Nakaya Fountain Pen

[ojars]

At the beginning of February, I placed an order for a Nakaya fountain pen. My “Writer Wajima-Urushi nuri Kikyo long pen” has arrived two weeks ago. I was influenced to buy by the excellent comments about Nakaya in FPN. When I learned that Nakaya fountain pens are hand made by retired master craftsmen, in my admiration for such a policy, I simply had to acquire a bespoke fountain pen straightaway.

 

Inside the substantial shipping box were a tasteful gold box and the credentials for my Nakaya fountain pen.

 

 

The gold box held a wonderful wooden box with wooden hinges. My entire order was in the wooden box – fountain pen, ink cartridges, maki-e converter, pen pillow. A beautiful pen pouch protects the fountain pen.

 

 

The design is uncluttered and all elements are superbly executed. The nib is 14K fine. Note the inlaid gold zo-gan on the section. I also requested a name in script Kanji executed in gold. The two pens resting on the pen pillow show the size of my Nakaya fountain pen in comparison to one of my early Pelikan M800 fountain pens. The Writer is a long pen indeed!

 

 

I have used the Nakaya fountain pen for many days and I continue to be impressed. This pen has the lightest touch of any of my fountain pens, as if I were writing on air! The line it puts down is a wonderfully even fine. The Platinum cartridges are excellent!

 

 

I look forward to the pleasures of watching the urushi finish gain transparency with time and further reveal the colors of this pen. I will take pictures someday in hopes that the changes can be documented rather than relying on my imagination!

 

The fountain pen is wonderful. The experience of acquiring it is also wonderful. Highly recommended!

 

 

Disclaimer – I can only sigh with regret that I am not connected with this business in some substantial financial manner.

Edited May 3, 2007 by ojars

[Johnson]

Really, just really, gorgeous. Thank you so much for sharing, and congratulations on a beautiful pen!

[jonro]

Congratulations on owning a true pen of distinction. I hope it gives you many years of writing pleasure.

[alvarez57]

I am glad you bought one. I have the Aka-Tamenuri Writer in Flexible M.

Enjoy it!

Edited August 11, 2007 by alvarez57

[Mike S.]

What a nice pen! Surprisingly large, too.

 

I recently received my first Nakaya -- a black Piccolo cigar pen with a soft fine nib -- and have had a similar experience. I find the pen to be fantastically well-crafted and the inkflow to be just perfect -- very steady and even. My pen came loaded with a cartridge, so when I uncapped it and went to test out the nib on paper fresh out of the box, it wrote! A very pleasant and thoughtful surprise. The blue-black cartridges are indeed very nice and hold a lot of ink. I have been writing with mine for days and am still on the original cartridge. I plan to refill it with a syringe once my box of cartridges is gone.

 

I don't know if they all have this or if it's something they added to the one they shipped with the pen, but the cartridge in my pen has a ball inside (like a can of spraypaint). I suspect it may contribute to the smooth and regular flow of ink to the nib.

 

The only criticism I have of the pen is that my nib was quite scratchy out of the box. Admittedly, it is a very fine nib (a Japanese fine is incredibly fine in this user's opinion), and I find virtually all fine nibs to be scratchy. However, this was not mere toothiness (like an Aurora) but was particularly pronounced -- the inner edges of the tipping material were razor sharp and really dug into the paper on loops and swirls, particularly from lower left toward upper right. After flossing the nib with a thin piece of brass and writing figure 8s and cursive Ls on a sheet of ultra-fine mylar finishing paper, I managed to get it to be reasonably smooth, although it retains a somewhat tactile feel (some of you might call this "feedback" and might find it enjoyable). Some might say it is unacceptable for a new pen to need any adjustment out of the box (particularly a custom-made pen that has been tweaked by a master craftsman to my exact specifications prior to shipment), but I have never experienced any pen that wrote perfectly right out of the box. They all need some amount of attention (either alignment of the tipping, properly seating the nib on the feed, and polishing out minor burrs and rough spots). Most two-tone nibs are plated and are not truly smooth until the gold plating has worn off. I ordered the single-tone nib with my Nakaya for just this reason, but it didn't seem to help.

 

In retrospect, I should have ordered the pen with a medium nib. I didn't, however, because nearly all of my pens have medium nibs and I wanted to try something new. I also know that Japanese pen manufacturers are known for making excellent fine nibs, so I thought this was worth the risk. I think it is possible that I will learn to like this flexible fine nib with time (and perhaps it will smooth out after a few more miles of writing with it, though I doubt it). I contacted Nakaya about ordering an additional nib unit in the medium width but they said they do not sell the nib units separately -- you have to buy the whole pen. I guess that's the way it is when they are handmade -- they don't have a bin full of parts lying around that they can dip into and send to you. If you want one, they have to make it.

 

I ordered the less expensive black version rather than the more expensive blackish-red urushi finish I initially wanted (based on the review I read here on FPN) because I wanted to see how I liked a Nakaya pen before I plunked down nearly $500 for one. Based on the build quality and the excellent flow of this particular example, I am quite certain that a pen with a smooth medium nib in my preferred finish would be a wonderful addition to my collection. It is on my list.

[playpen]

What a gorgeous treasure! We rejoice with you!

[Dan Carmell]

Really a gorgeous pen! I like that blue a lot, bright without being a bit garish.

 

Would you explain about the inlaid zoban on the section? That caught my eye right away! It is just a bit of detailing or is there more to the story?

 

Many congratulations on your new pen! You've joined a very elite club and you have a pen to cherish forever.

 

best, Dan

[TMLee]

Do they come in Stub nib widths ?

[Phthalo]

What a beautiful pen! It's great to hear about how much you enjoy it. I'm always re-surprised at how big the Writer models are whenever I see a photo!

 

I'm waiting for my second Nakaya, and will have a third in the works shortly after the second arrives. I find the Piccolo Cigar to be perfectly suited to my hand, and writing with one is a joy. My first Nakaya, the precious and beloved Kuro-Tamenuri, comes to work with me at least two days a week.

 

The EF on my first Nakaya was not adjusted to my hand - it was just the regular EF which PenGallery were stocking at the time. It performs flawlessly, and hasn't given me one concern.

 

The Platinum Blue-Black ink is really great ink too, and I'm liking it more and more. The ball-bearing inside the cartridge is standard. I was mentioning to someone recently how nice the low and subtle sound is, when a cartridge is loaded and the ball-bearing echoes inside the ebonite body of the pen.

[ojars]

I liked the look of the zogan, now spelled more correctly. It gives a visual reference of the alignment of the pen.

 

From the Nakaya site --

 

We reprinted inlaying style on a grip section which was very populer during the golden period (1960's) of

Japanese fountain pens. This is a little differnt from a true inlaying in terms of manufacturing process.

However, the external and feeling of quality have a profound of that time.

 

What is "Zo-gan" ?

Inlaying is called Zo-gan in Japanese.

In English, inlaying is called Damashene and this word comes from the birthplace of "Zo-gan", a place of

Damascene city in Syria in the 8th century and came to Japan in the 14th though Silk road.

 

(Zo) means moulding, (gan) means setting.

So Zo-gan means a technology which sets a material to different materials.

Zo-gan which Nakaya reprinted this time is applied Maki-e technique, so this technique does not agree

with a complete definition, but Nakaya hopes you will recall a golden days by this Zo-gan and retro feelings

of a grip which has an extended shape and looks like a trumpet.

Edited May 3, 2007 by ojars

[Renzhe]

"Correct?"

 

Anyway, that's a huge pen in an unusual color (for lacquer). Nice review!

Edited May 3, 2007 by Renzhe

[Djehuty]

Beautiful pen! Some day... some day...

 

If they'll put a name in kanji on the pen, I wonder if I could convince them to use hieroglyphs instead. A lapis-blue pen with gold hieroglyphs spelling out a good, authentic scribal epithet would make me happier than happy... as I'm sure you must be with that absolutely gorgeous pen.

 

[ojars]

Well, well!

 

The Nakaya folks do customization. Likely your wish can be made real.

[Escribiente]

Nice review, and fantastic Nakaya. Following the positive reviews here, I got the Piccolo, with a Medium nib that writes more like a smooth, wet fine nib.

 

http://escribidor.home.att.net/Pens/Piccolo.jpg

[southpaw]

Excellent review and very nice photos! Enjoy your beautiful pen, and thanks for sharing!

[kaisede]

Hi

 

The name painting, was it $25 per charater or $25 per pen. Nakaya website do not explain this well.

[Vintage Pens Fan]

Hi

 

The name painting, was it $25 per charater or $25 per pen. Nakaya website do not explain this well.

 

Hi,

 

It is $25 per pen, done by Makie-E. Mine was "Sun, Moon, & Clarity (Sun & Moon put together) in Chinese characters...Took 7 weeks, but well worth the wait.

 

You will love the pen.

 

Good luck,

Dave

[kaisede]

Hi

 

The name painting, was it $25 per charater or $25 per pen. Nakaya website do not explain this well.

 

Hi,

 

It is $25 per pen, done by Makie-E. Mine was "Sun, Moon, & Clarity (Sun & Moon put together) in Chinese characters...Took 7 weeks, but well worth the wait.

 

You will love the pen.

 

Good luck,

Dave

 

 

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Very Nice Pen Indeed. I am used to have a pen with clip on it but after looking at some of the Nakaya, Dani Trio pen not having a clip looks really good on those pen.

[nakayafan]

I recently received my first Nakaya -- a black Piccolo cigar pen with a soft fine nib <snip...>

 

I don't know if they all have this or if it's something they added to the one they shipped with the pen, but the cartridge in my pen has a ball inside (like a can of spraypaint). I suspect it may contribute to the smooth and regular flow of ink to the nib.

 

They all do that, I've got a few Nakayas, and I've bought a bunch of replacement platinum cartridges, and the cartridges themselves have a little ball bearing in them.

 

The only criticism I have of the pen is that my nib was quite scratchy out of the box. <snip...>

 

Sorry to cut short the quote above (those interested can scroll back to read the whole bit), but just wanted to mention that with two soft/fine nibs I purchased from Nakaya, they started off with a bit of tooth, but wore in quickly and write great now. Although it didn't trouble me as much, they definitely had a lot of tooth to them right out of the box, but it definitely wore in smooth.

 

I have a couple Nakaya pens with a medium (non flex) nib, and they write great as well (but of course different than the soft fine). The mediums were butter smooth right out of the box, and I like them very much, but my favorite Nakaya nib is the flex fine. The flex fine likes a light touch on the start of the stroke, but I find I can press on the latter part and get some nice variation. If I don't press, I can use the soft fine to get a very fine line, great for trying to fit a lot in a small area for note taking.

 

-- Gordie

 

[acfrery]

Do they come in Stub nib widths ?

Hi TMLee,

 

I bought my Nakaya with a B Stub nib, and it gave me lots of headaches. It skipped badly, and sending it back to Japan was out of questions due to local taxes. I kept on using it with a variety of inks and papers, and after a long time it has become a reliable writer. In retrospect, if I were to order another Nakaya (which, for me, is highly unlikely) I would not order a stub; I would rather choose one of their medium or fine nibs, which everybody seems to enjoy (almost) out of the box, and I would send it to a nibmeister.

 

Alejandro