Davidoff After 10 Years

In 2015, a “techincal partnership” between luxury brand Davidoff and Sailor gave rise to the Very Zino line of pens which were, in actual terms, made by the Japanese company.

The two resulting models, the unnamed regular and the Mini, were generated around the big and the medium sizes of Sailor nibs, following the company's naming. In fact, the pens are little else than variations on the Profit and ProGear units included in its catalog, but priced at a much higher point.

	. 2015 .		. 2025 .
	. Sailor .	. Davidoff .	. Sailor .	. Davidoff .
Medium / Mini .	. 10000 (14 K) . 15000 (21 K)	. 28000 (18 K) .	. 18000 (14 K) (*) . 28000 (21 K)	. 33000 (18 K) (**) .
Big	20000 (21 K)	30000 (18 K)	32000 (21 K)	35000 (18 K) (**)

Prices of Davidoff and equivalent Sailor pens in 2015 and 2025 in JPY before taxes. For Sailor models the cheaper possible price among the different variants was chosen.
(*) In 2025, the transparent version of the Sailor Profit Light/Standard has a price of JPY 17000.
(**) The 2025 prices of the Davidoff pens are those of the later catalog. Discounts up to 50% can be found in Tokyo.

For some reason, the Davidoff pens did not do well, and by 2018 the brand was nowhere to be seen in the pen scene in Japan. Well, not exactly true—leftover Davidoff pens can be seen heavily discounted at some retailers.

On the picture, a Davidoff Very Zino Resin in black with a silver trim and a rhodiated nib.

Davidoff Very Zino Resin.

This pen, as well as its smaller sibling the Very Zino Resin Mini, came with two possible trims –gold and silver, with matching nibs—, and in two different colors—black and red (burgundy). The nib points, on both models, were EF, F, M, and B.

The Very Zino on its catalog.

Davidoff's nibs are geometrically identical –therefore, interchangeable— to those in the Sailor pens. The only difference, besides the obvious detail of the engraving, lies on the purity of the gold—21 K and 14 K for Sailor, 18 K for Davidoff, although in some distant past, Sailor also used 18 K gold for their big nibs.

From top to bottom, Sailor Black Luster, Davidoff Very Zino Resin, and Sailor ProGear.

The Very Zino pens use standard cartridges and converters, and for that purpose the Sailor feeds and sections had to be modified to accommodate a different cartridge nipple.

Sailor on the left, Davidoff on the right. In between, their corresponding feeds.

Davidoff's pens share the fundamental dimensions with the Sailor counterparts. The differences are limited to the finials, and caps, sections and barrels are interchangeable among them. The only limitation is associated to the extra length of the standard converter in the Davidoff—it does not fit in the Sailor barrels.

These are the dimensions of the Davidoff Very Zino Resin (regular) pen together with those of the Sailor Profit (in the Black Luster version) and of the ProGear:

	Davidoff .Very Zino.	Sailor .Black Luster.	Sailor . ProGear .
Length closed (mm)	133	141	128
Length open (mm)	120	123	116
Length posted (mm)	149	154	148
Diameter (mm)	16.7	16.0	15.9
Weight (dry, g)	38.6	28.4	24.5
Ink deposit (ml)	. 0.7/1.45/0.8 (*) .	1.2/0.7 (**)	. 1.2/0.7 (**) .

Dimensions of the standard size Davidoff Very Zino together with those of the 21 Series of the Sailor (Profit) Black Luster and Pro Gear.
(*) Volumes of the short standard cartridge, long standard cartrige, and the Davidoff standard converter.
(**) Volumes of the Sailor cartridge and Sailor converter.

The Davidoff pen in standard size shares the section with the Profit Black Luster (and other FL models, of course). In the case of the Mini, there is no equivalent in the Sailor catalog. This detail adds some value to the Davidoffs as they are either unique or higher in the their position compared to Sailor models.

But, as previously mentioned, three years after their release in Japan, Davidoff was gone. I dare to say that the pricing was wrong and the goal of positioning those pens as a more luxurious product with respect to the equivalent Sailor models did not really work. After all, Davidoff might very well be a luxury brand, but it is a nobody in the world of fountain pens.

JD Fake Custom Urushi – Taccia Kuro

Bruno Taut
February 25th, 2025
etiquetas: Sailor, Davidoff, mercado

Ohashido No More

Some weeks ago, blogger Fudefan released the news—Mr. Uehara had stopped the production of Ôhashidô pens in December of 2024.

Ôhashidô's lathe in 2023.

These news have surprised most of us. Not much information we really know and we can only speculate.

We do know, though, that Mr. Uehara had been struggling to source nibs for several years. Let us remember that he was using Sailor nibs, and Sailor went as far as engraving them in origin —that is in Kure— with the Ôhashidô imprint. But at some point, that relationship strained leaving Mr. Uehara in a difficult situation—fewer nibs meant fewer pens and lower sales. Making ends meet, therefore, became harder.

Some Ôhashidô pens on display at Maruzen's Pen Fair, March 2022.

Was that all the problem? Probably not, but it surely contributed to the demise of the brand.

Long ago I described Ôhashidô as a preindustrial operation, a one-man company without any system in the production. Chaotic as it might sound, that was also part of the appeal.

Some Ôhashidô products.

But Ôhashidô is no more, and we can only turn our eyes to all those old pens –even if there were recently made— to enjoy the charms of Uehara's works.

Well, we can also look for leftover pens in the hands of some retailers...

Ôhashidô's booth at Mitsukoshi's Fountain Pens of the World fair in 2017.

Ôhashidô, you will be missed. Uehara-san, please come back soon.

Asvine V126 – Waterman Florida Blue

Bruno Taut
February 17th, 2025
etiquetas: Ôhashidô, mercado

Even More Chinese Capless

By now we know how Chinese pen makers, when trying to capitalize the success of capless pens, have taken the route of copying well-known models: Lanbitou copied Platinum, Jinhao and Moonman copied Pilot. But, is there room for creating new and different models?

It seems so, actually.

The following pen is a Dianshi, and it is a capless pen, an inexpensive capless pen.

Dianshi DS-784

The Dianshi DS-784's price is about 4 to 5 USD. It is made entirely of plastic and, most likely, it can only be inked with proprietary cartridges. It carries no markings save a fairly big sticker by the clip, and on the box.

These are its dimensions:

Length closed: 14.1 mm
Length open: 13.9 mm
Diameter: 10.5 mm
Weight: 14.0 g (with an empty cartridge)

Externally, the pen looks very symmetrical (save for the obvious clip). However, the area close to the nose is molded in a quasi triangular shape to ease the grip.

The nib lid –essential on a capless pen to prevent it from drying up-- opens to the right of the nib. By means of an elastic material (see the pic). This movement makes the nib point very visible to the user as long as he was right-handed. Lefties, though, might be left in the dark, although this would depend on each particular grip.

How durable is that mechanism?

The lid, to the right. The nib, made of steel.

The clip, interestingly enough, is located on the upper side of the pen, close to the push button. This detail might please some users, but the undesirable effect is that the nib will face downwards when carrying the pen on a shirt pocket. Who would want to take this risk?

Moonman and Dianshi, side by side.

All in all, this Dianshi pen seems an interesting product as it is an attempt to create an original pen instead of being just a copy of a well-known product by other maker. It also comes with some defects, but there is hope in honest error, as C. R. MacIntosh once said.


My thanks to Mr. Shimizu.

Jinhao Dadao 9019 – Diamine Bilberry

Bruno Taut
February 4th, 2025
Etiquetas: Dianshi, capless, mercado