I’ve tried lots of pens over the years. The ones I can remember:
- Conid Bulkfiller Regular
- Cross Aventura
- Jinhao 159, X450, (also whatever the Safari clone is, 777 I think?)
- Lamy 2000, 2000 Amber, Safari
- Montblanc 145, 146, 149, 320, 1912, Slimline
- Nakaya Decapod, Neo-Standard
- Parker IM
- Pelikan M200, M600, M800
- Platinum 3776, Preppy
- TWSBI 580, Eco, Vac 700
- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, Dark Age
- Waterman Phileas Blue
I’m not much of a collector, so I have cycled through and gotten rid of almost all of these. I only have around ~10 now, just the ones that I really like, or are sentimental, or are just super unique. One brand that’s escaped me is Sailor. I’ve read about the 21K nibs and how people fawn over them. I know there are die-hard Sailor supporters and it seems to mostly revolve around this nib. But, $300+ for a proprietary cartridge/converter that isn’t made from unique materials seems like a lot.
So, if I was going to “try” Sailor, as a manufacturer, where does it make sense to start to see if I get it or not? Do people prefer the Realo (piston filled) variants? From what I can tell here and on /r/fountainpens people are mostly content with the C/C versions. So is it just the unique colors? Or is it just the 21K nib and nothing else matters?
Sounds like your VIsconti experience echos my worst fears. I hadn’t considered the porous nature of the material being an issue for absorbing ink but that would also annoy me greatly. Thanks for the feedback.
In terms of overseas suppliers. Ordering from Amazon Japan was no different to Amazon US or UK. I didn’t even need a to create a new account. When buying from Amazon I normally ensure the seller is Amazon itself rather than a third party to avoid fakes although apparently this isn’t foolproof as Amazon sometimes mixes their own stock with that of third parties (see a recent Pilot Metro post). Cult Pens have been excellent and I’ve use them several times. They left a Lamy nib out of one order I placed but quickly expedited it to me when I contacted them to report it was missing. Their prices are good and you can get free shipping if you spend enough. I’ve also used The Pen Company for one order and they were great. I’ve heard good things about Pensachi but have not personally used them.
Unfortunately prices at Cult Pens and TPC look pretty much identical to USA prices… of course the model I gravitated towards (1911 L Trinity) just so happens to be a USA exclusive also. Ugh.
EDIT: Looks like the Sailor Profit Black Master is basically the same pen and $200 from Amazon Japan. I can live with that. Thanks.
Report back about how you like it when it arrives.
You will get a warning notice with this pen because it is ion plated. Sailor will advise to only use their inks in it to avoid plating damage and early reports from ion plated nib owners did suggest that the plating could be damaged, presumably from non-Sailor ink usage. There has been a lot of speculation about why this happened but a general consensus was that acidic inks could be the issue.
Both my Sailors are ion plated and I have chosen not to stick to Sailor only inks but have resiolved to be be selective about what I do put in it. Pilot Iroshizuku inks are generally neutral to slightly alkaline as are the original Herbin line and the DeAtramentis Document line. Waterman inks can be very acidic so stay clear of them despite their great reputation (Serenity Blue has an acidity similar to vinegar). There are a number of websites that have measured the acidity of popular inks you can reference. Also, a number of forum posts on Fountain Pen Network report and discuss the acidity of specific inks.
Well, mark one for Amazon JP, the pen got here super quick. It’s gorgeous. Mark one against Sailor though, they include a single proprietary cartridge and no converter in the box with a $200+ pen?!
Ah, yeah. They do that. Bad form.