Comparing All 5 Sailor Nib Types: Which Sailor Nib Is Right For You?

In December 2025, Sailor announced some big changes to their nib lineup, introducing a shocking 3 brand new nibs on their different models and discontinuing some nibs on certain models. These changes, paired with a recent price increase in Sailor pens, have resulted in a basically brand new lineup of Sailor pens and prices, and we're sure lots of people are left wondering, "which Sailor pen is right for me?" 

To prepare for a recent video, we compared all 5 of Sailor's current nibs in all their nib sizes (a total of 33 nib sizes!) analyzed them for Softness, Feedback vs. Smoothness, Line Width, Consistency, and gave recommendations, taking into consideration pricing and overall value.

About Sailor

Whether you're new to the fountain pen hobby or not, you've probably heard of Sailor, which is one of Japan's "Big 3" fountain pen manufacturers. In the world of fountain pens, Sailor stands out for their beautiful fountain pens, which come in a seemingly endless array of limited and exclusive colors, some opaque, transparent, shimmery, pearlescent and iridescent. You name it, they've probably done it! 

Sailor Feedback

Back in 1911, Sailor was also the first Japanese pen company to make a fountain pen. Today, many fountain pen users seek out Sailor pens because they possess a unique writing quality called feedback, which is often described as the satisfying feeling of writing on paper. It is similar to the satisfying "scratchy" feeling of using a wooden pencil on paper and is in contrast to a super smooth nib, which glides across paper. Of course, when we shop for a gold nib fountain pen, we are looking for a smooth experience and not a "nails on a chalkboard" scratching one, but some fountain pen users believe that it is possible for a nib to be too smooth, which strips away the tactile feeling of putting pen to paper, which is, arguably, why we all are drawn to fountain pens in the first place. 

From 2 Nib Types to 5 Nib Types

For those familiar with the Sailor lineup, for at least the last 10 years, Sailor's lineup of fountain pens has primarily been made up of pens in either their Pro Gear collection or their 1911 collection, which come with one of two nibs:

• a small 14kt gold nib, or
• a large 21kt gold nib
  

Those 2 nibs are shown below:

Starting in December 2025, Sailor began to roll out changes to their nib lineup, which effectively introduced 3 brand new nibs and brought their nib lineup from 2 gold nibs to 5 nibs (4 gold and 1 stainless steel). The 3 brand new nibs introduced were

• a "Premium" stainless steel nib,
• a large 14kt gold nib, and
• a large 18kt gold nib

This expanded their nib lineup to 5 nib types, shown below:

5 Nibs: 5 Tiers of Sailor Prices

Each of these nibs is now available on varying Sailor pen models at very different prices, effectively creating 5 tiers of Sailor pen model prices now available for fountain pen users to choose from when considering a Sailor pen. 

Here is a writing sample of all 33 nib sizes across 5 nib types. For more detail, check out our Nib Logs on YouTube.

Analyzing the Writing Samples

Softness

The biggest difference between the 5 different nibs is Softness, with the Steel nib being the stiffest and the 21k L nib being the softest. You can see from the below image, which shows two sets of lines for each nib size (EF, F, MF, M, B) across some of the different nib types. 

In the Steel nib, there is almost no line variation whatsoever when writing with no pressure and when writing with some pressure. The 14kt Small nib is also quite stiff while the 21k is very soft, where you will see applying some pressure on each nib size results in a significantly thicker and bolder line. This shows that the 21k nib is responsive to pressure and will appear more dynamic and expressive in writing samples.

Feedback vs. Smoothness

For Sailor nibs, we thought a discussion on Feedback vs. Smoothness was essential since Feedback is a defining feature of Sailor to many fans. With the Steel nibs, they are extremely smooth, but we did find that they lost all of the signature Sailor feedback that people have come to know and love about Sailor pens. So if you are looking for the famous Sailor writing experience of smooth with a satisfying feeling of feedback from the paper, you'll want to stick with the gold nibs--namely, the 14k S, 18k L and the 21k for the best balance of feedback and smoothness.

Line Width

Line widths of all nib sizes across all 5 nibs were very close! For more detail, check out our Nib Logs on YouTube.

Consistency

For Consistency, we looked for nibs that went up predictably in nib size for each of the 5 nibs, and we looked for consistent performance in terms of smoothness, feedback, and softness for each nib size within each nib type--for example, for the 14k L nib, was the F nib equally smooth/feedbacky as the M nib? How predictable was each nib within the same nib type? 

The most consistent nibs were the Steel, 18k L and the 21k nibs. It's worth mentioning that the Steel nibs were impressively consistent and arguably more consistent in quality than the 14k S or the 14k L nibs and we think this is because Sailor has stated that each of these "Premium" Steel nibs has been hand-finished.   

Recommendations

Overall Value: For the best overall value if you are looking to not spend too much on a pen but still want a Sailor pen, most people should be quite satisfied with a Sailor Premium Steel nib pen, which will get you a very smooth and consistent pen. There are, however, many other Steel nib options available on the market that are even more affordable. 

If you're simply looking for a pretty pen that writes well: Go with the Sailor Premium Steel nib! We predict that Sailor will be releasing the Casual L's in many colors and finishes so if what draws you to Sailor in the first place is their pretty pens, you should look at the Casual L models with the Premium Steel nibs.

If you're looking for the ultimate "greatest of all time" Sailor experience: You'll have to bite the bullet and the 21k nib! There is nothing quite like it for softness, smoothness and that quintessential Sailor feedback. The 18k L nib is quite close as well.

EF/F Nibs: Go for the Premium Steel nib, 18k L or 21k L nibs. The other nibs are a bit too feedbacky from our testing!

MF/M/B Nibs: You'll be happy with most nibs but for softness, you'll want 18k and 21k and for smooth with feedback, you'll also want to stick with 14k S, 18k and 21k.

MS/Z Nibs: For these special grinds, you'll really want to stick with the 18k and 21k nibs as the other ones don't quite measure up!

Hope this comparison helps clear up some of the questions you may have about the new Sailor lineup. For a full in-depth discussion, check out our video below!