Update re: Sailor specialty nibs

[Ahriman4891]

Courtesy of Bruno Taut: https://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-case-of-naginata-i-press-release.html

TL/DR:
Naginata Togi and friends are officially back, they will be limited production and limited distribution, and about twice as expensive as before.

My ramblings:
Sailor seems to be moving upmarket, first with the inks, now with the specialty nibs. I wonder, how soon will they increase the prices of their regular nibs?

If Sailor really plans to hop into the next price tier, IMO the current 1911/PG/Realo are not quite going to cut it. They need to replace the current "Large" line with something closer to the KOP, and equip them with a better integrated filling system, or at least with a much better converter. I've read rumors of a new converter incoming, but I cannot remember where.
The old converter can still be used for the "Slim" models. I imagine the KOP has enough empty space inside to accommodate something new.

EDITED to better express my thoughts.

[SIR]

Those in the know, know; Sailors have a well established reputation for transcending 'next tier' ;).

[mulrich]

Those in the know, know; Sailors have a well established reputation for transcending 'next tier' ;).

I'm not in the know, so I don't know anything.

I have a couple of Sailor's specialty nibs and I really like them. I thought those nibs already had a reasonable premium over the standard offerings, so seeing the prices increase by ~$220-250 is really disappointing. It's unlikely I will purchase more in the future. Some of the specialty nibs can't be easily reproduced by a nibmeister but some of them can, and for substantially less than what Sailor is charging. Oh well, Sailor is obviously targeting a different type of customer.

I do hope they release a better converter.

[Barry B. Gabay]

My only Sailor specialty nib was a Medium Naginata Togi on a King of Pen. It was a wonderful writer, & there was considerable line variety. Purchased used long ago & later sold for something else. In my estimation, even the standard production M & B nibs on the KoP series are among the very best nibs currently available. Fingers for all who will be able to afford Sailor's new specialty nibs. I certainly won't be able to but wish much pleasure for those who will.

[Ahriman4891]

I was on the fence about buying a Naginata Togi pen from Pensachi.com, where it used to be 389 USD. I just checked their website again and, well, the decision has been made for me -- they increased the price to 789 USD. From memory (I tried the NT at the Osaka branch of Nagasawa Kobe stationery store) it was only subtly different from my Sailor H-B nib, and whatever extra it would bring is definitely not worth that much money to me.

[Ahriman4891]

Another little update: https://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-case-of-naginata-ii-two-year-hiatus.html

[Pendel]

I have a Sailor KOP with a real Naginata Togi, but my second KOP had just a regular medium nib, which was nice but lacked flare. So, last weekend I set to work, and after a few hours was able to hand-grind the medium nib into a Naginata Togi shape (in a smaller tipping size of course), based on the NT in my other pen. From what I can tell, it writes just as one would expect a finer version of NT to do, with an architectural flare based on the angle one holds the pen at. I had to go quite slow, and can see that regrinding nibs into NT makes little commercial sense for a nibmeister: it is too time consuming to be viable. Even assuming that Sailor nibmeisters use grinding wheels to do the initial shaping, with the final shaping done by hand, it is easy to appreciate why the prices are jumping as the demand continues to increase. Still, some of the prices people are quoting seem quite ridiculous.