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Sailor hocoro Dip Pen For quick testing of fountain pen inks, a dip pen is a useful tool. I like the convenience it provides: dip it in the ink bottle, write a quick line. Then rinse under the water faucet and you're done. For the past year or so I’ve been using a Pilot iro-utsushi dip pen. That works well, but it doesn’t have a feed to function as an ink reservoir. So it’s only good for writing a few words. Recently I came across the Sailor hocoro dip pen (at stiloestile.it) : same concept, but this dip pen comes with a feed. It looked like a better alternative, so I decided to give it a try. The Sailor hocoro dip pen is basically a nib attached to a holder so you can write with it. The nibs can be bought separately, and come in different sizes (fine, a couple of stubs, fude). All nib units can be bought separately for about 10 EUR. Nib + holder come at about 15 EUR. Really affordable. The hocoro nib holder has two interesting features: It has a flattened surface on one side, which functions as a built-in roll-stop. A small but well-thought out detail. One side of the holder functions as a nib container. You can “cap” the nib in it so that it is protected. When you want to write with the dip pen, you pull out the nib, reverse it and plug it into the holder. Works really well. The biggest plus of this little dip pen is the integrated feed which serves as an ink reservoir (the F-nib comes without a feed, but the latter can be purchased separately. Broader nibs come standard with a feed). Because of this integrated feed, it’s possible to write a couple of lines without redipping the pen into the ink. Quite convenient, and ideal for a quick note without having to fill a full pen. I got me the hocoro dip pen with a “fude” nib. This looked like an interesting nib choice, and it really is! Depending on the angle you write, you can go from a fine to a very very broad line. Ideal for calligraphy fans. But also really nice when testing a new ink. The included packaging is simple piece of carton, with the instructions printed on it. One look at these, and you know how the pen works. I took a quick photo, and then got rid of it. As a dip pen, this Sailor hocoro works as advertised. It’s no beauty queen, but due to the integrated feed it is a really functional instrument. For testing inks it is an order of magnitude better than a glass dip pen. I also prefer it over the much better looking Pilot iru-utsushi. If you’re looking for a cheap dip pen for quick ink testing, you can’t go much better than this. And I can really recommend the “fude” nib which provides tons of line variation. Check it out…