Sailor Professional Gear Fountain Pen, Imperial Black, Medium Point, 11-3028-420

The matte black finish and plated metal parts have an elegant look. It is a unique looking fountain pen that collectors (like me) will like. However, it is small and needs to be posted. If you have large hands, this may not be the pen for you. The nib is a typically excellent Sailor. It writes well with a little feedback but no scratchiness. It is definitely an Asian Medium and like a Western Fine. It is not a wet writer even with Iroshizuku ink, so you will like it with better paper like Rhodia or Clarefontaine. It is also good with cheap, thin paper because of very low feathering. If you are a fountain pen collector, this is one you will want to have. The retail price is too high, but buying it from Japan save a significant amount of money. I have had excellent luck with the Japanese Amazon distributors for both Sailor and Patinum.

Having never ordered from Amazon Japan, I was a little trepidatious, but it’s a gorgeous pen - and it arrived sooner than expected. I have a few of the Pro Gear Slim (Sapporo) models, but I wanted the full size Pro Gear. I opted for the medium nib, and I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, it’s a Sailor, so a medium nib is still finer than a Western medium nib, but it’s also very smooth and wetter than the Sailor medium-fine nib. Because of this, it has a bit less of the characteristic Sailor feedback. The 21k nib is also a little softer than the 14k on the PGS. It’s not flexible by any means, but the feeling of the nib isn’t the stiff nail-like hardness of the 14k nibs. The matte black body with the ruthenium furniture is very striking and sets it apart from the usual black pens.

Been a fan of Sailor for a while and decided to finally purchase another one with an M nib since I’ve always been an F/EF guy, and I decided the Imperial Black would be the one to hold that nib size. This pen is a beauty - the matte color and the black plated trim just make it such a sleek and stealthy pen. I’ve gotten compliments on it from coworkers since it’s an attractive pen. As for how well it writes, it’s a nice juicy writer with that feedback Sailor is known for which I love. Because it is an M nib however I did notice that the feedback is less which is in line with what I hear from other people when going up nib sizes. Not an issue for me but something to take into account if you really like having that scratchiness from Sailor’s EF/F nibs.

The pro Gear is my favorite sized Sailor pens. The medium nib was perfect and juicy. Finish was lovely. Even for a coated nib, it had excellent flow. The price here on Amazon was the best I’d ever seen for this pen. Paired it with Chou Kuro.

Beautiful pen, excellent nib... Only downside is the size, quite small unposted so needs to either be posted or may consider something like the 1911 L (I believe you get a few extra cm's with that) or maybe pilot 823 That said hard to beat the price it seems for this, eBay has some cheaper but high shipping and online generally is in the 500 range in the US... All in all a great pen at a high but still okay price it seems (just wish it was a bit longer)

I received this pen and right out of the box it was writing so well, typical Sailor quality for sure. I am disappointed though because this has the new Sailor logo on the nib and it’s very plain. I much preferred the old logo with 1911 on the nib. As much as I like the pen I’m almost considering returning it because of nib/logo issue. The picture on the description shows the old logo and old style nib, which is what I wanted. It’s a great pen, but not the specific one I wanted. :(

Kyoto inks are my personal favorites right now, followed by Pilot Iroshizuku, with third place split between Diamine and Noodler's. Of the Kyoto inks, I am very partial to the color of Aonibi (Pilot's Tsuki-yo is really close). The biggest issue I've encountered is that the ink tends to run a little dry in most pens. I have tried Pilot 823s in F and M, Platinum 3776s in F and M, and now this Sailor M. The Pilot 823 M handled the ink OK, but felt a bit too dry. Platinums are a little "toothier" by design and, as a result, felt similar. I just received this pen and filled my converter with the Aonibi ink and it immediately wrote beautifully smooth. The lines are a bit wider than my personal preference, but perfectly in line with other Japanese M nibs I have used. Pilot may have been dethroned as my personal favorite fountain pen brand.

This is an amazing choice. It's sleek, nice, and classy, and it writes flawlessly straight out of the box.