Review: Sailor MY FIRST Fountain Pen

Sailor MY FIRST fountain pen is the budget fountain pen from the Sailor pen company. Besides their luxury lines of Sailor Profit and Professional Gear, they also have this entry level fountain pen.

If you look at the description on the cover of the box, it says that it's more suitable writing Chinese or Japanese characters.

The pen comes in a clear plastic case that I've since converted into a pencil case. I like clear cases because you get to see what's inside. Tremendously useful for those who have lots of pens. The plastic sticker on the front can be torn off.

This set comes with 2 nibs, a MF (Medium Fine) nib and a fude (Fu-De) nib. The MF nib produces strokes that look like a Fine to me. The fude nib is bent at 45 degrees. Three spare disposable ink cartridges are included containing black, red and blue ink.

MY FIRST fountain pen actually has three colours available: black, blue and red. The colours are on the clip and at the trim at the bottom of the cap. I think the red one looks nicer.

The whole body is plastic except for the nib. It's lightweight.

Interestingly, or not surprisingly, the grip section, body and cap are all interchangeable with the Sailor Profit and Professional Gear series. So you can use the fude nib here with your Professional Gear cap and body.

On the left is the fude nib.

The nib is plain looking and utilitarian. Not sure what the metal is made of. Most likely steel. They are quite tough and don't flex in any way.

Below are test strokes from the fude nib. I did not test the MF nib this way because the strokes are going to be predictably uniform.

The fude nib is capable of producing very thick strokes. The strokes can also vary in thickness depending on how you hold the pen.

Take note of the vertical strokes in the top row middle box. For the last few strokes, there's this thin stroke beside the thick one.

That thin stroke is caused by the feed that touches the paper when the fude nib is flat on the surface.

Below are sketches drawn with the fude nib and Noodler's Bulletproof Black Ink.

I like the bold striking lines that the fude nib can produce.

The ink flow in my pen was less than optimal when I first tried it. There's no skipping but the ink feels restricted and comes out too thin.

After I washed the nibs and flush out the water with ink using the convertor, the ink flow improved. However, the ink flow is still not as luscious compared to my Duke 209 fountain pen which also has a fude nib.

This was drawn on a cartridge paper with more texture so you can see that the fude nib cannot fill the black areas evenly because of the textured surface. There's this dry effect going on that's not helped by the less-than-good ink flow.

There are three factors that affect ink flow. First is the pen itself, second is the ink and third is the paper.

To get better ink flow, it's better to use less viscous inks. Dyed inks like Pilot Iroshizuku works perfectly in this pen and flows smoothly. The pen bounced back to life and spontaneity with the Iroshizuku ink.

MY FIRST works much better on smooth paper than on textured paper.

The sketches below the car were drawn with the MF nib. It's not the smoothest nib I've tried. There's feedback of the paper texture as you draw or write.

The fude nib is also not as smooth when compared to Hero 501 fountain pen and the Duke 209 because in Sailor MY FIRST, the bent area is sharp as compared to the Hero or Duke which is rounded off and smooth.

Here's the handwriting sample for the fude (above) and MF nib (below).

The fude nib is meant for writting Chinese characters than English letters. I know many artists who like to use fude nibs for drawing as well.

Conclusion

MY FIRST is an entry level budget fountain pen so I didn't expect much from it.

The ink flow certainly can be improved. It really depends on the ink and paper used also. That's the only bugbear I have about this pen. When the ink gets spread thin, it will appear less intense as well. This affects the fude nib more because that nib uses more ink. Definitely try to use less viscous or dye-based inks, such as the fountain pen inks.

This is a pen recommended for use only on smooth surface paper.

The MF nib performance is alright, smooth enough and not scratchy. The novelty is its ability to produce thin and thick strokes.

It's a decent enough pen that's for sure. For a fude nib, I recommend checking out the Duke 209 instead. For uniform lines, you can get the Lamy Safari or Kaweco Classic Sport.