Sailor 1911 brush pen review

A brush pen needs to have good flow and good line variation while maintaining a crisp line and allowing lots of control. How does the Sailor Brush Pen stack up?

The Sailor 1911 Brush Pen has the same barrel design as Sailor’s 1911 fountain pens. It’s quite a wide barrel by drawing pen standards and it’s very comfortable in the hand. The finish and the quality of the plastic befits the price of the pen: far from luxurious but plenty good enough. Although the design is the same as the 1911 fountain pens, the quality of the materials is not the same (and nor is the price).

The cap screws on to close and pushes on to post (which it does securely). The folded metal clip is fairly strong and clippy.

Sailor make cartridges specifically for the brush pen and this ink is a true black. It’s waterproof and permanent. If you use it to do something different you can put a Sailor converter in there and use any ink you want.

The brush is synthetic and is replaceable should you wear it out. It gives a very strong and crisp line. The ink flows very well and keeps up no matter how hard you’re pushing the pen. It’s possible to get a lot of line variation although it takes a lot of control to draw a very fine line. Every line in this picture was made with the Brush Pen.

This is an excellent pen.

Pros

• Can use any ink
• Excellent flow
• Great line variation
• Comfortable size

Cons

• Tricky to get a very fine line