Posts filed under Sailor

Sailor Dipton + Hocoro Ink & Dip Pen Set Review

One of the categories of stationery I’ve found myself enjoying recently are dip pens and nibs. Glass nibs, steel nibs, folded nibs, different handles … you get the picture. Why? Fun. Ok, quick ink testing, too, but mostly fun. Who doesn’t want to quickly and easily start slinging ink around on the page?

I’ll be reviewing more of this type of product in the future, but today I wanted to take a look at one of the more fun acquisitions I have made recently: the Sailor Dipton + Hocoro Ink & Dip Pen Set.

Sailor’s Hocoro Dip Pen is a recent offering, allowing users an easy access point into the world of dip nibs. The plastic barrels are simple and lightweight, and feature interchangeable nibs, so one barrel can handle all of the sizes (Fine, Medium, 1.0 mm and 2.0 mm Calligraphy, Fude) on offer. The Fude nib is what I was after this time, especially in combination with the Dipton shimmer ink they paired with.

What is a Fude nib? The end of the nib is turned upwards in such a way to mimic the strokes of a traditional Japanese calligraphy brush. This allows for line variation from wide to thin, depending on the angle of the nib, and the shape of your stroke. And if you simply intend to write normally, like I do most of the time, it works well while providing added character to your letters on the page.

Along with the Fude nib, the Dipton inks for these sets were designed specifically to be used as dip nib inks, not filled in a fountain pen. Could you, if you wanted to? Probably, but I wouldn’t. The glitter particles could clog feeds and filling systems, so if you want to use shimmer inks in your pens, I would buy formulations designed specifically for them, of which there are plenty.

This particular set had three ink variants: Mellow Forest, Coral Humming, and Ice Dance. I went with the dark and moody Mellow Forest for this test, as opposed to the two brighter options. Sailor has also made other sets of these available that feature sheening inks, so definitely shop around if shimmer isn’t your thing.

The line I get from the Fude nib at my regular writing angle is broad, and has that brush tip flair that works well with my letters. If I write holding the pen at a higher angle, the line gets finer, and the lower the writing angle, the wider the line. This is the perfect nib to get creative with.

It may not look like it from the pictures, but this nib holds a lot of ink. The feed design is trough-like, holding a good amount of ink in the middle area between the nib and the feed. This design is also easy to take apart, making cleaning a breeze.

This was one dip worth of writing.

As an ink, Mellow Forest looks great on the page, and in combination with the nib, allows for great shimmer coverage. One tip: make sure you cap the bottle after each dip, so when you go to shake up the bottle before the next dip you aren’t throwing ink across the room. I don’t want to hear this Horror Story! But to get full shimmer coverage, you do want to shake it each time, so be careful.

While I enjoy having the 10 ml bottle of shimmer ink to play with, I’ll get much more usage from the Fude nib in this set. It will work well with any ink, and I look forward to seeing what I can create with it.

You should think about creating with dip nibs and inks as well. They are easy to use, and provide a different experience than traditional fountain pens and nibs. This Sailor Dipton + Hocoro Ink & Dip Pen Set is a great choice, albeit a little expensive for a beginner at $29. It is nice to get an all-in-one kit up front to see if you like it, and then you can explore a world of different options out there.

(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!

Posted on February 5, 2024 and filed under Sailor, Dip Nib, Pen Reviews.

Sailor x Nagasawa Kobe Affection Kyomachi Legend Blue - A Tale in 3 Acts

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I first saw the Sailor x Nagasawa Kobe Affection Kyomachi Legend Blue pens (phew, say THAT 3 times fast!) at the DC Pen Show a few months back. It is a beautiful blue pen with gold sparkles, but I’m on #teamflattops, so I was good and passed on them. Wallet saved! Then I saw them a few weeks later at the SF Pen Show and reminded myself that I already have a 1911 and that I didn’t need any more because, you know, #teamflattops. And since Nagasawa wasn’t attending any other US pen shows after SF, I and my wallet were safe. Or so I thought. I found out that Nagasawa partnered with Vanness Pens after the SF Pen Show to sell their products in the US. which meant that I saw the pens again at the Dallas Pen Show. And Joe Crace, The Gentleman Stationer kept posting pictures of the pens all weekend and tempting me with these beauties. Darn it, Joe! I couldn’t decide between the 1911S and the 1911L, but Lisa Vanness was kind enough to loan all 3 of them for a comparison review to help me decide.

Act I - Background & Introduction to the Characters

Nagasawa is a retail stationery company with several shops located primarily in Kobe, Japan. They are most known for the pen collaborations with brands like Platinum and Sailor, as well as their line of Kobe inks which are made by Sailor. There are stories behind the names of their pens and inks like “Koikawa Ipe” (their exclusive Decimo), which is named for Brazil’s national tree that was planted along the Koi River or “Tarumi Apricot” (Kobe ink #25), which is the color of the sunset when viewed from nearby Tarumi’s hills. And this pen is no exception. It is the first in the “Kobe Affection” series and is called “Kyomachi Legend Blue”, named for the Kyomachi area where the Kobe City Museum is located.

There are 3 models of the Kyomachi Legend Blue pens: Medium (what is more commonly referred to as 1911S), FL (aka 1911L), and Large (aka King of Pen or KOP). All 3 pens are slightly pointy, cigar-shaped pens, as opposed to their flat top Pro Gear counterparts. As there are already many articles out there on the various Sailor models, sizes and nibs, I will instead focus on this particular release. Since the pens are on loan, I won’t be inking them up and will only use them for comparison purposes.

The Kyomachi Legend Blue is a beautiful blue pen that leans a bit towards periwinkle without being purple and has subtle, gold shimmer interspersed throughout. The pen has gold trim, including the cap band which has the Nagasawa name and “Pen Style Den” debossed around it. As with other Nagasawa exclusives, the weathervane is also engraved on these nibs.

I love this beautiful (and difficult to photograph) material!

Nagasawa cap band.

Kobe Weathervane on the nibs of the Kyomachi Legend Blue as well as the Platinum 3776 Apricot exclusive and Sailor PG Kounan Maroon exclusive.

As with other Sailors, the Kyomachi Legend Blue 1911S has a 14kt gold nib (EF, F, MF, M, B, and Zoom); the 1911L (EF, F, MF, M, B, and Zoom) and KOP (M and B) both have 21kt gold nibs.

Act II - Main Story

The Kyomachi Legend Blue 1911S is a fairly slim and compact pen, though not as short as its Pro Gear Slim sibling, due to its pointed ends, which gives it a bit more length.

1911S and the Pro Gear Slim, Nuts.

The length difference is most noticeable when uncapped and unposted.

Caps were gently and barely posted. Length is much closer when posted.

1911S (top is just barely longer in hand – I didn’t notice the difference.

The 1911L is a bit longer and girthier than the 1911S and likewise, is longer than the Pro Gear due to the ends. Note that the 1911L Kyomachi Blue has a smooth, metal grip section which has a ledge at the nib end to prevent your fingers from slipping. I’m not sure why they chose to put the metal section on the 1911L but not the other two. I did not write with it, since it is a loaner, but it felt comfortable in hand. I don’t usually have issues with metal grip sections though.

1911L and the Pro Gear, Tequila Sunrise.

The KOP is the largest of the three and has the same grip section material like the 1911S. True to its name, the King of Pen is not a small pen. Aside from the pen being longer and girthier, the nib is also significantly bigger (longer and wider) than the others, where the difference is less noticeable. As such, folks like me who have steeper writing angles or smaller hands aren’t able to comfortably use the KOP (I’m also unable to use pens that have Bock 8, Pilot 30 or 50 nibs, etc. for the same reason). They only made 100 of these in the KOP size - the nibs are engraved with the number.

You can see that this is number 018/100.

1911S, 1911L and KOP nib sizes - the KOP nib is significantly bigger/longer/wider than the other two.

Left: This is my natural, steep writing angle with the 1911L. Right: Because I like to hold my pens close to the nib and also because of my not-big-enough-for-KOP-hands, I have to write at a lower angle in order for the longer nib to touch the paper. This feels very uncomfortable to me so thankfully the KOP is not a pen I can use/buy.

How each pen looks in my hand.

Here is the KOP next to similarly sized pens: Pelikan M800, Aurora 88, Visconti Homo Sapiens, Visconti Opera Master, Leonardo Momento Zero Grande, Pilot Custom 823, Montblanc 146, Platinum President.

Act III - Ending

While I liked how the metal grip section looked on the 1911L, it being a touch too pointy for me made it easier to pass. Maybe if the ends were more rounded, like on the Platinum 3776 or Pilot Custom 74, I would have considered springing for the 1911L. I did have to reach out to Lisa Vanness to get the 1911S because I just couldn’t resist this gorgeous blue pen. (I was good and sold the 1911S that I had so I could justify getting this one instead!)

I picked Kobe #50 Kyomachi Legend Blue for the first inking due to the name. The ink was created before the pen, so it’s not the most perfect match colorwise, but it’s close enough. I think that next time I will pick Diamine Blue Flame which matches the pen color better as well as the gold shimmer in the barrel.

Sailor x Nagasawa Kyomachi Legend Blue 1911S and Kobe #50 Kyomachi Legend Blue.

All 3 pens, as well as the Kobe ink of the same name, are available for purchase at the Vanness Pens website. The 1911S sells for $300, the 1911L for $450 and the KOP for $880. Thank you to Vanness Pens for loaning the 3 pens for review and for letting me purchase the 1911S. 🙂

(Disclaimer: All pens were loaned to me for review, and I ended up purchasing the 1911S from Vanness Pens at a discount.)

Posted on December 15, 2023 and filed under Sailor, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

Sailor Yurameku Zare Gokoro Ink Review

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

The latest ink that I've been using in a couple of my pens is a dark brown ink from Sailor's Yurameku line called Zare Gokoro. This particular ink looks almost black when wet, but dries to a lighter shade that has some brown-black to dark brown hues that show through.

There are several Sailor inks in my collection, so I'm always excited to try something new from this Japanese brand. Zare Gokoro looks exciting due to the marketing copy that claims this "mysterious" ink changes color as it dries. How can you pass that up? I already have some inks in my collection that do this, but they're most iron gall inks. In this case, Zare Gokoro is a water-based dye ink. How does it stack up against the iron gall alternatives?

Like all Sailor inks I've used, this ink flows well, doesn't feather or bleed, and is incredibly consistent and easy to use. It's an incredibly slow ink to dry, though. In my tests, it takes at least 30 seconds to dry to the point where it doesn't easily smudge. For areas where more ink has pulled up in the valley of a direction change from the nib, it can take up to a minute to dry. This is a really slow drying ink.

I was really curious to see how the ink color changed as it dried, so that was the first thing I was focused on after inking up the pen. Sure enough, writing with the ink lays down a dark line that looks black to my eyes. I wouldn't even call it black-brown because I can't discern any brown while this ink is wet. Magically, the ink color lightens as the ink dries, revealing a dark brown with mild shading. In some areas, you can even detect some dark red or rust color. It's really fun to watch this transition happen as the ink slowly dries.

Since this is an ordinary water-based ink, it doesn't fare well when introduced to water. It doesn't wash away, but just a little bit of water rinses away the darkness of the ink and leaves behind a de-saturated blue color instead. You would be able to read what was on the page as long as the paper survived, but it might be difficult in some areas.

Overall, I was expecting more out of this ink. The color changing behavior was interesting since most inks get a little darker as the dry, not lighter. Iron gall inks also get a bit lighter as they dry, which is something I've always liked about them. It was one of their unique qualities aside from their water resistance. The super long dry time, lack of much shading, and the price all put me off this ink.

At $20 for a 20ml bottle, you're paying a premium for the Sailor name, and I don't think the price justifies the ink performance in this case. There are so many other interesting and well-performing inks on the market, so it's easy to point in almost any other direction here.

(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!

Posted on July 19, 2023 and filed under Sailor, Ink Reviews.