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Book Review: The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Book Review: The Fantastic Art of Roy G. Krenkel

Roy Gerald Krenkel is an American illustrator who specialized in fantasy and historical drawings and paintings for books, magazines and comic books.

Before World War II he studied with George Bridgman at the Art Students League of New York. After the War, Krenkel attended Burne Hogarth's classes at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, and met Joe Orlando, Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson.

I met Roy Krenkel back in 1949 or 1950, and he has never ceased to be a constant source of inspiration to me—a truly conscientious artist who will not tolerate incompetence. - Frazetta

This 256-page hardcover artbook collects mostly sketches and some full illustrations. My first impression is the style looks like Frazetta's but it's not the same. So it's not surprising to read that RGK and Frazetta are friends and they are probably inspiration for each other.

The artworks are of dinosaurs, barbarians, cavemen and women from ancient civilizations. I love seeing the different types of line art, techniques, how the characters pose, how the scenes are staged. There's always a strong storytelling element around.

This is a nice book for those who like Frazetta, sketchbooks, fantasy art and anatomy.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 28 Jul 2026 - 12:00

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dark horse

art book reviews

basheer sponsored

roy g krenkel

fantasy art

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Review: Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi e-ink tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Review: Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi e-ink tablet

Review unit provided by Onyx

Boox Go 10.3 (Gen 2) Lumi is a lightweight 10.3‑inch 300‑ppi e-Ink tablet with front light, Android 15, Google Play Store and pen support. It's a portable device most suited for reading and light note taking.

There are two versions for this tablet and the main difference is one has front light (Lumi) and the other does not. Having front light is useful but the trade-off is there's a gap between the surface of the display and the e-ink canvas, which I will talk more about later.

Specifications

Spec	Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi	Go 10.3 (Gen II)	Go 10.3
Screen	Monochrome	Monochrome	Monochrome
PPI	300	300	300
Processor	Advanced Octa-core	Advanced Octa-core	Octa-core
Front Light	Dual-tone	N/A	N/A
Sunlight Readable	Yes	Yes	Yes
Speakers	Dual Speakers	Dual Speakers	Dual Speakers
Auto-rotation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Memory and storage	4GB + 64GB	4GB + 64GB	4GB + 64GB
Battery capacity	3700 mAh	3700 mAh	3700 mAh
Supported Accessories	InkSense Plus pen, magnetic case	InkSense Plus pen, magnetic case	Magnetic stylus, magnetic case
OS	Android 15	Android 15	Android 12
Google Play Store	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thickness	Approx. 4.8 mm	Approx. 4.8 mm	Approx. 4.6 mm
Weight	Approx. 364g	Approx. 350g	Approx. 375g
Price (USD)	$429.99	$399.99	$359.99

Things included

Tablet
InkSense Plus pen
Flip case
USB charging cable
User manual
Warranty card

The flip case is well made and looks great.

The case is thicker than the tablet, but overall still considered thin as the tablet is really thin.

I'm not sure what material is used to make the case but it feels like a combination of felt and leather, and you can get a very good grip on it. There's no visible leather grain. The inner cover is much smoother.

On the side is removable flap that keeps the pen attached by the side.

The tablet supports auto-wake and sleep. The case cannot be folded to prop up the tablet. The case is magnetic so the tablet can be removed easily.

Design

The power button has no fingerprint scanner, and there's no camera for face unlock. You'll always need to type your pin to unlock, which can be inconvenient if you are used to biometric unlock.

There are no volume buttons, no microSD card slot.

Corners and sides of the tablet are rounded off. Finishing looks good. The metal frame feels solid and is matte textured.

The USB-C port only has USB 2 transfer speed. Audio quality from the two speakers is so-so, loud enough but does not have surround since it's not stereo and there's no bass so everything just sounds flat. The speakers are still very usable though because they don't sound hollow.

Back of the tablet has a nice leather-like texture. This tablet has no cameras on the front and back.

Display quality

The matte surface display looks good by diffused reflection can still be glaring under strong light source.

The tablet has a resolution of 2480 × 1860 at 300 ppi. Text looks sharp.

10.3-inch is big enough for reading comics but bigger would be better, except heavier. Words from comics may be small but still readable.

If you read PDFs or magazines often, I recommend a larger display as PDFs of A4-sized paper usually have much smaller text when scaled down to a 10.3-inch display.

The tablet supports auto-rotate, so you can hold the tablet comfortably by the thicker bezel.

The BW e-ink canvas looks light, not dark, so contrast is good. Colour conversion to black and white looks good.

Whether the text can displayed as one or two columns in landscape mode depends on the app.

This magazine shows a 2-col layout in landscape mode and text is too small. Constant zooming in to read the text and panning the page is not good user experience.

Reading experience is excellent if you're just reading text. If you just want to read text, getting a smaller tablet is good enough. The advantage of this 10.3-inch tablet is for reading comics.

Most webpages will be displayed with tablet mode instead of desktop mode.

Ghosting or image retention is not really an issue. You can choose different refresh mode or customise your own settings to achieve your preferred look.

The Lumi version of this tablet has cool and warm light.

I find the orange warm glow of the light to look pleasing. There are 32 levels of adjustment for the cool and warm light so you can get very precise adjustment.

The Lumi version of the tablet is USD 30 more which isn't much.

The front light is useful for those who read in dimly lit rooms. If your rooms are always well lit, and you're fine reading physical books or newspaper with whatever lighting environment you have currently, then front light is not necessary.

Performance

The firmware I'm using is v4.2-rel.

Overall performance feels smooth enough as an e-ink tablet.

4GB RAM is limited so don't expect to multi-task much. My main usage for an e-ink tablet is mostly just for reading, maybe some note taking, so 4GB RAM is sufficient.

64GB storage is not much. That's a downside for those who like to store huge files on internal storage, and there's no microSD card support. My e-books are all streamed from the cloud, from Amazon Kindle and Libby so I'm fine with 64GB storage.

The tablet runs on Android 15 and there's the Boox UI on top.

The UI has six tabs by the side for Library, Store, Notes, Storage, Apps, Settings. You can add more shortcuts under Settings-SystemD Display-Homescreen Navigation Bar.

Library tab has all the e-books downloaded or synced. You can sync your e-books from Readwise, Zotero, WebDAV, OneDrive, Google Drive, OneNote, Dropbox, Youdao Notes, EverNote, AllYun Driver, Baidu Cloud and NutStore.

Store tab has all the copyright-free books.

Notes tab has all your notes.

Storage tab shows you local files and folders.

Apps tab shows installed apps, and you can find Google Play Store here too.

Settings tab is self explanatory.

If you have Boox account, you get 10GB online storage.

You can show Android navigation bar at the bottom, and customise the shortcuts. I prefer the navigation bar over using gestures and it's convenient and on a large display the bar does not take up much space.

You can set Wifi, Bluetooth and audio to disable when tablet is asleep. This helps to prevent battery drain.

The wallpaper shows time, date, battery level and calendar. There's no way to customise the lock screen wallpaper.

Pen

The InkSense Plus pen is made with metal and has excellent build quality. The pen supports 4048+ levels of pressure sensitivity, palm rejection and has one side eraser button.

This pen has an internal battery and charges through USB-C. The pen does not support magnetic charging. Battery capacity in this pen is small so the battery should not be left discharged completely for long periods of time as that will damage the pen. If you don't use the pen often, at least set an alarm to charge the pen monthly.

Writing experience

I'll only be talking about the writing experience with the default note taking app from Boox. Third party note taking apps do not work well as there's more latency and their UI aren't designed for BW displays.

Overall writing experience is positive. Palm rejection works well.

The pen is able to capture my handwriting style quite accurately. The tactile writing experience on the matte surface is good, almost like paper and there's audible feedback.

Writing has noticeable latency so you can see the line chasing the pen tip when writing. It doesn't affect the accuracy of my handwriting so it's not a big issue for me.

I'm not sure how durable the pen nib is with usage and there are no replacement pen nibs included. Extra pen nibs cost USD 15 and you get five pieces in a set.

The Lumi version of the tablet has a gap between the surface and e-ink canvas. From the side, you can see the gap between the line and the pen tip. The parallax isn't that noticeable unless you're looking for it. I don't think this is big issue here or maybe I'm not too picky or critical.

The default note taking app does not have many features compared to paid note taking apps but it's still sufficient for light note taking.

You can create notebooks with multiple page, or an infinite page. Notes saved are sync to Boox cloud.

Overall note taking experience is good, affected only by the visible latency.

Conclusion

The Boox Go 10.3 (gen 2) is a decent BW e-ink tablet with good visual quality for reading and can be used for light note taking. There are pros and cons but no serious deal breakers.

Pros and cons at a glance

+ Pen and case included
+ Well made case
+ Beautiful tablet design
+ Lightweight despite having a medium-big display
+ Pen has good support for palm rejection, pressure
+ Good tactile writing experience
+ Good e-ink quality. Text is sharp
+ E-ink canvas is light gray, has good contrast
+ Smooth overall performance
+ Has setting to disable all wireless connection in sleep mode
+ Has Google Play Store
- No biometric unlock
- 4GB RAM and 64GB storage
- No microSD card support
- Speakers sound flat, but at least not hollow
- No physical page flip buttons
- Lumi model has parallax gap below display surface
- Writing has latency

Availability

The tablet is available from Boox online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 27 Jul 2026 - 13:00

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e reader

tech reviews

onyx

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Review: Fulin 4-layer stacked nib fountain pen 816

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Review: Fulin 4-layer stacked nib fountain pen 816

This 4-layer stacked nib is an excessive or even outrageous design, but it works, and it works superbly.

I had bought the pen from AliExpress for USD 102 which includes shipping and tax. I bought it from this seller, and there's another seller that sells it too.

The brand listed on AliExpress is BALAOYE but the brand on the pen nib and box is FULIN.

These are the nib options available, the the respective line width they can produce:

1-layer, 0.5mm
1-layer, 1mm
2-layer, 2mm
3-layer, 3mm
4-layer-4mm (the one I bought)

Many different pen body designs are available. The one that I chose has a brown wooden body which feels quite similar to the Faber Castell Pearwood Ambition I used to have. The wooden body has a natural feel and the glossy metal surface makes the pen feel classy.

I am very happy with this (lucky) choice. In fact, I like this so much I may even buy another version of this pen with the 3-layer stacked nib with a darker wood body. That's USD 60 - 70, much lower than the 4-layer stacked nib.

Build quality of the pen is good, feel solid, not filmsy.

The pen comes in a black flip-up box with an ink convertor, user manual (in Chinese), two pieces of Chinese calligraphy writing paper, flat metal tine cleaner and a small black-coloured rectangular writing pad.

The glossy cap is the twist-type. Words at the cap opening are FULIN 816.

The end of the pen has screw threading for the cap.

Pen has a nice weight to it and is comfortable to hold. The wood has a matte surface to it, not lacquered so it's best to avoid ink on it. I'm not sure how real the wood is though.

This pen nib has four nibs stacked together. I can see the metal is fused together and the sides are polished.

This pen nib has a huge tip that has three contact points: the top, broad side and bottom. You control the line width by how you hold the pen and not by pressure. This is a pen nib that's capable of producing several line widths and this is versatile for drawing.

Design on top the nib looks simple, not too flashy.

I only got to know of this nib because my friend Drewscape introduced me to the Jinhao 750 which also has a stacked nib, and I came upon this pen on AliExpress. It's not too expensive so I thought I could buy one to try, make a video review for it, and if the pen sucks, hopefully the Youtube video can earn some money to cover the cost.

The lines that this pen nib can create is actually not very different from a fude nib, a bent nib. The two differences here is the line from the 4-layer stacked nib is thicker and the ink flow is better since there are cross slits.

Speaking of ink flow, the ink had difficulty flowing at first. But after clearing whatever there is between the slits with the slit cleaner, the ink flow is now good. Lines are wet and juicy. In fact this pen uses so much ink that it's best to remember to fill the ink convertor fully before you bring it out.

The only stacked nibs I know prior to owning the Jinhao 750 and the Fulin 816 are the Sailor Specialty Nibs which are at least 15 times more expensive. It's great that there are now Chinese fountain pens that can produce the same types of lines as the Sailor pens but at a fraction of the cost.

Pen nibs like this are actually designed for writing Asian calligraphy, but my review is from the perspective of drawing with it.

The Jinhao 750 with a dual stacked nib is also capable of producing 4mm thick lines and that pen is USD 52. But the build quality and finishing of that pen isn't as good as the Fulin 816.

Hold the pen vertically and you can produce EF lines.

Tilt the pen slightly and use a portion of the broad tip and you can produce a F or M line.

Hold the pen at around 45 degrees and the line is much thicker.

With the whole broad tip down, the line is 4mm. This uses a lot of ink and if you use watercolour make sure to wait for the ink to dry completely.

Drawing experience with this pen is very satisfying as it's such a versatile nib.

You can draw thin lines easily, then use broad strokes to fill in large areas of black.

The thing with this pen is you won't know whether you like drawing with a pen nib like this unless you try. And thankfully this pen isn't too expensive to buy to try. Imagine spending thousands on a Sailor Specialty Nib only to find out you don't like its writing or drawing style.

The Fulin 816 with this 4-layer stacked nib provides amazing value for money. This is a pen I can recommend easily. If you have experience with drawing with a fude nib, this stacked nib will make things even more exciting for you. It's so good.

Availability

This pen is available on AliExpress from Seller A and Seller B.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 20 Jul 2026 - 11:00

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fountain pen

fountain pen reviews

art product reviews

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Review: UPERFECT 14-inch touchscreen OLED portable display (GR14BU)

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Review: UPERFECT 14-inch touchscreen OLED portable display (GR14BU)

Review unit provided by UPERFECT

The UPERFECT GR14BU is a portable 14-inch touchscreen OLED display with 2880 x 1800 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

Price at time of review is USD 399. You can use coupon code TeohonTech50 for $50 off purchases over $300, and TeohonTech60 for $60 off purchases above $400. Worldwide free delivery is included. Tax may be calculated seperately.

Video review

Specifications

Brand: UPERFECT
Series: Blaze Gaming
Model: GR14BU
Item: 14 Inch OLED Portable Monitor
Refresh Rate: 120Hz
Response Time: 1ms
Screen Size: 14 Inch
Resolution: 2880 × 1800 (3K)
Pixel Pitch: 0.1 mm
Pixels Per Inch: 242.58 PPI
Viewable Area: 309.14 × 173.89 mm (12.17 × 6.85 inch)
Display Ratio: 16:10
Viewing Angle: 178°
Panel Type: OLED
Screen Type: Mirror
Contrast Ratio: 100000:1
Brightness: 500 cd/m²
Color Gamut: 110.50% Adobe / 109.0% DCI-P3
Color Depth: 1.07B (8Bit+FRC)
Touch Screen: Yes
Gravity Sensor: No
Built-in Battery: No
HDR: No
FreeSync: No
Material: Aluminum
Built-in Speakers: Yes, 2 × 8Ω 1W
Vesa: Yes, 75 × 75 mm @ M4 × 4 mm
Driver Free: Yes
Stand Holder: Yes
Cover Case: No
Rated Power: 15W
Product Size: 310 × 216 × 7 mm (12.2 × 8.5 × 0.28 inch)
Package Size: 360 × 248 × 80 mm (14.17 × 9.76 × 3.15 inch)
Net Weight: 0.59 kg (1.3 lbs)
Package Weight: 1.4 kg (3.09 lbs)
Interface:
- 2 × Full-Featured USB Type-C for Audio & Video Input
- 1 × Mini HDMI for Audio & Video Input
What's in the box?
- 1 × 14 Inch OLED Portable Monitor
- 2 × USB-C to USB-C Cable
- 1 × Mini HDMI to HDMI Cable
- 1 × USB-A to USB-C Cable
- 1 × M4 × 4 mm Screw
- 1 × PD Power Adapter
- 1 × Manual

Things included

Display
2x USB-C video cable
1x mini-HDMI to full-size HDMI cable
2x USB-C u-shape adapters
1x USB-A to USB-C data cable
1x HDMI u-shape adapters
30W USB-C charger
Screws for VESA mount
User manual

Design of the display is clean and simple.

The size pairs well with 14-inch laptops, such as the 14-inch Macbook Pro shown above. And just below the display is the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro with matte display.

The display weighs 590g so it's not too heavy. You can get a laptop sleeve/bag to bring this and the cables around.

The display can be powered by a single USB-C video cable. If you use USB-C video cable, the display always powers on at 20% brightness which you always have to increase. If the display is connected to external power, it always powers on at 100% brightness, and this brightness is more than what you can get with the USB-C connection from the laptop.

If you're using a larger 15 or 16-inch laptop, I would recommend you get the larger UPERFECT UColor O (BE156NF) and UPERFECT UColor O2 (GR16HQ), both 16-inch OLED displays priced at USD 619 and USD 499 respectively. I've reviewed the UPERFECT UColor O2 before and it's a wonderful portable display, just more expensive.

If you use HDMI for video connection, you'll need to connect the display to external power, and if you want touchscreen functionality, you have to connect a USB data cable to your computer. So for HDMI, you need at least a 2-cable or 3-cable connection.

The display is quite reflective, so try to avoid pointing big light sources at it.

Buttons for the OSD are located by the left. There are shortcuts for volume and brightness. Audio quality from the low-powered speakers is weak and sounds hollow.

OSD has control for brightness, contrast, black level, RGB, colour temperature and other stuff.

On the right side there are two USB-C video ports and a mini-HDMI port.

The display comes with a small kickstand which is convenient. And near the hinge of the kickstand are two holes instead of four for VESA mounting, 7.5cm apart.

If you plan on using the display at home or in the office, I highly recommend getting a tablet or monitor stand which will make it more ergonomic when looking at the display.

Colour quality

Brightness of the display is up to 500 nits but to achieve that you need to connect the display to external power. The maximum brightness from laptop power source is high but the maximum. And if you power the display with your laptop, make sure to connect the laptop to power source.

My colour calibrators do not work with OLED so I can't tell you exact colour measurements. UPERFECT listed 120% DCI-P3 colour coverage and that's should be easily achievable with an OLED display.

Average delta E of 2. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic, and I'm surprised that it's not 1 here.

Contrast ratio is 500,000:1 so black is deep black.

You can expect excellent visual quality with this display. Colours are vibrant, contrast is amazing. The 120Hz refresh rate makes all OS animation look smooth and it's great for gaming.

Touchscreen support

Touchscreen works with Windows and not with MacOS though.

Conclusion

This is a pretty straightforward product. It looks good and works well. Having an external display improves productivity instantly.

The price is certainly higher than larger LCD displays, but this is an OLED display with better visual quality so that's what you're paying for.

I personally would go with a larger 16-inch display because that's just more satisfying to work with.

I can recommend the UPERFECT GR14BU.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean simple design
+ Lightweight
+ 2800 x 1800 resolution is sharp
+ Touchscreen works well with Windows, but not with MacOS
+ 120Hz refresh rate
+ Supports USB-C and HDMI video connection
+ Display is bright, vibrant and sharp
+ Built-in kickstand is convenient
- Display always powers on at 20% brightness when using single USB-C video connection
- Hollow-sounding audio
- VESA mounting only has 2 holes
- Display is very reflective

Availability

You can get the UPERFECT GR14BU from UPERFECT online store.

I highly recommend you check out the UPERFECT UColor O (BE156NF) and UPERFECT UColor O2 (GR16HQ) too.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 19 Jul 2026 - 10:00

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uperfect

oled

tech reviews

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Review: 2025 Sailor King Eagle fountain pen

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Review: 2025 Sailor King Eagle fountain pen

Sailor has finally brought back the Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2025 after they were supposedly discontinued in 2015. The pen nibs from 2025 should be the third gen, and the pen nibs from 2018 are the second gen, and those before from the first gen.

I started collecting Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2015 and could not find the Sailor King Eagle then. I was told the Sailor King Eagle wasn't released with in 2nd generation and is now back in the third gen.

I've waited for the Sailor King Eagle to appear for more than ten years, and it's the last Sailor Specialty Nib that I want, so I bought it. I paid SGD 3,297 (USD 2,552) with tax for it at Aesthetic Bay, a fountain pen shop in Singapore. While I was at the shop, I noticed the prices of the other Sailor Specialty Nibs and they were around 2.5 to 3 times more expensive than what I had paid for my pens 10 years ago.

When I searched online, I see the pen being listed as USD 2000, €2000 or SGD 3300+ on eBay from Japanese sellers.

The prices of Sailor Specialty Nibs have increased so much over the years that I can't really recommend them anymore at today's prices, even though these are wonderful pens. To achieve the lines that the Sailor King Eagle can create, today you can buy a Jinhao 750 with a dual-layer nib for USD 55.

The Sailor King Eagle is available in the Sailor 1911 body, a classic body design Sailor is known for for years.

The design is timeless and I like it. It's a comfortable pen to hold in hand.

The pen comes with a Sailor ink convertor, two ink cartridges, a cleaning cloth, a booklet talking Sailor Specialty Nibs.

The cap is twist-type.

The band on the cap has words "Sailor Japan 1911 Special Nib" which are quite difficult to read since the black text is indent against black background.

The 2025 King Eagle Nib is a 3-layer stacked nib. There are two smaller nibs on top of the big one.

Design on the big nib is clean and simple design. There's the Sailor logo, 21K words and 875 for the gold content.

The older King Eagle nib has 1911 above the Sailor logo, and Sailor word below. Picture above is from St John's Pens.

This nib is clearly much thicker than normal nibs, and the tipping is also much bigger than even the Sailor Cross Emperor that I have.

The three nibs are fused together and sides are ground to be smooth. From the side you can also see the two slits.

From the bottom you can see the vertical slit that goes through all three nibs, and two cross slits. This cross slit design provides fantastic ink flow. This is a wet and juicy pen, and as a result uses a lot of ink. You definitely want to fill the ink convertor fully if you plan on bringing this pen out for drawing.

And speaking of bringing this pen out for drawing, you'll have to be extremely careful not to drop this. Since this is an extremely expensive purchase, I'm always very cautious about handling the pen and having the cap on whenever not using even for a short while.

Here's a sketch drawn with the pen. The ink is Diamine Forever Ink, Butterscotch.

The pen is able to produce thin and thick lines depending on the angle of the pen. There's slight flex if you press the nib hard but this can be considered a stiff nib.

Thin lines can be drawn easily by holding the pen vertically.

And the broad strokes can fill in large areas easily and quickly. Broad stroke is about 4mm thick. The versatility of the Sailor King Eagle makes it wonderful and satisfying to work with.

The pen nib is actually designed for Chinese or Japanese calligraphy, but I'm using this predominantly for drawing. For writing, you can choose how thick your lines will be by how you hold the pen.

The pen nib is smooth but has audible feedback on paper, feels quite similar to writing with a pencil.

Here's another sketch drawn with the pen, overlayed with watercolour.

Back in 2015, I still remember I was quite excited to own the Sailor Specialty Nibs. They were expensive back then but I've been using them for more than ten years so they do provide value for money. And since prices of those pens have increased so much, I could actually sell my old pens and still earn money.

As for the value of the Sailor King Eagle, it's not that clear to me at today's prices. The only reason I could think of for having such a high prices today is price gouging. Sailor may be able to set their MSRP but resellers will definitely markup the price due to demand and scarcity.

Pen Boutique said "the elevated price makes sense once you understand the elite knowledge, time, and skill it takes to create nibs with impeccable and unique performance like these". Yeah, but these pens made with the same level of craftsmanship were not insanely expensive 10 years ago. So labour prices increased 2.5 to 3 times in the last ten years? Gold prices have increased, sure, but these pen nibs do not use that much gold.

When the price is set so high, your expectations will also go up. The Sailor King Eagle is a great pen but I do not feel the same excitement I used to feel. At least the pen is still satisfying to write with, but I can say that for the much cheaper pens I have too.

If you're thinking of getting a Sailor Specialty Nib at today's prices, my recommendation is don't start. Go look at Chinese alternatives.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 17 Jul 2026 - 23:00

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sailor fountain pen

fountain pen reviews

fountain pen

art product reviews

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Review: Jinhao 750 dual layer stacked nib fountain pen

Teoh Yi Chie — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Review: Jinhao 750 dual layer stacked nib fountain pen

Specialty nibs from Chinese pen makers are not that popular or well known, but the nib quality from some can be pretty good, and I can say that for the Jinhao 750 with a dual-layer stacked nib.

The price of this pen is around USD 52 on AliExpress. By the way, this is not a sponsored review, but if you have the intention to buy this pen, please buy it through the affiliate links further below to support my blog, which allows to me explore and feature lesser known pens.

This pen arrived in an aluminium (probably) box that's almost crushed but thankfully the pen is not damaged.

The pen is available in different colours and the one I have here is the pale yellow or tusk colour.

The body actually wiggles slightly when cap. It's like the cap is holding on to the wrong end of the grip section. Quality control isn't the best it seems. I just hope the cap is still able to provide a good seal to prevent ink from drying.

An ink convertor is provided. There's nothing else inside the box.

The pen does feel quite good in hand. There's a good weight to it and does not feel filmsy.

The insignia on the nib is one of a funny horse with bulging eyes and wavy tail. For some reason, I like how comical the horse looks.

This is dual-layer nib. There's a smaller nib stacked on top of the larger main nib.

The tipping is big and it looks like a separate piece that's fused to the two nibs.

This nib has a cross slit which should help with ink flow, and this particular pen that I have has fantastic ink flow. This is a very wet nib and is as good as the other Sailor Specialty Nibs I have with fantastic ink flow.

Just for comparison purposes, this is how the Jinhao stacked nib looks besides the Sailor King Eagle nib that cost USD 2000-2500.

The grind of the Sailor King Eagle is definitely better in the sense that all (5) contact points can be used for writing, or drawing. The Jinhao stacked nib works best at the point and the broad side.

This stacked nib is versatile and can create a variety of line widths depending on the angle of the pen. The thickest line is 4mm. And the thinnest line is hairline if you reverse the pen nib.

Pen nibs like this are actually designed for writing Chinese words. Because the pen nib can produce line variation, they can be used for drawing as well, and can create expressive lines.

The thinner lines can be used for drawing, and board line can be used for filling areas with ink quickly.

When drawing short strokes, you can tap with the broad stroke instead, as if you are drawing dots, but short strokes will appear.

Hold the pen vertically or reverse the tip and you can draw very thin lines.

Drawing experience with this pen is satisfying, and it is probably worth buying this pen just for that.

A fude nib fountain pen can also create lines like the Jinhao stacked nib. The main difference is the stacked nib has the tipping in front, but the fude nib has the nib bent backwards. There is a slight difference with writing or drawing experience.

Some of the fude nib pens I have have ink flow issues.

For USD 50, this pen provides tremendous value for money. Even if you already have a fude nib, this is still a good pen to get. I highly recommend this pen.

Availability

You can find this pen on AliExpress (Seller A | Seller B | Seller C)

Teoh Yi Chie Thu, 16 Jul 2026 - 11:00

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Jinhow is good pen. But asa…

Vijay (not verified) Wed, 22 Jul 2026 - 07:47

Jinhow is good pen. But asa name, it get feel, its made in China. Now where is China, yheir no quality.

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Review: Fabriano Accademia ARTIST PAPERPACK drawing paper (120gsm, 160gsm, 200gsm)

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Review: Fabriano Accademia ARTIST PAPERPACK drawing paper (120gsm, 160gsm, 200gsm)

Not a sponsored review

The Fabriano Accademia ARTIST PAPERPACK drawing paper is available in 120gsm, 160gsm and 200gsm. I had purchased the paper from ArtFriend Singapore recently. Each pack is SGD21.95 before discount. I only saw A4 size.

120gsm, 200 sheets
This is good for pencil and ink. The paper is thinner, so you can see impression of your drawing from the back surface.

160gsm, 150 sheets
This is good for pencil, ink and light ink washes. Paper is thicker so you can barely see the drawing from the back surface.

200gsm, 100 sheets
Paper is much thicker and suitable for heavier mixed media use, but not with watercolour.

The paper is not glued or gummed on the side, and there's no cardboard backing. It's packaged like printing paper except paper quality is better. The paper is acid-free.

As the name Accademia suggests, this is for students and beginners.

There's no mention whether there's any cotton content, so that pretty much means this paper has no cotton content and is not of archival quality. Cotton paper can last significantly longer than ordinary wood pulp paper.

This paper is made for drawing, from what I can see suitable for pen and pencil. 160gsm can be used with light water washes, and 200gsm is good for heavier mixed media work.

The paper is not watercolour paper so it does not work well with watercolour or water media, or markers (too absorbant). But 160gsm and 200gsm are still alright for light ink washes, as shown above.

The thicker paper has minimal buckling with this ink sketch with light wash. Actually the paper remained very flat.

Paper is thick enough so the ink or light wash does not seep or bleed through.

Ink works extremely well. Line edges are solid with no feathering.

This paper is considered high quality despite the Accademia label. Drawing on it is extremely satisfying. Having this stack of quality paper in front makes me feel inspired and ready to draw. If you've been drawing for a while, you'll know how satisfying it is to be working on good quality paper.

The Fabriano Accademia drawing paper is something I can recommend easily.

If you're interested to buy this, try searching Jackson's Art (UK) and Blick Art (US).

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 14 Jul 2026 - 09:00

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Review: Arkademie leather desk pad

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Review: Arkademie leather desk pad

I used to have two leather desk pads made by Galen Leather that I love so much but were damaged by water. I've been waiting for the longest time for them to come back in stock until I remembered there's a local Singapore business Arkademie that makes leather products.

Arkademie does not sell leather desk pads but since they make leather products they should be able to make one easily. So I contacted James, the guy who runs the online store, to ask if they make leather desk pads and they do. I got him to make me two pieces, each 80 by 50cm to fit the Muji folding table top perfectly.

It took only a week to make and James delivered the desk pads himself because he did not want the local post to damage the leather.

The leather is natural full-grain vegetable-tanned buffalo or cow hide leather.

I had wanted something to protect the wooden table top because I review many items on my table and I'm not always that careful to put things down. Now, I can just throw all my stuff on the leather desk pad and I know there won't be any damage to my stuff and the leather.

I had the leather in brown and black as I can use them as backgrounds for product photography. I can match darker or lighter products with lighter or darker backgrounds when needed.

If you plan on writing on the desk pad with fountain pens, I recommend getting the black colour because ink spills on black will not be noticeable.

Each piece at SGD 70 is really worth the money considering this will last for a very long time. In fact it's so good I'm so tempted to make more custom ones for other table tops.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 13 Jul 2026 - 09:00

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Review: BlueDew Pen with Wet Noodle EF nib

Teoh Yi Chie — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Review: BlueDew Pen with Wet Noodle EF nib

Review sample provided by BlueDew Pens

A flex nib pen good for sketching

BlueDew Pens is a company based in Singapore that sells predominantly flex nib fountain pens. The first pen they released back in 2020 was a fountain pen that works just like the Zebra G nib except there's no need for dipping because there's an ink convertor.

Jeffrey Lim, founder of the company, has just released the second generation of pen nibs he has created, together with more body designs. The highlight is the new Wet Noodle steel nib (above) he has designed to be extra soft, or as the company says is "the softest steel flex nib available today", which is almost 25% softer compared to Leonardt Principal Extra Fine (LPEF) nibs. This nib has been designed not just for calligraphy but also for drawing.

In case you don't know, Leonardt Principal Extra Fine is a highly regarded, professional-grade dip pen nib known for its flexibility and ability to produce very fine lines . It's a top choice for pointed pen calligraphy styles like Copperplate and Spencerian.

Here are the first and second generation pens. Jeffrey has sent me a pen with the Crystal - Aquamarine Mist body fitted with a Wet Noodle EF nib. The first gen pen is no longer available for sale.

The price of the pen with standard nibs is USD 130 and specialty or flex nibs cost extra, in this case the Wet Noodle EF is USD 45. Shipping in Singapore is free, but shipping overseas is around USD 18-30 depending on the country.

Design

The demonstrator body design looks beautiful, more beautiful in my opinion compared to the opaque bodies. Build quality is good. The pen weighs 26g, measures 15cm with the cap, and 13cm without the cap. I would consider this to be a medium+ size pen. The pen feels great in hand.

Trade-off of the demonstrator body is the cap can get dirty with ink and will look dirty. If you're someone who doesn't want the hassle of cleaning the cap, it's probably better to get the opaque bodies.

These are the parts that can be dismantled easily. I did not dismantle the pen completely though -- I did not pull out the nib or removed the piston.

The engineering of this pen looks precise.

The built-in ink reservoir can hold a lot of ink. This is convenient if you need to bring the pen overseas for several days and don't want to bring an ink bottle.

These are the various nib options available and the prices in USD:

Fine
Medium
Broad
CalligraFlex
SoftFlex (Fine) +$20
SuperSoftFlex (Fine) +$30
Wet Noodle (Fine) +$45
SoftFlex (Extra Fine) +$20
SuperSoftFlex (Extra Fine) +$30
Wet Noodle (Extra Fine) +$45

The nib sections are interchangeable so you can buy other types of nibs to test.

Here's how the Wet Noodle EF (top) compares to the nib from the previous pen. There are five slits, a heart-shape breather hole, the BlueDew logo and EF on it.

The tip is bigger so this nib is not as sharp as the first pen. The upside here is the nib is smoother on paper and works better for sketching if you want to sketch fast.

Nothing much to say about the feed.

Performance

The steel nib is indeed quite soft and can produce good line variation.

The previous pen nib is able to produce ultra fine lines, just like a Zebra G nib. This new Wet Noodle EF nib produces thicker lines by comparison.

You don't have to press that hard for the flex and the flex produces much thicker lines. By the way, the Pelikan M200 above has a Fine nib, so the Wet Noodle EF nib is between EF and F.

I'm not sure what's the best type of ink to use in flex pens. The ink I have in the pen is Diamine Forever Ink, Raven (waterproof), and it works okay with the occasional railroading so I have to be more careful when drawing thick lines.

You will have to go slower to prevent the railroading effect as the ink flow may not catch up. I don't think it's about the ink flow but how the ink holds itself before it breaks, e.g. how water holds before a bead breaks away. So you may have to test some inks with this pen.

The amount of flex is easy to control and the drawing experience with this pen is good, quite satisfying.

Thanks to the extra tipping, the nib is smoother on paper and can go in any direction easily. The previous nib was sharp and has a tendency to dig into the paper, so that nib has to be pulled in certain directions.

The other flex nib pen I have is the Pilot Namiki with Spencerian modification and I rarely use that for sketching because the nib is also too sharp.

This Wet Noodle EF nib is great for sketching. The normal line width is just what I prefer and the thicker line is noticeably thicker for effect. This is definitely my favourite flex nib of all the flex nibs I've tested in years. I can see myself sketching with this often.

The pricing is seems reasonable for such a lovely pen with wonderful pen performance. The line variation it can produce is fantastic. If you're someone who likes to draw with a flex nib, this is definitely the pen and nib to consider.

To get this pen, just visit the BlueDew online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Fri, 10 Jul 2026 - 10:00

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Sailor Specialty Nib comparison: Before after 2015 and after 2025

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Sailor Specialty Nib comparison: Before after 2015 and after 2025

Sailor has finally brought back the Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2025 after they were supposedly discontinued in 2015, briefly back in 2018, and then gone.

The last time I wrote about the Sailor Specialty Nibs was back in 2020 after I had bought the Sailor Cross Concord.

The nibmeisters

The first series of Sailor Specialty Nibs were made by Nobuyoshi Nagahara, the guy who invented the Naginata-Togi nib and Cross Point nib. He worked at Sailor for over 60 years until he retired in 2011.

Nobuyoshi Nagahara's son Yukio Nagahara took over the fountain pen production and worked until 2020 when he also retired, and started his own company The Nib Shaper.

The generations of Sailor Specialty Nibs

If I am not wrong, there should be three generations of Sailor Specialty Nibs so far, as of 2026.

First gen before 2018: Cap's gold trim is thicker, "SAILOR JAPAN FOUNDED 1911" words embossed in gold against gold
Second gen after 2018 to 2025: Cap has top and bottom gold trim, "SAILOR JAPAN 1911 SPECIAL NIB" words embossed in gold against black
Third gen 2025: Cap has top and bottom gold trim with threads, "SAILOR JAPAN 1911 SPECIAL NIB" words embossed in black against black. There are also two rows of little extrusions.

Words on the 2nd gen cap can clearly be seen, and words on the third gen cap are difficult to see.

Price

Below are the pens that I have and prices that I had paid at the time of purchase, including shipping.

Sailor Cross Emperor (USD 515, ~SGD 667 ) - First gen
Sailor Cross Music (USD 563, ~SGD 729) - First gen
Sailor Fude de Mannen (USD 475, ~SGD 615) - First gen
Sailor Cross Concord (SGD 880, ~USD 646) - Second gen
Sailor King Eagle (SGD 3297, ~USD 2500) - Third gen

I've seen the 2025 Sailor King Eagle being listed at USD 2000 or €2000.

Back when I purchased the first generation Sailor Specialty Nibs, the prices were around USD 500 - 600. Today, these pens have the following prices, as listed on local Singapore fountain pen shop Asethetic Bay:

Sailor Fude de Mannen (SGD 1799, ~USD 1389) - 2.9 times more
Sailor Cross Point (SGD 2158, ~USD 1667) - 3.2 times more
Sailor Cross Music (SGD 2158, ~USD 1667) - 2.9 times more
Sailor Cross Concord (SGD 2158, ~USD 1667) - 2.5 times more

If you're in Singapore, the other shop to compare prices at is Fook Hing.

I wished I had bought more pens a decade ago. Prices of these Sailor Specialty Nibs have increased almost 3 times from the 1st to 3rd generation in the span of 10 years.

I was told the Sailor King Eagle was not released for the 2nd gen but is now back in the 3rd gen together with other Sailor Specialty Nibs in 2025. So when I saw the Sailor King Eagle being listed as available on Asethetic Bay's website, I was at the shop the next day. I've waited 10 years for this pen nib to appear and it finally did.

I paid SGD 3297 (USD 2552) with tax for the pen at the shop after a 10% discount. I was quite apprehensive and unsure of buying the Sailor King Eagle due to the insanely high price point, but went ahead eventually because this is an incredibly rare pen nib that can only be purchased when it's available. And all the Sailor Specialty Nibs I had bought years ago are now worth at least 3 times more. These pens can last forever and will only grow in value as those early generation pens are no longer being made.

The gold colour on the 1st gen look more yellow to me. Unless you have pens from different generation, you won't have anything to compare to.

2nd and 3rd gen pens have the metal inset inside the body.

This means the 1st gen's section cannot be used with 2nd and 3rd gen bodies.

This is the Sailor Zoom Nib with the 1st gen nib design. Note the frame, 1911 words, Sailor logo and the 21K and the Sailor words below.

This is the Sailor Cross Concord with the 2nd gen nib design. Note that the frame is gone. Just below 21K are the words Sailor Japan.

This is the Sailor King Eagle with the 3rd gen nib design. Note that the frame and 1911 words are gone. This is a much cleaner design and I'm not sure if it's a better design.

Photo from Pen Boutique

The new Sailor Specialty Nib designs seem to be in line with the Sailor Casual L nib designs.

See this video above on the Sailor Casual L.

So those who like the intricate nib designs are gonna be disappointed with the cleaner and more simple design.

Should you still buy the Sailor Specialty Nib today?

This is a difficult question to answer because it depends on the reason you're getting the pen for? Does the brand mean anything to you? Are you buying the pen because of the nib design and the lines it can create?

Sailor is a good brand but it has to have some special meaning for you to spend thousands of dollars on a pen. The prices have increased so much that it has become excessive and it's difficult to recommend the Sailor Specialty Nib at today's prices.

I definitely will not be buying the pens that I have at today's prices. I make a special except for the Sailor King Eagle because that's the last Specialty Nib pen that I want. There's also the Sailor King Cobra but I'm not too interested in that.

A stacked nib is great for drawing because it can create a variety of line widths. And for the Sailor King Eagle, you can create 5 line widths consistently with one nib. That's not something most pen nibs can do.

The fountain pen market is now flooded with many Chinese fountain pens, and stacked nibs are becoming more common and can be purchased for less than USD 100 on AliExpress. I don't think stacked nibs are that special anymore.

I only found out about these Chinese stacked nibs recently from my friend, and it was before I purchased the Sailor King Eagle. Had I known about these Chinese "King Eagles", I may not have purchased the Sailor. We're talking about a price difference of several thousands of dollars, so the pen better be special or have some special meaning.

If you just want a fountain pen for drawing, there is certainly no need to spend that much money today with these Chinese fountain pens.

It's like why would you buy a Sailor Naginata Fude nib for USD 1500 or more today when you can get Chinese fude nib pen for less than USD 100? Seriously.

Competition is tough in the fountain pen market today. Fountain pen companies have to think of how they can market their pens to make the pens feel special and valuable when the lines the pens create are the same.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 08 Jul 2026 - 10:00

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Thanks for your great review…

Zhiwei (not verified) Sun, 12 Jul 2026 - 13:46

Thanks for your great review! Which Chinese Fude nib pen is good?

@Zhiwei Duke 209 is good but…

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 13 Jul 2026 - 17:43

@Zhiwei
Duke 209 is good but get the black matte body.

I'm exploring Chinese stacked nibs recently and will make review them soon. They are very good for the price, a fraction of what Sailor Specialty Nibs cost.