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Dear all, I have 2 Nakaya's, clipless versions Cigar Aka Tamenuri and Piccolo long in Kuro Tamenuri. Both comes from the dealers and now I thinking to personalize them- put my signature in Kanji. This option in Nakaya company available for new orders, but I afraid that it will be too difficult and pricy to send them old Nakaya with inquiry only for maki-e sighature.. May be there are other independent artists who can make (draw) signature in this technique on my Nakayas? Thank you in advance for suggestions! Giedrius

臆 病 者

Hi everyone, I have recently decided to purchase my first Nakaya pen, settled for a Neostandard, Kuro-Tamenuri, with clip, Zogan and chinese characters. Since I practice Chinese calligraphy, the characters are a part of the pen I really pay attention to. In this particular, I hope you will forgive my honesty, I have found most of the writing done in Nakaya pens to be very ugly. Now, I don't know if this is because of the level of difficulty that is certainly involved in writing characters on a pen, but on the other hand, I look at some of the intricate designs that other Nakaya pens have and I just don't think they don't have an artist capable of writing better characters. It might be that this is why Nakayas are cheaper compared to, say, Danitrio pens? Don't get me wrong,I'm have seen some characters written beautifully on some Nakaya pens, but most of what I've seen isn't very good in my opinion. I mean, look at the great design, great urushi finishing...the characters are just not as good as some other aspects of the pen. When I asked Nakaya about changing the caligraphy style to cursive (行书，行草), they told me they could not do it, but could copy any script I provided them for two hundred dollars. Of course, I might be completely wrong, for taste is very subjective and personal, yet, after appreciating Chinese caligraphy for many years, I still think they could do a much better job. I would appreciate if anyone has any input on this.

Hi folks, I've searched for older threads but didn't find quite what I was looking for. Sorry if I'm repeating a topic that's been done before. Does anyone have any tips on regular Japanese handwriting with a fountain pen? Not calligraphy or any fancy script, but just regular, everyday handwriting. Aside from the fact that I need a fairly fine point to achieve decent results, are there any guides out there? Any suggestions much appreciated!

Hey there Everyone, This is my first post in a long while but I've been driven back here for the same reason that originally brought many of us together: I'm looking for a new pen to buy! As the title says I'm looking for a pen that would be good for writing Japanese characters - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. I'm currently taking a Japanese class and not knowing the writing systems well is crippling as we're already expected to use full Hiragana on assignments and are currently learning Katakana. (After less than three weeks) I'm no foreigner to language classes but this is my first non-Western language and I want to make writing practice a bit more enjoyable. I think we can all agree that joyful writing and fountain pens go hand in hand. I currently own a Lamy Safari - EF, Lamy Studio - F, a F Aurora of a model I can't currently recall but it was about $100 at the Fountain Pen Hospital and a F Parker IM. I like each of these pens but it's been quite some time since my last pen purchase and this is good enough cause for me. Seeing as this will be my go to pen for any and all Japanese writing (and I'll be doing quite a bit of it) I'm willing to invest a bit but am still restricted by a students budget. Something in the $100-$150 range is comfortable and a bit more is possible. I'm looking for something with good line variation. Japanese characters were originally made with a brush and a pen with more variation will give a similar effect. Something a bit lighter than the Studio would be nice. I find my hand tires out when going so slow and concentrating on each character while using it. I always love an elegant nib but that's pretty secondary if the pen writes like a true gem. Other than that I have no preferences. Pen colour and body material are totally open. Thanks in advanced for your insight and happy writing!

Noodler's La Couleur Royale - on Rhodia dotPad N°16 paper - with a TWSBI Diamond 580, medium nib - from a 2 ml sample Ink characteristics Flow? Good flow. Lubrication? Above average. Shading? Just below moderate. Spread? No complaints. (none?) Feathering? None observed on Rhodia paper. Saturation? Medium-high; well-saturated. Show-through? Some on Rhodia paper. Bleed-through? None on Rhodia paper. Smear (dry)? No. Waterproof? No. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7365/9052004336_b5805cab4a_o.jpgNoodler's La Couleur Royale by jakoblwells, on Flickr http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/9052005732_9f7446ae06_b.jpgNoodler's La Couleur Royale [back] by jakoblwells, on Flickr http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/9049773315_912e9c3b58_o.jpgNoodler's La Couleur Royale [extra] by jakoblwells, on Flickr