Okay, cheating a little: Fude, the Japanese word for brush, isn’t pronounced like “food” at all. It’s pronounced more like “foo-deh.” (Listen.) Fude, or brushes, are used by calligraphers, and artists in a variety of styles. Often these instruments are used for writing kanji.
The Sailor brush pens I use for highlighting are one type of “fude.” There’s another type of fude pen that comes fountain pen style. The nib’s bent at an angle. The writing experience is meant to be somewhat like using a brush.
A sweet someone gave me a Sailor 55° Fude pen. These angled nib pens are also called calligraphy pens. The nib is bent upwards, at a 55° angle.
Sailor also makes one bent at 40°.
The nibs are not flexible. The idea is, you get a variable line width depending on the angle you hold the pen:
The Sailor 55° comes with two Sailor black cartridges. You can use a Sailor converter with the pen, and ink with any color you like. You might even be able to use the pen eyedropper mode. I don’t know if ED’ing the pen might flood the feed. I haven’t yet tried ED’ing the pen myself.
The steel nib is super smooth, as are so many of the Japanese steel nibbed pens. The pen itself is very long:
- Length capped: 6 1/2″ (just under 17cm).
- Uncapped: 5 3/4″ nib to barrel end (just under 15cm).
- Weight, inked with a cartridge; and carrying 2nd spare cart in barrel): 15grams
- Weight uncapped (with 2 ink carts): 11grams
The pen is a lot of fun… I’m almost, kinda, sorta, inspired to draw.
A Little More About Fude Pens
- Sailor Fude (doesn’t rhyme with dude), 2013 Jan, Leigh Reyes
- Sailor Fude Writing Sample, John Mottishaw on YouTube
- Sailor Fude 40, 2010 Aug, FPN
- Crónicas Estilográficas:
- Fude 40, 2010 Aug
- Angle, 2010 Aug (Sailor 50° and 55°)
- Cross Music, 2012 Jan (Cross Music and 55°)
- Chinese Fude, 2011 May
- Fude Matsuri, 2012 Nov
- Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen, 2015 Feb, Parka blogs
- Nose in the Air, 2012 Jul (In Which Dr. Inkenstein Does Fude)
- I Need A Hero, 2012 Jul, Artists’ Journal Workshop
