Nakaya Ao-Tamenuri Decapod Twist - It's Here!

[Mkim]

Very lovely!

 

Thank you for posting your photos!

The twist is done quite nicely...would love to have a chance in holding one to see how it feels

[quinden]

Thanks, MKim!

 

I don't know if you have a local pen club/posse, but you might get lucky and find someone close with a Nakaya - I just made a leap of faith and was very happy with it

[Painterspal]

Very lovely!

 

Thank you for posting your photos!

The twist is done quite nicely...would love to have a chance in holding one to see how it feels

 

I believe the section on the Twist is slightly wider than the standard Decapod, so it will most likely be fairly similar to the Portable and Long Piccolo in the hand - maybe you could also try and find someone near you with one of those as an alternative, given the Twist is fairly new and probably quite scarce still. It probably doesn't help but I don't really notice the barrel facets when I hold my standard Decapod, but I do notice its narrower section and lighter weight compared to most other Nakayas.

 

I love this colour. The Decapod Twist without a clip may well be my next pen and this combination is a front runner in my eyes.

[quinden]

Painterspal, it's great! I have seen photos of other ao-tame that are not quite the same; Leigh Reyes has a non-twist version and it seems much more green than mine, but that might be because of the light. The photos at nibs.com all look very much like mine.

 

I think you'll love it

[sarahfar]

this comes close to capturing the more blue patina with some slighter light green of my AO decapod piccolo.....

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/mikefarha/IMG_0395_zpsc63f364e.jpg

 

[youstruckgold]

Well i've done it thanks to you and ordered the same (but with a rose gold clip and nib). Why a Nakaya - just beautiful writing instruments.

[RLD]

More pictures! There is a mix of natural and fluorescent light:

 

 

 

Hope that helps

 

These are terrific photos! I have the "non-twist" decapod ao-tamenuri and know how tough it is getting an image that shows the color of the stripes without it being overwhelmed by reflections from the lacquer.

 

Another nice choice of ink for this pen (that I am using) is is kon-peki. It has a color close to that of the stripes.

[rudyhou]

Rudy, I would love to see some pictures of your Decapods! What nibs do you have?

 

i have soft fine and soft medium. both are regular decapod, not the twisted kind, and both black; one is sumiko finish and the other is ishime-kanshitsu finish.

[rudyhou]

Rudy, I would love to see some pictures of your Decapods! What nibs do you have?

sorry, quiden. i still haven't figured out how to upload pics here. tried but kept failing. maybe the size of the pic too large. who knows.

[rudyhou]

Rudy, I would love to see some pictures of your Decapods! What nibs do you have?

 

ok, let me give it another try...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1372849888__nakaya.jpg

 

let's hope this works. sorry for the quality of the pic. it's the best i could do with my cell phone.

[Painterspal]

Wow, this thread gets better and better! Very interesting images.

[quinden]

sarahfar, I love your Mini Decapod! I have the Mini in the other 3 tamenuris...I wish I had been able to purchase a Decapod in araishu or shu, before Nakaya stopped producing them.

 

youstruckgold, awesome! I bet the warmth of the rose gold will look great with the cool ao-tamenuri

 

rudyhou, I think I can take your link and add your photo (the sumi Decapod with roll-stopper is stellar, by the way):

 

[TomJKT]

Congratulations! Great pen!

You might send it to me to photograph it. I have NiCad XP7a with 56megapixels and 51fps...

If you really don't want to send it to me, maybe at least you would share, how did you fill out these questions regarding your writing style when ordering from Nakaya. As I understand the questions I hardly can figure out how to answer them. Did you ask someone to observe the way you hold a pen? Thanks for an advice!

[quinden]

TomJKT, this pen is glued to my hand

 

The Nakaya questionaire - to answer all the questions, I would actually start writing, write until the questions weren't the foremost thing in my mind, stop writing, and make observations. Thinking about the questions while I was writing made it weird: "How much pressure am I using? Probably light pressure! Wait, no! Maybe!" When I would just write for a couple of pages, it just came to me naturally: "Oh, hey...I use more pressure than I thought! Medium pressure it is! Wow, I thought I held my pen at a high angle, but looking at it now, it's more like 45 degrees, and it has been like that the entire time. Huh!"

 

The only one that might be hard to observe is the 'Rotation' question, but I did the same thing - looked at how the nib was aligned with the paper when I started writing, wrote for about 15 minutes, then checked again to see if the alignment of nib to paper was the same.

 

Hope that was helpful!

[requiescat]

That is one gorgeous pen--the color breaks are amazing.

[quinden]

requiescat, thanks!

[dms525]

That is a beautiful pen. Congratulations, and use it in good health.

 

David

[TomJKT]

TomJKT, this pen is glued to my hand

 

The Nakaya questionaire - to answer all the questions, I would actually start writing, write until the questions weren't the foremost thing in my mind, stop writing, and make observations. Thinking about the questions while I was writing made it weird: "How much pressure am I using? Probably light pressure! Wait, no! Maybe!" When I would just write for a couple of pages, it just came to me naturally: "Oh, hey...I use more pressure than I thought! Medium pressure it is! Wow, I thought I held my pen at a high angle, but looking at it now, it's more like 45 degrees, and it has been like that the entire time. Huh!"

 

The only one that might be hard to observe is the 'Rotation' question, but I did the same thing - looked at how the nib was aligned with the paper when I started writing, wrote for about 15 minutes, then checked again to see if the alignment of nib to paper was the same.

 

Hope that was helpful!

 

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience in answering Nakaya's questions! I will try out what you recommend here. Last question -you owe me, coz you glued the pen to your hand, which is not fair -, since I have a few pens of different styles, light and heavier, stubs and F-B, smaller and larger ones, how should I select my 'testing' model? I would give myself a few valid answers to that, so I'm keen to hear your actual working experience.

Thanks a lot!

(Remember I have a NiCad XP7a with 56megapixels and 51fps camera - just saying...and glue dissolver...)

[quinden]

Thanks, David!

 

ThomasJKT, to determine my 'tester' I actually went to nibs.com and looked at the 'Pen and Nib Specs' section - there is a link there to check the stats (length, weight, section diameter, etc) of all the pens they carry, including the Decapod Twist. Then I did a rough measurement of the pens I had at the time, and tried to find the one that was the closest fit (I think I used an Edison Pearl or a Duofold Centennial, based on section diameter). It was definitely not an exact match (the Pearl was shorter, the Centennial a bit shorter but 5 grams heavier), but it did the trick! My suspicion is that as long as your pen's section is similarly shaped and roughly the same size, and there is not a gross difference in the weight distribution of the pen (if you were using a piston filler with a brass piston housing, which would have more weight towards the back, etc) you will probably be okay, and be able to adapt to the pen. I was initially worried about how short the Piccolo is, but took the plunge anyway. Now I have 4 of those, and 3 of the Mini Decapods (which are slightly shorter!)

 

And let's say it's not glued so much as melded to my person. Yeah

[legume]

I was fortunate enough to experience someone else's pen for an extended time period and they are awesome pens with exquisite workmanship. Unfortunately for me, most sizes available are too short and/or narrow for my taste. The BB nib was luscious, but I'm just as happy with my MB, CS, Visconti or Delta nibs of similar sizes. I'm just as content wit my bespoke CS Churchill's performance (IB nib) and the amethyst is gorgeous. But the hand crafted bodies of these are awesome. If I could get this blue in a fat enough body, I'd scrape together the dosh and do it. I simply prefer 149 size and width to the 146 size and girth of most of these. Which is why I got with Henry Simpole and Salman Khattak to design my oversized Spirit of Life to get the dimensions I prefer.

 

So look carefully at the size, especially the section widths, and remember these are very light pens on average. If the size works for you, Indulge if you can afford it. They're beautiful. Art you can use.

 

If the size is more of a concern for you than the weight is, you may be pleased to learn that Nakaya has made a simple tamenuri portable cigar in a thicker 17mm width by special request using the base for their higher-end maki-e pens. The regular production Dorsal Fin Version 1 and Version 2 models are also thicker in width than the more common naka-ai, long, portable, piccolo, etc.