Review: 2025 Sailor King Eagle fountain pen

Sailor has finally brought back the Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2025 after they were supposedly discontinued in 2015. The pen nibs from 2025 should be the third gen, and the pen nibs from 2018 are the second gen, and those before from the first gen.

I started collecting Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2015 and could not find the Sailor King Eagle then. I was told the Sailor King Eagle wasn't released with in 2nd generation and is now back in the third gen.

I've waited for the Sailor King Eagle to appear for more than ten years, and it's the last Sailor Specialty Nib that I want, so I bought it. I paid SGD 3,297 (USD 2,552) with tax for it at Aesthetic Bay, a fountain pen shop in Singapore. While I was at the shop, I noticed the prices of the other Sailor Specialty Nibs and they were around 2.5 to 3 times more expensive than what I had paid for my pens 10 years ago.

When I searched online, I see the pen being listed as USD 2000, €2000 or SGD 3300+ on eBay from Japanese sellers.

The prices of Sailor Specialty Nibs have increased so much over the years that I can't really recommend them anymore at today's prices, even though these are wonderful pens. To achieve the lines that the Sailor King Eagle can create, today you can buy a Jinhao 750 with a dual-layer nib for USD 55.

The Sailor King Eagle is available in the Sailor 1911 body, a classic body design Sailor is known for for years.

The design is timeless and I like it. It's a comfortable pen to hold in hand.

The pen comes with a Sailor ink convertor, two ink cartridges, a cleaning cloth, a booklet talking Sailor Specialty Nibs.

The cap is twist-type.

The band on the cap has words "Sailor Japan 1911 Special Nib" which are quite difficult to read since the black text is indent against black background.

The 2025 King Eagle Nib is a 3-layer stacked nib. There are two smaller nibs on top of the big one.

Design on the big nib is clean and simple design. There's the Sailor logo, 21K words and 875 for the gold content.

The older King Eagle nib has 1911 above the Sailor logo, and Sailor word below. Picture above is from St John's Pens.

This nib is clearly much thicker than normal nibs, and the tipping is also much bigger than even the Sailor Cross Emperor that I have.

The three nibs are fused together and sides are ground to be smooth. From the side you can also see the two slits.

From the bottom you can see the vertical slit that goes through all three nibs, and two cross slits. This cross slit design provides fantastic ink flow. This is a wet and juicy pen, and as a result uses a lot of ink. You definitely want to fill the ink convertor fully if you plan on bringing this pen out for drawing.

And speaking of bringing this pen out for drawing, you'll have to be extremely careful not to drop this. Since this is an extremely expensive purchase, I'm always very cautious about handling the pen and having the cap on whenever not using even for a short while.

Here's a sketch drawn with the pen. The ink is Diamine Forever Ink, Butterscotch.

The pen is able to produce thin and thick lines depending on the angle of the pen. There's slight flex if you press the nib hard but this can be considered a stiff nib.

Thin lines can be drawn easily by holding the pen vertically.

And the broad strokes can fill in large areas easily and quickly. Broad stroke is about 4mm thick. The versatility of the Sailor King Eagle makes it wonderful and satisfying to work with.

The pen nib is actually designed for Chinese or Japanese calligraphy, but I'm using this predominantly for drawing. For writing, you can choose how thick your lines will be by how you hold the pen.

The pen nib is smooth but has audible feedback on paper, feels quite similar to writing with a pencil.

Here's another sketch drawn with the pen, overlayed with watercolour.

Back in 2015, I still remember I was quite excited to own the Sailor Specialty Nibs. They were expensive back then but I've been using them for more than ten years so they do provide value for money. And since prices of those pens have increased so much, I could actually sell my old pens and still earn money.

As for the value of the Sailor King Eagle, it's not that clear to me at today's prices. The only reason I could think of for having such a high prices today is price gouging. Sailor may be able to set their MSRP but resellers will definitely markup the price due to demand and scarcity.

Pen Boutique said "the elevated price makes sense once you understand the elite knowledge, time, and skill it takes to create nibs with impeccable and unique performance like these". Yeah, but these pens made with the same level of craftsmanship were not insanely expensive 10 years ago. So labour prices increased 2.5 to 3 times in the last ten years? Gold prices have increased, sure, but these pen nibs do not use that much gold.

When the price is set so high, your expectations will also go up. The Sailor King Eagle is a great pen but I do not feel the same excitement I used to feel. At least the pen is still satisfying to write with, but I can say that for the much cheaper pens I have too.

If you're thinking of getting a Sailor Specialty Nib at today's prices, my recommendation is don't start. Go look at Chinese alternatives.