Japanese Pens

[Algester]

Why don't you like Sailor I thought they're meant to be very good

subjectivity lad... I had the same reaction with my Sailor Lecoule and most nibs I'm trying from Sailor are on the draggy terittory but a well loved special nib is in the good ones but... I'm not prepared to chuck out that lot of money for a pen I can't write with... lefty problems... plus thirdworldcountryproblems... so ordering from nibs.com is also out of the question Edited January 20, 2015 by Algester

[amk]

One word: urushi :-)

[Algester]

5 words: beautiful shop exclusive sailor pens.... there is so many of them... I'm sure people are well aware about John Mottishaw's Sailor Exclusive big red Realo but what else are we aware off

Edited January 20, 2015 by Algester

[shedberg]

Why don't you like Sailor I thought they're meant to be very good

 

For the price I paid (after currency exchange and shipping, $400 from nibs.com), I expected a pen that would write smoothly. For 1/4 the price, I can get a Platinum 3776 straight from Japan that writes perfectly, and instead of taking 5 weeks to arrive from the US it only takes 5 days. Yes, that's the ACTUAL amount of time it took for my Sailor 1911L to arrive.

[Alex2014]

1) Maki-e 2) Urushi 3) their shapes 4) their nibs 4) hand-made

[Tinjapan]

Yeah... I really don't like the nib on my Sailor 1911L. I should probably send it to a nibmeister to have it looked at, but I am at the point where I just don't care anymore. That pen has been one brutal experience after another, from the day I ordered it. I'm so happy with my Platinum and Pilot pens that I'll never, ever use a Sailor pen again.

I am very surprised to learn that! I have close to a dozen Sailor pens and have never had such an experience. Sorry they haven't worked out for you.

[Tinjapan]

To answer the original question, I live in Japan so they are the pens I can most easily try and buy. I have yet to be disappointed. Beyond that, the variety of nib styles and finer nib sizes than most non Japanese pens. As someone else pointed out, the limited edition pens by not only Sailor but Pilot too are very nice. Sailor especially has very small runs of some of their limited edition store pens. Just twenty of last years Mitsukoshi/Isetan pens, I think just 30 of this year's Kingdom Note pens etc.. And then there are the wooden pens.

 

What's not to love?

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Fillling: 90% is just cartridge/converter. Very few offers some more "emotional" filling system.

 

?

 

What emotion? Anger, Frustration?

 

My C/C is a very Emotional, it invokes Love! I love how easy it is to use and clean!

[parnesh]

Engineering and quality control.

 

They are so brutally perfect, it's not even funny. They really should at least give a chance to the rest of the world.

 

cheap... simply bang for buck if you know where your going...

 

Inexpensive and pretty much great out of the box,

 

Just about sums it up.

[Vgimlet]

The nibs, especially because they know what An Extra Fine means.

 

This exactly.

Plus they are excellent right out of the box. I have maybe had 1 bad nib out of all my Japanese pens. No flow problems.

[Icywolfe]

Works: Pull the pen out and pop a cart in there. No flushing needed.

 

Odd nibs: Like the FA from Pilot, The Zoom from Sailor

 

And cheap gold pens. For 45 USD you get a 14k gold nibbed pen while every one else is selling steel at that price.

[Aurko]

I love japanese pens for relatively consistent quality control and for their smooth fine nibs. They also have the most interesting nibs available.

 

Unlike some here, Platinum has had the worst QC for me (skipping, tine issues, etc. but still a hell of a lot more consistent than any modern Western/European company I've come across), Pilot second best (misaligned tines out of the box a couple of times), and I have yet to have problems with Sailor.

[max dog]

While I know Japanese nibs are highly regarded, what about the ink filling system offerings? Pilot con 50 converter is a joke. Sailor KOP has an itty bitty little converter.

Edited January 26, 2015 by max dog

[brunico]

Lots of pens use converters. Most people seem to cope just fine. I use the CON-50 and Sailor converter with very broad italics, and it's not an issue. They work very well. If they're on the small side, I don't really notice it.

 

If, however, having something bigger than mine is important to you, you have other options.

[max dog]

The western converters I have, ie Montblanc, Cross, Faber Castell etc converters all work well and hold decent amount of ink and I have no complaints. Just wanted to get feedback from Japanese pen users how Japanese converters compare. I only experienced the Con ? aerometric type and Con 50 piston, and my experience with those were less than stellar. Small ink capacity, and kept having to prime ink into the feed from the converter to get a consistent wet ink flow in the nib.

 

Just wondered if the Japanese manufacturers focus so much on their nibs, they pay less attention to the ink filler systems compared to the western manufacturers.

Edited January 26, 2015 by max dog

[Tinjapan]

Just my two cents. With the filling systems of Japanes pens, I think it is just a matter of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Although, I do think it strange that Sailor does not offer larger convertes for their larger pens.

 

Why is the Pilot con 50 " a joke"?

[max dog]

Why is the Pilot con 50 " a joke"?

For starters, the huge opening at the bottom of the converter. The converter does not form an ink chamber, but is rather like a straw. Air pockets can form easily in a straw design at the nib end of the converter starving the ink supply to the feed. The newer CON 50s now have an agitator in the converter which helps, but now it reduces the already small ink capacity further.

[parnesh]

Two of my fav Pilot pens are the CH92 an C823. A brilliant piston filler and vacuum filler. Apart from that, most of the pilot pens also take the Con-70 (I don't have one yet) which by many accounts is the best converter around.

 

However I do agree that the regular Sailor, Platinum and Pilot con-70 have a small ink capacity.

[Tinjapan]

For starters, the huge opening at the bottom of the converter. The converter does not form an ink chamber, but is rather like a straw. Air pockets can form easily in a straw design at the nib end of the converter starving the ink supply to the feed. The newer CON 50s now have an agitator in the converter which helps, but now it reduces the already small ink capacity further.

 

Never had that problem. However, I do not like to refill from a bottle with them as the plunger action will force some of the ink from the pen back into the bottle increasing the possibility of contamination. So I fill from a sample vial instead.

[max dog]

If you haven't experienced better converters, then the Con 50 might seem acceptable.

 

I haven't tried the CON70, but it doesn't fit my resin Falcon.