There has been a huge surge in the popularity of Japanese fountain pen brands in the west over the last three years or so and the three main Japanese fountain pen brands have done a great job of not only cementing their market share but also steadily growing it. Due to this steadily increasing popularity and the excellent build quality of Japanese fountain pens, it is not surprising that we see more and more questions based around direct comparisons of different fountain pen models from these giants in the industry.
Although we have already covered a number of similar topics on our blog, today, we are going to be focusing on our ultimate Pilot Custom 823 vs Sailor 1911 comparison article. Both brands are huge and very popular within Asia, Europe, and North America with both featured pen models also being very popular options from their fountain pen ranges.
We hope that our article will be able to help you choose the ideal fountain pen for your needs but in all honesty, both are excellent pens and either will make a great addition to most people’s stationery collection. In our opinion, the Pilot Custom 823 is the slightly better option for the majority of people than the Sailor 1911 due to it having a slightly smoother writing experience but this really is only by a small amount.
Pilot Custom 823 Vs Sailor 1911 Head To Head
Please note that there are multiple variants of these pens available so we have used the features of their most popular variants for our comparison table above. As you can see though, on paper the Sailor 1911 actually looks like a better fountain pen but in our opinion, when it comes to the actual writing experience, the Pilot Custom 823 manages to slide ever so slightly ahead and win it our primary recommendation for our readers considering either of these pens.
Pilot Custom 823 Review
We always like to do an in-depth review of the featured fountain pens in our article and it seems fitting to start today’s deep dive with our primary recommendation to our readers, the Pilot Custom 823. In recent years, Pilot really has been dominating with their range of pens and aggressively expanding in everything from their gel pens to their marker pens to their fountain pens. The excellent performance, great build quality, and low price tag of their products has earned them a well-deserved reputation amongst the community that just keeps on getting better.
The Pilot Custom 823 Nib
The nib of the Pilot Custom 823 is made from rhodium plated 14 carat gold and has an excellent design with one of the best engineering processors available when manufactured. One of the main discussions of the Pilot Custom range of fountain pens is that some people feel they are too flexible for their preference where as others feel that they are too rigid. As with most things with fountain pens, this will come down to your own personal preference but the main thing to focus on is that the Pilot Custom 823 offers a very smooth writing experience due to its excellent nib.
This helps to score the pen some points over some competing pens as it is silky smooth for both upstrokes and downstrokes with little to no scratch even when using low GSM paper. This really does help to enhance the writing experience for the nib and is one of the reasons that the Custom 823 has managed to earn itself such a good reputation amongst penthusiasts.
Depending on your specific preferences, the restricted nib size options for the Custom 823 may put you off as it is only available with a fine, medium or broad nib size. Although this does cover the vast majority of nib size preferences, the Sailor 1911 does have a much wider nib selection available so if you want any other nib size then the 1911 may be the better option for you.
As we have touched on above, both Pilot and Sailor are Japanese pen brands and Asian fountain pen brands do tend to run their nibs a little smaller than western fountain pen brands. This should not be an issue for the majority of people as you are able to easily adjust if you currently use a western fountain pen and want to keep a similar font size when writing with your Custom 823.
For example, say you currently use the Lamy 2000 that sticks to the standard western nib sizes and you use a fine nib with the Lamy, opt to go with a medium nib for your Pilot Custom 823 to keep a similar font size when using the pen. Although it is not an exact match, it does tend to be closer for most brands and can help to keep your font size and close to what you are used to as possible.
Although the nib of the Custom 823 tends to be slightly wet when writing, this does offer you the advantage of having a smoother writing experience over a dry nib and keeping everything as smooth as possible with minimal scratch. That said though, wetter nibs do tend to b more prone to bleeding, ghosting, and feathering too but you are able to easily fix any issues with bleed or ghosting by using higher GSM paper when writing anyway.
The Barrel Of The Pilot Custom 823
Although this is just us being picky, the only real thing that we feel could drop the Pilot Custom 823 points over its competition is the fact that all of the Pilot Custom range fountain pens use injection mold plastic as the main material for their pen barrels. Although modern plastic production does offer a very tough plastic, we still prefer plant based resin barrels over chemical based plastic but we doubt that this will matter for most people anyway.
The plastic used is very lightweight so you should easily be able to hold the Custom 823 for long writing sessions when required without suffering from fatigue build up. On the flipside of this though, the plastic is not as tough or as robust as a barrel that is made from stainless steel or brass but this should not be a big issue for anything who is not accident prone. We are confident that the plastic used in the barrel of the pen will be able to take plenty of knocks throughout its life and last you for many years to come without issue.
Unlike most fountain pens on the market right now that either use a piston filler or cartridge convertor system, the Pilot Custom 823 actually uses a vacuum filler for its ink storage and supply. Although this is a relatively new system and most penthusiasts are not very experienced with vacuum fillers due to so few pens using the system, Pilot has done a great job of implementing it and seamlessly containing it within the barrel of the pen.
The Pilot Custom 823 Cap
The cap of the Custom 823 has been designed to seamlessly mount to the back of the barrel when posting and although you may think that this would be industry standard, some fountain pens, even at this price point in the market can accidentally scratch the finish on the barrel. Thankfully though, Pilot have taken the time during their design process to drastically reduce the chances of this happening to their pens and ensure that you have no problems with scratching when using the Pilot Custom 823.
As the cap of the pen is also made from the same lightweight plastic as the barrel, it ensures that you are able to easily post the cap when writing without having any problems with back weighting that can detract from your writing experience. Although rare with modern fountain pens, there is still the odd one or two out there with a heavy cap that can end up being so annoying that people will simply leave the cap off when writing rather than cap it due to it back weighting the pen.
The clip on the Custom 823 is the same design as the rest of the Pilot Custom range and offers a nice mix of rigidity and flexibility to keep the pen clipped onto anything that you clip it to when not in use. Due to the price point of the 823, this offers you peace of mind that once you clip the pen to something, the clip will not fail and result in your pen going missing or bring dropped and potentially breaking.
Pilot have also stuck to their twist-lock design for their cap to secure it to the barrel helping the Custom 823 score points over any competing fountain pens that use a push lock system. Although a twist lock is often overlooked, it offers you the reassurance that once you have capped your pen, the barrel and the cap will stay together and that the barrel will not accidentally come loose like it may with a push-lock system and go missing.
The Ink Reservoir Of The Pilot Custom 823
The vacuum filler system on the Custom 823 has a maximum ink capacity of 1.5ml of ink putting it around 0.5ml above average and 0.6ml above the maximum ink supply of the Sailor 1911. Although this is technically a win for the Pilot Custom 823 over the 1911, it is quick and easy to refill the ink in both fountain pens so it will probably not be much of an issue for most people. That said though, there are some specific situations where a large maximum ink supply may help to push the Custom 823 ahead of the 1911 for some of our readers.
The Pilot Custom 823 does not have an ink view window on its barrel making it a pain to check the current ink levels in the pen but the large maximum ink supply for the pen does make this less of an issue. Once you have been using the pen for an extended period of time you should easily be able to plan out your ink refills accurately anyway but the 1.5ml capacity can last you a surprisingly long time, especially with the fine nib width.
Pilot Custom 823 Writing Samples
Sailor 1911 Review
Moving on to our in-depth look at the Sailor 1911 as although it is not our primary recommendation to our readers when put up against the Pilot Custom 823, it is still an excellent pen that offers anyone who chooses to add it to their collection a great writing experience. Just like Pilot, Sailor also build their fountain pens to the highest possible standard and manually check them prior to shipping to ensure that they are up to their high standards.
The Sailor 1911 Nib
The nib of the 1911 is made from 21 carat gold with Sailor being the only fountain pen company in the world to offer 21 carat gold nibs at the time of writing. This coupled with the meticulously polished writing surface are are the two main reasons that the Sailor 1911 offers one of the best writing experiences currently available ensuring that the pen glides over the paper like a knife through butter.
The issue with this is that many of our readers will not be able to tell the difference between the Sailor 1911 nib and the Pilot Custom 823 nib when writing unless they are fountain pen collectors or more experienced with writing with fountain pens. Due to this, we feel that they slight hike in price tag for the 1911 will be a waste of money for many people and they will get a very similar writing experience when using the Custom 823.
On the flipside of this though, due to the Custom 823 only offering its nibs in sizes of fine, medium and broad it can lose points against the Sailor 1911. This is because the 1911 is available with the extra fine, fine, medium fine, medium, broad, double broad, flex or music nib options as standard opening the pen up to a slightly larger number of people. That said though, the majority of people do tend to opt for a fine, medium, or broad nib anyway so the Custom 823 can meet the needs of most people.
Although it is only a very small niche, one of the best things about the Sailor 1911 in our opinion is its flex nib technology. Although some other fountain pen brands have tried to replicate this technology with their own nibs, few have came close to implementing it as well as Sailor have. If you do choose to go with the flex nib option that they offer then you are able to manipulate the nib size of your fountain pen by apply different levels of pressure when writing.
For example, you can be writing with regular pressure having a fine font for some of your work and then apply more pressure to the nib later in your work to have a broad font all from the same nib. Although some people don’t like the flex nibs Sailor offer and it definitely does take some getting used to, it has proven very popular with a small number of people who swear by the flex nib system now. If you live near a stationery store that offers Sailor pens then we would recommend that you actually try out their flex nibs prior to actually buying one as it’s not for everybody.
Unlike the Custom 823, the wetness of the nib on the Sailor 1911 will depend on the nib size that you opt for. Their smaller nibs tend to be a little dryer than their larger nibs and the flex nib will depend on how much pressure you apply when writing. That said though, even their broader nib sizes are not as wet as something like the Pelikan m400 but is wet enough to offer a very smooth writing experience.
As the more experienced fountain pen user may already know, the dryer-sized nibs can have issues with scratching when writing due to releasing less ink whereas their wetter writing nib sizes can have issues with ghosting and bleeding. Thankfully, both issues can usually be fixed by writing on some high GSM rated paper due to the paper being thicker to prevent bleeding and ghosting while also being smoother to prevent scratching.
The Barrel Of The Sailor 1911
Although Pilot has done an excellent job of ensuring the plastic that they use for the barrels of their pens is of a high-quality, we definitely feel that the resin that Sailor use for their barrels and caps is better. It is just as light as plastic offering the same advantage of being lightweight but it also tends to be a little tougher helping to keep up with stainless steel or brass barrels without the additional weight.
Again though, if you are not accident prone then the plastic barrels of the Pilot Custom 823 as well as its lower price tag will probably be the better option for most of our readers. If you are planning to be using your pen in situations where it may be taking more bumps than expected then opting for the resin based Sailor 1911 will probably be the better option.
When it comes to the ink delivery system, the standard Sailor 1911 uses the Sailor cartridge convertor system that performs well enough but in our opinion, the vacuum filler on the Pilot is better and a piston filler system beats both options. Thankfully though, Sailor have now released their 1911 Realo variant of the fountain pen that does come with a piston filler system but keep in mind, it really does hike the price tag of the pen up and you would probably be better going with something like the Pelikan m600 due to it being a better overall pen with a similar price point.
The Sailor 1911 Cap
The cap of the Sailor 1911 is also made from the high-quality PMMA resin as the barrel of the pen helping to keep it as light as possible while also preventing back weighting and keeping the cap tough. That said though, we have seen a small number of reports from people saying that the cap of their pen has scratched the resin on the barrel when posting it. Due to the exceptional build quality of the Sailor fountain pens, we would suspect that this is due to damage on the cap causing the scratches but we are unable to confirm this.
Just like all other premium price point Sailor fountain pens, the 1911 uses a twist to lock system to secure the barrel and cap together when not in use offering you the same advantages as the Custom 823. That said though, the Sailor 1911 does have a slight advantage with its twist-lock system over the Pilot pen due to its resin threads. These can help to prevent cross-threading when locking and unlocking the cap of the pen, especially when used multiple times per day over many years.
Although some people have reported that they don’t like how rigid the click on the cap of the Sailor 1911 is, we actually prefer a rigid cap on the more expensive fountain pens. Although a flexible clip is easier to clip onto things, it is also easier to slightly clip off whereas a rigid clip is more likely to stick in place and prevent your pen from accidentally going missing. We would guess that the majority of our readers would agree with us when looked at in that was as the Sailor 1911 comes with a minimum price tag of around $300 depending on vendor.
The Sailor 1911 Ink Reservoir
The standard variant of the Sailor 1911 uses the Sailor converter for its ink storage and supply to the feed so its maximum ink capacity is dictated by the storage capacity of the Sailor ink cartridges. Although the official Sailor ink cartridges do mount perfectly to the 1911 to prevent any issues with leaking, they do only have a maximum ink capacity of 0.9ml brining it in slightly under average and well under the maximum capacity of the Custom 823.
Although there are a number of third-party ink cartridges on the market that offer a larger maximum ink capacity than the official ones, we have seen reports of leaking and clogging when using them so we would always recommend that our readers just stick to the official Sailor cartridges as they are a similar price. The last think that you want is to have your feed and nib clogged up by cheap ink and then have to have it professionally flushed so its not worth the chance of trying the third-party cartridges in our opinion.
Sailor 1911 Writing Samples
Conclusion
That brings our ultimate Pilot Custom 823 vs Sailor 1911 comparison article to a close and as we have pointed out in our article above, both of these pens are excellent options for the majority of people but we do feel that the Pilot Custom 823 manages to sneak out ahead by the slightest margin. On the flipside of this though, if you are wanting a nib size other than fine, medium or broad then the Sailor 1911 will be the obvious option.
