If you can gauge a pen by its name, then this pen has to be a heavy hitter. You can’t tell by the way it looks, though. The name refers to the nib, not to the body. A nib that deserves three nouns should be able to do anything short of tweeze eyebrows and squeeze juice from wheatgrass.Â
![Sailor Cross Music Emperor Sailor Cross Music Emperor nib](http://www.leighreyes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/nib-sideview.jpg)
The nib is actually two nibs. There’s a metal strip on top that acts as an overfeed, pushing more ink to the nib. Sailor’s Emperor nibs all have the overfeed.
![Sailor Cross Music Emperor Sailor Cross Music Emperor, nib slit](http://www.leighreyes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/nib-underside.jpg)
The “cross” in the name refers to the way the two nibs are slit. Usually, a single nib has a vertical slit. Here, there’s a horizontal slit as well. The cross cut allows more ink delivery to the paper. The iridium tipping is shaped so that when almost flat against paper, the nib delivers a very wide horizontal line and a thinner vertical line. That’s the way Sailor defines “music nib” in this case. Their regular flavor music nib is a stub with a single slit, not the three-tined design Pilot and Platinum have.
![Cross Music Empress "Cross Music Empress"](http://www.leighreyes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/grisnuage.jpg)
I think a Cross Music Emperor deserves a Cross Music Empress, and here she is, looking suitably cross. Watery, pale inks that look washed out in finer-nibbed pens come to life with a nib like this. On sturdy paper, thin lines can add texture over broad washes, something a regular nib could never accomplish.