Sailor 1911 Anchor Gray - a North American Exclusive

It's no secret that Sailor makes some of my favourite pens and inks, and when they announced the release of a 1911 Standard and a 1911 Large in a beautiful grey colour, I knew I wouldn't be able to resist. We're now carrying the Anchor Gray, exclusive to shops in North America. They released the Fresca, a sort of turquoise colour, a while back, and it was such a success that they've now launched another North American exclusive. I'm thrilled to see a Japanese company paying this much attention to our market, and releasing pens and inks (like the re-release of the Sailor Jentle line of Apricot, Sky High, etc.) just for us. It's the same classic torpedo shape as the other 1911s, and the Standard that I picked is the smaller of the two. It's the perfect weight in my hand, and I love the timeless elegance of the shape of the pen along with the shade of grey. I chose a broad nib, and the first fill was with Sailor Chu-Shu, from their recent re-release of their Four Seasons line. I think this must be one of my favourite inks from the line, and certainly one of my favourite greys - for me, a perfect match, although I'm not usually one to match pen colour to ink. Speaking of Sailor, we've got something we're pretty excited about from Sailor due to arrive next week! This was a bit of a surprise to us, but there's no complaints here about surprises like this, and suffice to say, my lifetime supply of Japanese stationery products continues to swell, with no sign of abatement in sight.

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And in other news, we've received our long-awaited shipment from Superior Labor of A5 Portfolios. You can see more on the blog from when we first launched it. It's always very nerve wracking to take on new projects and collaborations that require a high initial investment, especially when we have no idea how it's going to do. To our amazement, our first shipment of A5 portfolios sold out within a week! I've loved seeing all of the shots on social media and Instagram, but I'm mostly glad to see that people are finding the quality and utility of the portfolios something that is fitting right into their lives. We're now carrying the A5 in three colours, light brown, dark brown and natural, and the A4 in light and dark brown.