Nib Acquisitions, July 2015

A package arrived on my desk this morning from Japan. What could it contain?

Aha! My much delayed birthday present to myself: a Sailor Kaba-Zaiku and three bottles of ink. This is my first "nice" Japanese pen but not my first Sailor. I've been waiting for this since the end of May because another pen ordered at the same time turned out to be unavailable.

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You have to give Sailor some points for presentation

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It even has the shop display card in the box.

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The nib and detail of the cherry bark barrel and cap. I kind of understand how they manufacture this, but how they make a seamless tube is a mystery.

Beautiful new pen! Cherry bark, wow. Since I'm not familiar with the Sailor wood pens -- how large is it?

Congrats. Looks like a fine point.

Great looking pen CptBlueBear! Hopefully it writes as good as it looks!

Beautiful Sailor, CptBlueBear!

TWSBI Eco 1.1 mm stub


Visconti Turquoise

That Sailor Kaba-Zaiku is a nice-looking pen! Not that terribly expensive, either...at least if you buy it direct from Japan.

Anyone else got trouble with the pics? I can only see the first three when I'm logged in...

nemo said:

Beautiful new pen! Cherry bark, wow. Since I'm not familiar with the Sailor wood pens -- how large is it?

Congrats. Looks like a fine point.

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Its a pleasingly squat, very similar size to an Aurora Optima - slightly longer but the same diameter - but much heavier being wood rather than resin or celuloid. It feels really nice in my hand.

Its a medium, so close to a European fine. Well spotted.

kansaskyle said:

Great looking pen CptBlueBear! Hopefully it writes as good as it looks!

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I've only dipped it to try the Iroshuzuku Ajisai (a palish royal blue similar to Kaweco blue) and the 14k nib is super smooth and needed no fiddling out of the box. Although I prefer a little feedback from a nib, this is a pleasure to write with. My first Sailor was from a dealer in NZ who tweaks all nibs before shipping and he said it was perfect so based on my limited sample set of two, I'm thinking Sailor are good at this quality control game.

Snargle said:

That Sailor Kaba-Zaiku is a nice-looking pen! Not that terribly expensive, either...at least if you buy it direct from Japan.

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Pictures don't do it justice. Compared to my few Italians, these Japanese beauties are a bargain. My next pick up will probably be a Platinum #3776 Celuloid or another Sailor LE.

I should have said, it came from Engeika. My second purchase from Taizo and he's been a pleasure to deal with. I'm in two minds about mentioning it out or pure selfishness, but he's got Iroshuzuku inks back in limited stock for US$13.50 a bottle.

Corey said:

TWSBI Eco 1.1 mm stub

Visconti Turquoise

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How is the Eco? Love me some Visconti Ink! Congrats.

Jut said:

How is the Eco? Love me some Visconti Ink! Congrats.

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Thanks! This is my first bottle of Visconti ink and I really like it. I'll have to pick up their regular blue, as it looks like a vibrant blue that I've been looking for.

So far I have no complaints about the Eco. It writes well and holds a very fair amount of ink. The piston is smooth and draws in ink without any problems. The plastic feels a little cheaper than the 580, so I'm going to have to watch it. I'm well aware of the problems people have had with TWSBI in the past, but to be fair, I've had my two 580s for about a year and neither have cracked (knock wood). Hopefully they've solved the issues with that pen and transferred that knowledge to the Eco. The 1.1mm stub writes a clean line with a nice bit of variation. The 1.1mm on my Vac700 is smoother, but that's hardly a knock against the Eco, especially since I paid more than double for that pen. The styling is a little meh, but that's such a small thing to me that it really doesn't impact my decision to use or not use it. Just something I figured some people would focus in on. It's a very utilitarian kind of look, with a faceted cap, smooth round body, into a faceted and slightly oversized piston knob. Looks aside, it's a solid performing pen so far, and at just under $30 for a fair sized piston filler with a stub nib, it's hard to overlook it in terms of value. As long as the cracking issue is solved, this is a fantastic pen for newbs and people looking to try a TWSBI without breaking the bank.

Unusual acquisition: 400 labels for sample bottles. Sadly, by the sheet really isn't an option.

Also received a TWSBI Mini Classic (EF), but this is not the pen I ordered. That will be an update for Monday.

I jumped off the Nib deep end yesterday and picked up my first new pens, a Pilot Metropolitan (on the advice of mikeschu, Thank You) and a Sheaffer 100, both in medium nibs. I have a few vintage pens I have found in the wild while looking for razors but these two are my first new purchases. I also picked up some Parker Quink, this was the only ink I could find in the package stores, as all of the specialty shops in OKC seemed to be closed yesterday.

I loaded the two new pens and a couple of the vintage ones last night and had a blast trying them out. Looks like there may be more pens in my future.

Sounds like we got another one!

Congrats on the pen purchases. You might check out Goulet Pens (among other sites) for some ink samples if you wan to try out some different companies and/or colors.

Picked up an ECO. Just arrived today. So far, so good.