my Sailor collection

With the addition of the yellow 1911 Sailor to my collection, that about completes what I have been focusing on with the Sailor brand fountain pen. Granted the range of models available is more extensive. I was however, more interested in the nibs that Sailor's master nib designer Nobuyoshi Nagahara comes up with.

Of his special nibs, I have the:
1) Naginata Togi
2) Naginata Concord
3) Naginata Cross-point
4) Naginata Cross Music
5) Naginata Emperor

As with all the Naginata nibs, each nib allows a broad range of writing angles. Just flip the nib over and it produces a different line width, depending on the nib. So you actually get a fine line up to the double broad and on some, calligraphic, from just one nib.


Above: Naginata Emperor (emperor=the bar with its tip curled like a butterfly's proboscis, acts as an extra reservoir for large consumption of ink for smooth writing).




The reason I focused on the 1911 large series with differing colour, texture and finish was because the nib from one pen could be swapped to another and even to the Susutake (smoked bamboo) pen.



The Susutake (my favourite) is obtained from the roof timbers from old traditional thatched houses. The bamboo is naturally coloured to a red brown colour from continuous exposure to the smoke of the 'Irori' (traditional Japanese sunken fire/hearth). Different colour tones are seen on the surface of the bamboo depending upon its location and exposure to smoke over time.

There was one other Sailor I had in my collection. My brother, Izzat, bought it for me as a gift and he was planning to get one for himself. So when that didn't happen, I gave him the pen. It was called the King of Pen fitted with the King Eagle nib.

And that, is a tale for another day.