Sailor Sapporo - Is It Me Or The Pen Thats Not Working Well?!

August 12, 2016

Good afternoon esteemed fountain pen enthusiasts!

I am writing after quite a few years and am glad to be back!

The last time I wrote a post, everyone was extremely helpful to help me get my first proper fountain pen and that was the Sheaffer Prelude. I enjoyed it immensely but it was plagued with a small problem. Every time I would cap the pen, a small drop of ink would come on the nib. I believe you all helped me understand (and some other posts) that it is a flaw with caps that don't twist but rather push into the barrel of the pen. I went back to the store and they gladly gave me store credit and I finally picked out the pen that I had been dreaming for quite some time and that was the Sailor Sapporo (the smaller professional gear) with Rhodium trim and 14k gold and rhodium plated nib!

I was at college at the time and it was such a luxury for me but I was so glad I was finally able to get it! Been in love with this pen since but I do have to admit that I have not used it in quite a few years. I had different priorities in life which I had to take care of first and I finally decided to get back into fountain pens. Be rest assured, when I did store it, I properly flushed the pen and air dried it before storing it away nicely in a leather pen holder.

There has been no evident problem with the pen but it has been a wild ride trying to get back into the properly using and maintaining fountain pens!

The reason why I am writing to you is to get your guidance on what could be happening with the pen.

To begin with, at home, I currently own a fair few Apica notebooks (I believe they are 80gsm) and my Sailor Sapporo works flawlessly on them. However, as most people here, I do spend most of my days at the office and I do not want to waste my notebooks on work so I managed to get a decent diary from work where the fountain pen does work fairly well but now I will get into the list of minor issues. And it is winter where I am right now, but never snows here, temperatures do get close to 0.
I am also using Sheaffer Skrip Turquoise.

1. On my work diary, when I use my pen, for the first few minutes, it works great but then it starts to get the scratchy nib sensation. When I use my Apica notebook (after using my work diary), it works excellent but it does take a few extra lines to get the scratchy sensation away. I also notice that when I use my pen unposted on the work diary, it gets scratchy very quickly but when I post it, it writes smoother for longer, but then eventually gets scratchy.

My theory is that the paper is of an unknown gsm and my pen and ink aren't a big fan of the paper because whenever I put my pen down horizontally on the table for a few minutes and then start writing again in my work diary, it is smooth but then gets scratchy after a few minutes.

Have I diagnosed the problem correctly?

2. My apartment does get quite cold (but nothing close to freezing) and I dont have a centrally air conditioned house so my pen does get exposed to a bit of cold, especially on weekends where i dont use the pen. The reason why i bring this up is because when I start using the pen on monday after not using it on the weekend, as expected, it starts of scratchy and I do some figure 8 exercises to get the ink flow back but it never restores to is originally glory of when it was first filled.

For example, I usually fill my pen monday or tuesday, and the pen works great (along with the problems described in 1) but its this gap on the weekend that drives me crazy because its only until the next refill of the ink that I can get it back to its former glory.

Could it just be the combination of ink and weather that is causing this? Because people leave their pens unused for a couple of days and a bit of water or just some writing exercises gets them back up and running. And plus the cold of my house and warmth of the office can cause funny things to the ink?

3. Lastly, I can never get a full converter of ink with this pen. I know there are certain techniques, like flushing and refilling the ink a few times to prime the nib and therefore get more ink into the converter. The most amount of ink I get is when i flush the pen out, let it dry for 24 hrs+ and i get a good solid fill (with a bit of a gap). But when I use the pen a lot in a week and have to fill twice, it is that second time that my pen starts to get micro air bubbles and its not a totally air free fill.

Could it, once again be the ink not being ideal for my pen?

I do realize this is quite a long post but I have been really trying to get to bottom of all this and it might just end of being user error! But I would absolutely appreciate any help that you can give because this forum is by far the most helpful!

Thank you in advance and will look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Kind regards,

Jagu

August 12, 2016

August 12, 2016

Dear Noihvo,

I am deeply humbled by the effort you have made to respond to my very long post! It was so refreshing to read your response as you were able to answer questions that were truly driving me crazy! I hope your answers can help others too!

For point number two, you mentioned the cap might not be closing properly, the cap feels very snug in my opinion. Is there a way to check that? I have also heard some inks are just more moody with temperature. Have you had any experiences with Sheaffer skrip?

And is that a Sailor King of Pens I see??

Once again, thank you for the response!

Jagu

August 13, 2016

Jagu, I am familiar with your pen (I had a couple of Sapporos in the past) & now use three Sailor 1911 Standards, which are essentially the same pen as your Sapporo (considering the nib, feed & section).

I also use APICA CD11 notebooks for my journals. This Japanese paper has a fairly hard finish, possibly less absorbent than your paper at the office.

You did not state what size of nib you have in your Sapporo & whether your pen has been set up to be a wet, a normal or a dry writer. These factors can affect your pen's performance. When you consider the ink you are using (Scrip Turquoise), the ambient temperature & the humidity, all these can make make a difference in how your pen is going to perform. Check the ink reviews in FPN for this Sheaffer colour & read what other say about this ink.

But, I would suggest you try a few different inks, perhaps some of the well behaved (though in my opinion, boring) inks by Waterman, or Sailor's own Jentle inks or if your budget allows, Pilot's Iroshizuku line of inks.

Bubbles or ink sticking to the walls of Sailor converters are fairly common occurrences (again, depending on the ink). Usually they do not affect the writing ability of the nib. As for the filling technique, I follow what is written on the little slip of paper that comes with every Sailor converter (particularly the part when you express three drops back into the bottle, point the nib to the ceiling & draw back the piston). This can prevent an air lock.

Hope this helps a bit.

tinta

August 14, 2016

Good evening Tinta.

Thank you for your informative response! The nib on my Sapporo is a M 14k rhodium plated (apologies for not having mentioned it earlier).

You have brought up a very good point about how I want my pen to write. I would like to say normal, but I do like it a bit on the wet side primarily because I feel it acts more like a fountain pen then a type of gel pen, if you know what I am saying. And the reason why I stuck with the Skrip ink is primarily because I feel I still am not all that well versed in fountain pen ink etiquette and maintenance so I do not want to ruin a good bottle of ink without knowing what I am doing! But it is correct that I need to know more about the ink and its nuances if I want my pen to write a particular way.

And when you did mention about pointing the nib after I expel some ink back in the bottle, should I draw back the piston all the way? or just a little bit?

But after seeing the great responses here, I think its not so much my ink being the culprit but my lack of understanding of how a particular ink can be affected by so many factors.

I will certainly get a review of the Skrip turquoise and then take it from there!

Once again, thank you for taking the time to respond!

Kind regards,

Jagu

August 14, 2016

Dear Noihvo, I am deeply humbled by the effort you have made to respond to my very long post! It was so refreshing to read your response as you were able to answer questions that were truly driving me crazy! I hope your answers can help others too! For point number two, you mentioned the cap might not be closing properly, the cap feels very snug in my opinion. Is there a way to check that? I have also heard some inks are just more moody with temperature. Have you had any experiences with Sheaffer skrip? And is that a Sailor King of Pens I see?? Once again, thank you for the response! Jagu

August 14, 2016

Sometimes I would also blame the ink get something very free flowing if you can get so ething like rohrer and klingner alt-golgrun among the few relatively affordable free flowing inks I know... Waterman barely exists in my country hehehe and aurora else they might be a good start

Edited August 14, 2016 by Algester

August 14, 2016

Yes Jagu, please pull the piston back as far as it goes.

When I've used up about half the converter's volume of ink, I find it helpful to advance the piston forward till the feed combs start to fill with ink. Then I draw back the piston till the ink is sucked back into the converter & wipe the nib. (I do this operation with the nib pointing up.)

August 17, 2016

Hi Noivho, Algester, and Tinta

Thank you for the great responses! Noivho, I now get what to watch out for but after what you and Tinta have said about cold temperatures, I believe it might just be that issue getting that smoothness of not using the pen for two days. I also followed your advice Tinta about pulling back the converter and boy does this pen feel great and writes very consistently! It feels as if its a little less wet than before but the consistency is amazing! I am getting no problems starting the pen the next day and it just works like the day before!

And Algester, I agree, I will not totally rule out the ink issue but i think I will need to buy another bottle of ink to rule out that possibility. I gave the pen a good flush on sunday and let air dried it for 24 hours and this week has been great! I also ordered some premium Rhodia notebooks (should have done this in the first place!) and they should arrive soon so finally I think my FP issues will be resolved!

Thank you all for the help as you have given me far more knowledge than I expected.

I hope you all have a great day!

Kind regards,

Jagu

Edit: Also, I realized the pen was not a King of Pens when i opened the post on my computer, it looked green! On my phone it looked Black! haha silly power saving modes on the phone!

Edited August 17, 2016 by Jagu_Baba