Tale of a Vandal Pen User: A Solitary Sailor

Posted on
5

Please Note: See below for an update made to this post on 2012 Jan 09. 

It’s a New Year and no new pen purchases for PW to come. I said that early last year, too, after I bought an Edison Mina and sold off some other pens for a yet-to-be finished Edison-Shin Mina. Yet we find two pens that were not in my tiny hoard when last year’s pledge was made. Once the yet-to-be-finished Edison finally arrives I will be one pen over my committed limit of nine pens. That means there’s a pen I must give up. Yet I find myself with no pen I want to give up. Ut oh. Of course, you can’t feel sorry for moi because OMG I’ve got pens! Great pens! The pen-life is good even as our world spins treacherously about.

The Professional Gear Sailor Realo in my possession is an indulgence in light of the nine pen limit. The whys for acquisition:  to have a knock-about pen that held more ink than the Nakaya Piccolo, and a desire to try the famously smooth Sailor nib.

Sailor Pro Gear Realo - pls forgive camera lens dust

The Realo stats:

  • Burgundy resin (also available in black)
  • Gold-plated trim
  • Anchor logo on cap
  • Screw-on cap
  • Bottom cap ring imprint:  ”Sailor Japan Founded 1911″
  • Fine 21K nib
  • Inked up, weighs 22gr capped/posted, 12gr unposted
  • Measuring nib to barrel:
    • closed 5 1/4″
    • uncapped 4 5/8″
    • posted 5 7/8″
  • Piston filling system
  • 1ml ink capacity

Take care not to make the same mistake as I did about this pen’s capacity. I thought the capacity was supposed to be 1.5ml for this pen.  That information came from past FPN reviews of the Sailor Realo and even from this vendor’s website. It turns out, the 1.5 ink capacity is true only for the limited release 95th Anniversary edition released in 2006.

Needless to say, I was a wee bit disappointed concerning this important fact about the current Realo: a 1ml ink capacity. After all, while the aforementioned Nakaya Piccolo contains only .5-.6ml when bottle fed, a Platinum ink cartridge would feed the Piccolo 1.2ml of ink. Ordinarily I’m not a cartridge user, yet such a comparison of ink capacities requires much pondering about using them.

Sailor nibs are re-known for their smoothness and I was curious if the Realo’s 21K nib would live up to that reputation. Fear not, it does! IMHO. In fact, in some ways the nib reminds me of the covetous Vanishing Point nib written about in earlier posts (here and here). If that comparison is only in my imagination, well, it’s a good one, isn’t it? (uh, my imagination, that is.) In comparison with the Sailor 14K nib, the 21K is not smoother. It has more personality. It’s not a nail. The Sailor’s fine nib seems to me as fine as a Pilot EF. (I’m hoping my Pilot-pal will chime in the comment section when he has a chance to compare nib sizes. Update on Jan 9—He did: see differences in my scan and his photo below.)

Sailor Realo vs a bunch of other pens— taken from "Pack of Pilots" post

2012 Jan 09 update—photo kindly provided by my Pilot-loving friend:

Pilot vs Sailor Fine nibs inked with Pilot inks

Note that in the above photo the Sailor Fine is wider than the Pilot VP and Prera Fines. Both pens inked with Pilot inks. In my scan above this photo, the ink is Platinum Blue-Black.

My Sailor Realo nib was tuned by John Mottishaw as a “7″ on his wetness scale of 1-10. You may want it tuned at a 5 or 6 if you want a finer line.

Back to original post:

Some people feel that an 18K nib is overkill and we can only imagine how they feel about a 21K nib. Personally, I do not feel an 18K nib is intrinsically better than a 14K or even a steel nib. It all is about what nibs work for you. Or in this case moi. While I could not tell you the difference between a 14K or an 18K Visconti nib (nails to me, thank you), if you blindfolded me and gave me Bexleys, Sailors and Pilots in both 14K and 18K/21K I believe I could tell which was which. Talking, of course, about modern nibs only. Yes, learning I rather like those 18K nibs came as a bit of a surprise because pen people can be so adamant about their nib truths (i.e., that there is no real difference, 18K is for “show”). Form your own opinions, eh?

The piston mechanism is smooth and efficient. The ink window keeps you informed about the ink level. The style is business-like and handsome; the burgundy not so staid as the black. Still the Realo is the most “serious” and no-nonsense pen in my tiny hoard. The pen seems very well constructed and solid. The Realo is slightly lighter than a Platinum #3776. The Realo holds more ink the #3776…unless you use a Platinum cartridge.

There are so many kinds and sizes of Sailor fountain pens, I’m not even going to pretend to sort out them out, leaving that to experts. I will point out that the current Realo comes in two versions: the Professional Gear Realo which has an anchor on its flat-top cap, and the 1911 (or Profit) Realo with  a torpedo or cigar shaped style. (I could be wrong, but I think the name 1911 is how the pen is marketed outside in Japan. Profit is the name used in Japan.) The “1911″ refers to the year the Sailor Pen Co. was founded. According to the Sailor insert that comes with the pen, “Realo” stands for REliance And LOcus.

As to whether or not the Realo stays in my tiny hoard, the pen is currently “on probation” as I work through my conflicted feelings about it. The nib is superb and perhaps the only reason to keep it. Might be a great reason to keep it. The ink capacity of the pen is, as previously stated, a disappointment. If I thought the Realo would make a good traveling pen, well, so would the Nakaya Piccolo using a cartridge or two. That is, if I were willing to use those darn disposable cartridges. (People do reuse cartridges by filling them with a syringe. Those carts don’t last forever, even so. Eventually the “fit” of the cart to the section nipple loses its grip.)

If you want to try one of these wonderful Sailor nibs, you can opt to try a simple cartridge/converter style Professional Gear or 1911 at a much lower cost than a Realo. Always, always do your homework before buying and contact the vendor you purchase from to make sure you have the pen specifications right. Relying on internet information alone can be frustrating or even costly folly.

Some Reading

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Best of Wishes for You

Posted on

Dear readers and beloved fountain pen hoarders—
Wishing you the best of pens, inks, stories and great creative adventures in the New Year ahead. More to be revealed for each of us as we carry on! I appreciate each of you who shares his or her thoughts in the comment section, those of you compelled to share a post or two via Twitter, Google+ and Facebook, and adore those of you who quietly read and move on. We are all friends of a kind. Thank you for your friendship!

It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Floodwaters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
—excerpt, Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou

Tale of a Vandal Pen Collector: The Pen Not Taken

Posted on

Even without a decent local shop and not having attended a pen show, I’ve been lucky to try a wide range of fountain pens. There are a lot of great pens to be had among both modern and vintage varieties. I love seeing what other people form collections around. Especially vintage pen collections. Countless times on this blog I’ve written that there are many pens to admire. From my viewpoint, admiration and appreciation does not require acquisition. Or else why would any one ever go to a museum?

There are a lot of pens that I just won’t have. Even if I want them—like any number of Edisons, urushi Danitrio or Nakaya, or vintage Japanese pens of various kinds. If a new pen comes my way, it’s sweet agony to pick and choose which pen will stay and which pen must be re-homed. There’s the practical limit to the pen storage box which, if you’ve been reading the blog you may remember, houses only nine pens. My pen storage choice driven by the desire to consciously limit “things,” even useful things, in day to day living. Not in a crazy way, though, like (shhhh) one pen only. Lately I’m contemplating that nine may be a too stringent commitment. Twelve may be a better number. I’m not sure. When I began this process, though, I was at around 40 pens. At any rate, to paraphrase something written before, variety is not merely the spice of life, for some of us variety stimulates the creative mind. And for some, like me, too much clutter is distracting for the creative process.

While not the primary factor, economics play a key role in decision making, too. No credit card debt is allowed for pens.

At one time I was sure the older Visconti Ragtime was the perfect pen for moi. Yet if I miss anything about those pens today it is only their whimsical caps and colors. I don’t regret the decision to re-home any of pens yet there are a couple I truly miss:  the Bexley Submariner and the green-striated 1950′s Pelikan 400. Would I add them back in? Hmmm…*pondering*…”No” is a high probability as an answer. For moi, one cannot go home again. The experience is not quite the same. YMMV, of course.  (Hey, you don’t think I’m going to jinx myself and write the “never” word, do ya?) Instead I’d be more inclined to acquire a different vintage Pelikan or an Edison pen that suggested a Submariner.

To repeat myself, please forgive, there are those pens I haven’t acquired that appeal for a variety of reasons. For example, here are three very different pens I do not expect to own. Yet they scream at me, “let me in!”

  • Conway Stewart Dandy in Bracken Brown or Bronze. A discontinued modern pen that invokes a vintage pen from its clip right down to its lever filler design. The Dandy is a very classic looking flat-top and Conway Stewart has some of the handsomest modern brown pen material to my covetous eye. A dear person recently offered one of these up to me. Broke my heart to say there was no room at the inn.
  • Franklin-Christoph Model 40 in Emerald Green. I passed up on an opportunity to buy one of these pens used at a very low price. It’s a very lightweight pen with a subtle ergonomic design. I believe one can convert it into an eyedropper pen. The green pen I saw was made out of a translucent plastic. Hey, doesn’t everyone need a green pen? Based in North Carolina this is an intriguing company presenting designs that are a different yet user friendly. I first learned of F-C a couple of years ago when some pals raved about a Franklin-Christoph case known as the Penvelope. (No I don’t have one of those either.)
  • The Gate City Dunn Pen sold by Richard Binder. A high ink-capacity modern pen based on a 1920′s design. What appeals to me is the pump filling mechanism and the lack of an internal sac. The pen purports to hold 3.4ml of ink! The Dunn seems like fun to me. Only the kind of geeky fun that comes from no one knowing how cool your pen really is because to look at it doesn’t shout “hey, look at me!”

There are also pens I classify as “could easily add if I had room and greenbacks and didn’t care how big my pen collection would be.” The fact that none of these pens are in my hoard just means I want none of themmore than the pens I already have. The first three on the short list below are classic pens with great vintage nibs and all are piston filling. One is a modern pen and the last is from the Big Four of American pen makers of yore.

  • 1950′s Montblanc 146.
  • 1950′s Omas Ogivia 55x.
  • 1930′s Pelikan 100.  Or perhaps any one of the reissued “Originals of their Time.”  
  • Pilot Custom 74 in Blue. Just like everyone needs a green pen, a blue pen is required as well. This is the only “c/c” filler on the list and that’s because the Custom 74 uses the 1.4ml CON-70 converter.
  • 1930′s Sheaffer Balance in Golden Brown or Grey Marble  (vacuum filler). Come on. It’s Sheaffer. An American original. Wait a minute! I got one. In Ebonized Pearl. That’s a post of another kind.

Today’s inspiration (not a show tune) Robert Frost’s classic poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Writing Down the Ink #10: Platinum Blue-Black

Posted on

Platinum Blue-Black has become one of my favorite fountain pen inks. It’s free-flowing-ink-ness has been consistent across all nine eight pens in the collection. Er, hmmm, ten nine pens. Look, there’s a Sailor Realo in the mix! How’d that happen?

I was introduced to Platinum Blue-Black by a cartridge that came with my Nakaya. Once upon a time, I forgot to flush the Nakaya after using the Platinum ink. Later on, re-inked with my much-loved Noodler’s Black, the pen refused to write at all! Fortunately, flushing corrected whatever chemical reaction was goin’ on and I’ve not made that mistake again when switching inks.

Platinum Blue-Black reminds me a lot of Waterman Blue-Black—not in color but in the qualities of the ink. Waterman Blue-Black is far more blue, of course, with Platinum Blue-Black being on the purplely side of things. Both inks flow easily and smoothly in even the fussiest of my pen nibs (aka the Danitrio EEF). I was deeply disappointed in Waterman Blue-Black’s coffee ring resistance. Platinum Blue-Black, however, holds up quite nicely to the occasional coffee cup drips. I like that. Check out the third scan for the coffee rings.

Over the month of November (NanoWriMo, anyone?) a new experiment with the pens will be employed. Basically, having come up with an easy-for-moi-way to track how many words and/or pages it takes to write out a single pen, I’m finally going to obsessively track this information. More about that project in the weeks to come.

Meanwhile I’m pondering whether Platinum Blue-Black could be the one of the “steady two or three inks” that comprise my inks? That continues to remain the question of my journey through my inks. For moi, Platinum Blue-Black is a “keeper” candidate.

Note about the following scans: The Nakaya Piccolo seems to have burped a bit of grey ink in the first scan. That sample was written several weeks ago and I’m not sure what happened with it. This pen’s representation of Platinum Blue-Black is better found in the remaining scans.

Posted in Ink

Tale of a Vandal Pen Collector: A Pack of Pilots

Posted on

Vanishing Point nib

Curiouser and curiouser I grew: is there another Pilot pen with a silky smooth Vanishing Point nib? Spending some time discussing Pilot nibs brought forth a kind FPN’er and reader of the blog who gives the expression “stranger friend” true meaning. He sent me five of his own Pilot fountain pens for me to examine. An amazing act of trust and generosity that I will cherish for some time.

The five Pilots lent to me:

  1. Custom Heritage 91 EF 14K nib
  2. Custom Heritage 91 SF 14K nib
  3. Vanishing Point Stealth  F 18K nib
  4. Bamboo F 18K nib
  5. Custom 823 F 14K nib

Pilots left to right: Heritage 91, Heritage 91, Bamboo, 823, Vanishing Point

The only one of those listed pens with a VP like nib is, oh yeah, the VP! It was great to be able to compare the VP F nib to the M and B nibs I’ve had the pleasure of writing with. A smaller sweet spot, of course, in the F but the same silkiness one expects from a Vanishing Point. (If you don’t know what a nib’s sweet spot is, please read Richard Binder’s informative article on the subject.)

Mind you, the Vanishing Point is not alone in fountain pendom in having a silky smooth nib. In fact, the VP as a sister called the Pilot Decimo. It is slimmer and supposedly lighter than a VP. The Decimo is not available from USA retailers. It can be found on eBay and commands a heftier price tag than your average VP.

Some Montblanc and Omas pens for example have silky smooth nibs. Some people say Sailor nibs are the best of the Japanese nibs. I’ve only tried 14K Sailor nibs and not the famous 21K nibs. The 14K I’ve sampled (from fine to an alleged Music nib) were smooth although did not impress me more than any other brand, say like an Aurora nib, for example. If you are new to fountain pens, please, any of these nibs could be to your liking! Don’t let this wretched blogger who can feel the pea under mattress dissuade you from whatever your pending purchase may be.

Lots of nibs

Of course, all nibs are in theory smooth. Yet nibs can exhibit different personalities. There’s glass-like stiff as a nail smooth. There’s silky can barely feel the nib on the paper smooth. There’s springy smooth, boring smooth, butter smooth, feedback smooth, and whatever floats your boat smooth. Then, of course, there’s the matter of your east, west, vintage, modern, fine, medium, bold, music, condor, zoom, or super-micro-eeny fine nib styles. Your nib choice effects the nib’s personality as does how you hold the pen, the paper you write upon, and how much pen pressure you write with. Finer nibs have that smaller sweet spot and many people often experience finer nibs as scratchy. Scratchy is annoying. Unless you are a scratchy nib fetishist. Hey! I know you’re out there! The importance of meeting up with a lot of different pens is that you form a reference point to compare what people say you should like and what you really do like in a fountain pen.

We cannot say, “This is the smoothest nib among all others.” Well, okay, we can say that. Very few of us, however, can say such things with any real authority.  I know I can’t. Me, I can only say what floats my own boat.

Vanishing Point F 18K nib

There’s no mistaking a VP nib in a blind writing test (uh, somethin’ like that) against a Platinum or a Nakaya nib. For me the VP nib is not better, it is merely different exhibiting a quality not in my tiny pen collection. My American-made, German-nib wielding Edison Mina writes a smooth, luscious fine line with yet not as fine as the Japanese VP fine. Perhaps part of the VP qualities has much to do with the shape of the nib itself.

My pal sent the pens with the CON-70 converter which holds at least 1.0ml of ink. (Some people say up to 1.7ml.) The CON-70 is a neat little instrument. You push a button a few times and ink gets sucked up. Cool for someone who is easily entertained like moi. The CON-70 doesn’t fit the Vanishing Point or the resin Falcon. The Custom 823 has it’s own built-in filling device so the CON-70 is pointless there. I had some trouble getting a good fill with the CON-70. Here’s a video I made to help other similarly beleaguered pen peeps:

Perhaps better than a piston-filling pen is the Custom 823. For those of us who care about ink capacity, this is a great albeit heavy option. For a piston filler there is the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (not to be confused with the Heritage 912 a c/c pen). The only other Japanese piston-filling pen I’m aware of is made by Sailor who makes the Realo in both the 1911 and the Professional Gear series.

I really—really!—wanted to love the Custom 823. It holds approximately 2mls of ink. To suck up that ink, the pen has a cool vacuum filling mechanism.  Following DizzyPen’s filling instructions I got a perfect file the first time out with the 823. It’s one of the easiest pens to fill EVER. The amber 823 when filled with Sailor Sky High blue ink looked quite dark, almost black in appearance. That was a fun surprise.

writing sample: Falcon SF, Heritage 91 SF & EF, Bamboo, F, Custom 823 F, VP F, Edison Mina F

Alas, the Custom 823′s heavy. I gave it a good writing go and the 823 remained too uncomfortably heavy in my hand. Inked up and unposted the Custom 823 weighs 21 grams. Posted or capped it weighs 31 grams. My heaviest pen is the Danitrio Short Octagon which just remains in my comfort reign, coming in 20 grams fully inked up as an ED (over 3ml of ink) and at 29 grams capped. On average, my pens are 15 grams inked and unposted. Even just a couple of grams in weight can make a difference for someone like moi.

I’ve read many raves about the 823′s nib. Lots of people love it. I found it to be a nice, serviceable smooth nib, with nothing special about it. In fact, excluding the Falcon and the VP nibs, I felt that way about all the Pilot nibs I wrote with. Very fine, very good, standard Japanese nibs. A great standard by all others’ accounts. Just one that doesn’t resonate with my pen-using-heart.

Pilot Bamboo F 18K nib

The Pilot Bamboo’s nib had some nice spring to it and I enjoyed writing with it. The pen body has a neat shape to what is, again, a hefty fountain pen.

Heritage 91 with EF (left) and SF (right) 14K nibs

The nib I liked the best (after the VP and the Bamboo) was a SF nib on the Custom Heritage 91. Inked with Sailor Sky High that tiny nib allowed some shading to come through on the paper.

The Custom Heritage 91 turns out to be a very nice user pen. Inked up and unposted the pen weights 15 grams. Capped and posted it weighs 23 grams. It’s got a classic pen shape, good balance and some nib choices. The black resin 91 has the widest range of #5 nibs. The non-black 91s come in F, FM, M and B nibs. Both the black resin 91s sent me had metal sections. I’ve not seen them myself yet have been assured by more than one source that the “Iroshizuku versions” of the 91 (such as the Tsukiyo) are usually without metal sections. That means there is some ED potential for some of the 91s. If I did not already have a serviceable pen or two I would get one of these 91s! The Custom Heritage 91 is not, I believe, available in the USA except via eBay or sources in Japan.

Pilot makes all kinds of fountain pens from the well-loved 78G (under $20) to the Sterling collection ($400+) to Namiki Emperor Collection ($10,000+). Several Pilot fountain pens can still be had with 14K nibs for around $100. Pretty good deal!

Left to right: Nakaya Piccolo, Danitrio Short Octagon, Platinum 3776, Pilot Heritage 91, Custom 823, Vanishing Point Stealth, Edison Mina, Edison Huron, Levenger True Writer, Pilot Bamboo

Handling these Pilot fountain pens made realize I don’t need another, good basic pen. I already have a couple of basics in other brands. If I were collecting Japanese fountain pens my focus would be on having a representation of certain pens, and of course I’d acquire at least one Pilot. Instead, my focus is on aquiring pens that serve as part muse and part writing tool. I’m at my pen storage/cigar box limit and to acquire any pen means one must be foresaken. And so I’m good for now, aren’t I?

The best advice I got when looking for a nib that’s like the VP nib was from a pen retailer who suggested I’d be happy with the lighter Decimo (even though she didn’t sell that pen!). Remember the VP’s little sister? Sadly also a c/c only pen.

With two pens in the tiny hoard that are c/c filling pens and not ED-able (that is able to convert into an eyedropper filling pen), my preference would be to add another ED-able pen. Or even a piston-filling pen.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The pens were sent rolled up in a couple of Exbpens pen wraps. These were neat, good quality pen wraps to discover, made by a woman in southern Indiana. Our Pilot pen friend has a passel of business friendly black pens. It was nice to see some color in his pen wraps choices. A lot of pen wraps I’ve tried are very thick, making them awkward when rolled up with pens. Still providing scuff protection, these were a bit thinner, making the closed roll a nice size.

The best part of getting to handle these Pilot pens was meeting another Japanese nib enthusiast, and being reminded of how often fountain pen users enthusiastically share what they have with each other. I’m honored by such company.

It’s about time these Pilots went home to their kind and generous owner. Thank you, Thomas!

Some Nib and Pilot Reading
A Few Links to Pilot Fountain Pen Reviews:
Lone Pen Wrap Review