture your normal fountain pen writing grip where the nib hits the page at around a 45 degree angle. Rotate the pen in your hand counterclockwise (if you are a righty) until the nib hits the page at a 90 degree angle. Then move the barrel into a more vertical position instead of laid back as you would normally. Now become Mozart!

Side view

Once I realized this, well after my handwritten review mind you, all I could think of is isn't this what an architect grind is supposed to accomplish, without all of the angle adjustments? Wide horizontal strokes, thinner vertical strokes. Seems like it would do the trick. The thing is, no one uses a music nib for its named use these days anyway.

Bottom view

What the modern age of music nibs brings to the table is a thick, luscious line, perfect for large, sweeping writing. Big block lettering, cursive flourishes, and fancy styling. That's what this music nib is good at. Think of it as a chisel tip marker in a fountain pen nib. Go big or go home.

As I worked my way through this review my early prediction came true. It really is all about the nib. Sailor's 1911 barrel is excellent in its own right, with black, rounded ends set off by strongly colored resin barrels. I'm not a gold furniture guy but it's hard to argue how sharp these pens look.

Your writing style and planned use is the determining factor in purchasing a pen with a music nib. I've seen some amazing work with nibs like the one found in this Sailor. It's not a daily writer for me, but if I want to put some ink down on the page this is the way to go.

My thanks to Goldspot Pens for loaning me this pen for review. It will be heading back to its rightful home later this week, and I wish it safe travels!

Sailor Young Profit: A Tale of Quality Control

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

In a perfect world, every fountain pen would be created equally and would write with flawless beauty from the very beginning. Alas, the world is far from perfect, and not every pen is perfectly tuned out of the box. It's a shame, really. Besides, the problems that new pens have out of the box are normally due to the nib and feed system that's so fascinating in the first place. It's an imperfect system, and errors occur. Luckily, they're usually not very difficult to fix.

But, on the other side of the coin, it's a hassle to ink up a new pen and have it act like a spoiled toddler on the page when first writing with it. Maybe it's just me, but I've had really sour luck with the $50-$100 range lately. The past three pens I've bought from a particular brand have been scratchy, dry, and skippy. Not only until after I did some basic tuning were they really usable. I'm glad that I could tune the pens, and I even enjoy it sometimes, but not when it's a brand new pen.

If Lamy and Kaweco (and many others) can make sub-$50 pens that write beautifully out of the box, I don't understand why others can't do the same with more expensive pens. (Lamy and Kaweco can certainly be guilty of this.) It's the age of mass production that causes the issues, I'm sure. If you buy an Edison pen, it will definitely write flawlessly from day 1, but that's because it's been hand-tuned before it's shipped out. It's unique and hand-made with care. Same goes for a Nakaya and other premium brands. Once you start mass producing something, the law of diminishing returns steps in and dictates that "good enough" quality control is a fair trade-off for selling in bulk. So it goes.

Why the rant? Well, because Sailor.

I really want to love the brand. They make some beautiful pens. My first fountain pen was a Sailor High Ace Neo, and luckily it wrote like a champ from the beginning.

Since then, I've purchased three other Sailors: the Lecoule, a Fasciner, and now a Young Profit.

Each of these pens have been imperfect writers from the beginning. In each case, the tines are too close together and/or angled poorly. Some tine adjustments and nib smoothing is all that's needed, but I think that shouldn't be a requirement for a new pen. Imagine if someone new to fountain pens purchased their first pen and had that experience! The Bic Crystal would look pretty good after that, thanks to modern engineering, etc.

They all write great now, but they still carry that bad first impression around.

The point in all this is simple. I'm just not sure that it's worth spending more than $50 or $60 on a fountain pen. In my experience, the pens that cost double that still have the same quality control issues. Only when you jump up to the next notch can you expect (mostly) to avoid the QC issues in the intro level. But $150+ purchases are more rare because of the cost barrier. With hard-hitting players like the Pilot Metropolitan, Lamy Safari, and Kaweco Sport lines, it's hard to recommend something more expensive (apart from TWSBI because they're awesome).

Back to the Sailor Young Profit. It's actually a pretty nice pen once you get past the flaky nib! Let's take a closer look at the outside.

I grabbed a black/silver version when they first appeared at JetPens because I wasn't a fan of the gold furniture. I went with a medium nib this time — based on past experience, Sailor runs small and I wanted to try something with more line width. The medium is a great size for me. It's comparable to a German fine nib (even on the small side of fine).

The body is plastic, which is something I don't like. I have other plastic body pens that cost about the same, but the Young Profit feels a bit cheaper than those. It doesn't feel brittle, but just doesn't have a quality feel, and let's face it: how expensive a pen feels in your hand is an important aspect that speaks to the quality.

The body is fairly slim and can actually get a tad uncomfortable for me when writing for long stretches. The grip section is plastic as well and there's a small ridge at the very end of the grip where it meets the feed. None of the grip features get in the way of my grip, but we're all unique.

The nib looks very classy and has some beautiful etching that's in line with the Sailor brand. The internal parts of the pen are solid and make me feel better about the overall quality of the parts that went into the pen.

It's a pretty pen that oozes class.

As for writing, I'll describe how it writes after the tuning. Before the tuning, it was dry, skippy, and scratchy.

The nib is extremely smooth and glides across the paper. Like I said earlier, the line width is similar to a small German fine nib. The ink flow is a tad dry for my tastes, but it works just fine and can keep up with swift strokes.

There's not much feedback in the nib, even on rough paper like the Baron Fig notebook. Paper like Mnemosyne or Tomoe River feels like velvet on glass. It's really nice.

The nib behaves very well and is a pleasure to write with. The only problem I've had so far is the slim width of the grip — makes it uncomfortable after 10 minutes of use.

Not exactly your average review, but I doubt my experiences with these nibs are isolated. I'm also not sure what to do about the situation except to vote with your money. For me, fountain pens are part hobby and part utility. Sometimes you try things you don't like, but you always have your faithful tools that always get the job done and manage to bring delight to menial tasks like writing lists and thank you notes.

As for the Young Profit, I can't recommend it purely because of the lack of value it offers compared to cheaper pens on the market. The High Ace Neo is a fantastic pen that packs a ton of value. In the Young Profit's case, the price doesn't justify the means.

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