Penteo Samurai Spirit Negoro

[jandrese]

This is the Penteo Samurai Spirit Negoro made by Teodor in the Czech Republic. The base material is ebonite that has an urushi lacquer finish. The nib is a #6 JoWo steel 1.1 mm stub. Teodor makes the pen by hand by himself. Ordering is easy on the website and Teodor is very responsive. Custom pens are possible.

 

I bought this pen to see what a Western artist can do with urushi. Plus, I enjoy supporting independent pen makers. 

 

Packaging was superb and the pen arrived totally safe and sound. To my surprise there was included a branded wooden pen box that contained the pen, an extra converter, a pen rest, and a leather pen sleeve. Nice attention to detail and value.

 

The pen itself is medium large in size with a medium size grip section. Since the material is ebonite it’s a lightweight pen. It does not post, but being urushi lacquer one wouldn’t post anyway. As a nice touch the nib is laser engraved with the Penteo logo. The overall feeling is one of a well made pen with some special touches including the recess of the cap lip that forms a neat junction with the body when the pen is capped. Section threading is long and precise; it may be a good candidate for eye dropper filling. There is a sense of precision and solidity to the construction that is satisfying and reassuring. 

 

Regarding the urushi finish I appreciate the color palette, the smoothness of the finish, and the fact that the pen was totally cured before shipping. That is, I cannot detect the funky smell of uncured urushi, which is good because I’m highly allergic. From the standpoint of damage urushi is safe to handle and ship before it’s completely cured. That has caused problems for me more than once. 

 

While the pen is named Samurai Spirit Negoro it is not reminiscent of Japanese pens to me. The shape is unique to Penteo and while the finish is urushi it is qualitatively distinctly different from Japanese work. Negoro is a very specific style of urushi work that, in a nutshell, represents actual usage wear to the surface or a contemporary recreation of what a wear pattern might look like. Normally, red undercoating shows through as black is worn away. I have a Negoro finish Danitrio pen with reverse color scheme. Various interpretations of negoro finish exist but this pen does not conjure any of them for me. I’m also not sure what else to call the pattern. The tactile feeling of the finish is also not Japanese. This is much harder to describe, but I’d be surprised if this pen was polished with traditional materials and methods. The finish is of high quality, but it’s (naturally) not Japanese.

 

The pen is comfortable to write with but the nib needed some attention before becoming a good writer. I expected this. In my experience 1.1 mm stubs from JoWo are rounded effectively wasting most of the width of the nib. Some careful shaping with 8000 and 12000 grit sandpaper did the trick. Now it writes fat and wide on the downstroke and thin on the horizontal with sufficient ink flow. 

 

Overall, this is a beautiful pen that is comfortable to use and a pleasure to operate. It’s not a cheap pen but there is value for money in the overall package and buying one make you a patron of the arts as it were. Highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kazoolaw]

I would not have looked to Czechoslovakia for urushi, but that's a very nice pen.  Your review describes the differences well,while pointing out that fine qualities of the pen.

is the cap lip as thick as it appears? I'm grateful for seeing a pen I will likely never see in person.

gary

 

[Uncial]

What do they cost?

[jandrese]

3 hours ago, kazoolaw said:

I would not have looked to Czechoslovakia for urushi, but that's a very nice pen.  Your review describes the differences well,while pointing out that fine qualities of the pen.

is the cap lip as thick as it appears? I'm grateful for seeing a pen I will likely never see in person.

gary

 

The lip edge itself isn’t all that thick. A few millimeters into the cap the material thickens and that is where the threads start. This design provides some extra land for the lacquer and allows threads to be cut into relatively thick material. It may be the desired outcome, well, of course, but it may also be that way because Teodor is not yet able to cut threads into thinner material. Certainly, this design is more robust and that may be the purpose. The thicker cap forces the section to be more narrow, a bit more narrow than I would have preferred otherwise.

[jandrese]

2 hours ago, Uncial said:

What do they cost?

All in with shipping it was about $875 as I recall. 

[Aditkamath26]

I quite love Penteo Pens! The designs are very appealing, and the urushi finishes look brilliant.