Japanese Fp That Are Good Out Of The Box?

[cadfael_tex]

As much as I like Pelikans I'm not sure that I'll ever buy another one that is Binderized or similar again. Same goes for other European and American pens (from experience and reading). However, I've found that the Japanese pens that I've gotten have been superb - whether tuned or not.

 

Seeing that prices can be much less on engeika and other sellers, I want to call on the gathered experience here. What brands of pen would you trust to write right right out of the box? Sailor? Platinum? Pilot? Any models stand out one way or the other? (For instance I'm quite found of Vanishing Points)

[empty]

My experience with Pilot has been very good, I haven't had a poor writer out of the box across the range from metropolitan to the Custom series. The line widths are also very consistent with the possible exception of the Capless/Vanishing Point series. I have found those to write a thicker line compared to the equivalent nib size of other Pilot models.

Edited July 22, 2016 by empty

[Quantum]

I don't think you can really go wrong with Sailor, Platinum, or Pilot. My Pilot pens can be a bit dry with the wrong ink, and by dry I mean barely writing, but that's probably because I use EF nibs a lot. With any of the iroshizuku inks they work amazingly well.

 

If you like some feedback I would go with Sailor, if you like super smooth and somewhat soft I would go with Pilot. I only own one Platinum pen and it's pretty smooth but a lot harder than the Pilots I own.

 

 

Edit: Nib thoughts.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Quantum

[mehandiratta]

of all the 3 major brands...

i have had better luck with Pilot Pens

[cadfael_tex]

I've liked the way all of my pens from the Rising Sun have written...

 

2 VPs, sailor 1911s with Naginata Togi nmf, Pro Gear EF, Pro Gear slim zoom, Pilot E95s, Plat Sai, and Plat Nice Pur

 

Although all but one of the VPs came from nibs.com and were tuned.

[tinta]

Although other folk's views or experiences may vary greatly on this topic,... I personally wouldn't expect an accurate nib alignment or a good flow performance straight "out-of-the-box", if I bought my pen from a dealer who had not first inspected, set up & tuned the pen before shipping. It would be like a c..p shoot.

A hit & miss affair.

 

Binderizing, John Mottishaw's optimizing, or Franklin Christoph checking the nib alignment, the flow & test writing the pen, all try to achieve the same thing. That a positive writing experience can be" almost" guaranteed for the customer & that the number of return/repair claims are greatly reduced for the seller. It's a win-win situation.

 

An on-line dealer offering a low price point for quality pens from the Japanese Big Three, may not be able to guarantee that their pens will perform to your requirements (out-of-the-box). You either have to learn to tweak & tune your own pens or spend your time, your energy & your money trying to deal with the seller.

 

All of my modestly priced Sailors are excellent writers because I ordered them through Mr. Mottishaw's shop. (no affiliation)

Life is too short for not getting what you paid for (at any price).

 

My 0.02 CAD's worth. Your mileage may differ.

Edited July 22, 2016 by tinta

[Aramchek]

All Japanese pens I have with gold nib worked really well out of the box (well, one Pilot, a Deluxe, is slightly scratchy, but I have plenty of pens that are scratchier)

When it comes to the ones with steel nib, one of my Pilot MRs was really scratchy (and I finally gave up on getting a replacement nib from Stationary art), and the Sailor ecole nib was just yucky.

[jpierson]

All of my Pilots have been great... From $12 to $500.

[Tas]

I must own ten Pilots - from 78Gs to my black VP all have written beautifully and faultlessly out of the box.

 

Similar story with Platinum - loads of Preppys and one 3776. Again faultless and pure pleasure.

 

Only owned a Sailor for about a week and whilst it wrote well, unlike their inks it didn't "sing to me".

 

 

Choose your style and order with confidence . . .

[Bluey]

My Platinum and 2 of my Pilots needed smoothing slightly, but that's only to get them near perfect (although the Platinum is still a little too scratchy) to my tastes. Two Sailors and the other two Pilots have been decent and enjoyable writers. After a good flushing the flow is always superb, and no misaligned tines that I'm aware of.

 

Platinum - these are for those who enjoy maximum feedback and maximum stiffness of nib. If it touches the paper and you scribble at 5,000 mph there will be no skips.

 

Sailor - these are the pencil pens with a certain special feel to them, and very smooth relative to the nib width. Nib width for nib width, Sailors are smoother than both Pilot and Platinum, but the downside is that the sweet spot is not as wide as either Platinum or Pilot. Stiff but not as much so as Platinum. These tend to be neither too wet nor too dry.

 

Pilot - the EF and F may need smoothing. These are the softest of all 3 companies. Legend has it that Pilots tend to be dry but most of mine are at the far end of the wet scale.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Bluey

[rutherfordr]

All of my Pilots have been great... From $12 to $500.

 

Mine, too. Pilot makes my favorite pens.

 

My Platinum pens have excellent nibs, but I've had really bad luck with their converters. I've had to replace four of them so far, because they've stopped working.

 

My Sailor pens have worked perfectly out of the box, but they're my least favorite, because they don't fit my hand well.

[cadfael_tex]

Sounds like the risk is from moderate to minuscule. The pen I'm most considering to do this with is the Platinum 3776 Century Chartres with soft fine nib.

 

Would I even dare to try a Sailor specialty nib (Naginata Togi etc)? Engeika seems to have extraordinarily good deals on these.

[jde]

For what it's worth, my experience with Platinum and Pilot are very good "out of the box." Sailor not so good sometimes, and so I tend to buy Sailor from someone who will check the nib first. IMHO your risk is higher with Sailor.

 

Edited to add: I've had mixed results with Pilot 78G - most needed tuning. Neat little pen, though, especially the Broad which is really a stub.

Edited July 22, 2016 by jde

[Sasha Royale]

Pilot Varsity.

[wjeverly]

I don't have any experience with Sailor (yet) so can't comment, except to say that I've read about people very unhappy with Sailor in various forums and blogs; of course that doesn't factor in the many happy but silent users.

 

I have Platinum's Preppy, Plaisir, and 3776 Century pens. The inexpensive ones all were perfect out of the box. I hadn't heard about Platinum's feedback character when I bought my 3776, and I was really unhappy with it until I managed to smooth it enough to not scrape fibers from the paper.

 

Like others here, every single Pilot I've bought was perfect out of the box - from the 78G (have 4) and Prera (have 3) to the E95s, each pen is a perfect writer. The less expensive pens have other minor issues, but they write perfectly. The Custom 74 is in my sights as a future purchase.

 

Too bad about your modified Pelikan experiences. I have two ground and tuned by Linda Kennedy at Indy-Pen-Dance, and one by John Mottishaw. All three are to-die-for writers.

Edited July 22, 2016 by wjeverly

[cadfael_tex]

My Modified Pelikans have been excellent but unmodified/untuned have been average at best.

[Joe in Seattle]

Had 3 Sailor - each nib different size, each perfect.

 

BTW my experience with binderized mirrored yours. 2 failures there, but 4 factory standard that wrote beautifully out of the box.

[pkoko]

Pilot & Sailor nibs are the best in the world. All write better than MB or Pelikan that I own. But the German nibs look better and have character while writing. In USA, both MB & Pelikan have great customer service and will gladly exchange nibs on any new pen. IMHO for EF nibs, you can't beat Japanese nibs but for Broad or nibs with line variation; the germans is where you should go.

Edited July 23, 2016 by pkoko

[Maurizio]

I must own ten Pilots - from 78Gs to my black VP all have written beautifully and faultlessly out of the box.

 

Similar story with Platinum - loads of Preppys and one 3776. Again faultless and pure pleasure.

 

Choose your style and order with confidence . . .

Ditto

 

I've had a similar experience with all of my Pilots. In order of purchase over 15 years: an Ecrino (now called Lucina), a Custom 74, 2 Vanishing Points, 2 resin Falcons, a metal Falcon, a Custom Heritage 912, and a Metropolitan.

 

I also have had a Platinum 3776 Music Nib and still have several Preppy's.

 

All wrote wet and well right out of the box except one. I only had a problem with the CH 912 which is a stub nib. This didn't flow well initially but was adjusted by Pilot without cost to me and it now also writes beautifully.

 

I've never had a Sailor pen but about 9 months ago discovered Sailor Jentle Blue ink for the first time. This ink by far flows the best of any ink I've yet tried. I find it flows even better than Pilot (regular) Blue which was my favorite ink until I discovered Sailor.

 

I think it's safe to say that the odds are very high that you will be satisfied with any Pilot or Platinum pen you get. No knock at all to Sailor but I can't speak from experience about them.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Maurizio

[mongrelnomad]

Best to worst (not including custom pens - so no Hakase or Nakaya) in my experience:

 

1. Platinum

2. Pilot

3. Sailor (more issues with flow on 21k than 14k or 18k nibs)

 

That said, even Sailor at the lowest rung has been substantially better than any European FP company in an equivalent sample size.

Edited July 23, 2016 by mongrelnomad