Will Write for Fude

/ JD

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.

2 different kinds of Sailor fude pens

2 different kinds of Sailor fude pens

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 55° nib

Sailor 55° nib

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:

high angle leaves fine line; normal or low leaves wide line.

high angle leaves fine line; normal or low leaves wide line.

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.

Sailor 55° Calligraphy pen

Sailor 55° Calligraphy pen

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
2 Sailor fude pens

2 Sailor fude pens

The pen is a lot of fun… I’m almost, kinda, sorta, inspired to draw.

voices

Sailor 55° packaging

Sailor 55° packaging

A Little More About Fude Pens