Fountain Pen Review: Sailor ProGear Earth Slim (Clear Brown)

Sailor Pro Gear Slim: 

A Name Forthcoming ft. Ink-Stained Beard Creation

You know how this goes; Italicized and bolded for the Guest of honour, regular for the host.

Foreword by the Ink-Stained Beard:

Before we get started with the actual collaborative review of the Sailor Professional Gear Slim it’s time for a bit of history.

I started this blog roughly two years ago, planning on stunning the world with my witty remarks and hugely informative posts.

But it wasn’t a decision purely made by me.

Hell, up until a week before I embarked on this adventure I hadn’t even thought about throwing my opinions into the world via the medium of a blog.

The gentleman that is responsible for 50% ( or more ) of this post did, and he wanted to do it together with me.

He only wanted a bit more time to think about the subjects that would be covered on this soon to be launched blog, and in what way they would be covered.

But I, being the impatient bearded bastard that I am, couldn’t wait on those kind of frivolities, and started this blog.

So instead of one blog run by two people the world got two blogs, each covering a completely different kind of stuff, in a completely different kind of way.

This post isn’t about converting someone to the magic of fountain pens, it’s about setting things right (even if it’s in a silly way and two years late).

So, to everyone who enjoys the stuff I post here: you’ve got Levi to thank for it.

Thanks, mate, your continuous support, blogwise and the rest, means a lot to me.

Short history lesson over, time to hand the mic to Levi.

My contributions will be bold in font and content (or in whatever way takes my fancy when I’m working on this post), just like my beard :

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Well, didn't think I'd be doing this anytime soon again, but here we are, not even a measly month later. I wasn't expecting it, and certainly not looking for it.

And yet here I am. (And I'm happy for it)

There is of course a tale in how it came about... (Which may or may not be a complete fabrication, I'll leave that up to you.)

The story goes thus:

I was sitting in front of my working desk, when a loud knock rang on my door. 'twas the early hours of a friday evening so I was minding my own business, as usual. I was not expecting company, so with wary foot and trepiditious ear I listened at the entrance to my room.

I heard nothing.

After a while I had almost managed to convince myself that evil was not afoot and, only slightly at ease, I opened the door.

It was a mistake.

Blackness enveloped me as a shadow whirled into the room. My mind, unable to cope, reeled with astonishment and I passed out. When I came to I was pinned to the ground by a terrible weight. I was astonished, I was stunned. I lay silent in fright.
A form almost indistinguishable from the shadows around it, sat squatting on my chest.

 I wasn't willing to give this creature any excuse to take more liberties with my person so I held back a flustered anger at this unworthy man-handling it had bestowed on me. Besides, I might not be equal to its fiendish malevolence.

A red beard scraped over my face and dripped ink over my cheek. Intense eyes held me, dreading me the conveyance of a terrible hidden knowledge. 

The creature backed off and reaching down, pulled me up with it. It gripped my hand in a madman's grip.

We stood there, silent, inches from one another.

With frantic energy it whirled again into motion and then slapped a box into the hand that it had convulsively cramped around. 

 I looked down and saw that the thing had given me a Fountain Pen box.

My eyes widened as then, on fine whiskey-laced breath the words "You know what to do..." were wafted towards me. The apparition left me to my own devices and so here I am. Nonplussed and slightly frightened. And slightly honoured somehow too.

I sat here, back at my desk, for a while now, unsure what it wanted, unsure what it expected me to do. But slowly... I find that, yes indeed, I do know what to do.

so.

Let us begin.

You've seen the case above already. It's made out of beautiful leather which is;

... my word! It's blue isn't it?

Upon opening the container however, I find that my dreams have crashed and the Hindenburg yet burns.

The Beard, the crusher of dreams, moisturizer of panties! (Or that's what he tells himself)

The pen itself is yet again... not a blue fountain pen.

I do not own any blue fountain pens, that's something I'll have to take care of! My bank account does not like that prospect, but I do.

The Pen's casing is a semi-transparant brown, which I'm finding an odd choice.

Go with one or the other, don't just hover in the middle there, folks. 

The transparency of the pen’s body is a result of the material Sailor uses for almost all of its pens: PMMA. Go and take a look at the big aquarium in your living room. Chances are they didn’t use glass, but PMMA to save weight.

Maybe that’s why Sailor went with that material : aquariums = water, sailor = water! Mind = blown.

There are three distinctive gold bands on the pen, one at the pen's lower end, the other two on the cap, both which deserve some special mention.

The clip on th cap has some levely little detail added to it.

There's another extremely nice touch on the cap where if you take a close look at the gold band you can find:

So now you know: Sailor was founded in Japan in the year 1911. These days their pens are produced in Hiroshima, Japan.

Unlike some other companies (I’m looking at you ,Parker…) they don’t outsource their production to China in order to cut down on production costs (and possibly quality). 

So that's how it looks and we can all agree that there's a nice quality of finish to it. But how does it write?

This time we have a slimmer pen, and that's not just in the title folks, the Edison Beaumont was a little chubby for my tastes and this one feels alot better while writing. My dainty little hamsterhands don't have to claw around the Edison's massive girth, though to be honest, this one's not much of a step down either.

To me this pen is about as small as I’d be willing to go. I can use it comfortably for short notes without having to post it, although the cap will be put on the back during some longer writing sessions. This has the perfect combination of weight and length to be a very dependable pocket pen.

  The music nib also isn't much better, writing-wise for me, but that's what you get when you don't select them yourself.

And even if you select them yourself things can go “wrong”.

You see: when I ordered the pen with the Music nib I thought it would give me broad horizontal strokes, and thin vertical strokes i.e. the reverse effect of a stub nib.

Why would I want to achieve that?

Because of my writing style as a lefty I thought it would give me the same effect as right-handed people get with a stub.

So, it arrived, I inked it up, and was left somewhat disappointed. Turns out I had my nib grinds mixed up: what I needed was an architect grind. But that’s not to say I’m unhappy with it, the feedback it gives when writing is auditory porn.

It’s something I initially didn’t like when I tested one of these about 6 months ago, along with its size, which is why I didn’t buy one back then and went with the Pilot Justus 95 instead. But now, when I pick up a pen and writing isn’t accompanied by some auditory feedback it feels like something is missing. 

Besides that though; look at the detail on that gorgeous thing!

Picture taken with cellphone makes The Beard jealous.
 He now wonders why he even bothers using a proper camera.

Speaking of the engraving on the nib: people tend to complain about the lack of creativity the Japanese manufacturers display when it comes to pen and nib design, stating they’re constantly ripping of Montblanc. So let’s take a look at a nib from Montblanc:

Eerily similar in design, no?

But as they say: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

In the wars of Light and Shadow,
there's an occasional glimpse of true beauty.

The ink (for whatever bizarre reasoning by the dread apparition) is the Nappa Burgundy Ink from Monteverde Usa, here shown in its 30 ml capacity bottle.

Of course I do get the reasoning. The Napa Burgundy Ink is very similar to the pen's clear brown exterior.

Except that your reasoning is entirely wrong, old sport! I did not purchase this ink, it was a gift from the store I bought the pen from.
Everyone who bought something in August got a free gift (I magically received two, a pink ballpoint pen, which was later donated to the 6 year-old daughter of a co-worker , and the bottle of ink).
And it does match the pen quite well, up to the reddish undertone.
Not sure if I’ll be using it a lot though, I prefer my browns to be less pronounced, if that makes sense, like the browns in old photographs (let’s hear it for sepia!).
If you’re planning on using your favourite ink with this pen, be sure to stock up on it though. The amount of ink this pen puts down on paper, coupled with the small ( included ) converter means you’ll be refilling this pen a lot. But that can be seen as a positive, or a negative.

*

I'm personally of the opinion that a contrasting ink colour would have served better, say the memorable blue that the Sailor Yama-dori ink brought to the page, which I was graciously given to use for the purposes of the last Fountain Pen post. Its varying shades of blue ink would stand in lovely contrast with the Earth Slim's unassuming reddish exterior.

I’ve got to admit that the nib in this pen is ideal for making the Yama-Dori ink shine. How do I know this? Because when it arrived I immediately filled it up with said ink, as it’s produced by the same manufacturer as the pen. And boy, is it gorgeous. I know, I’m a bastard. I give Levi pens to review in colours he doesn’t like, with nibs he doesn’t really like.

No distinct smell this time, no vague intimations of a dangerous toxicity. Which is an odd thing that I find myself bemoaning of all things.

**

Let's take a look...: Jep. It's still not blue.

It does show some odd similarity with the Sailor Yama-dori Ink in that it like with that esteemed and widely loved ink the red nappa burgundy ink shows a marked colour differentiation where the blood... excuse me, ink pools.

So then.
A marginally more pleasant pen to write with than the previously reviewed Edison Beaumont. The pmma construction feels more comfortable to someone who is used to writing with ball-point pens, so as a newcomer, this is definitely a point in its favour. Beautifully detailed in select spots to offset the bland brown finish of the overall product. The nib is gorgeous, though again my personal preference lies with finer nibs to accomodate my haphazard and messy handwriting.
The pen feels nice and right in my hand and feels naturally comfortable during the writing process.

Overall, a very enjoyable experience.

Got to agree with the esteemed gentleman, in that it is a more enjoyable pen than the Edison Beaumont. It just feels better in every sense. And it’s not that much more expensive ( especially when you go with a regular colour, then there’s only a price difference of roughly €15 ). It’s well-balanced, looks great ( I do like the colour, with its subtle variations depending on the light ) , and it writes wonderfully even if it’s a bit thirsty.

This collaboration was just like the pen we reviewed : a very enjoyable experience. I will have to stop shoving pens in his hand though, or he’ll start nagging to me about writing a book review.

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For the ones who have trouble with my handwriting; that's ok, I do too:

* My handwriting is bad and I should feel bad.

**Red is not my colour. Especially not red that has been dragged through the mud.