Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black

[B_Type13X2]

I purchased a Sailor pro gear imperial black series on black Friday from penchalet, finally it arrived today after spending what felt like an eternity clearing customs, and after inking it up with J.Herbin 1670 blue ocean ink I had to write a review about this pen.

 

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First Impressions:

 

The packaging is very nice, but that is to be expected from a pen in this price range. After taking stock of the contents of the packaging, I couldn't help but notice that the included converter seemed to have a relatively small ink capacity when compared to a Lamy Z24 which is just as long as this converter. This pen is also smaller and lighter then I was expecting, it is roughly the same weight or feels to be about the same weight as a Lamy Safari and is a short pen.

 

Ergonomics:

 

This pen fits comfortably in my hand for the most part and its light weight makes it a contender for my pen of choice for long writing sessions. I wish this pen was about 1/4" longer because when writing un-posted which is my preference the end of the barrel has a habit of wedging itself between my thumb and pointer finger. Your results may vary however because I do have fairly large hands.

 

The Nib and Feed:

 

Before purchasing this pen I heard nothing but overwhelmingly positive things about Sailor nibs; and after writing with this pend for a little over an hour I have found it to be worthy of its reputation. The feed is right in the goldie locks zone not too wet, not to dry. The nib is quite tactile, you can feel the paper you are writing on but it does not bite or cut into the paper. It doesn't quite glide across the paper, but it is a very enjoyable writing experience.

 

Writing Sample;

 

I wrote my review originally out by hand but I was having issues with my scanner so I had to use my camera to take pictures. So I did much more writing with this pen then what is displayed in the sample below.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/B_Type13/20141213_202705_zps97811f5c.jpg

 

Conclusion:

 

This pen is an example of understated elegance, it is very much a nice looking albeit plain pen, but that's how I like my pens, clean and functional. It does not have a single glaring negative aspect about it, I think the tactile feed back would be lessened if I was testing with a more lubricated ink. However a Conklin crescent filler also with a Broad nib, is smoother with this ink and is roughly 1/4th of the prices. It is for this reason that I have to give this pen a 7/10 rating. If this pen was 100$'s cheaper I would feel more comfortable giving it a 9/10 rating but my pelikan M600 limited edition was around the same price point of this pen and it fits better in my hand and has a smoother nib. I really wish before buying this pen I didn't buy into the hype of the sailor nib because I was expecting something that was going to shame the pelikan and every other pen I own, instead I got a pen that has a very smooth nib, but not as smooth as the steel nibbed conklin or as the pelikan M600, and even more embarrassingly less smooth then the Waterford Celebration Collection pen that I purchased at the same time. The waterford is 320$'s regular price and it is much smoother, and more enjoyable to write with. If you have to have a Sailor pen this one isn't bad, but know that at it's price point you can have other pens that write more smoothly out of the box and that's true even for less money. I would actually suggest that if you have 470$'s to spend on a pen, buy the Pelikan M600 instead, or even better buy a Waterford Celebration Collection and a Conklin Mark Twain Collector's edition for around the same money. You would have 2 pens that write smoother. Of course I should state that all of this is my opinion and based on the pens I currently own, some people absolutely love Sailor's, and are brand loyal to them, I on the other hand like all pens. I can't say that I regret buying this pen as it is very much a nice pen to write with but if I had to tell one of my friends my honest opinion of what they should buy in this price range I would not recommend this pen first and foremost, it is simply over priced for what it is.

 

 

UPDATE Per OP 12/31/2014

 

Hey sorry to bother you with this but a few weeks back I wrote a review on a Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black Edition which can be found here: http://www.fountainp...imperial-black/ and after using the pen daily for the past few weeks I would like to alter my review, I made the mistake of reviewing it with rose colored glasses and falling for the sunk cost fallacy when looking at it and would like to update my review with a more honest assessment of how it actually performs. But for some reason I am not able to edit the review post myself. I was hoping you could modify it for me adding the following bits: Thanks in advance.

The Nib and Feed:

Before purchasing this pen I heard nothing but overwhelmingly positive things about Sailor nibs; and after writing with this pend for a little over an hour I have found it to be worthy of its reputation. The feed is right in the goldie locks zone not too wet, not to dry. The nib is quite tactile, you can feel the paper you are writing on but it does not bite or cut into the paper. It doesn't quite glide across the paper, but it is a very enjoyable writing experience.

*Edit December 31, 2014*

After using this pen and experiencing it with a variety of different inks, Pelikan Edelstein Onyx, J. Herbin 1670 Blue Ocean, Noodlers blue, Kon Peki, Asa Gao, and Noodler's Ottoman azure I have come to the conclusion that the feedback that I am getting when writing with it is of an unacceptable degree. I bought this pen with a broad nib because I enjoy wet writers that glide across the paper. My initial assessment of the pen and the Nib were made out of excitement of my new shiny object, so I was viewing it from a non-neutral standpoint. I would say that I am not currently happy with the writing experience that this pen provides and indeed if you look at the comments posted below this review you will find other's posting about this same experience. The other day I was lining up my most expensive pens and was going to do a 3 way showdown between the Pelikan M605, the Waterford Celebration Collection and this pen and between the writing samples I was writing with a Platinum Preppy Medium so as to refresh my hand to give a non biased review. I ran into a rather embarrassing problem, the platinum preppy is by no means the greatest writing experience you will attain in fountain pens and switching between it and the Pelikan made it exaggerated. Even moreso when using the Waterford and then the Preppy. The problem occurred when I switched between a lowly 4$ platinum preppy and this 470$ Sailor. The Preppy was filled with baystate blue as an eyedropper and the Sailor was filled with Kon Peki, the Preppy was giving me a writing experience that was pretty much in line with the Sailor. The sailor may have fit my hand better but the cheap nib on the preppy was holding its own with this sailor. It was at this moment that I stopped doing my 3 way comparison and walked away from it because the Preppy had in my mind spoiled the shootout.


Conclusion:

This pen is an example of understated elegance, it is very much a nice looking albeit plain pen, but that's how I like my pens, clean and functional. It does not have a single glaring negative aspect about it, I think the tactile feed back would be lessened if I was testing with a more lubricated ink. However a Conklin crescent filler also with a Broad nib, is smoother with this ink and is roughly 1/4th of the prices. It is for this reason that I have to give this pen a 7/10 rating. If this pen was 100$'s cheaper I would feel more comfortable giving it a 9/10 rating but my pelikan M600 limited edition was around the same price point of this pen and it fits better in my hand and has a smoother nib. I really wish before buying this pen I didn't buy into the hype of the sailor nib because I was expecting something that was going to shame the pelikan and every other pen I own, instead I got a pen that has a very smooth nib, but not as smooth as the steel nibbed conklin or as the pelikan M600, and even more embarrassingly less smooth then the Waterford Celebration Collection pen that I purchased at the same time. The waterford is 320$'s regular price and it is much smoother, and more enjoyable to write with. If you have to have a Sailor pen this one isn't bad, but know that at it's price point you can have other pens that write more smoothly out of the box and that's true even for less money. I would actually suggest that if you have 470$'s to spend on a pen, buy the Pelikan M600 instead, or even better buy a Waterford Celebration Collection and a Conklin Mark Twain Collector's edition for around the same money. You would have 2 pens that write smoother. Of course I should state that all of this is my opinion and based on the pens I currently own, some people absolutely love Sailor's, and are brand loyal to them, I on the other hand like all pens. I can't say that I regret buying this pen as it is very much a nice pen to write with but if I had to tell one of my friends my honest opinion of what they should buy in this price range I would not recommend this pen first and foremost, it is simply over priced for what it is.

*Edit December 31, 2014*

I am going to adjust my rating on this pen and give it a much more fitting 5/10 rating. When I review a fountain pen on a scale of 1-10 5/10 is for the Nib and Feed and the other 5 is for every other aspect of the pen (Ergonomics and Aesthetics/ Build Quality.) This Pen scores a 4/5 combined score for these two aspects and a dismal 1/5 for the Nib and Feed. If I were to rate the Platinum preppy on a scale of 1-10 I would be inclined to give it a solid 8/10 because the thing costs 4$'s and for 4$'s you get quite a bit. For 470$'s and a Broad nib I expected a much smoother writing experience then I have been provided with. I have tried multiple inks hoping that a more lubricated ink would provide me with a better writing experience. And indeed I had inadvertently done everything to stack things in the favor of this particular pen when I started doing my shootout between my 3 most expensive pens. My Pelikan M605 had Private Reserve Electric DC blue in it and my Waterford had Noodlers Ottoman Azure where as this pen got Kon Peki and ink that many FP users here and elsewhere would call a very well behaved ink. And yet while doing the rather laborious review the Sailor was being beaten out for smoothness by the much cheaper platinum preppy. I have owned and given away about 20 preppies so far. And I have received some that do not write that smoothly at all, I would actually venture to guess that about 1 in 5 of my preppies will be tossed by the time I've used up its cartridge the other 4 will be eyedroppered if they are smooth writers.

This is food for thought I could buy 117 Platinum preppies for the same amount of money as this pen, and if 1 in 5 were lackluster I would have 93 platinum preppies give or take that write about as smooth as this pen does. It is for this reason that I have to give the Nib a 1/5. I would like to apologize to people who read my initial review of this pen and assure everyone that in the future when I receive a new pen I will not write a review about it until I have used it for at least 2 weeks prior so that I get a full and accurate picture of what and how the pen actually behaves. Rose colored glasses and the sunk cost fallacy where very much so in play when I wrote this review, and today after having put 7-8 different types of ink through this pen I have finally accepted that I will have to ship it off to a nib Meister to have it tuned to write how I think a pen in this price range should.

Edited January 1, 2015 by amberleadavis
UPDATE Per OP 12/31/2014

[PabloAU]

I was disappointed in my Imperial Black Pro Gear when I bought it. It's a beautiful pen, and the stealthy looks were exactly what I wanted, but it didn't write the way I had expected. Sailor's nibs are much-hyped in these forums as "small sweet-spot, but incredibly smooth when you're in it" and "best Fine nib ever". Mine was neither of these things. Like you, I went for a Broad. I found the nib to be very "draggy" on the cross strokes, and there didn't seem to be a sweet spot that would avoid it. Somehow the material of the pen seemed to resonate the sensation of the paper, perhaps alerting me to a feeling I may have been oblivious to in other pens. I persisted with it for some time, and while the nib definitely wasn't scratchy, I wasn't loving it and found myself using other pens instead of the Pro Gear.

 

I ended up regrinding mine to a stub - a drastic course of action, but one that turned out a very smooth and expressive nib that I've become incredibly fond of.

 

It's a nice pen overall. Perfect girth for my grip, well-balanced posted or unposted, understated yet pretty (in a manly kind of way). The muted colours provide a great contrast when it's loaded with a bright ink - turquoise, orange etc.

[J_C_S]

I love this pen, too. I use it for nearly a year now and whenever it isnt inked I miss it. My fine is the best one I have, given it is so much finer than f.e. a Pelikan fine. But of course it gives a little more feedback than the western broader fines. Nice review!

[Ceelo]

Nice review and thanks very much for the honest appraisal, this really helps when considering new purchases.

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

I have this same pen myself but with a Zoom nib, Nice.

[Tanzanite]

Thank you for the review. It was helpful. I have a Pro Gear but not the Imperial Black. It is an F nib. Dry and with too much feed back. I love the way the Sailors look but the nibs take quite some time to adjust to ones writing.

[amberleadavis]

The original post contains and update by the original poster. Usually we would just ask the OP to post the update within the thread, rather than altering what was written weeks ago. Yet, in this instance the OP's changes might alter anothers decision to purchase so I appended it to the original post.

[arran]

I love all my sailors.

Never had problems with them and wrote fine OTB.

One KOP was sent back to Japan to smoothen up a bit, but I am quite demanding on my nibs I think

On the other side , I must admit that all my pelikans are smoother indeed , but suffer baby bottoms a lot more.30 % of the M 1000 nibs I tested had this issue

In the end , I prefer the normal sailor nibs ,more feedback in their nibs , and always reliable

[B_Type13X2]

I love all my sailors.

Never had problems with them and wrote fine OTB.

One KOP was sent back to Japan to smoothen up a bit, but I am quite demanding on my nibs I think

On the other side , I must admit that all my pelikans are smoother indeed , but suffer baby bottoms a lot more.30 % of the M 1000 nibs I tested had this issue

In the end , I prefer the normal sailor nibs ,more feedback in their nibs , and always reliable

 

For me it wasn't the issue of my pelikan being smoother or even my waterford being smoother. It was my platinum preppy writing smoother with a less then optimal ink in it. I have 2 monteverde's that I currently do not use at all because their nibs have a lot of feedback in them, those I can overlook because they didn't cost a lot of money, they were so relatively cheap that I could not justify sending them off and paying to have them worked on. Now to my sailor, it absolutely needs to be worked on or I'll never use the thing and that is very disappointing to me.

 

Not to rag on you or be rude but you opened with Never had problems with them and wrote fine out of the box and then say one KOP was sent back to Japan to be smoothed up. If your sending it back to be worked on then it didn't work fine out of the box, and I don't think anyone here is relatively more or less demanding on their nibs then anyone else. If a pen doesn't feel good to write with you are not going to want to write with it, you will choose other pens. And ultimately, a pen that you don't want to write with is not a pen, its a fancy stick.