Another Sailor Package

Late in December of 2009, while browsing in a Tokyo pen shop I came upon a Sailor pen I hadn’t seen before. Had never even heard of a fountain pen with the name ‘Realo’ and couldn’t figure how anything made by Sailor had gotten past me—for two years. As I came to learn, commemorating its ninety-fifth year of making fountain pens, Sailor released a new design in 2007, one they called the Realo. I had trouble with the numbers, adding ninety-five to the founding year of 1911 and coming up with 2006. Strange math aside, I bought the Realo, excited about it before even leaving the shop.

Some research brought a better understanding of the name, one that really turns out to be both bland and odd. Hard to think we are supposed to put two and two together and realize that the name stands for 'reliance and place,’ or something like that. Problem is, no one will figure that out without a bit of hard looking. Pursue the question long enough and you will find that the first two letters ‘RE’ stand for ‘reliance,’ the third letter ‘A’ is for ‘and’ and the final ‘LO’ is (of course!) ‘locus.’ And so Sailor named a fountain pen a ‘word’ all Japanese people have difficulty pronouncing, tripped up by that pesky ‘L’ and calling it ‘Rearo.’

Whatever you want to call it, the Realo is one more in a line of quality writing instruments from Sailor. The key to this particular pen’s distinction is the naginata nib crafted by Nobuyoshi Nagahara, Sailor’s longtime nibmeister. It is a long, 21 carat gold nib, measuring very near 2.5 centimeters and called naginata after the tenth century Japanese halberd, or long handled sword.

Two features stand out in the Realo, both a first in Sailor design. This is the first Sailor pen to have a piston filler, and the first to have an ink window. The ink window feature is nothing unusual, and common to many fountain pens, but on the Realo it is a clear, easy to see window that doesn’t mislead. Too often ink windows are cloudy or stained and hard to see into; not so with the Realo’s window, which is perfectly clear and washes clean with each ink change. Size-wise, the pen weighs 35 grams, is 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) long closed and 15.5 centimeters (6.1 inches) posted. At a glance, the Realo looks very much like the early Sailor 1911, classic in shape and trim. The body is black acrylic resin and the pocket clip and bands are all 24k gold plate—a beautiful fountain pen.

Initially, the nib had very little flex (rare in a Sailor, unusual in a naginata) and even has H-B stamped on the side of the nib, which I suspect means ‘hard-broad.’ After a year and half of regular use the nib is no longer hard, but has just the right amount of flex. I don’t credit that to anything particular about Sailor nibs, but believe the same will happen with any nib, any pen used regularly over time. As for the B or broad part of it, that classification too is short of being altogether true. I am more comfortable calling it a generous M or medium. Whatever the ink, the pen never gripes or halts its flow across the page, each line testimony to what makes us like and enjoy using fountain pens. Odd name, great pen.

For some good close-up photos of the Realo take a look at what’s offered at Classic Fountain Pens.

LO or RO, The Real Thing

In 1911, Kyugoro Sakata founded The Sailor Pen Company in Hiroshima, Japan. The engineering skills of Mr Sakata guided him and his company, and over the years the quality of Sailor fountain pens grew, as did the company’s reputation. In 1947 a fourteen year-old boy went to work at the Sailor factory in Hiroshima. Sixty-two years later he continues to work there, and now has a worldwide reputation as one of the finest fountain pen nib designers anywhere in the world. His name is Nobuyoshi Nagahara and in Japan he is known as the “God of Fountain Pens.”

One of the most desirable fountain pen nibs today is the Naginata Togi, designed for Sailor by Mr Nagahara. Like its namesake, the Japanese halberd, or long handled sword, the Naginata nib is long, measuring almost 2.5 centimeters in length. It is 21 carat gold, which naturally enhances the writing quality. At a pen clinic a few years back, I asked Mr Nagahara why one of my Sailor 1911 pens was not writing to my satisfaction, and he pointed out that since the nib was 14 carat, it wasn’t going to write as well as a Naginata with its 21 carat nib.

Sailor released a new fountain pen in 2007 called the Realo (ree-ah-ro) to commemorate its 95th year of making quality fountain pens. The name is at first a little strange, but I understand it comes from a combination of ‘reliance + and + locus.’ Thus, the name RE-A-LO. Of course the English ‘L’ is a difficult sound for the Japanese, and so the reading of the name became ‘ree-ah-ro.’

The Realo is the first Sailor pen to have a piston filler, and one with a large 1.5 millimeter capacity. It also has another feature new to Sailor, an ink window (clear band around the lower part of the barrel) to show when the pen is getting low on ink. The pen weighs 35 grams, is 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) long capped, and 15.5 cm (6.1 in) posted. The body of the pen is made of black acrylic resin, with 24 carat gold plate on the clip and the band. It is a good-looking fountain pen, resembling the older Sailor 1911.

No surprise for me to learn that the Realo with its Naginata nib writes like a dream. Mine is a what I call a broad, or B nib, but the letters H-B are engraved on the side of the nib, and I believe that means, ‘hard-broad.’ The term ‘hard’ refers to the nib’s lack of flex, which some fountain pen users do not like. However, it is exactly the nib I prefer and I have nothing but praise for the feel, the flow and the line of this design.

Of the photos all are self explanatory, except for the one above. This is an autographed page in one of my older journals from a time when NAGAHARA NOBUYOSHI repaired my older Naginata pen. The 2007 release of the Sailor Realo came at the same time Mr Nagahara won the Japanese Modern Artisan Award for his ongoing contributions to fountain pen and nib design.