Customer Reviews

I love this pen, It is the finest extra fine I own Parkers, Shaeffers, Pilots I have one hero 616 that is almost, but not quite this fine, I polished the Nib to get it as smooth as possible. I find myself using it more and more as my first choice, of the dozens of pens lying out to use. I even put a slide-on chrome pencil clip on the taper so i can carry in a pocket the cap twists on tightly enough to work very well. When the two supplied cartridges get empty I will refill them with Noodler's "no feather"ink (very dark and archival) great pen for the money spent and it just feels classy in your hand. Now if if my hand writing were just legible!

Like a previous reviewer mentioned. Sadly design of this pen has changed.
Prior to the change, this pen was one of my favorite EF fountain pens. In terms of smoothness and fineness, it outperforms many pens 10x the price. I bought another one as a backup two months ago. When I opened it today, I was surprised to that the pen looked different. Instead of the really long slender nib, the pen now spots a shorted stouter nib that is stiffer and not as smooth. Not that it mattered to me, but the metallic ring between the pen section and the body is gone as well. JetPens still has the picture of the older design on the site. The model number of the picture of the old pen says "11-0072-120". The new one spots a model number of "11-0073-120". You can see a picture of the new design at : http://sailorshop.jp/SHOP/11-0073-120.html. I wished I could have learned of the switch sooner.

NEW-NOT-IMPROVED-VERSION (July 7, 2012)
I bought this pen and the Platinum Carbon back in January 2012. Love both pens for slight differences. And for their great price I was able to buy both.
My complaint is that when I received my new, second Sailor today I noticed that it looked a little different than the one that I bought in January. After I compared it the the two I see that the nib and nib casing are completely different. The body looks the same to the naked eye but the cap fits differently.
This new pen is scratchy and the nib is stiffer than the one that I bought in January. I will continue to work at breaking this one in, though I don't remember having to "break-in" the older one. It's still a nice product, but if I'd have bought this version first I may have never bought a second one.
I read all the reviews and no one has seemed to notice this idiosyncrasy. So I write this mostly for those of you who are purchasing a second or third pen and expecting the old version.

I love my Sailor pen. I don't have a ton of experience with fountain pens, but I like it more than the Pilot Varsity pens I've been using. I have had no problems with the ink drying on the nib, and I've only used one cartridge in several weeks (not doing a ton of writing though).
My cap snaps on nicely, absolutely no trouble. The ink is a good color and it writes nicely for an inexpensive pen. I strongly recommend this if you are debating it...

This is an exceptional fountain pen for everyday use. The EF nib is just that, extra fine. I purchased two of these fountain pens to give them a spin and found the performance actually rivaled my more expensive fountain pens. I use it for daily writing at work and I would recommend this fountain pen to anyone who may be considering the writing experience of a fountain pen but not yet willing to make that financial commitment towards a more expensive instrument. Also, should you find yourself misplacing this fountain pen; the cost would be considerably negligible when compared to losing a more expensive fountain pen. I read some of the reviews that comment on the “scratchy” feel of this fountain pen on paper. I personally found this fountain pen’s performance on the grades of paper I’ve used to be adequate. Were I to use my “finer” paper for correspondence and such, I would more than likely switch out to my more expensive; Pelikan, Kaweco, Pilot or Waterford… But again, for simple everyday use, this really is a great fountain pen for the price.
I will definitely purchase several more of these Sailor pens to give as gifts with journals to loved ones and a few more for myself of course...;-)

This is solid fountain pen with a fine line but it doesn't compare to the lamy safari which is only ever so slightly wider but has a much much smoother nib and ergonomic body. Slightly more fine than the pilot desk pen but slightly scratchy and not fine or flexible enough for Spencerian calligraphy which is why I bought it. Good value and I love that it's recycled but the lamy safari extra fine is far superior for a similar line

Absolutely love this pen. Comes with awesome ink. The nib is very fine and smooth. Though when you first out in the ink cartridge it takes a minute or two for you to get a nice flow. Love it :)

This pen is a great surprise! writes really fine and ink flows well...not too wet, not too dry, just perfect.

Really interesting...materials feel light, but then that's the recycled materials being put to good use. I'm no pro at fountain pens, but have had a handful over the past few years. Have not written with anything this nice (in terms of the very fine tip), and it's quite a pleasure. Very hard to beat the price. Converter that I ordered along with it came crushed a bit, but am awaiting customer service to resolve this. Otherwise, the pen works very nicely (through the cartridge, so far).

This review is for the OLDER version (see earlier review). It write a very fine line and is very smooth. Although it isn't pocketable, that is an advantage in that it is unlikely the pen will walk off.

When writing very fast I can briefly run the feed out of ink but it is such a pleasure to write with it I hardly mind and for normal use it is perfect, writing immediately and with a dark but very fine line.

I'm saddened to hear the pen's design has changed and that it isn't an improvement. Mine has the metal ring mentioned and is one of my favorite pens, and it cost far less than any of my other favorites.

Ignore the reviewer who got it for Spencerian calligraphy, that is senseless, the pen has no flex. And saying it is only slightly finer than a Lamy nib of any kind is impossible unless the nib was pressed down hard in a damaging attempt to flex.

I love this pen. The line is thin and the pen has a smooth feeling on Rhodia paper. Yes, there is a slight feeling of friction, but that is to be expected from an extra fine nib, and the friction is pleasant, not detracting from the writing experience.

The line thickness produced by this pen's Extra Fine nib has a noticeable difference from the line thickness produced by a Sailor Fine nib, such as the one in the High Ace Neo.

The ink that comes included with this pen, in the form of a cartridge, is also very good ink in that it is fast-drying and a real black.

Now this is what I call Extra Fine (EF)! I bought a Lamy Safari EF and a Kaweco Classic EF and, while they're good fountain pens, they both produce a line that is noticeably thicker than the Sailor EF. Both the Lamy and the Kaweco are German so the European standard for EF must be different than the Japanese standard. The nib on the Sailor writes surprisingly smoothly for as sharp as it is. It's "noisy" when writing (I love that sound!) but I wouldn't call it scratchy. If your preference is an EF point you probably have a light hand anyway. This is a nice, simple, elegant pen and a great value for the price. The supplied ink cartridge was a good, dark black. I re-filled the cartridge with Noodler's X-Feather ink and am a happy writer!

I was a little disappointed by this pen. I've been using a platinum carbon pen for a year ad really love it but this Sailor doesn't work as well. The nib is not quite as fine and it scratches the paper as I write. I'm used to very fine nibs, love them, but this one lets out a little too much ink and, at the same time, doesn't take to the paper very well. I have a feeling that this pen's nib is atypical. . .Don't get me wrong. It's a good pen. Just not quite as extra fine as I was expecting.

First of all, I have to say that I own the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen and that (along with the Carbon Ink) is probably one of the nicest pens I've ever used. This means that the Sailor Recycled Material Desk Fountain Pen had a lot to live up to in order to get a spot in my daily rotation of pens to use. What I found was that this pen, along with the Sailor Nano Ink, has exceeded my expectations and has secured that spot in the rotation.

The pen is slender, but the fatter part at the tip allows for easy holding. The nib is SUPER fine, writing what seems to be a crisp, non-feathering 0.3mm line. This line is SERIOUSLY fine. I am thinking that narrowly-ruled journal paper is going to be where this pen gets major usage. Maybe the fine nib is the right width for normal usage, but this extra fine nib writes VERY smoothly and the line is dark and tight...just really thin!

A WONDERFUL PEN and one I'd recommend to anyone to keep at their desk for writing letters, taking notes or journaling. This might also be good for fine detail drawing.

As a note, I have a pen cup with a paper towel in the bottom and not a desk holder. This doesn't seem to affect the pen, at all.

FIVE STARS and I will be giving this as gifts to people whom I know are serious about pens.

FANTASTIC PEN FOR COMIC BOOK DRAWING AND ILLUSTRATION! Point is very fine but flexible for variable line work. I love it. It has become one of my main detailing pens.

Quick startup after I put the cartridge in (compared to the Platinum Carbon Pen, which I left sitting for about an hour and eventually took a bulb to to flush the ink through), and a fine, precise line.

As a bonus, the nib and feed are interchangeable with the Sailor Highace Neo (and presumably the Sailor Clear Candy pens as well)- just gently pull on the nib of each pen and the section will pop out, then switch and pop back in. (Make sure pens are empty first!) The Sailor Fude de Mannen pens have a larger nib that does not swap out. This same trick works with the Pilot FP-78G, Plumix, and Prera pens.

Definitey a great pen. I've already started doodling with it.
For those without a desk pen holder--you can use the cap that comes with it. It works just fine, and no one will give it a second look. the only issue is that it slips out of the cap, and doesn't snap on or anything. but if you have an art bag or a pencil case that fits it perfectly, it's no biggie.
I love how it writes, a really nice thin line, no bleeding, no issues whatsoever.
The little silver ring does come off when you unscrew the body, though. So be sure not to lose it when you're using the carts sometime.
What jetpens says _is_ wrong, I got two Sailor cartridges with my pen, along with the box of them I bought to use with it. The ink that comes with it is a good, dark black, and you get two of them--plenty since it's a very thin-writing pen.
I like this pen. and I can't wait to get a desk pen holder for it.