Sailor Pro Gear Slim Blue Dwarf Fountain Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

After all these years of being involved with the pen community, I finally got around to picking up a premium Sailor fountain pen for myself. I've used plenty of them before, but just haven't purchased one for myself. I knew I didn't want one of the standard black models, so when the new Blue Dwarf limited edition crossed my feeds one day, I knew that was the one that would push me into this category.

I have several different models of Sailor's sub-$120 fountain pens, and they've all been "meh" in my mind. They're good pens, but there's nothing special about them. No matter how much more expensive they are from the High Ace Neo, they just couldn't justify the price for me. I just couldn't resist the sparkly blue color, and the limited edition aspect just expedited my decision-making process.

When deciding which nib to pick for this particular pen, I only had my own memories to compare against since I don't own any other gold-nibbed Sailors. I remember the nibs running incredibly smaller and harder than other brands, and knew I didn't want a needle-like tip for my first purchase. Since I've had really good experiences with the medium fine nibs on my Pilot pens, I decided to give that a shot for the Blue Dwarf as well. I like the "small-but-not-too-small" size that offers a nice feel and allows the ink to express it's characteristics a bit as well.

At $200, this pen wasn't quite an impulse purchase. If I wasn't already actively looking for a Sailor to add for my collection, I probably would have passed on it. I had been leaning toward the regular Pro Gear size instead of the slim, but the sparkly blue body just pulled me in. For $200, I feel like this pen is accurately priced based on the quality of materials and overall fit-and-finish. My only gripe is that they didn't include a cartridge converter automatically. I added the $8 converter to my order without hesitation, but it does seem like an oversight on Sailor's part when you're past the $100 mark for a pen that definitely needs some type of filling mechanism. To offer a comparison, the Pilot Custom 78 and Custom Heritage pens include a converter or use a piston-filling system, and they're often below the $200 mark. Sure, the Blue Dwarf is much more pleasant to look at, but the lack of a converter just feels annoying.

Aside from my converter complaints, the pen is an absolute delight. It's small and easy to carry around, and it also feels really sturdy despite its small size. It's really well weighted and feels comfortable when writing posted or non-posted. It's a versatile writer in the sense that I can pack it in the smallest cases but still enjoy all-day comfort when using it for longer writing sessions.

Like I remembered from using other Sailors, the nib is quite stiff and smaller than my other medium fine nibs. While the nib is stiff, it's still quite soft as it moves across the page. It writes very smoothly out of the box and has excellent ink flow, if not a tad on the dry side. I can get a small amount of flex out of the nib by applying pressure, but it's a minimal bit of variation. Honestly, I don't feel comfortable trying to flex this nib because of how stiff it is. It's certainly not meant to vary line width much at all. The 14k gold material is there to provide some cushion to the writing experience — nothing more.

Despite the stiff nib, this is still an extremely comfortable and easy-going pen to use. Regardless of the paper I've tried with it, it always glides across the page with ease. Even if I forget to cap it after a few minutes, the ink still flows easily. Likewise, if it's been capped for a few days without any use, it starts writing almost immediately.

The color of the material used in the pen is a bright, cheery blue with specks of glittery silver material. The name Blue Dwarf refers to a theoretical type of star, which is where I think the glittery material lends itself to the overall aesthetic. From JetPens:

It is inspired by the wonder of blue dwarf stars, which have been predicted by astrophysicists but will not arise in our universe for trillions of years. The blue dwarf is an inspiring reminder that, as incomprehensibly ancient as the universe seems, there is still far more yet to come.

The build quality of this pen is just astounding. There's no wonder Sailor pens are as pricey as they are. You're paying for excellence in quality and materials, and it easily shows every time you pick this pen up. It's such a delightful writing instrument to use and equally delightful to see laying on a table.

The Sailor Pro Gear Slim Blue Dwarf is a limited edition, with only 1,500 being produced worldwide. If you like this pen and want to pick one up for yourself, make sure you act quickly!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Benu Pen Euphoria Fountain Pen Review

It took me a while to come around on Benu Pen. I like extreme designs and wild colors as much as anyone, but when Benu first launched, they didn’t grab me as a good match for what I like to experience when using a fountain pen.

As the brand continued to grow and gain in popularity, I kept an eye on the new designs, shapes, and materials, but remained on the sidelines for my own use. My thought process on Benu as a brand begin to change at a pen show several years ago when I was working at the Vanness Pens table. That weekend, we sold more Benu Pens than any other pen brand. Since then, I couldn’t help but think I was missing something.

Within the past year I have watched as Benu has gone bigger and bolder with their designs. In turn, my desire to try one out for the first time grew and grew. The shapes of the pens are just as unique, and the colors are even more wild than when Benu launched, and I started to understand what the brand was selling.

Benu Pens are fun. And who doesn’t want to have fun with their stationery?

The Scepter was the turning point for me. This is a pen that, while it isn’t my barrel shape of choice, was interesting enough to check out, especially with the perfect combination of colors chosen for the designs. The Grand Scepter kept the same style, but ramped up the size and colors of the Scepter, and I knew at that point I wouldn’t be able to hold off much longer.

Benu has always done a great job with community outreach, and I’ve been lucky to work with them on products that Pen Addict writers have reviewed over the years, and have used for giveaways. When they sent us the Grand Scepter that Sarah reviewed recently, the hook was set. Getting to check it out before I sent it off was all I needed to know that it was the one for me.

But, before I could pick out a Scepter for myself, Benu reached out with yet another new design and new shape that they wanted to send over for us to look at. And once I saw the new Euphoria model, I knew I wasn’t sending it out for review. This one was going to be mine.

The biggest change you will notice with the Euphoria is the introduction of a traditionally shaped fountain pen barrel. Well, at least as traditional as a non-traditional pen company could be. They have had plenty of close-to-traditional shapes in the past, but the Euphoria, with its more standard taper, build, and clip, could practically be called “classic” in relation to the rest of the Benu catalog.

And the best part? They kept the wild materials a focus throughout this new lineup.

I chose the French Poetry model to review, but that was far from an easy choice. Benu does such a great job with materials that there isn’t a single bad one in the bunch. The only choice you will have to make is do you want wild, or wild plus glow in the dark? That’s a lovely decision to have to make.

So, how does it perform? Wonderfully. When Benu first launched, I was always concerned with the sharp taper of the grip section, especially in relation to the size of the barrel. The Euphoria gets those dimensions correct for my hands, and it feels great to use. It is a fully resin barrel, so it is lightweight, but the material is dense enough to not feel like a feather, even unposted. Unposted is probably to correct choice with the Euphoria lineup as well. The cap and barrel are designed to post, but it makes an already large pen even larger in that configuration.

Benu uses Schmidt nibs, which I’ve always found to be firm and consistent. The Fine steel nib in this pen is no different. In comparison to other popular steel nib choices, it has more of a Jowo feel and line width (firm, fine) than Bock (soft, wide) in my mind. Of course, that is right up my alley. The only downside is the size range available, with the only choices being Fine, Medium, or Broad. I’d love to see an EF or 1.1 mm option eventually.

And finally, the price. At $118 for standard materials, and $128 for glow in the dark, the Euphoria is priced right. The same goes for the entirety of Benu’s lineup. Is there a lot of competition in that price range, and lower? Of course. But Benu brings a level of fun to the writing experience that is difficult to compete with. And for that, I say job well done.

To see everything that Benu has to offer, all of my site sponsors - JetPens, Goldspot, Pen Chalet, and Vanness Pens - carry a wide range of models in an even wider range of materials. Be sure to check out what they have in stock if you are interested in adding a Benu Pen to your library.

(Benu Pen provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Fountain Pen Review

I bought my first Sailor King of Pen over three years ago, and since that first one - the Sailor Pro Gear King of Pen Sky - I’ve added three more to the collection. It is one of my personal favorite pens, embodying everything I like about a product.

The thing about the King of Pen, or KOP for short, is that I’m not sure this is a pen I would recommend to anyone. That is why it has taken me so long to review it, I think. It is very much a “Do as I say, not as I do,” product.

Why do I love the King of Pen? It is the pinnacle of accessible Sailor fountain pens. Sailor is a brand I love, and the KOP has long been a fascination of mine. When I first started getting in to fountain pens, the large ebonite and urushi KOP models fascinated me, but starting at over $1000, they were too far out of reach to even consider. That didn’t stop me from fawning over them, but I knew I’d probably never own one.

Then a funny thing happened: Sailor released a newer, lower priced King of Pen based on their popular Pro Gear lineup. And, it was only a bit over $700! That is still an outrageous price for a pen, and I wasn’t interested in the standard black barrels that were part of the initial lineup at any price. So I waited, and watched.

Then they introduced limited edition barrel colors. Blue, translucent, and beautiful. The Sky ended up being the one, even though it was crazy difficult to fork over that kind of cash.

The thing that sets the KOP apart from the rest of the Sailor lineup is the nib. Not only the size - it is a HUGE #9-sized 21k gold behemoth - but the performance of it as well. On top of that, the built-in structure around the nib is something that I haven’t seen in any other pen.

The rest of the pen is sized around the nib unit, meaning it has a much wider barrel diameter and grip section than the Pro Gear Standard. Somehow, this all works. The King of Pen is a big pen, but it doesn’t necessarily feel like it when writing. The size of the nib and barrel, in conjunction, work perfectly.

Sailor Pro Gears. Slim (top,) Standard, KOP.

So, why am I not rushing out to recommend it, despite how much I love it? The price, yes, but more specifically, the value.

What makes up the cost of a pen? Three things come to mind: Materials, mechanics, and craftsmanship. Let’s break each of these down as they relate to the King of Pen.

Materials: This the main talking point with the KOP. The large 21k gold nib is costly, and I imagine the nib setting and section adds a good bit of cost as well. The barrel is plastic. The same plastic you will find all the way down the line in the Pro Gear Slim model. The 14k Pro Gear Slim is an awesome pen, but it is also $180. the larger 21k Pro Gear Standard is my favorite, and they run around $310. Am I getting two-and-a-half times the pen in the KOP that I’m paying for?

Mechanics: To me, mechanics in fountain pens mostly lie within filling systems. The piston filler in a Pelikan. The vacuum filler in the Pilot 823. The bulk filler in the Conid. A cartridge/converter filling system - as found in the King of Pen - is essentially a lack of mechanics. That’s no knock on c/c filling systems, but we are talking about cost here, and the cost for c/c is far less that the other options.

Craftsmanship: In short, machine-made vs. man-made. Is the manufacturing process machine-driven, as is the case with most of Sailor’s plastic barrel pens? Or, it there a great amount of manual labor, such as urushi artisans applying layers of lacquer to a Nakaya?

Applying these thoughts to the King of Pen, the cost isn’t coming from mechanics or craftsmanship in my mind. And while yes, there is a large material cost in the nib and front-end assembly, there is minimal cost in the barrel. It’s a weird dichotomy.

And yet I love it knowing all of these things. Why?

I wish I had the perfect answer and could write the perfect review around that answer, either positive or negative. My life is a whole lot easier when I have black and white thoughts on products. The Sailor King of Pen is not one of those products. I get it, and it gets me. But can I explain it to you? That’s the challenge. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to.

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