I bought a Sapporo with F nib. It writes flawlessly, but I have a fast hand and the nib catches the paper all too often. I would prefer a medium nib. Any recommendations on who might be able to do the exchange?

Thanks,
Aldo

Assuming you bought it from a stick and brick store, have you tried contacting them?

You might also try the American Sailor representative:

SAILOR
Houndstooth Enterprises, Ltd.
130 Ralston Court
Fayetteville, GA 30215
pencenter2004@yahoo.com
(770)-716-0805

Also, you could post a Wanted to Trade message. The nib units are removable - grip firmly, twist and pull. (The feed is keyed so the nib unit always remains correctly aligned on the feed - which is comforting to know when inserting a replacement unit.)

While waiting for my replacement Sapporo unit to come from the UK, I popped the EF unit from my 1911M into my Sapporo to use while I waited, and then swapped them back out when the replacement arrived.

If you live in the US the US reps will change it out quickly with no problem for you. Excellent service.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will try the US service for the exchange.

Aldo

Can you explain the procedure to remove the nibs in more detail? Is the nib feed unit an integrated assembly like in the pelikans?

The Pelikan unit is one piece which screws out, but the Sailor unit consists of a separate plastic feed and gold nib. The feed has grooves cut into it which the nib lays/fits into, so that the nib remains aligned properly.

There isn't really much more detail to the procedure... I take a small piece of extra-grip / non-slip matting, wrap it around the nib and making sure to hold the nib and feed together firmly (but don't crush them), twist and pull for a half-rotation or so, and the unit should come free.

Note that you can't make flow adjustments by changing the nib position over the feed due to the keyed grooves, so unless you are swapping a nib, please don't remove the unit. (Why? Because if you grip the nib and feed too hard while twisting, you could squeeze the tines out of alignment etc!)

Caution is advised, as always.

This works on some Pilot pens as well.
I just got a Pilot 78G and based on this entry, tried that with this pen.
It works!
The nib and feed are separate and the nib fits into a groove.

It also seems like Sailor and Pilot are very similar brands in styling and craftsmanship.

Thanks for the information.

I've just gotten myself a Sapporo with a F nib too... Incidentally, my first pen too.
However, I wonder is it just me, but I find it can get abit scratchy? People says I would need a medium nib, but I find the lines with the medium being much too thick...

Do I need to tweak the nib somewhat, or this pen is just not for me?

I have a F Sapporo that was very smooth out of the box. Just recently I found it was feeling scratchy, and thought it might have been the ink or paper I was using. Then I checked the tines and they had somehow become a bit misaligned - I don't know if I dropped it, or what. Anyway, a very minor tweak to realign them and it's perfectly smooth again.

It is possible that writing style has something to do with it - Pthalo has offered useful thoughts on this topic in previous threads.

corsair: For your first pen, a Sailor was perhaps not the best choice... because depending on what you wrote with before, you may need to make a few small changes to your style now. I would persevere with the pen (most people give up on nibs far too quickly), and ease off on your writing pressure - this is important. Over time you will naturally find that you do this, but if you start with a challenging nib, you may have to be more disciplined about doing it.

I have to say that my latest Sapporo Mini did something similar...the tines were perfectly aligned when it arrived (I always loupe them), but a week later I noticed a catchy sensation, and when I louped them again, they were mis-aligned. Sometimes picking up a pen to jot a note at quirky angle can cause this... which is what I think I did.

Anyway, do ease up on the writing pressure - and use the pen in this way for a few days at least, because you may find that as you become accustomed to it the sensation will feel less "scratchy". You may recognize it more as "feedback" - which is very common with Sailor nibs.

This has been very insightful Phthalo. My previous experience was with ballpoints, as with most other people.. I did not expect the Sailor to be not such a good choice for beginners. I guess I did not give enough due time to consider while I was trying out quite a few pens in the shop. What would you recommend as a good beginner pen instead?

I wouldn't change now unless you really cannot get along with the Sailor - after giving it a good try.

Persevere as I have suggested above, and since you have come from ballpoints, I think that if you relax your grip, and apply less pressure when writing, you may end up liking the Sailor in time!

Sailor nibs are beautiful writers, but they are on the finer side compared to Parker, Waterman etc. Also, sometimes a different ink helps lubricate the nib while writing, so after a couple of days, try a different ink (if you have one) or different paper also.

Yes, you'll make a few little changes with fountain pen use... but all are for the good.

I took your advice and spent more 'quality' time with the pen, and I guess I could find this Sailor singing quite well now....
Flushed the ink and refilled the converter and it writes even better. This is a good bang for buck writer indeed.

Not sure if anyone is interested...
Some more feedback from my writing experience with this pen..

After still getting unfavorable results, I decided to switch the ink from Noodler's Bulletproof Black to simple ole' Lamy Blue.
The result is fantastic. The pen now writes very very smoothly... though with slight added pressure, you get 'feedback' from rougher paper, which is quite a good thing. Furthermore, the Noodler's ink exhibited too much nib creep for my liking. No such problem with Lamy though.

Problem solved.

Glad your Sapporo is writing better I go through cycles of saturated and unsaturated inks but I'm into less saturated ink currently.

Great to hear!

It's surprising how much difference an ink can make. I always notice this particularly when I switch to or from a Rohrer & Klingner ink (they are very lubricating).

May I know what are the inks you use often???
I've read Waterman gives consistently great results across many pens.

Another sailor nib question... Is there any difference between the golden and silver nib on Sailor Sapporo ? Perhaps in smoothnes... Could somebody compare?

I have a couple of each... no difference in my experience.

Currently I am using Diamine ink in one of my Sapporo Mini, and FPN Tulipe Noire (made by Noodler's). I also have used Sailor cartridges with good results. Tulipe Noire is very saturated ink, but so far it's behaving well in my Sapporo Mini. I tend to avoid using Noodler's waterproof ink, as I had some flow issues with some of them.

I had been under the impression that the Sapporo Minis only took cartridges - are you refilling Sailor cartridges with these inks, or is there some converter hack that works in the Mini? I just ordered a Morita mini from Ujuku, so I'm curious

We refill.

Sailor converter capacity is less than half of the Sailor cartridge capacity...

Yup, save those empty carts