August 1, 2012

Sailor Highace Neo pen

I love pens! Even so, I had never owned, or even used a fountain pen. I was intimidated by them for some reason. Lately my pen collection has been growing quite rapidly. I've discovered the micro-tip gel pens as well as the Retro 51 Tornado. I'm altering ink refills to fit the barrels I prefer. I am getting in deep. Still, I didn't have a fountain pen. I always assumed a fountain pen would give a blotchy inconsistent ink flow. I was sure the liquid ink would bleed through to the other side of the page, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'm sure some fountain pens do those things, but the one I picked is nearly perfect for me.

I was pretty well set on buying the Lamy Safari extra fine nib. However, before I pulled the trigger I sent a message to Brad Dowdy (@dowdyism on twitter), author of penaddict.com. He kindly replied to me and recommended I look into the Sailor Highace Neo. I checked it out and I was sold. I put in my order.

The Sailor Highace is a great starter fountain pen. The fine nib with Sailor blue black ink is a perfect combination. It feels so good to write with. The line is sharp and clear and there is no bleed-through whatsoever. It looks and feels great on the Moleskine paper I most commonly use.

The pen is extremely light-weight. I knew this going in and was worried it would feel "cheap". It doesn't. It is light, but feels well made. With the cap posted it has a great balance. I thought the Retro 51 Tornado was the best feeling pen to write with, but this one is definitely in the running. My hands typically feel fatigued after a long stint of writing. I wrote for a long time with the Sailor and my hand still felt fine. The light weight combined with the lighter pressure required for the fountain pen made for an extremely comfortable writing experience. I feel like I could go on writing all day with it.

I almost never write with blue ink. I always reach for black first. When I was deciding on this pen something made me go with the Sailor blue black ink. I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know whether it would be extremely dark blue or what. I think it is great... totally exceeds my expectations in every way. I am going to go ahead and buy some of the black ink too just to have it around. I know I will use them. I have a feeling I am going to be going through a lot of ink with this pen.


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