I'd like the Sailor Sapporo so much better if only....

Sailor Sapporo Fountain Pen, originally uploaded by biffybeans.

I bought this Sapporo in used but mint condition for $90, which included shipping. The cheapest I have seen them new, is for $105 from Pam Braun at Oscar Braun Pens.

I wanted to try a Sailor after hearing so many great things about how smooth the nibs were right out of the box. (Note- some people have found inconsistencies in the nib quality from various pen manufacturers, which causes users to have to go to a a person that specializes in nib adjustment/repair to get the nib functioning at 100% to the user's liking.)

When I got the Sapporo, I was surprised at how small it was - too small for me to use unposted - but I typically post, so that wasn't a problem. (Posting means writing with the cap on the back of the pen.) It's a well balanced pen, and feels very good in the hand.

Since the nibs on pens made by Japanese manufacturers tend to run a little on the thin side, I was happy to grab this one in a medium nib. Sure shootin' - it was smooth as glass. It writes true to it's nib width on better quality paper, like Clairefontaine or Rhodia. In my Moleskine, it writes a little wider.

The Sapporo can be filled using a cartridge, (which I have not tried yet) or with the supplied converter. I've been using the converter and this is where I start to not really love this pen as much as I would like. For whatever reason, I cannot get this converter to fill as far as it should. I've tried filling it slow, filling it fast, standing on my head during a full moon.... Nothing. It gets about 75-80% full and that's that. This is a pain, because it means that I have to fill it more often. A super smooth writer means that you can write for extended periods of time - but one with a converter? Eh.

Another thing that drives me bonkers is that there is no way to see how much ink is left in the pen. There is no see-through window like on the Pelikan M200, so if the flow gets iffy, you have to unscrew the body of the pen to see how much ink is left. And more often than not, as with all my converter pens, there is still ink left, but because of air in the converter, it's not flowing into the feed as it should. A few turns of the converter and you are back in business. But this is a pain..... and this is why I prefer pens that are piston fillers.

A piston filler pen is one in which the ink is drawn directly into the body of the pen - no converters or cartridges necessary. Pens with a piston filler system hold so much more ink than any converter or cartridge ever will. I suppose if you are a person that likes to change inks often, the cartridge/converter system might be a better one for you.

My Pelikan M200 ($56 new from Pam Braun) has a smooth F nib, is a piston filler, and has a window to let you see how much ink is left. It's also comparable in size to the Sapporo.

I'd like the Sailor Sapporo so much better if only it was a piston filler rather than a cartridge/converter pen. Rumor has it that Sailor is going to start making some of their high-end pens with a piston filler. Until that trickles down to the lower end models, I'm going to stick with the Pelikan as my favorite.