Sailor Fude Pen 40

[bebox]

Does anyone know if the ink in the cartridges that come with this pen are waterproof?

 

 

I don't think these are special inks.

These thin Sailor Fude Pens take normal Sailor ink cartridges or the Sailor converters (Con70 fits well).

With the converter you can use any "norma" waterproof inks.

 

In my experience the Sailor Blue-Black, Blue and Black are only water resistant.

Noodlers has a bunch of good waterproof inks.

Iron-gall inks would probably work well in this pen (never tried this combination).

[Honeybadgers]

I have both and the green body is cooler but the 40 degree is way, WAY better than the 55 for a western hand.

 

The inks are standard sailor stuff, not waterproof.

 

There's also a more regular fountain pen with a torpedo shape and clil that uses the fude nib, that's about the same price.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[dipper]

I tried both 40' and 55' Sailor nibs at "The Writing Desk" pen-shop in Bury St Edmunds UK.

The 40' nib felt like the right choice in the shop. Bought the 40' one, and used it happily at home.

 

Then went out for a sketching walk. Small A5 sketchbook held in one hand and fude pen in the other.

No desk, no support under wrist or forearm.

Brought pen nib to paper ..... and found the pen was at the wrong angle!

When held at the angle dictated by the 40' nib my hand falls off the bottom edge of the small sketchbook.

 

So that's good. Now I have an excuse to buy the cool green-body 55' pen also.

 

Both nibs give the same results (fat lines, thin lines, tapered lines, and interesting irregular marks) when the working part of the fude nib is at a given angle to the paper. It is just the pen body, held in the users hand, that has to be held at a different angle to the paper to give the same working angles down at the nib end.

 

Conclusions, for my hands:

• Western pen hold, with user sat at a desk or using a writing slope --- 40' angle nib is best.
• Eastern pen hold, with user sat at a desk etc. --- I assume this is what the 55' nib is designed for.
• Western pen hold, with user standing holding a small sketchbook in one hand --- 55' nib is best.

 

 

Inks in my 40' Sailor fude nib pen . . . . . . . . . .

 

Two cartridges supplied by Sailor inside the blister pack with the pen. These are some unlabelled black ink. They worked OK. Appear slightly water resistant. At least shows little smudging with dry marks wiped over with a wet finger.

 

Sailor Kiwa Guro Nano cartridges purchased separately (ultra-fine pigment ink). These give dead-flat uniform tone solid matt black marks. Very water resistant. Not as dark a black as with the original two dye-based ink cartridges. The Kiwa Guro Nano ink gave excellent results for drawing and sketching. Rather unattractive results when writing notes. After using two of these cartridges the ink flow began to slow. Broken lines appearing. Friction between nib and paper is increasing. Feed dismantled and cleaned.

 

Refilled with...

 

Cross black fountain pen ink, with Sailor converter filler now fitted in the Fude pen. After a week or two of use this ink continues to flow really well, and its black marks are almost as good as the Kiwa Guro Nano.

Edited April 16, 2019 by dipper

[WLSpec]

Really cool review!

[Lamyliz]

Has anyone got any comments about eye droppering this pen?

[bebox]

Has anyone got any comments about eye droppering this pen?

 

 

I didn't try doing it, but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

It's all plastic inside and should give you a huge amount of ink.

Use an o-ring and you should be good to go.

[Lamyliz]

Thanks bebox I've ordered one for urban sketching but want to use Noodler's bullet proof ink and watercolour so eye dropper seems the way to go considering what people are saying about the smaller volume of cartridges and converters, and it being a 'thirsty' pen

[Honeybadgers]

I don't see any problems eyedroppering it. Just use a very generous amount of silicon grease, as the threads on the barrel are pretty coarse.