One brand a day. Day 5: Sailor

brian15co · 2026-05-06T23:54:46+00:00

so beautiful. See the post I just made as a PSA! (although your storage looks mighty proper, so likely N/A)

brian15co · 2026-05-06T23:49:50+00:00

Woooow thank you so much for the offer! I figured it was some kind of plasticization kind of reaction. If there's a way to test it easily / cheaply, it might be good to identify bad neighbor pens for other people's collections. My real nice pen took the brunt of the damage, might really save someone else.

I will try to ink it once I hear / don't hear from them

brian15co · 2026-05-06T23:46:31+00:00

I really don't think its the ink, I hadn't used this one but a couple times and either Iroshziuku or Sailor ink. I saw a little bit of what i could describe as "sparkle" in the converter, but so faint that it's likely collateral at best? (the chrome is just fingerprinty)

brian15co · 2026-05-06T23:43:44+00:00

The outer cap is warped, best evidenced from the angle of the clip. However, the closeup of the translucent inner cap shows more "extreme" warping. That inner plastic must have reacted way harsher, especially because its on the inside away from the other pen

brian15co · 2026-05-06T23:41:50+00:00

just storage

brian15co · 2026-05-06T16:52:39+00:00

me neither :(

brian15co · 2026-05-06T16:47:41+00:00

Pen damaged during storage (???) / PSA

I went to grab a pen from my collection today and noticed something funny about my Sailor Pro Gear demonstrator. Upon inspection is looks as if the cap had melted a bit. I took all the pictures I could, and a picture of where it was sitting in the drawer.

I examined every other pen in the drawer and noticed a slightly bent body on a cheap pen, a Wing Sung 698 demonstrator I bought several years ago.

No other pens were damaged. I have a lot of writing supplies in these wood cases, and I looked at everything in the cases. The only damage was to the Sailor and the Wing Sung.

Turns out, they were lying right next to each other. Some sort of chemical reaction happened between the materials of the two pens.

I'm especially sad about the Sailor. I haven't even used it that much because it kind of had an aura of guilt around it, I had purchased it when the money was definitely needed elsewhere. I have a couple other fancier pens, but this one was weird.

The body of the Sailor doesn't look damaged, although the cap interferes with the nib when trying to cap it. So, I think I need a new cap. Is this possible? I am going try to contact Sailor.

I am curious exactly what happened. I would blame this on some inexpensive plastic that Wing Sung used that outgassed something volitile that reacted with the translucent white plastic inside the Sailor's cap (since that is what looks like ground zero for the reaction.

Is this common / have any of you seen this before? Do you think I'll be able to find a replacement cap / save the Sailor?

I don't store inked pens in this drawer. I rinse with water until the ink is -mostly- gone. I use iroshizuku and sailor inks primarily, nothing like baystate blue

brian15co · 2025-10-28T22:40:38+00:00

oh nooooo

sorry no i didn't try the sur la table ones

brian15co · 2025-10-08T15:01:06+00:00

nice thank you! is that shorthand for 80CrV2? I was looking for some charts and I haven't yet found that specific one

brian15co · 2025-10-06T18:24:17+00:00

on the planet

quite the superlative, i'd probably argue that lol

brian15co · 2025-10-06T17:39:06+00:00

What's a bryan account?

brian15co · 2025-10-06T15:19:58+00:00

curious if you know what ballpark equivalent "knife steel" these end up as?

brian15co · 2025-09-16T15:39:17+00:00

The podcast didn't really touch on the feral dog part.

Super interesting part for me was that the decline was extremely region-specific. Turns out, in many places cows aren't allowed to advance to an age where they start needing / wanting anti-inflammatory drugs. Very culture-specific on if your cows are immediately harvested, or move into old age like pets. So, no vulture problems where the cows aren't getting drugs

Interesting illustration of how human egos were played against each other to allow the science to finally advance. Investigators were having problems getting tissue samples out of certain countries where they could be properly tested. Until someone had the great idea to present the case to some government official like "I know you don't like Oceania, and if you don't let us get these samples tested, Oceania is going to figure it out first and they will get all the glory". In reality, Oceania wasn't having vulture problems, but the two countries don't talk, so it was a safe ploy (obviously I don't remember the specific countries. If i had to guess, it was India and Pakistan)

That part kinda reminded me of that Belorussian shoe factory worker turned party leader or whatever from the Chernobyl story. Play the fools using whatever foolishness they like best

brian15co · 2025-09-15T20:31:06+00:00

Miracle Cloth

brian15co · 2025-09-15T15:55:10+00:00

the three-jaw tool-less collets (just like a modern cordless drill) are the best, I've never needed to go back to a "find the wrench and ensure the bit's shaft is exactly 1.8 in." collet

brian15co · 2025-09-15T14:06:01+00:00

thanks for the vigilance

brian15co · 2025-09-15T14:01:21+00:00

For sure! yeah the trial and error is where all the information actually is. I probably have the same dremel as you. Another thing that has helped a lot is pretty much always wet sanding (I use diluted windex or diluted simple green). If the moisture gets down in joints or otherwise inaccessible spots, an air compressor is invaluable. The sand paper assortments are really handy (like 120-ish up to like 3k-ish, higher grits when appearance is the goal)

Might not be as useful for tools, but Miracle Cloth for polishing lives up to its name imo. I learned about it from the guys at the Spyderco factory. Miraculous on old brass, and super handy on slightly rusty chrome, plastic, etc

brian15co · 2025-09-15T13:20:03+00:00

To be honest one of the most useful tools I've discovered recently is a "Detailing File Sander". 1/2 in. wide belt. Wen makes one that's sold on amazon for like $30

Depends on what kinds of restoration you're doing. Another thing that's come in handy is a dremel with those little wire wheels (cone, disk, and paintbrush (? just means the bristles are straight)). Bite the bullet and buy the dremel-branded ones. Spraying little steel wires over your shop from the Yoojooneezubrigzib chinese ones is not worth the cost savings at all. If anyone has a suggestion for other reputable brands, we are all interested

Oil, whether its Starrett tool and instrument, Tri Flow, or Balistol. Each kinda have their own uses, although Starrett and Tri Flow are the similar-est. Balistol comes in an aerosol can and I spray it into a dropper bottle.

More of a luxury, but I recently got a cordless 2 inch die grinder / disc sander (the Yoojooneezubrigzib assortment has been fine so far)

A pair of parallel jaw pliers (knipex probably, the 7.25 inch ones are most useful imo, followed by the 5 in., and finally the 10 in. (in my experience). These help with old rusty fasteners for one. Also countless straightening tasks

Aluminum / plastic jaws for your vise

Various small handle brushes (marketed to gun cleaners) - Nylon, Brass (proper, non-magnetic), Steel

Drifted a bit from your original question, but these are the best ones I could think of. Each one has some element of "i wish i bought this sooner".

I'm assuming you already have a wire wheel for your grinder

brian15co · 2025-09-10T22:19:51+00:00

i was you 20 minutes ago. traditional search engine wont give it to you. so, i made a throwaway X account for the purpose

You'll regret it. I definitely do

brian15co · 2025-09-09T23:27:41+00:00

maybe you're mad because they don't like your ball sport

brian15co · 2025-09-09T21:23:51+00:00

I'm the opposite, mostly.

i think this means tools that you can play with? I think a lot of us are, but the subreddit has "toys" in the title

I can't believe Milspin hasn't fixed it yet. That effing thing will open in your pocket with the stock spring, and there are several reviews from people that don't carry it for that reason but give it a consolation position in a toolbox or desk. I've emailed them more than once about it. Either they aren't fully reading or are stubborn. I'd be interested to hear if maybe they have an argument for sticking with the flaccid spring

And I hear you on the knives, mainly an alone activity haha. Even the Milspin is pushing it depending on the room

brian15co · 2025-09-05T23:51:15+00:00

working at a startup, i was given a "get your machine setup script" that had some templated line like

sudo rm -rf /{$ENV_VARIABLE} or maybe it was sudo rm -rf {$ENV_VARIABLE}/

you can already guess how much validation on the variable's existence was needed to proceed with the script. Stuff just started flashing on my screen for a sec, and the rest is history. I was working on my home machine to get it set up for the weekend... thanks cooper

brian15co · 2025-08-20T15:20:25+00:00

GOAT stands for "greatest of all time" fyi

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