Sailor Professional Gear Earth Fountain Pen Review

I am a huge Sailor fan. This is known. So when Sailor announced last year’s Sky model, I went big. I went way out of my wheelhouse and bought my first King of Pens model. And it is amazing.

At the time, the Earth model had just been announced as the second in this special edition series, but wasn’t available yet. Did I just lock myself in to buying the complete set of these pens? And what is after Earth? Wind and Fire?

I liked the visual of Earth when I first saw it, but it was a little too gold for me to commit to a King of Pens model once again. I received this Pro Gear model on loan from Goldspot to try out though, and I have to say it is pretty great.

What makes it so great? I think Sailor’s Professional Gear shape and size is one of the best all-around fountain pen models on the market. It is the perfect combination of weight, balance, quality, and choice for nearly anyone. One of the two I own is always finds it way into my rotation.

With the Earth, you get what at first looks like a brown barrel with gold hardware, but closer inspection reveals red undertones, and importantly in my book, some transparency. The body of the pen is generally solid, but the end of the cap and the grip section transition into a lighter, see-through color. It is a really nice effect.

The 21k nib is fantastic. This model is an H-MF so the firmness and line width is nearly ideal for my handwriting. Sailor nibs aren’t glassy smooth, and this one has the normal feedback I expect. It was flawless on the page, but you know the nib is there.

I did have one issue with this pen, and I wonder if it is a one-off situation, or if it appears on other units. In some areas around the gold cap band it looks like the barrel finish or coating went a little wild during manufacturing. I didn’t notice it at first, but if you look closely you can see that there is some bleed onto the gold hardware, giving it a tarnished look. I didn’t try to get it off because I don’t own this pen. If I am spending this kind of money I would ask to have mine checked before it shipped for a clean cap band. (UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters below, this is an issue Sailor caught and has since corrected.)

That bug aside, I love the Pro Gear as a daily writer. It has everything I look for in a fountain pen, Earth, Sky, or any of the dozens of other options.

My thanks to Goldspot for loaning me this pen for purposes of this review.

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Posted on October 31, 2016 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Sailor, Fountain Pens, Pen Reviews.

2017 Hobonichi Techo Planner And Cover Winner

There is no hotter item on the stationery market this time of year than the Hobonichi Planner and I'm excited to be able to give one away to a lucky reader. And the winner is:

Congrats Ravi! Please send me your shipping information via the Contact Page and I will get this sent right out.

My thanks to JetPens for sending me this product to give away to readers of The Pen Addict.

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Giveaways.

Kaweco Special Nib Holder + Nib: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Kaweco Special Nib Holder is made of anodized aluminum with a matte black finish. It has an octagonal shape that tapers at the end. Although the holder is made of metal, the matte finish and octagonal shape make it easy to hold. The metal gives the nib holder some weight, and it feels balanced in the hand–not too heavy and not too light.

The Kaweco Special comes in a plastic box that can be used for storage.

Nibs can be inserted anywhere along the circle of the nib grip. In the photo below, you can see rust on the nib holder. I believe this is rust transferred from the nibs (which rust quite easily) and not the metal parts of the holder rusting.

The nib holder comes with a Leonardt 30 pointed nib. It’s a fairly stiff nib that writes a fine line.

I wanted something more expressive, so I purchased a Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin Calligraphy Nib that has more flexibility.

Both nibs write fairly smoothly, but because the tips are sharp, you can definitely catch the paper on upstrokes. The Brause nib offers a great deal more flexibility and I prefer writing with it. But the Leonardt nib is good for basic writing and sketching.

The nibs are easy to insert into the holder, but I have to use rubber gloves to remove them. The nibs are sharp and slippery. They are also prone to rusting, so you need to rinse and dry them off after each use (I learned this the hard way). The blue plating on my Brause nib is flaking off, but these aren’t exactly high-end nibs. I don’t expect them to last long.

I love dip nibs for ink testing because you can simply rinse the nib off between inks rather than having to fill a piston or converter. It saves time and a lot of ink. The downside of using dip nibs, especially if you’re not accustomed to writing with them (like me), is that the ink can come out much wetter than it would with a fountain pen nib. So the ink appears darker and, in some cases, it feathers, when it would not do that in a regular pen.

The Kaweco Special Nib Holder with the Leonardt 30 nib is $36.00 on JetPens. If you want a more flexible nib, I recommend the Brause Blue Pumpkin which is $1.80 also on JetPens.

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

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