Sailor ProGear Slim Mini - North America Exclusive

Sailor ProGear Slim Mini - North America Exclusive - It's Back!

We hope everyone is doing well, and is able to find more positive things during this pandemic, whether it's a new hobby or a hobby that you're able to focus more on! We are still so appreciative of everyone who has been supporting our small business. We've been trying to make sure we can do the best we can with our limited staff! We are excited to announce that Sailor is bringing back the ProGear Slim Mini to North America! It’s been almost 10 years since it has been available here, and it has only been produced in Japan in limited quantities since. How exciting to have them back here!




Also known as the “Sapporo Mini”, this adorable mini pro gear comes in six new and modern colors that feature gold trim and a 14k medium fine (MF)  gold nib.

The colors available are: Mustard Yellow, Slate Green, Stellar Blue, Rose Taupe, Blush Pink, and Taupe.

The Professional Gear Slim Mini is just a smaller version of the Professional Gear Slim. When capped, the Slim Mini is 106 mm in length - or 18 mm shorter than the Slim. However, when posted, it is only 11 mm shorter. It’s a great option because it is easy to carry, since it is compact, but is not too far from the normal size of the slim while posted. 

However, due to its shorter size, this pen is not able to use a standard converter, and therefore does not come with one. It only will take the standard Sailor cartridges. Although, you could use a syringe to refill the cartridges with your preferred ink!


We do only have a limited quantity of these, and they are currently up for pre-order right now! Let us know if you have any questions! also Mustard is on backorder but they are on backorder and we should receive it in a month.

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Montblanc Le Petit Prince and the Planet

Montblanc Le Petit Prince and the Planet  Continuing the popular series of Le Petit Prince, Montblanc introduces the third collection of the series: The Planet.  This series is based on the Le Petit Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and is now focused on the planet that the Le Petit Prince comes from.  The color chosen for this series is inspired by the prince's favorite rose on the planet, which he gave all his love to, even though the Rose did not.

Shop Now THE MEISTERSTUCK COLLECTION - Classique collection   The Meisterstuck collection comes in two sizes, the Classique size (145) and the LeGrand size  (146).  They are available in a ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain pen. This series has a burgundy resin finish, and the fountain pens feature a gold base at the barrel.  The clip has a star on it, symbolizing the star that the "narrator" can lookup when he wants to think about the Le Petit Prince.  The fountain pen has a 14k Gold nib and features engravings of the Prince and the star.  The ballpoint takes the standard Montblanc refills, and the rollerball takes the standard Montblanc rollerball pen refills.

Shop Now THE MEISTERSTUCK LEGRAND COLLECTION:  The Legrand collection is a larger pen than the classique pen. An important thing to note is that the Legrand fountain pens are piston fill only.  The Legrand rollerball takes the Montblanc Legrand rollerball refill, and the Legrand ballpoint takes the regular ballpoint pen refill.  This fountain pen also features the engravings of the Prince and the stars.

Shop Now THE MEISTERSTUCK SOLITAIRE DUO COLLECTION:  The Montblanc Solitaire Duo collection has a metal cap with an engraving of the stars, like the Classique collection.  It also features the 18k gold nib with the engraving of the rose, and can use either cartridge or converter.  The rollerball takes the Montblanc classique refills, and the ballpoint uses the Montblanc ballpoint refills.

Shop Now THE SOLITAIRE COLLECTION: The Solitaire collection of this series is very unique, as they used  European Hornbeam for the body of the pen and also the cap.  European Hornbeam wood is germ, decay, and disease resistant and over time becomes a distinct pen to the writer. The cap features the stars inscribed on the wood, and also features "B612" (the "planet"). The nib is also an 18k nib featuring the beloved rose. The fountain pen comes in the LeGrand sizes, and is a piston filler only. The collection also comes in a LeGrand rollerball and LeGrand ballpoint.

Shop Now The Ink :  The Montblanc Le Petit Prince is complimented nicely by a rose burgundy ink.  The ink is very similar to the Pilot Iroshizuku Yama -Budo ink.  It matches quite perfectly with the pen.  It comes in both the bottle and cartridges.

Shop now The Montblanc Le Petit Prince & The Planet Notebook: The final piece, which makes this collection complete, is the beautiful notebook with B612 engraved and the star.

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Does a hand sanitizer on our hands damage the pens that we use? Does it discolor?

By Ben L.

Anyone who’s purchased a TWSBI Eco has seen the little tag that comes under the clip warning you not to use alcohol based cleaners. But in these dire times when sanitation is paramount, are you putting your pens at risk by potentially exposing them to hand sanitizer?

The reason TWSBI Ecos have that warning tag is because they’re made of polymethyl methacrylate, which is marketed under brand names like Plexiglass and Perspex, and more widely known as acrylic. This is unique among TWSBI’s offerings, as their other models are made of polycarbonate resin that’s more resistant to solvents. However, acrylic is present in other pens, especially those with bodies made from resin blanks turned on a lathe, as the blanks frequently have acrylic as their primary ingredient.

Acrylic is reactive with a handful of polar solvents such as alcohols, and as a result could potentially be damaged by exposure. Conveniently for us, because knowing the resistance of different plastics to solvents is extremely important for knowing when they’re suitable for industrial applications, companies who sell them publish the results of comprehensive testing of their resistance to different solvents. The analysis I looked at assessed the behavior of acrylic with an extremely wide range of solvents and substances potentially encountered in industrial applications such as jet fuel and ozone. Reactivity was ranked on a four tier scale, from E: “30 days of constant exposure with no damage. Plastic may even tolerate chemical for years.” to N: “Not recommended for continuous use. Immediate damage may occur such as severe crazing, cracking, or permeation losses.”

The vast majority of hand sanitizers are alcohol based, with the active ingredients usually being some combination of isopropyl alcohol and ethanol at a concentration of 60 to 95%. At room temperature, isopropyl alcohol’s reactivity with acrylic was rated as the 2nd highest level, F, meaning that there was “Some effect after 7 days of constant exposure to the reagent. Solvents may cause softening, and swelling.”, and ethanol received the same rating.

What does this mean for you when you’re using hand sanitizer around your pens? Practically nothing. The samples tested by the lab were continuously exposed to a high concentration of each alcohol for several days, and unless you’re using so much hand sanitizer it’s dripping on the page as you write, the time your pens will spend in contact with the solvents is on the order of seconds each time you sanitize your hands before picking them up. Effects of excessive exposure to reactive solvents include discoloration, swelling, puffiness, softening, or cracking, so it’s still wise to avoid excessive contact between the acrylic of an Eco and any harmful solvents, but the impact of getting a reasonable amount of hand sanitizer on a pen isn’t big enough to worry about.

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