Sailor 1911 Standard Royal Tangerine Fountain Pen Review

I fully understand how good Sailor fountain pens are. I own a baker’s dozen, and always have my eyes on the next one. Since I own, use, and love so many already, I was convinced I didn’t need another one when the 1911 Royal Tangerine launched. Yes, it’s practically the perfect pen for me and my tastes, but I was ok holding off until the next one, or the one after that. I have enough Sailors!

Apparently I don’t, as it turns out. My friends at Goldspot sent me one to review, and as soon as I inked it up I wondered what I had been waiting for. This is a fantastic example of everything that Sailor does right.

Pro Gear Orange (top) vs 1911 Standard Royal Tangerine

If you’ve read or listened to me for any length of time, you already know what those things are. Sailor pens are stylish, yet refined. The colors are bright, and the hardware fancies up the joint without being ostentatious. This tangerine orange barrel with rhodium trim POPS, but in a way only a few companies can pull off.

And the nibs. I feel a tinge of guilt if I ever say they aren’t the best in the business. Platinum has an argument here, but any Sailor second place talk is squashed quickly by the sheer amount of variety. I even tried something new this time while remaining in my writing wheelhouse. This medium fine nib is a wonderful every day writer.

That’s where this pen fits for me. It’s almost the perfect every day carry fountain pen. From the moment I inked it up, with Bungubox Tangerine of course, I’ve wanted to carry this pen with me. Clipped to my shirt, in a front pants pocket, attached to a notebook, in a case - anywhere.

The feeling I get with the 1911 Standard (my first one, btw) is that it wants to be an EDC pen, unlike all of my other Sailors. They are mostly Professional Gear models with flat end caps. The 1911 has rounded end caps. The Standard model is also smaller than the Large. Those things combined mean it stealthily fits into more places than its larger, edgier counterparts.

It’s durable too. The barrel construction, including the clip, are rock solid. Another reason I want to carry it anywhere and everywhere is that I know it can take a beating. It gives me the confidence to carry it to the shop at Nock and leave it on the counter while I work around it. I don’t have to pretend it’s a fragile little flower. That feels great, and makes me want to have it with me at all times.

I’m still not sure exactly why this particular Sailor made me change my mentality around carrying it, but I’m glad it did.

If you are waiting for the kicker, there is one: It’s expensive, especially for a pen I’m recommending as an EDC option. It’s currently $196 at Goldspot, which is above the comfort zone for many. If you are a Sailor fan and user, you get it and understand the cost. If you haven’t reached this threshold in your pen buying, then it can be a tough pill to swallow. There are tons of great pens that are cheaper. There are many worse pens that are more expensive. It’s about finding a pen that fits your needs, and this one fits mine more than I even considered.

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

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Something that will upgrade your Pilot FriXion Ball Clicker: SMART-GRIP

(Original Mai-bun.com article, 3/5/2018. Written by Takuya Takahashi. Translated by Bruce Eimon.)

UNUS PRODUCTS SERVICE. has released a version of their SMART-GRIP line for the Pilot FriXion Ball Clicker. SMART-GRIP is a series of aluminum replacement grip sections for common-place Japanese pens.

Previous versions of the SMART-GRIP have supported the FriXion Ball 3, the FriXion Ball 4, and the Uni-ball Jetstream 4+1. The new release is for the FriXion Ball Clicker.

The FriXion Ball Clicker is one of Pilot’s most popular pens, and I am sure it is part of the daily carry for many of our readers.

Five color variations have been released, and I went ahead and tried two of them.

It gives the pens a slick look, and I feel like it makes the pens easier to write with by giving them a lower center of gravity. Compared to the rubber grip that originally came with the pen, this offers a cooler touch without any stickiness. I imagine it will maintain a nice feel even for long writing sessions.

The tip of the grip is also replaceable, so you can customize the look even further by buying two different colors and swapping their tips.

The SMART-GRIP allows you to upgrade your pen just by swapping the grip. I would highly recommend it to people who love using the FriXion.

Note: This product was developed independently by UNUS PRODUCT SERVICE. and is not a collaboration with the original manufacturer of the pen. Please use this product at your own risk.

Recommended for:

• People who like the Pilot FriXion Ball Clicker
• People who don’t like rubber grip sections
• People who tend to get sweaty hands

Infomation: SMART-GRIP for frixionball knock｜UNUS PRODUCT SERVICE.

Tombow Play Color Dot Marker Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The prospect of dotting all my stationery with perfect little bright circles delighted me to no end, so I was excited to try these new Play Color Dot Markers from Tombow. The colors are fantastic and the dots are definitely charming, but ink issues severely limit their usage. Alas, I cannot dot all the things. These markers only work on goldilocks paper--coated enough to prevent massive bleed-though, but not so coated as to prevent drying. The design is brilliant, and with a recipe change I think these would be a staple product for me. But right now, I can't use them the way I want to.

These pens have two ends--a 5 mm round felt-tip marker that works as a fat line, or as a highlighter, or as a circle stamp. The stamping is tricky to get the hang of. You can't just do a vertical drop like you would with a rubber stamp--you have to lightly press, do a little wiggle so that the full circle makes contact, and then peel it away from the page at an angle. This prevents the pigment from pooling at one side of the circle making it uneven and causing it to bleed through. You can see on my test page a variety of circle fails before I got the hang of it. Once I did, however, the circles came out really nicely.

The pigment is bright enough to be seen when used as a line, but pale enough to use as a highlighter as well. Because it is water-based, though, be careful about what you highlight over. And be mindful of the paper you're using, too, because of the bleeding issues.

The other end of the pen is a very fine .3 mm plastic tip. It's nice for writing or coloring in fine spaces, though the water-based ink does give it that over-pigmented area where lines overlap. In contrast to the very wet broad end, I did experience some dry-out of the tip during longer coloring sessions.

The pen body is plastic, and colors are very well indicated all over it. The broad end has the cap with a clip, while the fine point has a small cap. Bothe caps click closed securely, and both caps post on each other, which is a lovely clever thing. The clip is nicely flexible and sturdy. The side of hte marker includes instructions for proper stamping technique both in Japanese text and in a small graphic. If it hadn't been for that graphic, I'd be making blobby circles, still.

The 12-pack includes brown, grey, lilac, blue, sky blue, mint green, apple green, honey yellow, orange, coral, sakura, and cherry red. The colors are all vibrant and fun--I really like the palette chosen. It includes practical staples and a few fun accents.

Now, those bleeding issues. The wide tip causes some ink to pool, and it's in those pooled spots that bad things happen. If used carefully, the pooling can be mostly avoided, but not entirely. On cheaper paper, even the lightest touch soaks right through. And if the ink really concentrates, it can bleed through even Tomoe River paper. And it has some drying issues on heavily-coated papers as well. The two best papers I found for these markers were Kokuyo and Rhodia--and I still had to be careful (and still did get some faint bleeding). It's a shame, because these would be SO useful for planners and bullet journaling, but no one wants to make a confusing mess of their planner. I sincerely hope that this design might be revisited in the future with a revised ink recipe. They're nearly perfect, but the flaw is a fatal one.

I'm still going to use these, though. The colors are too good, the dots are too fun. If I can't dot all the things, at least I can dot some of them. It's better than no dots at all!

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

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!