Italian Pens Or Japanese Pens

[Bklyn]

I have always found Italian pens to be so very beautiful and I have always found Japanese pens to be so very good in terms of writing. What do YOU like? An Italian pen or an Asian pen?

 

(Reminds me of my new FIAT 124 back in the early 70's Wonderful car on the rare days that it started. (Every other Thursday unless it was raining or below 80 degrees. But absolutely beautiful. My Camry of today is is devoid of beauty but it is flawless.)

 

Does this apply to FPs as well?

Edited October 7, 2015 by Bklyn

[Kataphract]

I tend to think is a pen as a tool first. I like mine to look nice, but that's generally an "all things being equal" caveat.

 

Having said that, I have a number of Japanese pens to judge utility by, but no Italian pens to judge their beauty (feel free to provide photos, Italian pen fans).

[jar]

I own fifty-seven Italian pens from Aurora, Signum, Grifos, Ferrari da Varese, Omas, Delta and Montegrappa.

 

I own five Japanese pens from Pilot Namaki and Platinum.

 

The Italian pens are all very close to flawless and utterly reliable.

 

The Japanese pens are okay.

[Icywolfe]

I own a lot of Pilots. I say go with Japan.

[Martini1R]

My only experience of an Italian pen is the Visconti Van Gogh. I love the build quality and the writing exp (WE) of it. As a writing tool/instrument, I also think the Japanese pens like Sailor, Platinum, and Pilot offers very good WE from their mid range line (pens that are about 30,000 yen). Of course, if I would have to pay a 50% premium or more from resellers I would think about it twice. Otherwise they are of very good value. Many models offers a variety of nibs which I think are very interesting. The higher price maki-e finish pens are a bit over the top but are stunning in person. I have a couple lacquer finish pens and I enjoy them. However I do not believe the nibs are much better than, say a 30,000 yen pen.

 

Of course, the Japanese look is often called as Euro style copies, and a little bit lack of soul. I agree with that. But on my list of pens I'd like to buy in the future, I have both the Omas 360 and Sailor cross concord

[erpe]

My experience with Japanese pens is limited to a few Pilots (Metro, Prera & 78G) and they are all flawless. On the other hand, I own 6 Delta's and 1 Visconti and they have pushed MB, Pelikan and all but 3 KaWeCo's out of rotation. The reason might be that the combination of Italian design and German technology (Jowo & Bock nibs & feeds and Schmidt converters) is a clear winner.
There are some Pilots and Sailors still on the shopping list though ;-)

[Keyless Works]

I have a lot of modern Japanese pens and a number of vintage and modern Italian pens. There are a lot of wonderful Italian pens; the old ones were rarely as good (in terms of performance and durability) as the American pens they imitated but they were often more beautiful.

 

For modern Italian pens I tend to like those produced by Aurora and OMAS (I did lose some interest in OMAS after they stopped making their own nibs...as well as when I received some poor customer service). As for Japanese pens I like most of the major and smaller hand made producers...the quality is very good and they stand behind their product.

 

Which is better? I say neither...they are different but both can make wonderful workhorses as well as works of art...it's all personal preference.

[zaddick]

I like some of both. I don't think there is a clear winner because there is so much variety in the world and generalizations are only somewhat helpful. You can get a wide variety of finishes, textures and nibs from each region.

 

I guess the beauty and frustration of these questions is that every person can have a correct, unique answer.

 

For my current personal collection, I have gravitated towards Visconti for Italian pens and Danitrio for Japanese style pens. (Yes, they are a US company but the pens are made in JP by JP artists.) I like the overlays, size, barrel materials, and filling systems of my Visconti pens. I like the size, nib flexibility, materials, urushi, maki-e, and filling systems of my Danitrio pens.

 

It is nice to have choice. It makes life more interesting and changing pens is a small pleasure I can indulge in just for my own pleasure.

[Mastiff]

Both! Beautiful in different ways. I love nakayas and sailors and equally love omases and viscontis!

[Sandy Fry]

I have an affinity for Italian pens. Velvety smooth writers.

 

David

[Doug C]

I have hundreds of pens, but most of them are either Italian or Japanese.. I love them both.

[Randal6393]

Love my Aurora Tu with a 1.5 mm stub. Tried a fair number of Japanese pens, most are too fine for my style of writing.

 

Enjoy,

[YugiRider2]

You pretty much said it yourself; Italian pens are all about the workmanship and aesthetics, while Japanese pens are about the writing performance and affordability. Most of my Italian pens are the most expensive pens I own, while the Japanese ones are my daily writers.. Hard to say which one I prefer. Obviously Italian pens look nicer, but they are much more expensive. Higher end Visconti and Omas pens are hard to match in terms of beauty.

[J85909266]

The most beautiful pens I've ever seen were Italian.

 

The most competent pens I've ever used were Japanese. That goes for all types of pens. Gel, ballpoint, fountain and so on.

 

I think Japan has mastered pen performance. Where you get performance, they lack creativity in design. How many times are the Japanese going to copy the Meisterstuck and put a different number on the nib?

 

Italy seems to have a knack for creating pens that are breathtakingly beautiful and made of luxurious materials. I also hear lots of complaints of inconsistency spotty QC.

Edited October 7, 2015 by J85909266

[Barkingpig]

I am staring @ over a dozen inked Italians & the only 2 Pilots I own (I had a Sailor but gave it away because it felt small & the Broad nib seemed more like a F/M to me) so I believe I vote Italian. I have suffered NO issues with any Italian pen I have purchased & several were purchased "used" so for me the main preference is appearance. A "wet" Omas is hard to beat for me because even with a Medium nib they seem to be broader.............. AND with a "wet" stub........I am REALLY happy!

[AltecGreen]

I just counted

 

124 Italians and 189 Japanese. 90% of both types are vintage.

[Keyless Works]

I just counted

 

124 Italians and 189 Japanese. 90% of both types are vintage.

Can you offer more observations re: vintage Italian vs vintage Japanese?

 

I only have one old Japanese pen, a Pilot Super 500 but have several vintage Italian pens. I have found vintage Japanese pens more difficult to buy because of the language barrier...I suppose Japan is also more culturally closed off as well. I bought my Super 500 from Italian eBay lol.

[AltecGreen]

Can you offer more observations re: vintage Italian vs vintage Japanese?

 

I only have one old Japanese pen, a Pilot Super 500 but have several vintage Italian pens. I have found vintage Japanese pens more difficult to buy because of the language barrier...I suppose Japan is also more culturally closed off as well. I bought my Super 500 from Italian eBay lol.

Japanese pens excluding vintage maki-e are generally much less expensive than vintage Italian pens. Vintage first tier Italian pens like an Omas Extra Lucens from the 30's or 40's is 3-4 Nakayas. The Italians excelled at celluloid and I find their pens much more interesting than the American counterparts. This is why I own very few vintage American pens and the ones I do own tend to be things like LeBoeuf. The vintage Italian nibs have wonderful flex and certainly some of the best nibs I've owned. You do have to go after the good stuff since the third tier Italian pens are well third tier. The vintage Japanese pens can be found with nice flex although I don't find them as reaching the heights of the very best Italian nibs. I prefer to use Japanese nibs (modern or vintage) for their fine nibs. Japanese pens are fun because there are a lot of crazy pens out there but they can be a pain to collect.

 

 

Fun Japanese nib (ruby tipped)

 

 

 

 

Beautiful celluloid

Edited October 8, 2015 by AltecGreen

[amk]

My vintage italian pens are quite sweet - second line brands, not top tier, but in imaginative and chatoyant celluloids, and well made. But I find modern Italian pens have, generally, too much bling, and haven't been impressed by the nibs I've tried.

 

For modern pens I prefer Japanese. I find they're reliable, the nibs are usually glorious, and as for beauty - from the Platinum 3776 Chartres with its gorgeous blue, to the Hakase buffalo horn with its austere truth to material and the urushi pens from Nakaya and others, I don't think they have their equal. Plus, Italian pens don't come with Cross Emperor or music nibs AFAIK,

 

I do wish a Japanese pen manufacturer would get hold of some Omas Arco and Tibaldi celluloids though. That would be my best of both worlds!

[alexander_k]

In my experience, entry-level Japanese pens still tend to be quite good, generally better than similarly priced pens from other countries. When the price rises, the differences become a matter of preference rather than performance.