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Sailor nibs -14k vs 21k?

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Could you DM me a link for a reputable seller to watch? Idk how to tell who's reputable or not.

It's been too long since I bought a pen to be able to remember who it was I bought from, or to know who "the players" are in the pen re-selling market. But check the feedback on e-bay that's a good starting place.

Inferior to what? Surely not a Sailor 21K nail ...

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Ooh ... this is gonna be better than "that's not a real P-51" ...
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
If you're contending that Pelikan steel nibs are better than Sailor 21K nibs, that's the first I've encountered that opinion.

Not saying "better", John. Just that they can really hold their own.
There's an interesting recent thread over in the Pelikan forum at that huge fountain pen nuthouse about the M200 steel nibs.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Good news!



Okay, I'm going to be that nasty enabler that you love and your wallet hates.

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Pilot Custom Heritage 92. Great nib, great piston filling system ... and stunning demonstrator colours. (I like the blue best myself but you have 4 choices.) To my mind, a demonstrator is only worth having when the filling system is something more interesting than a cartridge/converter system. Anyhow ... fantastic pen all-round. (If you like demonstrators.)

For this or the Sailor ... or both ... keep an eye on e-bay. There are lots of reputable sellers shipping directly from Japan, and the costs can be quite reasonable.
LOL! Yes, you are a nasty enabler. You know, its funny because the Pilot Custom 92 is like my perfect pen on paper. Its got the gold nib, the snazy filling system, a great price. But for some reason, it leaves me cold on an emotional level. Maybe I kind of wish it had the bigger #10 nib, like the Custom 912. But, of course, that would make it more expensive. So I don't know. I'll definitely give it a look. The smoke one is pretty rad.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Not saying "better", John. Just that they can really hold their own.
There's an interesting recent thread over in the Pelikan forum at that huge fountain pen nuthouse about the M200 steel nibs.
Okay, cool. I'll check it out.
 
I'll jump into the fray here.. I have a Pro Gear Slim with the 14k nib on it's way so I'll be able to make a comment on that, but I also already have an M205 Demonstrator with the steel nib, and as far as I can tell it's the same steel nib as the M200's.

Those that praise that steel nib aren't just blowing steam. First time I inked up the pen and gave it go, the smoothness and slight bounce of the nib pretty much blew me away. The only downsides to the Pelikan... they are a bit of a pita to really clean well, since you can't fully disassemble them easily and safely, and mine (and from many reviews, the M20X's in general) aren't well tuned from the factory. Mine often has some hard starts, or skips when making punctuation marks. It writes so nicely otherwise, I will likely send it out to someone pro to tune it up proper.

I am guessing I'll have the Sailor here by the end of the week, so I'll ink it up and see how it feels vs the Pelikan.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Thanks @Shave_Rat. I look forward to reading your assessment of the 14k nib and the Pro Gear Slim in general. They sure look really small.

At this point, I’m leaning pretty heavily towards picking up the Pelikan first. 180, I know. I’m fairly well convinced it’s an excellent pen and will fill a gap in my collection. The Sailor, on the other hand, is largely redundant to my 3776. Not that having a back up is bad. 2 is 1, right? But it can wait. Plus, I guess I’m too impatient to save up for the actual cost of the full size Pro Gear.
 
Yeah, I'll do a brief impressions of it on this thread, and possibly a full out review thread down the road. I only went with the slim since it came in a Cosmic Purple LE that I found still in stock at an online vendor... I have a thing for purple pens, and purple inks. lol
 
@nemo Have to agree on the M200. I've got a bunch of nibs and a number of barrels for the M200 and M400 and both are work horses. I've never had a lot of trouble with the Pelikan steel nibs; and when I did get something thats so-so you can tune it up with hardly any worries at all. My early Sailor's had great nibs. The Sailors now have a particular foot on the nib - and you have to find it. If I want for anything it would be the Pilot Heritage. You can catch them on sale from time to time.
 
The Sailor arrived today, but the wife decided we are hosting a backyard bbq gathering tomorrow, so not likely to get to inking it till Sunday. *sigh*
 
OK, got to ink up the Sailor Pro Gear slim, 14k medium nib. it is a pretty small pen. About 1/2 inch shorter while capped than a Pilot Metro. The amusing part to me, it's just about the same length as the Pelikan M205 I have.

The nib writes smooth, but does give just enough feedback to let you know it's writing. The medium is more like a Euro fine, but Japanese medium nib you sort of expect that. The nib feels a lot stiffer when writing than the Pelikan steel nibs do. If you give some pressure when writing, you'll get a tiny bit of flex and line variation with it, it just has no natural bounce or easy flex when writing just normal pressure.

There's not anything to dislike about the Sailor 14k nib, but honestly for my preference, I'd take the Pelikan M200 series steel nib over it for a writing experience. It's almost glassy smooth, and has this amazing natural bounce and flex to the nib the Sailor one doesn't have.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
Update 2: I settled on the Pelikan M200. The green one. It arrived today. I'm very thrilled and can't wait to get writing. When I put it through its paces, I'll post more on it. But probably on a Pelikan thread.

So Sailor will have to wait, but its still on my radar screen. Who knows, maybe Santa will bringing one.
 
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