Sailor 1911 full size - review

[SMG]

Having tuned the nib for goodguy, and owning a 146 with a fine nib, I can easily say that the Sailor completely trumps my 146 in writing. I love my 146, it is a stainless model and the only fine nibbed pen that I owned for a long long time.

 

After tweaking the Sailor nib for goodguy, it was slightly misaligned and bent, it was INCREDIBLE! The feedback is much more prevalent in the Sailor than the 146, ink flow is pretty much spot on. My 146 is a wicked writer and I was blown away at how nicely the 1911 wrote after I tuned it up. I am not trying to blow my horn on my tuning skills. I only brought the nib back into alignment and straightened the tines slightly.

 

The 146 though has its benefits. Piston filling beats CC filling every time for me. I love the silky smooth feel of the MB 146 piston as well as the heft of the stainless cap. Now, I do not own a resin 146 anymore, but the weight of the 146 seemed a little better distributed than the 1911. Most likely due to the piston fill. The cap threads onto the barrel like a Swiss bank vault on my 146, which felt a little more smooth and precise than the Sailor in my estimation.

 

The nibs are so different on these pens it really is amazing. The MB nib has the slightly Waverly profile to it, meaning it is smoother at higher pen elevations than the Sailor. The Sailor though, when held on its sweet spot (it is actually rather large) is much smoother than my 146. My 146 is glass smooth to most people and has incredible flow with slight flex, but there is just something about the 1911 nib that appeals to me.

 

Normally I use B or BB stub nibs in all my pens and have them tuned for fire hose flow. My Cali with the vintage Sailor nib is the wettest pen I own, but it is also one of the smoothest. The weird thing is that after trying goodguy's 1911, I went out and bought a Nakaya Piccolo with a Medium nib and am looking for a 1911 with a F nib. I may have been converted!

 

The 146 that goodguy plans on using for the comparison needs some further tweaking, and as soon as I get my nib block I will get it corrected and back to him for his take on this dynamic duo of Classic midsize pens.

 

Cheers,

Sean

[SMG]

Usually I have to smooth out my nibs to 12000 grit to get the feel I like in a nib and so far I haven't had to do that with any of my Sailor nibs.

 

What do you use to smooth out your nibs? How do you measure grit? Is there a tool? I have a few pens that I find little scratchy and would like to smooth the nib. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

There are smoothing kits and sheets of micromesh available at Richard Binder's site. I use Micromesh buffing sticks for final smoothing, and those come in three grits on one stick.

 

The tool to measure grit is a profilometer and costs tens of thousands for a decent one. There is no need to measure the grit that you will be using, as it is imprinted on the Micromesh or on the mylar lapping sheets.

 

Search the repair forum for nib smoothing and you will find days upon days of information on the topic there.

 

Cheers,

Sean

[teaguejb]

I love my 1911 with music nib. I think the music nib is basically a 1.1mm stub. I keep it filled with waterman havana brown and use it for writing correspondence on ecru stationery. The pen feels great in my hand and I like the feedback I get from stub nibs.

[dhaines]

Sailor grinds their nibs nice...the problem is they don't align the tines right at the factory after they do a quick test with them!

I got a fine nib 1911 too and it was scratchy because of tine misalignment. If you get a 10x loop and play with it you can realign another Sailor pen you get easy and still have that wonderful Sailor "feeling." I tend to use light pressure on my nib since it's 21k and doesn't like to be pushed really hard.

Hope this helps! They are great pen's but you need to know how to really "tune" them yourself like a carburetor.

[notVirtuThe3rd]

Thanks for the nice feedback! I also like Sailor nibs because of it's awesome smoothness. If you get other kinds of nibs of Sailor, you'll be even happier. Sailor is a really reliable pen, I think. From Japan. - Kota Adachi -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-Na4VZXBw

Edited January 14, 2013 by VirtuThe3rd

[goodguy]

Thanks for the nice feedback! I also like Sailor nibs because of it's awesome smoothness. If you get other kinds of nibs of Sailor, you'll be even happier. Sailor is a really reliable pen, I think. From Japan. - Kota Adachi -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-Na4VZXBw

Sailor nibs are fantastic but I am a Fine nib only, since Japanese nibs go thiner then European nibs I might use a Medium nib but from my own taste I dont think I would try any other nibs.

I tried ll sort of nibs like Music nib, Stub and many others and they all felt un natural for me.

[YoungpenGeek07]

I am about to buy my first sailor pen (1911 Realo medium Fine Nib) Im very excited

[goodguy]

I am about to buy my first sailor pen (1911 Realo medium Fine Nib) Im very excited

Considering to buy another 1911 after a long time without one.