Sailor Kop - Dry?

[cpmcnamara]

I recently received a Sailor KOP (M Nib). I love the size and how it fits in my hand - I almost feel silly wasting so much time with smaller pens because this feels so much better to me. That said, this pen writes very dry for me. Pilot Iroshizuku seems to come out of the pen dry (and flows a shade lighter than most of my pens) and it doesn't always write under its own weight unless I hit the sweet spot perfectly.

 

Under a loupe, the tines seem aligned fine. It does seem to have a more feedback than I expected based on other reviews, but this could be due to the dryness.

 

I actually have a 1911 which also seems dry to me and has similar characteristics. Maybe I need to have these pens tuned a bit for my writing style, but is this normal?

 

 

[Algester]

Withthe right guy it should be made wet i just hope you bought from john mottishaw

[arran]

In my collection all of my KOP nibs are quite wet, sometimes too wet to my preference.

I have a 1911 F nib , which is quite dry writer but in the end i began to like this pen and became somewhat wetter.

A pen that is a bit drier will not harm , unless it starts skipping and getting unforgiving on the paper you are used to!

 

If in the end , you would like to have your pen changed , let your retalier send the pen to Japan, their service is very good

I had recently a KOP nib , which was not so smooth compared with thhe others I have.

But calculate 8 weeks getting it back.

[cpmcnamara]

Yeah - I'm hoping it will get a bit wetter with use. If not, I'll probably send it off to someone to try to tune. It is weird to me that sailor is the only brand I've run into that have given me this problem...my pilots have been average and German nibs (pelikan 600 and Lamy 2000) have been WET. maybe I'm just unlucky with sailors

Edited October 29, 2014 by cpmcnamara

[AndrewC]

For starters, I assume you rinsed out the pen (if it was new) with water and a dab of dish soap? Then, have you tried a different ink? Some pens and some inks just don't work well. I loaded a Pilot with some Iroshizuku figuring they'd be perfect for each other. Wrong. The flow was stingy and the nib felt coarse. Put in some Diamine and no problems. Go figure. So, maybe try a couple different inks before fiddling with the nib. That said, I do find my Sailor pens to be the driest writers of my Japanese (Sailor, Pilot, Platinum) pens.

[Barry Gabay]

I would like to second Andrew C's suggestions. Ink can have a great deal to do with it. My KoPs write quite wet with Sailor, Waterman, Private Reserve, OMAS, Skrip, and Montblanc. With one exception, they provide very fluid and smooth lines. The sole exception is a KoP Pro Gear in rhodium trim with a medium nib. It is a bit dry, but not so bad. There is no resistance of nib to paper, simply a less wet line. I use cartridges only, refilling them with a variety of inks from a pharmacy syringe.

[cpmcnamara]

Barry, you're a good pen doctor - that's the one I have. I'll try sailor ink or aurora black tonight and see if it helps. It was pretty bad today though - very skippy. I hope a more thorough flush and ink change help. I need to check for baby's bottom but I'm not sure exactly how accurate I would be at detecting it

Edited October 29, 2014 by cpmcnamara

[shuuemura]

Try opening the tines a little. I used Aurora Black in my KOP, although now I prefer to use Sailor Blue-Black. Both inks write extremely juicy with my KOP.