Sailor Clear Candy Fountain Pen Review

I have been talking a lot about entry level fountain pens lately I wanted to discuss another recent acquisition: the Sailor Clear Candy. It was recently introduced to celebrate Sailor’s 100th anniversary and comes in 15 different barrel colors with eight colors of ink cartridges. I chose the clear black body and orange ink cartridges for something a little different. I have a thing for translucent barrels and always like to see a splash of color inside instead of boring old black.

Once I snapped the ink cartridge in the fine nib began writing immediately. The nib itself is a little scratchy compared to the Lamy Safari and even the Platinum Preppy. It writes very clean and sharp but I am wondering if I need to break it in a little more to get a smoother feel.

The orange ink is a nice touch. It comes out light when still wet on the page but dries into the great shade you see in the picture. The barrel is nothing to write home about. It is a basic plastic design with few frills other than some nice logo work, which I enjoy.

The Sailor Clear Candy lies in the middle ground between the Preppy and Safari in both quality and price. If you are looking for a decent entry level fountain pen that offers a little more than the basics then you should check this one out.

Ink Links

– The Faber-Castell Ondoro (Leigh Reyes)

– Try Something New: Colored Pencils (Rhodia Drive)

– Pilot Acroball Smooth Writing Ballpoint Pen 0.7 mm (No Pen Intended)

– Moleskine Highlighter Pencil Set (Office Supple Geek)

– How the Pen Evolved from a humble Paintbrush Into a Precise Instrument of Writing Perfection (Gizmodo)

– Review: Retro 51 Green Crocodile Tornado Rollerball Pen (Gourmet Pens)

– Uni Brush Pens (Julian Kay’s Blog)

– Stationery Archeology 11 (Stationery Traffic)

– Kaweco Sport (giblog)

– Uni-ball Signo Broad White (A Penchant for Paper)

– Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen Review (Palimpsest)

– Pink Pens (Bunnies in Blazers)

– The Rotring Skynn for Dummies (From the Pen Cup)

– Current Favorites! Part 1: Brush Pens + contest! (nemu*nemu)

– Extended “Super Six” Pen Review 2012 Part 1 (Leaves in the Pages)

– Did You Know I’m a Fountain Pen Geek? (SurfBits)

– 1001 Ink Bottles (Meathaus Enterprises)

– Moleskine Monday: 3-Piece Diary/Planner Review (Notebook Stories)

– Pelikan Blue Black (Stationery Traffic)

Stabilo Bionic Worker Roller Ball 0.5 mm Review

Do you have a brand of pen that you think is great looking and great feeling but there is something a little off that throws you for a loop? Stabilo is that brand for me. I keep coming back to them because they make a great looking pen but there is one thing that consistently makes me shake my head: their tip sizes are not based in reality.

I have mentioned on several occasions that tip size and line width are two separate measurements. The tip size is the physical measurement of the tip of the pen, while the line width is the width of the ink line on the page. For example, an 0.5 mm gel ink pen often leaves a line wider than 0.5 mm on the page, while an 0.5 mm ballpoint leaves a narrower line. Each brand has their own little intricacies that I have come to expect, but Stabilo blows them all out of the water.

The Stabilo Bionic Worker Roller Ball is marked on the barrel as an 0.5 mm pen. With a liquid ink pen such as this, I do expect a wider line than a comparable 0.5 mm gel ink pen, but this one is really wide. This is a line width I would expect from an 0.7 mm or 0.8 mm pen at the least. I should have been tipped off when I saw the word “Medium” on the back of the barrel. I have never seen an 0.5 mm pen marked that way.

This is a consistent experience across all Stabilo products I have tried but don’t let my rant dissuade you from what is actually a very good pen. I compare this pen to the standard Uni-ball Vision pen, and the Stabilo may be even better. If you like a wider line in your liquid ink pens then you should give this one a shot. Just don’t go in expecting fine lines.