Sailor Pro Gear Naginata Concord Emperor

[DanF]

 

This is a review of my first Sailor pen, a Professional Gear in rhodium trim, fitted with a Concord Emperor nib. It was purchased on EBay for $255 plus $13 Shipping from Japan.

It arrived in a fairly modest cardboard box covered in a thin blue faux leather grained material, which included one black cartridge and a converter. Note the relative size of the converter to the cartridge. Ink is only held in the clear portion of the converter, so what you see is what you get. Most of these images will go larger if clicked on.

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I was surprised at the relatively short length for a pen of considerable girth. Here it is with a couple of other well known pens, sandwiched between a blue Platinum Century 3776, and a TWSBI 540.

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Here next to the Century, posted, it's the same length, and just a tad larger in the section.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1201.jpg

Here is a comparison with a vintage Parker Vacumatic.

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Let's take a look at the the vital statistics:

Length capped - 5" uncapped - 4.5" Cap length - 2 17/16"

Section diameter - .41" at narrowest point barrel diameter at widest - .52"

cap diameter at cap ring - .63"

Weight (per my digital scale, with 1/2 full cartridge) Posted - 23 grams Unposted - 15 gr.

Filling system - Cartridge/Converter. The converter is pretty small, especially given the flow of this nib, so I've opted to fill a cartridge with a syringe, at least for now. There have been no flow issues, with either converter or cartridge.

Body material - black resin. Not wild about this, but I only have one other modern black pen, so I can live with it. There is a group of marbled "mosaic" resin bodies, which are a lot more interesting to look at, but they cost more than twice as much as a standard Pro Gear, and I don't know if they are available with the Concord nib. Price is well out of my comfort range, so a moot point.

Fit and finish: Perfect. The cap fits snugly, and appears to prevent ink evaporating when idle. A nice touch is the small O ring on the base of the section, which would prevent ink escaping from the barrel if a cartridge or converter would leak or come loose. If not for the metal cartridge housing, it could be used as an eyedropper.

Nib - 21K Concord Emperor in Rhodium plating. Having seen a few reviews of this nib, I thought it would be fun to have, and hopefully useful too, with the capability of writing a very broad line for emphasis when needed. However, as there was no way to try one out locally, it was with some trepidation that I hit the 'BUY" button on the EBay screen.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1193.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1198.jpg

As it turns out, the nib is all I could have wanted. Out of the box, it had a little more feedback than I like, but a little judicious smoothing and now it has just enough feedback to keep it tracking well without skating away.

The line in the conventional writing position is closer to a fine medium by Japanese standards and quite wet, which probably adds a little width to the line. This is due to the function of the "Emperor" bar that sits atop of the nib. It helps feed enough ink to keep the nib flowing when using it upside down. It would also help when using any light value inks which need a heavy flow to really come alive on the page. Sailor Apricot comes to mind. The flip side of that is that middle of the road inks, such as Sailor Sky High, which currently resides in this pen, will appear darker and display a little less shading than they would in a dryer pen with a wider nib. The downturned nib takes a little getting used to, but I don't find it at all difficult to use.

Turn the pen over, and write with the "wrong side" of the nib, and you have a very juicy broad to super broad, depending on the angle that it's applied to the paper - broader as the angle goes down. This is great for either writing in bold or underlining . See the writing samples… Click on the image for larger, near life size... (Ink color isn't very accurate)

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1207.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/DSC_1207-2.jpg

Feel/comfort - After spending about a month with this pen, I think it's the most comfortable pen I have. The weight and balance are perfect for my relatively small hand. I prefer to use it posted for the added weight and stability. Posting it does not disturb the balance, it feels very natural. The beefy section fills my hand nicely, and there is no cramping with extended use (I can't abide a skinny section). No complaints here.

Summary: I love this pen! It fits my hand beautifully, has a pleasant heft, perfect balance, the nib is smooth and very versatile. If I had to carry just one pen, (perish the thought) this would be it. The only thing I would knock is the small size of the converter, but that is the complaint with nearly all CC pens, with the exception of the Pilot Custom series that can handle the Con 70 converter.

Edited August 22, 2013 by DanF

[terminal]

Great review! I couldn't agree with you more. As you know, I have a concord and also a emperor HB, and I always felt the concord would be better with the emperor feed. But, that aside, the concord is really fun. I especially feel your pain WRT the C/C.

 

Now, let me ask you this: would you put it in the 'novelty" category or could it be a daily user?

 

Also, I wanted to note that I have rather large hands but I still find this a comfortable pen.

[DanF]

Terminal --- I see you didn't read the last paragraph... Definitely more than novelty.

 

As you probably recall, it was your review that got me going on this one - thanks for that.

 

Dan

Edited August 22, 2013 by DanF

[terminal]

I did! I did read that. I still wasn't sure though if you'd be carrying a pen that was 'fun' or if it would be something you'd sign receipts with. I don't know if that makes sense. But, in any case, you've answered my question.

 

I'd consider myself a fan of Sailor and I'm beginning to think that the general perception of their nibs as being "for novelty" is completely wrong.

 

I'm REALLY glad you love yours as much as I do too. I always worry... but I'm still totally in love with my Emperor HB and still carrying it every day. The more ink I run through it the more I respect the engineering.

 

Thanks again for the great review!

[Subscript]

What a wild nib. I only wish the Pro Gear was a bit bigger. I don't like posting my pens, and it just seems like a unique nib deserves a larger platform.

[aenjin]

Thanks for the great overview of the nib! Very nice looking pen.

 

I do wish Sailor would make a converter with a little more ink capacity though, and maybe with a smoother piston.

[terminal]

Well, I think technically you can get this in a 1911 real

 

Thanks for the great overview of the nib! Very nice looking pen.

 

I do wish Sailor would make a converter with a little more ink capacity though, and maybe with a smoother piston.

 

What a wild nib. I only wish the Pro Gear was a bit bigger. I don't like posting my pens, and it just seems like a unique nib deserves a larger platform.

 

Well, I mean, technically you guys could get a Realo (idk re "smooth") for more capacity and a 1911 for a bigger body. Like the one Kessel reviewed here.

[aenjin]

Well, I think technically you can get this in a 1911 real

 

 

 

Well, I mean, technically you guys could get a Realo (idk re "smooth") for more capacity and a 1911 for a bigger body. Like the one Kessel reviewed here.

 

Oh that is very cool. Thanks for the link!

[DanF]

There was a thread a while ago about the Realo ink capacity, turns out the 1.5ml quoted on Nibs.com was a King of Pen version, the standard Realo capacity is only 1ml, not much more than the cartridge, but significantly more than the converter.

 

Dan

[aenjin]

Yeah 1ml is definitely a step up from the converter capacity, that's for sure.

 

Sailor's specialty nibs are so nifty, my dilemma is that I'd only use something like this for drawing, not writing, but then if I were going to spend this kind of cash I'd probably just get some really nice sable brushes, which would be more useful for the kind of drawing I like to do. Nonetheless the simple and elegant design of the Pro Gear is very nice....

 

Anyway, really appreciate the time you put into the review (even if it only prolongs my dilemma!).

[Montblanc owner and lover]

Thanks for this very nice review of this nib that often come back to my mind as "i should buy one someday" but i'm impressed by this so so small converter who is even smaller than the cartriidge! You have to fill it everytime no? How much pages can you write with it?

[DanF]

Yeah 1ml is definitely a step up from the converter capacity, that's for sure.

 

Sailor's specialty nibs are so nifty, my dilemma is that I'd only use something like this for drawing, not writing, but then if I were going to spend this kind of cash I'd probably just get some really nice sable brushes, which would be more useful for the kind of drawing I like to do. Nonetheless the simple and elegant design of the Pro Gear is very nice....

 

Anyway, really appreciate the time you put into the review (even if it only prolongs my dilemma!).

Why not for writing - do you prefer a broader nib or cursive italic for writing? I wouldn't want to write all that much with this one in brush mode, I'll use it mainly for emphasis, underlining, and for attention getting notes to self at work, but it's very pleasant and comfortable to use in conventional mode for normal writing. The line is a just a tad wider than my Vanishing Point fine, but significantly narrower that a VP medium, which is pretty wide for me. If you prefer a bold line for normal writing, then this would probably not be the pen for you.

 

Dan

[DanF]

Thanks for this very nice review of this nib that often come back to my mind as "i should buy one someday" but i'm impressed by this so so small converter who is even smaller than the cartriidge! You have to fill it everytime no? How much pages can you write with it?

I don't have a page count, but being a fairly fine nib in conventional mode, it will go a long time on a full cartridge. I will be mostly refilling carts with a syringe rather than using the converter. I don't often sit and write many pages at a time, and I normally have a handful of pens inked at any given time, so frequent filling is generally not a problem.

 

Dan

[aenjin]

Why not for writing - do you prefer a broader nib or cursive italic for writing? I wouldn't want to write all that much with this one in brush mode, I'll use it mainly for emphasis, underlining, and for attention getting notes to self at work, but it's very pleasant and comfortable to use in conventional mode for normal writing. The line is a just a tad wider than my Vanishing Point fine, but significantly narrower that a VP medium, which is pretty wide for me. If you prefer a bold line for normal writing, then this would probably not be the pen for you.

 

Dan

 

It's more that I don't really need this kind of line variation for writing, so I think I'd find the feature redundant.

 

I've been wanting to find ways to use FPs for finished drawings for putting watercolor on, but I've not had luck getting reliable waterproofness out of FP inks (even Platinum carbon black lifts sometimes) so brushes would be a little bit more versatile in that regard since they can handle use acrylic/shellac inks.

 

So that leaves sketching, and for regular sketching I already have tools that work very well...and so I guess I feel like getting something like a Pro Gear for that would be too indulgent. But it's tempting...

[terminal]

I've written entire letters with mine on the top side. It was certainly an interesting exercise but, it's true that it's not convenient. I'd say I write with mine about 50/50, but I like broad nibs and big handwriting.