Sailor Desk Pen EF Review

The Sailor Desk Pen EF doesn’t look like much with its fleshy-colored, plastic cap but under that cap is what makes this sub-$20 pen such a little gem. It does not have any fancy packaging and even the two black cartridges that came with the pen came in a plain plastic bag but for less than $20, I do hope more effort is put into the nib than the packaging. Its a simple, black plastic body with a white plastic dot on the end. Its a long tapered pen designed to fit into a desk pen holder (imagine the registry desk of a fine hotel).

The gold tone F-4 EF Sailoir nib is the smoothest, finest nib I’ve used.

I was stunned at how smoothly the Sailor Desk Pen writes on paper. From the minute I put the Sailor cartridge into it, it wrote. Perfectly. For such a fine nib, I expected it to be scratchier but its not. Compared to my Pilot Prera, this is much smoother! I don’t feel like I’m stabbing the paper or catching fibers as I write. Sadly, my Prera is still in the exhibit at work so I couldn’t do a side-by-side comparison.

The long slender shaping makes it easy to hold and write. The length gives it a nice balance and weight in the hand.

I did compare it to my EF nib Kaweco and the Sailor is noticeably finer. The closest comparison to the fineness I could find was a 0.38 gel pen like the Uni-Ball Style Fit in blue-black.

If you have been looking for a FINE fountain pen, this is the best I’ve found at a very low, low price.

($16.50 from JetPens)