Cross-music

The cross-music nib is one of the specialty nibs created by nibmeister Nagahara. Being a cross nib means that it is composed by two overlapping nibs. Therefore, it has four tines and two slits, and the space between the nibs acts as an additional reservoir of ink. The primary result is a fairly wet nib with a broad line… if so we wanted.

The two-fold cross-music nib on the left and a fude nib (55 degrees) on the right. The fude nib is not tipped.

The second characteristic of the cross-music is the way the point is cut: the vertical lines are very fine, and the horizontal strokes are very broad. However, grabbing the pen at a high angle with respect to the paper generates a fine line drawn only by the upper nib of the set.

Steel fude nib on the left, and gold cross-music on the right.

This way of writing is very similar to that of fude nibs, also made by Sailor, and by some other Asian brands. The problem is the price difference between them.

Writing samples. The color rendition of the scanned page is very inaccurate. The angles shown on the image are those between pen and paper.

Needless to say, the cross-music nib is a lot more complex than any fude, and its price reflects this in a quite dramatic way. For similar looking pens –Sailor’s Profit in senior size, 21 K gold nibs, cartridge-converter filling system—the cross-music nib has an overprice of JPY 15000: JPY 50000 for the cross-music, and JPY 35000 for the naginata fude. And if we were interested mostly on the function, there are even cheaper options: fude pens by Sailor with steel nibs bended at angles of 40 or 55 degrees are available for only JPY 1000.

The cross-music nib in a Profit Realo, on top, and, on bottom, a Fude pen (55 degrees) in a balance model by Sailor.

Chasing the nib over the pen has some interesting consequences. The cross-music nib, though, is truly exciting.

(Sailor ふでDEまんねん, 40 degrees – Waterman South Sea Blue)

Bruno Taut
January 29, 2012
[etiquetas: plumín, Sailor]