Urushi in the attic

I've had a few days off work and while I was mostly relaxing (I also visited a Hamam bath which was very interesting) and/or bookbinding one day I grabbed some pens and took them to the attic to take some pictures on those old wooden floor boards.

Nakaya Portable Cigar tame-sukashi "a feather"

Danitrio Mikado and Genkai. The Mikado has been in use for ages now and I clearly prefer it over the Genkai. Maybe because of the nib (the Mikado has a rather crisp 0.8 italic) or because it's slightly shorter?

Both somewhat wabi sabi.

... this one isn't my fault however! Nakaya Portable Writer "Negoro".

Mystery pen unveiled: Pelikan maki-e Fantasia

This week there's no "Weekly Pens" picture as there's been virtually no change since last week! Instead the mystery pen is being unveiled.

It came in a golden cardboard box with a paulownia wood box and some papers inside. The kanji are unreadable to me but my guess would be they are spelling the name of the pen or maybe the workshop which made it? Maybe one of my readers knows?

After opening the lid of the wooden box, the pen is safely nestled within folds of cream satin.

According to Pelikan the design is inspired by kimono patterns. On a backdrop of byakudan-nuri work - flakes of gold foil covered by lacquer - cherry blossoms and hexagons are painted in different colors of lacquer. Each hexagon is filled with a traditional Japanese motif. There is also amber (I think) and raden work.

There's one with the Asanoha pattern, gold on greeen with silver center points. I really like this pattern. Might get it tattooed one day. More eye candy following:

What really makes this pen special is the idea of a non black background. It's perfect, warm and vibrant without being overly colorful (YMMV).
Right now there's a medium nib in it. Filled with Noodler's Antietam which seems to reflect the color of the reddish brown lacquer backdrop.

The magic of shu!

"Shu" means vermilion, an ancient dye made of pulverized cinnabar. Cinnabar is a mineral that has been used for decorative purposes for millennia. It has grown especially famous as "Chinese Red" as it was mixed with urushi and used for all kinds of lacquerware.

I'm not sure if modern days's red urushi is still dyed with cinnabar but I like the looks. I'm really having a hard time deciding which finish and color I like best!

Here's two shu pens, one by Nakaya (in matte, unpolished texture), the other by Namiki. Enjoy! More pictures and details to come.

Nakaya Portable Cigar shu-nurippanashi; Namiki Yukari Royal vermilion.

A glimpse of a Sailor kaga maki-e onagadori

Literally "long tailed birds" - maybe more accurate: birds of paradise!

Abalone shell and Urushi lacquer on ebony wood. Will post more pictures and info about the pen later this month.

Golden Autumn: A glimpse at a Danitrio Takumi

I had big plans on taking photos today but all I could manage were a few shots at this beautiful dark green tame-midori Takumi with flexible stub nib.

Danitrio Takumi in tame-midori

Tame-midori is an amazing color, deep and intense. Under cloudy skies or most artificial lighting the color looks quite dark and subtle. To bring out its full range broad daylight is best - on the downside you'll have to deal with dust and fingerprints which, as you can see, are extremely clearly visible on the dark, glossy surface.

Danitrio Takumi in tame-midori

It can also be seen in artificial light (quite a lot of it though) in this post about the Danitrio Octagon.

I am parting with this pen by the way! Very good used condition, minor micro scratches. About the size of a Montblanc 149, cartridge/converter fill, signed by the Urushi artist on the section. Factory flexible stub nib tweaked by John Sorowka for ink flow and smoothness. If you want to give this beautiful piece of art a new home, just drop me a note. :)

Sizing up: Namiki Yukari Nightline Moonlight

Someone on FPN asked me for a size comparison of my Namiki Yukari Nightline and I thought I'd share it here as well. The reference pen is a Montblanc 149.

Namiki Yukari Nightline Moonlight and Montblanc 1980's Meisterstück 149.

As you can see they're about equal in length but the Yukari is a little slimmer. Due to its brass body the Yukari still offers a nice weight and beautiful balance. One of these just-perfect pens.

Pelikan M1000 Sunlight

 ... yes, finally! :-D

It took me quite a while to work out the best lighting for Abalone shell and as I haven't had much success I went back to using plain daylight. So here's the long awaited pictures.

Pelikan M1000 Sunlight

Like the M1000 Moonlight it's Raden work done on a black M1000 corpus. The stripes on the Sunlight, however, are somewhat narrower and much more vivid in color, ranging from yellow to green, blue and purple. I could imagine this burst of color just needs to be counterbalanced by larger black spaces, else it would probably make you dizzy.
The color difference to the Moonlight, which is mostly done in shades of green, blue and purple, is due to different kinds of mother of pearl. First I thought it's just different parts of the shell, but it's actually different species. The sea snail with blue-green mother of pearl is found in the Australian sea whereas the other kind is found in the Japanese sea.

Pelikan M1000 Sunlight

Every raden strip is made of one piece, running over the full length of cap and barrel.

Pelikan M1000 Sunlight

Wouldn't it be a shame not to write with this pen? I certainly think so, so I've been writing with it on a daily basis for a few weeks now. Unlike many other collectibles this pen is neither weirdly shaped nor extremely heavy so it offers the writing feel you can expect from a Pelikan M1000. At the moment it's fitted with a sharpened-up O3B nib and filled with Iroshizuku Ajisai.

Pelikan M1000 Sunlight

Here's proof: a dirty nib.

I also took some pictures for direct comparison with the M1000 Moonlight which I will post a little later on. :)

Bye bye, black turtle!

Letting one of my Nakayas go...

The internet! It has made my pen collection larger and more diverse than it would ever have been without. In fact, without the internet I may never have encountered the kinds of pens I'm really into and not started accumulating any at all. You see things, you want to have them (happens to me all the time anyway), it's a curse as well as a blessing. A few days ago, however, someone posted a pen for sale which I've wanted for quite a long time - and wanted to trade for something I, incidentally, had and would not miss too much!

I like my Nakayas, but they will be here for a long time (or so I hope). I'll always be able to get a new one and there are others to play with. But getting one of those grail pens by trade, that opportunity wouldn't occur all the time.

Enough text - here's the pen which is getting a new home soon. The pictures are not of the usual quality because I only had access to a phone camera, but it should give an impression.

Nakaya Portable Writer tame-sukashi "Black Turtle"

It's a Portable Writer with a tame-sukashi design which is called the "Black Turtle". I love tame-sukashi, the subtlety of it and how you still can perceive a shimmer when moving the pen in the hand. This was my first tame-sukashi pen (I have now two left) and has become my least favorite one, mainly because of the clip. It pains me to admit it but I haven't written with that one for at least a year.

Nakaya Portable Writer tame-sukashi "Black Turtle"

The Montblanc Agatha Christie I'll be getting in return (plus something extra which I'll put to good use as well) is my first and probably only pen of that kind. It was issued years before I had an intense interest in fountain pens so of course I missed it and prices have skyrocketed since then. So I've watched it from afar... until lately.

Thank you, Internet! Offline, finding an opportunity like that would've been much more unlikely.

Agatha is currently inked with Iroshizuku yu-yake, her broad nib being a smooth and luscious writer. No pictures just yet because I'm redecorating my photo space this weekend - and not willing to ruin the experience with phone pictures again - but soon. (I also haven't forgotten about the pictures of the Pelikan Sunlight!)

Have you ever traded pens or something else? What was it? Are you still happy with it?

To think of spring

Christmas is over for a while now, and though the calendar tells us winter has only just begun I personally don't feel the need for any more snow and ice, both of which we've had rather a lot lately (comparably, of course. I don't mind if any Canadian or Scandinavian readers are laughing now. :D)

We're not really used to snow in this part of the country where winter usually means rain and, in short, a few more months of autumn, so when it snows it's usually something exciting (especially for children and car drivers) but when you've had it for a week you can't help but long for spring. It's like that for me anyway.
Leaving the house for work early in the morning, listening to the sound of snow under my feet while watching the slowly falling flakes in the orange light of the street lamps on my way to the train station: those are my favourite snow moments.

During the long wait for the spring I like to look at Namiki's Yukari "Yozakura" pen which depicts cherry blossoms as well as single flower petals in stunning purple, lilac, green and yellow hues of abalone shell. It's like watching the blossoms tumbling to the ground on a gust of wind.

Namiki Yukari Yozakura Raden.

This is just a glimpse as I'm still trying to create the right light for the Raden inlays to show their full beauty. Until I've succeeded this might give a small impression - and maybe makes you think of spring as well.

Do you also wish for the winter to end already or are is it your favourite time of the year? What sort of weather are you usually having in January?

A large canvas: Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri Urushi

This is one of my two Genkai pens and one of the three largest ones I own, the other one being a Sailor Susutake. These are large pens, probably made with the thought of a generous canvas for maki-e artwork in mind (which is as amazing as it is out of reach).

Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri

Seirei-Nuri is a technique which is, as far as I know, supposed to mimick the pattern of a dragonfly's wings. I sometimes can't help thinking "giraffe" when looking at this pen, it definitely looks like something that could occur in nature.  Every pen is made by hand, the pattern being unique to each.

Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri

Under the golden web, the distinct color gradient of tame-nuri Urushi is just visible. The golden web is made first by a sort of dipping technique, then sprinkled with gold dust. The red lacquer is applied over it but polished so the gold will show again in the end.
Like many Urushi surfaces this one will look very different depending on the lighting, from dark crimson to nearly orange in bright sunlight.

Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri

When I handed the pen to my Mum she suspected it to be a pen case. She was in for a surprise!

Montblanc Meisterstück 149, Danitrio Genkai, Pelikan M1000.

I said it was big, right? But that doesn't mean much when you don't have anything to compare it to, so here's the Genkai next to a Montblanc Meisterstück 149 and a Pelikan M1000.

Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri

I love how the pattern flows around the edges.

Danitrio Genkai in Seirei-Nuri

A pen as large as this needs an extra large nib - and so it got one. This one's a beautiful factory broad stub, not exactly flexible but soft and yielding, a reliable and very wet writer. It fills with an eyedropper and has an additional shutoff valve to prevent it from leaking when not in use, which works remarkably well.

A glimpse of Seirei-Nuri

... done on a Danitrio Genkai. Definitely one of my most eye-catching pens, for the size as well as for the striking pattern. More to come.

A Danitrio Genkai in seirei-nuri Urushi amidst Nakayas.

Happy 2013 everyone!

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight - The one that shines in the dark

Mystery Pen Unveiled

There are surfaces which love light, drink it, bathe in it while back in the shade they look subdued and dark. This also goes for pen's surfaces. Dark tame-nuri or tame-midori is an example, it can look almost black except when hit by a ray of sunlight (or a studio flash).

But then there's also those which start to shine when the light gets dim, like this Danitrio Mae West kawari-nuri which doesn't unfold its full charm in the sunlight.

Raden is another example, too much light and it looks dull. Put a Raden pen in a dimly lit spot and it will sparkle in the darkness like the neon lights of a nightly city.

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight and Namiki Yukari Nightline Moonlight

That the Mystery Pen was a Raden pen was easily discernible. Raden is a Japanese technique where pieces of abalone shell - beautiful colourful mother of pearl from Sea snails -, is attached to a surface with clear Urushi lacquer. It's often used in combination with maki-e and is a traditional Japanese art form. What makes the mystery pen all the more interesting is that it is a German pen, a Pelikan, to be accurate.

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight

The artwork, for which Pelikan employed a Japenese artist, Mr. Norio Matsuda, is done on the body of a Souverän M1000 as a limited edition from 2011. Raden work requires a lot of experience and patience. It's flawless. Mainly abalone pieces with a blue or green shimmer were picked to give an impression of cool moonlight, though their spectrum will also include a fair portion of purple depending on the viewing angle.

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight

I posted this picture already but I'll have to show it again because it shows the abalone's lovely surface so clearly. Look at those ripples, like waves in a grotto or under a strange moon. The abalone stripes, though, are perfectly straight. It's all optics.

Pelikan M1000 Moonlight

The great thing about this pen is that it can always be your daily writer no matter what nib you feel like using. As with all Souveräns, you can always switch the nib yourself quickly and easily. This one is a BB nib, ground to cursive italic by John Sorowka.

I felt that it was time to do a review of this pen, not only because I like it so much but also because there's not a whole lot of info around about this pen since so few pieces were made and the owners seem to prefer to keep quiet about it.

To see such large pieces of Raden on a pen seems to be relatively rare. More frequently what seems like a large pieces is many minute Raden fragments put together mosaic style. When I get to it I'll show some more examples of how it can be used. It's a fascinating topic. I don't know if I will ever feel old enough to wear pearls, but mother of pearl on pens... or the pearl on the Montblanc Greta Garbo ... that's another story altogether.

Nakayas nearly always lighten up my mood...

... which is why I need these pictures on a cold, grey and dark winter's morning like this one. The deep and vibrant colours, the wet-look glossy surface. Maybe you'll enjoy it as well, whatever the weather.

Danitrios, Nakayas and a Platinum Izumo.

Danitrios and Nakayas (and a savage dragon).

Oh noes it's broken! Nakaya Negoro

Occasionally - in fact, sometimes I think it's more often than not - it's not perfection that turns a nice thing into a great thing but the carefully placed imperfections in it. I've heard that Arabian carpet weavers purposefully put some mistakes into their work because they believe no human is able - and allowed - to claim perfection.

(I think this isn't a bad approach at all, though I'm not sharing the religious background. Why not carefully put a few mistakes into your letter, your painting, your crafting project? That would take so much pressure away.)

Nakaya Negoro shiro-tame nuri

With this pen, Nakaya has gone a deliberate step farther and added not only imperfections but downright destructed elements to their work of art. Flawless planes of amber-coloured lacquer are broken here and there where the surface appears to have cracked, jagged outlines exposing the dull ebonite underneath. 

This doesn't only look cool - to me anyway - but also feels interesting to the touch. It becomes apparent how thick the lacquer layer - or in fact, the many layers - on the ebonite corpus actually is, that it really is thinner at the gripping section, that most of the lacquer seems to be very light with only a slight touch of a dark varnish over it.

Nakaya Negoro shiro-tame nuri

This model is the mid-sized Portable Writer. The Negoro design is often done on a Piccolo, which I was a bit ambivalent about because, though I do like the Piccolo, I sometimes catch myself thinking "Hey, a bunch of money and all I'm going to get is such a small pen?". (Yes, that's irrational, absolutely! But well, at the moment that I decided to take the plunge on a Negoro and found out that nibs.com had one on a Portable size, I didn't take too long to make up my mind.)

Nakaya Negoro shiro-tame nuri

Love these cracks. They seem to enhance the glossy surface rather than destroy it. 

Nakaya Negoro shiro-tame nuri

The only thing I am a little ambivalent about on this pen - and this may come as a surprise - is the clip. I'm having a love/hate-relationship to clips, because despite I hardly ever clip the pens to anything and especially the Nakaya clips are not really beautiful to my eye, I appreciate their stopping the pen from rolling around. Yes, Nakaya do roll stoppers, but they're definitely not my cup of tea.

On the Negoro, I decided to go for the clip. That skilfully placed crack near the clip band.

 Nakaya Negoro shiro-tame nuri and Montblanc 149 

I also decided I'm going to do more size comparisons in the future because I always find them extremely helpful myself when reading about pens I don't know about. Here's next to a Montblanc 149, the Montblanc is a little fatter - though this Portable is actually quite a lot fatter than my other Nakayas, their sizes always varying a bit because they are hand turned - but else there's not much difference here. The Nakaya is a little lighter than the Montblanc when capped but a little heavier when uncapped. The cap doesn't post.

 The nib is a plain gold 0.9 mm stub done by John Mottishaw. Like all my pens I've got from him so far it works flawlessly, juicy and smooth, and this width is my favourite. I already have a cursive italic from him in the same size, I'll compare them some time.

Like all Nakayas, it's a c/c filler. Currently inked with Sailor Jentle Rikyu Cha (I have to write more about this ink sometime. This ink...! When I tried it first I thought "uh, mud". But it's so much more than that. There's green in it, olive, brown shading... I'll show you.)

The most curvy - Danitrio Mae West II

Mae is here!

You could see Kevin's picture of this beauty here a little while ago when it hadn't arrived with me yet. Now I've had it for about two weeks - and also had one week off work, thus plenty of time to take pictures - but I wasn't satisfied enough with the pictures to show them. I'm still not, not really, but still I want to show this pen now.

Danitrio Mae West in kawari-nuri "rose gold" - Even the top of the section is decorated.

Kevin encouraged me to look at the finish in different lightings because it would make the pen's colours vary pretty much. The difference can already be seen by comparing the photos above and below this paragraph, and it is a lot more pronounced when comparing artificial light to daylight where it will look more red-and-yellow.

According to Danitrio, kawari-nuri is a really elastic term which covers all sorts of free-style lacquer work. If anyone happens to know the specific term for this kind of finish I'd be happy to be informed!

 Danitrio Mae West in kawari-nuri "rose gold" - On the ends of cap and barrel, the pencil strokes form small spirals. 

When I unpacked "Mae" it was evening, the light was dim and warm and  I was - as expected - absolutely smitten by it: The pen's surface dark gold, seemingly three dimensional, the fine golden brush strokes catching the light. Look at the cap in the picture above and you'll see how some of the golden areas reflect the light more than others. As I take the pen up in my hand the reflections will wander, highlight here and there.

Danitrio Mae West in kawari-nuri "rose gold"

In addition to the amazing lacquer finish "Mae" also has a rather unique silhouette. No straight lines here, every surface curved, tapered. The pen is the classic oversize length which it shares with a Montblanc 149, Pelikan M1000 or Visconti Homo Sapiens OS, but it's breaking those boundaries in width. Especially the cap is quite a lot fatter.
The surface, besides being gorgeous, is not as mirror-y glossy as in my other Urushi pens. There are spots where small irregularities can be seen and felt, betraying what's going on under the surface, that those vivid brush strokes indeed have formed a relief before being covered by transparent lacquer.

 Danitrio Mae West in kawari-nuri "rose gold" - red or golden? I couldn't say. 

The nib is the usual smaller Danitrio nib which my Takumi and Octagon share. It comes in a variety of sizes, both stiff and flexible. It's the least spectacular thing about the pen, in fact it needs some tweaking, but that lead to me taking the leap and exchanging the nib on my own (I'm still kind of holding my breath). The nibs pulled quite easily, resetting took a few tries, not because it was hard to get nib and feed back in but because fractions of millimeters mean a lot to how the ink flow will behave. I'm satisfied with the results. Mae still has a flexible stub nib, but one tweaked by John Sorowka.
(There's only one occasion I got more ink on my fingers: When I wanted to eyedropper fill a pen and overestimated its ink capacity. Of course if you were sensible and patient you would flush the pen with water first.)

 Danitrio Mae West in kawari-nuri "rose gold" - Writing sample with flexible stub nib and  Diamine "Ancient Copper" 

I like to match pen and ink colour wise and Ancient Copper seems like the perfect choice here.

Danitrio's flexible nibs are, unlike some other so-called modern day nibs, truly very flexible, so much so that sometimes the feed will just give up on providing the necessary ink flow. On these occasion capillary action between the tines will break, leading to "railroading" clearly visible in the lower part of writing sample (which I made happen for you for totally scientific purposes of course).

Like most other aspects of fountain pen writing this is highly dependent on the nib/paper/ink combination. With this ink railroading happens on Rhodia paper more frequently than on the Clairfontaine Triomphe. With another ink it might be quite different, still I doubt the nib could provide flex for pages on end like a vintage flex pen. Still those Danitrio nibs have a wonderfully soft feel to them and also, due to the yielding tines, seem to me more forgiving in terms of writing angles than other stubs and italics.