Sailor Hocoro Dip Pens: Fine, Fude, 1.0 stub * Comparison Glass Nib, Moonman Acrylic, Kakimori Brass

I purchased three new dip pens from Stilo & Stile in Italy. In this video I'll show you how the Sailor Hocoro Pens are assembled, I'll show you writing samples with each pen and compare them to other common dip pens.
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[@creationsbylyzz786]

How exciting!! I cant wait to see you use these!!! I seen them here and there and had to have them. I was about to buy a glass dip pen for swatching inks but seen so many people talk about the tips breaking then i seen these. I brought the Fine and Fude nibbed pens with a feed for the fine pen. I swatched them with all my inks in my ink journals just writing out their names and scribbling some figure eights out. I actually love them they arrived on monday so i played with them then without the feeds in since i was at work. I didnt do any long writing sessions yet with them! To me i noticed my nibs not being scratchy like my cheap dip pen. But some drier inks i could tell they were scratchy. I had great luck with diamine and noodler’s inks on both pens. I am planning to write a letter to my friend with diamines winter spice using the fude pen with the feed soon. So cant wait. I have tiny hands (from wrist to top of my middle finger is just under 6inches) so these fit nicely in my hand.

[@seemownay]

I'm so glad you are enjoying the Hocoro dip pens. I love them for my ink journal entries!

[@RitaCwise]

Great and thorough demo of the Sailor dip pens.

[@seemownay]

Thanks so much, Christine!

[@Rumeel12708]

I just began learning Japanese and Korean, mainly for calligraphy, so I do see a lot of kanji calligraphers using fude nibs. I just got mine and it's awesome. I have seen the more expensive gold dude nibs having a flex to it. Which adds even more variation to all angles.

[@seemownay]

Yes, I can absolutely see how they work great for those characters.

[@marilyngardner4269]

Dip.pens are so handy, but I also find that they give mixed results. I love the Kakimori brass nib for making wide swatches but haven't figured out how to write thinner lines with it without getting too much line variation. For glass dip pens, I am very fortunate because there was a local glass artisan where I live who used to make and sell them. I could attend her annual sales, try out all the pens and choose the ones I liked best. They are beautiful and I have four. These are still my favorites for quick tests because they clean up with a quick swish in water but at the same time hold a good amount of ink. Dip pens with feeds can write for paragraphs or even a full page, so some people like to test them to see how long they can write with one dip. I see the Hocoro pens as a compromise because the feed does hold some ink, but it's easier to clean out than a traditional feed (which would hold more ink and write longer). I found that without the feed, the Hocoro pens are like other nib-only dip pens and only write a few words before needing another dip.

[@seemownay]

That's why I wanted to have feeds for them all because I would want to enjoy a similar writing sample to a fountain pen without the hassle of having to clean the nibs and feeds of the pens. For a nice dip experience I probably wouldn't use these but prefer the Kakimori nib.

[@angelamesman4025]

​@@seemownayi8😅i88588

[@UARELOVE1010]

You covered it all, all the main dip pens and I love your small ink swatch book. This has been helpful :)

[@shelbseroo]

I have one of these (F with no feed) and found it sooo easy for doing my recent ink journal. Just a tiny dip in the water and it was clean. Thanks for showing the other tips! :)

[@seemownay]

My pleasure.

[@kayefj]

Very nice review - helped me make a decision about the Sailor dip pens. Thank you!

[@seemownay]

Glad I could help!

[@chillypingu17]

This was a very educational video for me. Thank you for teaching me how to properly use the fude nib. :P I also got micromesh months ago, but was too scared to try and use it so watching what you do helped immensely.🥳

[@seemownay]

I'm so glad you enjoyed! I always forget to check if the tines are misaligned before using micromesh. Everyone always points out how important that is, so I wanted to add. But then, have at it with a cheaper pen that's easily replacable.

[@anguswhite8233]

@@seemownayI also have been hesitant to buy micromesh: understand that it comes in different grades of abrasiveness - if you don’t mind saying, what abrasive grade was this and where can I buy it online, please; thanks so much for this vid - have bought a hocoro fine and a separate feed:)

[@johnandrewmunroe]

Thanks for the fantastic, thorough review. I also went through glass pens, the Iro-utsushi, Zebra nibs, and Kakimori nibs including the metal dip nib, the glass nib, and the brass nib. Of these, the latter two Kakimori nibs were the only ones I still use. Love those! But I longed for wet stub and fude dip nibs, and couldn't find anything with a feed until these Hocoro dip pens came out. I love the 1.0 stub and the fude nib, both of which I added the reservoir or feed to. Now I'm writing with my full ink collection range, which is great because I write fiction and use a different ink for each session to keep track of how much I wrote (a tip I learned from a Niel Gaiman video!). So I'm really happy. Great review! Thanks so much. Oh, I tried adding a neoprene grip to give the Hocoro a thicker and softer grip, and while it's effective it tends to pick up ink droplets when dipping in narrower bottles, something I should have thought of before buying it! Still by pushing it back up the barrel I can change my grip for longer writing sessions and that's fun too. I just keep two Hocoro nib holders handy to adjust according to bottle opening width. Fun times!

[@seemownay]

I did the same thing bought some pencil grips and put them on the barrel, now I can't get them into ink sample vials. LOL.

[@impish22]

how did I miss this one.. glad I found it now !!

[@seemownay]

I'm glad you found it and hope you enjoyed.

[@tattooedcat]

Awesome comparison! I have all of the ones you showed here and agree with your experiences. I also have a Drillog, but now I keep that mostly for the engineering and find it performing like the Kakimori (as far as ink performance goes) without the ability to vary the line width. One thing to note, hand oils can play a major part in how the inks perform when using a metal nib. Water rinse doesn’t affect the oils at all (the oils won’t come off with water), so I have taken to using dish soap and a toothbrush to make sure I have a good surface if my performance is weird. I also keep a grippy handy for adjusting the nib instead of touching it directly (cloth just slides around). And I use a stiffer thirsty paintbrush to flick through the channels to dry in between inks so that I don’t add additional fly off the nib possibilities with the water stuck in the channels. Thanks for sharing! 🤘🏼😸🧡🖋

[@Korynith]

I have SO MUCH trouble with hand oils even with just regular fountain pens. Could you explain a little bit about the dish soap and toothbrush trick? Do you apply it to the nib or the paper?

[@tattooedcat]

@@Korynith If you are getting hand oils on the paper from resting your hand or fingertips on it, the only solution is a layer in between. I use a random large piece of blotting paper under my hand, but if that’s unavailable, any paper or piece of fabric will do the trick. I just live with the fingerprint dots from holding the page that distort the ink on the edges of the paper. When it comes to the metal pieces of nibs, dip nibs are the worst for me because I seem to be touching the tip a lot when I’m drying off the nib in between swatching. It can also happen if you pull the nib on a fountain pen by touching the nib itself. This is where I have started using a grippy to remove a nib or grip it for readjustment. The dish soap is an excellent degreaser. If you wash too many dishes, you’ll notice your hands drying out. And if you have a metal baking sheet with oil on it and rinse it with water, you can see the water just going over the oil and not getting rid of it. But if you add in dish soap, it cuts through the grease and cleans the dish. Now water doesn’t just slide over it and make droplets on the areas with no grease, it actually stays where you put it. Same with a nib. If it has hand oils (or machine oils from its production), water or ink doesn’t behave the same on it. So I remove the nib if possible and wash it with dish soap. I use my bare hands and use a teeny (like what you could pick up by dipping a toothpick) amount of dish soap, or just a bowl of soapy water (easier to have a good balance) and a toothbrush to get into the tight places, and the soap cuts the oils from my hands and the nib so it’s still okay to be touching it. Then I rinse really good because soap and water on the same surface also don’t play well together. Then I set it off on a drying spot (paper or cotton towel) and don’t touch the nib directly again. (If not possible, better to use soapy water instead of straight soap. Use a bulb syringe to blast water through the section and out the nib. Piston fillers are more of a challenge to get rinsed completely.) Drawer liners are also very grippy and much more flexible so I use a small cut piece to move things around from there. If you must touch the nib with bare hands again, just wash them with a degreaser first so your hand oils are at a minimum. Hope this helps. Feel free to ask for any more info. 🤘🏼😸

[@Korynith]

@@tattooedcat Thank you so much! I think I needed more coffee when I first responded - I don't know how I thought soap would fix the paper 🤣I keep art tablet gloves nearby and I think most of my notebooks have a napkin or spare sheet of paper tucked into each for that, but I hate how much they slow me down.

[@seemownay]

I need to pay more attention to my hands touching the Kakimori nib. I think I usually don't touch it when I'm swatching but I might touch it when I'm sharing it in videos like this one. I usually dry the nib on the rag right next to me and that seems to work just fine.

[@seemownay]

So: I think I'm known to just touch the nibs with my fingers. I even show it on video all the time. LOL. I really haven't noticed a difference in nib performance but again: I will pay more attention and try to keep finger contact at a minimum.

[@anmarein4608]

So you bought the feeds from my shopping cart. I recently had an order at Stilo & Stile in my shopping cart, including Hocoro dip pens and several feeds, when I suddenly got a message that the feeds were no longer in stock 🤣 Meanwhile, however, they are back in stock and my order has been shipped. Great comparison of different dip pens. I was considering the Kakimori brass nib but was hesitant because it's so expensive. Now I think I'll be better off with the Hocoro nibs. 👍

[@seemownay]

I ordered mine in the beginning of March, so that might not have been me.

[@KendallW]

Great comparison video. I like how practical the Hocoro pens are. Thanks!

[@seemownay]

I'm glad it was helpful! Yes, the Hocoro pens are a staple in my ink explorations now.

[@karens-j2231]

I have all of the pens you showed in your video 😂😇. I started with a glass nib that rolled off the table 🙄, then I got the glass nib that you have and it arrived with a broken tip. Then I tried the acrylic nib and used that for some time, but the ink never really flowed off the nib, but stuck there. I also have a Moonman with a real glass nib. But my handwriting always looks lousy with those nibs. For my ink swatching I have mostly used a speedball calligraphy stub nib, because that also has a reservoir for the ink. I cannot get dip nibs without any kind of reservoir to work properly - the ink dumps off the nib on the first two to three letters and then nothing. I had hoped to be able to write nicer with the Kakimori nib, but no - but I love it to color in my swatches and use it more like an easy to clean brush pen I got the Pilot pen, because I hoped for a better writing experience with real nib vs glass nib and while I also like that nib it does not have a reservoir and that is why I love the Hocoro nibs. I can much better see how the ink will look out of a fountain pen because a nib with a feed is a little stingier with ink than just a nib. I do not love the shaft and grip of the Hocoro nibs, but they are still the best option for me, alongside my beloved Speedball nib that needs regular replacing because I keep forgetting it in the water glass and it tends to rust really fast.

[@seemownay]

Yes, this is my experience as well! With all the nibs you described. The only difference to me is that I absolutely enjoy the Kakimori nib. I love how versatile it is and how much line variation I can get, it's like a fude dip nib.

[@MummyBrown]

Fude nibs are wonderful. I have a regular sized Duke Fude and the Pen BBS mini-fude. That Mini fude is AMAZING. It’s only $6.95! I use both for writing and for art. They are like three nibs in one!

[@seemownay]

Aww, yes, I think the Kakimori also works much like a fude nib.

[@SalliPlansLife]

I literally just placed an order last night for the fine and 1.0 stub nib Hocoros. I want to get into testing/swatching inks and I wasn’t happy with my acrylic nib. I’ll have to check out that video with the micro-mesh just in case these need tuned a bit. Great video!

[@seemownay]

Hope you enjoy using both of those!

[@elizabethmartin8792]

This video is very helpful. Thank you!

[@cerealnana]

I have all the Hocoro, even the 2.0, which I never use. I really like them!

[@seemownay]

I love them a lot, they are super convenient for the ink journal entries.

[@pensane]

When I bought the Sailor Hocoro pens, I was basing my expectations on everything I've heard about Sailor. They're known for their heavy feedback or even scratchiness. After experiencing the Hocoro in a variety of nib sizes, I know I will never get a Sailor pen. I did get the Jinhao 82 in four colors, though! (It has quite a bit of feedback, too.) I am 98% sure that the glass dip pen from Truphae is made by Jinhao. Glass dip pens can be really hit or miss, but they can be tuned. I think I lucked out with mine; it's a favorite in my dip pen collection. I love that it's not super long like most dip pens. Thanks for the video! It was especially fun.

[@marilyngardner4269]

While you are entitled to your opinion, this comment makes me a little sad. The experience of writing with a Sailor Hocoro dip pen is nothing like the experience of writing with a Sailor gold nib in a pen. No relationship whatsoever.

[@pensane]

@@marilyngardner4269 oh! That’s good to hear. I’ve never used a regular Sailor pen, so I’m just going based on what others have said. Hopefully I get to try one someday before spending that kind of money. Thanks for the insight!

[@seemownay]

In really don't think you should base your purchase decision for a Sailor gold nib on the experience with a Hocoro dip pen. That's like not buying a Custom 74 because the Pilot Iro-utsushi runs out of ink constantly.

[@tanjablume6343]

This was an excellent video, so informative!! In hindsight would you now say, just buying the fude nib & feed would be totally sufficient for ink swatching🤔?

[@seemownay]

Well, I don't get the consistent line width with the fude nib (yet?) as with the fine and 1.0 stub, so I'm glad I have those too to represent a more fountain pen like writing experience.

[@-bluedog-]

30:55: Khakimori Brass nib, not working when used for the first time. That could have electrostatic reasons. Since it is metal. Try grounding it before dipping into the ink. It seems to have a raisin or acrylic nib holder, the brass nib may serve as an electric conductor, and take to much ink with it, when discharging the static electricity. Most inks are water-based, and water is a polar liquid, thus it reacts to static electricity. You could try different things, as touch the Paper with the nib before dipping, just to discharge, or touch the ink towel first or anything that could discharge it. You could even touch your skin, while grounded yourself (e.g. by touching an electrical Device with a metallic surface. That is mostly connected to the ground wire of the electrical installation in your house. Of course, it has to be connected, but not necessarily in use, to serve as grounding possibility...

[@seemownay]

Thanks so much for the explanation. I honestly have no clue if that is why it's happening or not, what you say sounds very reasonable.

[@-bluedog-]

@@seemownay you're welcome. It is only a theory, but worth a trial or two. About the physics I am pretty secure, but can't tell from adistance if thats the Reason. The Situation seems to me comparable to the setup of an electrifying machine (Elektrisiermaschine) centuries ago, when electricity was misterious jet.

[@mai-linhmainor5965]

Have you had experience with Sailor nibs? They have feedback by design. Like writing with a pencil.

[@seemownay]

I do now. But not when I filmed this video. And I'll have to say that these nibs do not in any way, shape or form compare to their nibs in a real pen.

[@mai-linhmainor5965]

@@seemownay oh.That's so disappointing to me. I'm a Huge Sailor fan

[@xxflipchick22xx]

Do you know if the Kakimori nib fits into the Sailor Hokoro nib holder part?

[@seemownay]

No, absolutely not. The Hocoro nib holder is shaped so that it fits the Hocoro nibs, they are flat on one side and only fit one specific way. The Kakimori is also very heavy compared to the Hocoro nib holder, so even if it fit, I don't think it would work well.

[@mkbuike7895]

The fude can be used upside down for an even thinner line.

[@seemownay]

Yes, that's true! Thanks for reminding me of this.

[@mickeysbooktubeexperiment3029]

The extra nib that came with my Moonman was a fude nib so you might have another fude nib to play around with.

[@seemownay]

I'll check that out once I'm reunited with my fountain pen stuff.

[@MissMarilynDarling]

I would try them without the feed

[@seemownay]

I am too impatient for that, I notice that every time I use the Pilot Iro-utsushi. It's so inconsistent and running out of ink constantly.

[@marilyngardner4269]

IMO they are nearly useless without the feeds, even the fine. They only write about three words. The 2.0 and Fude come with feeds because those nib sizes go through ink more quickly, but in my experience, none of them are fun to use without the feed. They work about like the Pilot dip nib, which also requires dipping every few words. But the Hocoro is still better than the Pilot because you can tuck the nib inside the body, which makes them nicely portable.

[@MissMarilynDarling]

@@seemownay This is why you need a pensive pens serendipity with a jowo broad nib :)

[@Inazarab]

The Sailor Hocoro is incredibly well thought out and designed: the way the nib stores within the body for protection, the variety of compatible nib units, and the available feeds that snap on to allow extended writing. The engineers and designers clearly spent a lot of time designing and iterating. The only problem is the nibs just aren’t very good. The Pilot Iro-Utsushi is probably the most lazily designed dip pen on the market. It’s just a cheap stick of injected molded plastic with a Pilot nib glued to the end. But the nib on it is fantastic, and that’s what is so frustrating. I would love to use the Sailor Hocoro, but the nib is just awful compared to the Pilot. So now my thoughtfully engineered and designed Hocoro sits ill-used in my drawer, while the lazy and uncreative Pilot Iro-Utsushi sits out on my desk used frequently. It’s very annoying. I really hope Sailor improves their steel nibs to be as good as Pilot, because until then, I’m stuck using the terrible yet great Pilot Iro-Utsushi.

[@seemownay]

I 100% agree. I have come to accept their quality as subpar in the writing department, what I can't cope with really, is the fact that the nib kind of wobbles around in the "stick" (=nib holder). I always fear it cracked.