Sailor released the 1911 Casual L Stable steel nib fountain pen on February 28th, 2026. While it's one of many higher end steel nib fountain pens that Sailor sells within Japan, it's the first one to be introduced to the US. The hand-finished steel nib is described by Sailor as offering “a writing feel similar to a gold nib fountain pen”, aided by the weighty metal grip section that lowers the pen's center of gravity. Sailor also has a 1911 Casual L in the works, which lacks the metal grip section but is meant to be an affordable comparison to the 1911 Casual L Stable.
The pen comes in the colors muted black, muted blue, muted green, and muted red, in nib sizes extra fine, fine, medium fine, medium, and broad (no music or zoom nib). Looking at the pen from the outside, it looks the exact same as the 1911L gold nib pens with the rounded finials on the top and bottom, and with the gold bands around the cap, lower body, and the gold clip. When the cap is removed, the difference between the 1911L gold nib and 1911 Casual L Stable pens becomes obvious as you take a closer look at the nibs.
The 1911 Casual L Stable stainless steel nib is a bit shorter than the 1911L gold nibs, and has less embellishments than the gold nibs. Turning over to the feed, we also see a difference in the amount of fins and structure between both nibs.
To test out how these steel nibs compare to gold nibs, we filled out our nib log for each one to get an idea of how these perform. See the nib logs and our comments below, or skip to the bottom for a summary of our thoughts!
The goal of this pen was to make a steel nib that feels as comparable to a gold nib as possible. After spending time writing with the steel nibs and gold nibs, we've noted that the smoothness is pretty comparable to gold nibs, but the lack of softness when you press on the tines is apparent. To us, it seems like Sailor is working hard to make an alternative to their gold nib pens as the price of gold increases, and therefore the gold nib pens also increase in price. We think that the 1911 Casual L Stable is a good alternative to a gold nib pen, and extremely smooth for a steel nib!
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