tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71021369956707092712024-03-18T00:09:32.417+09:00Crónicas EstilográficasBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.comBlogger752125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-52084672417151754952024-03-15T20:10:00.002+09:002024-03-16T21:37:53.579+09:00FootnoteThe world of prototypes is an uncharted one. And that despite the fact that we certainly know that they existed and how the final result –the marketed model– looked like.
But what we do not know far exceeds those basic facts: who made them? How many of them were made? How many iterations did the idea go before settling on the final design? Why and how were those prototypes released into the Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-49705629004387045172024-02-29T16:43:00.002+09:002024-02-29T17:26:21.970+09:00Japanese LamyMitsubishi Pencil Co (::1::, ::2::) has just announced the acquisition of Lamy, the German pen company based in Heidelberg.
The announcement of the acquisition.
Surprising as this might be, there are very good reasons behind this movement:
The first of them is strongly related to the very low birth rate and population decrease in Japan. One of the obvious side effects of those is the Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-82624253656078166462024-02-28T19:22:00.000+09:002024-02-28T19:22:14.013+09:00KanrekiThe Japanese word “kanreki” refers to the celebration of the 60th birthday. For the occasion, the birthday guy wears a red outfit composed by a cap and a vest –the “chanchanko”— typically used by babies to represent the rebirth and the beginning of a new life.
In the world of fountain pens, though, “kanreki” primarily refers to the Sailor Kanreki, In the Winter of 2007-08, Sailor marketed a Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-22728999525181161702024-01-31T18:44:00.001+09:002024-01-31T19:24:54.924+09:00Soft or Marketing?We know of the existence of Sailor nibs labeled as S –particularly in the 1990s- instead of as H, as is more common. The obvious understanding of these two letters were soft and hard, although there is hardly any difference in their flexibility.
S-M and H-M nibs. Soft and hard? Different alloys?
Some further investigation, including some input from Sailor personnel, pointed out that S Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-59517165872129760782023-12-03T23:57:00.001+09:002023-12-23T06:24:57.712+09:00Madrid 2023During the weekend between
November 10th and 12th, the 19th edition of the
Madrid Pen Show took place at the Meliá Castilla hotel. And as it is
already customary (::1::, ::2::, ::3::, etc.) I will offer my reflections on the event.
This 2023 edition was
celebrated one weekend before the usual schedule –the 3rd
weekend in November— because of a chronic problem—the difficulties to find aBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-51502704459864809902023-11-19T20:44:00.001+09:002023-11-19T20:44:39.902+09:00Timber! Timber! TIPS 2023The 2023 Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) took place during the first weekend of November 3rd to 5th, and it´s time to reflect on it and on the new trends in the market. Needless to say, what I might write is just my perception and I am sure I am missing many other movements.
First, the pen show in itself. 3 days, 180 tables, five shifts to attend it, most of them sold out. The Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-16139337723242627752023-11-06T19:29:00.007+09:002024-01-06T12:29:27.183+09:00The Four Seasons of Mr. Sato(You shall excuse my recent silence on these pages. Some personal issues came in my way and had to pay attention to them. Hopefully I will be able to post more often in the following weeks).
In the last years we have seen how urushi-based decorative techniques have been adopted by a number of craftsmen well beyond the traditional locations in East Asia. Now we see urushi-decorated pens in Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-10735387571830118272023-09-15T03:34:00.005+09:002023-09-20T07:43:57.848+09:00Oversized JinhaoThe speed at which Chinese pen companies are releasing their new models is no longer a surprise. An obvious side effect of this practice is the practical impossibility to keep track of all the novelties in the market. But now and then a model strikes out and makes some waves.
The Jinhao Dadao 9019. Engravings on the clip ("JINHAO") and on the cap ring ("JINHAO - DADAO No. 9019").
LatelyBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-91819407542592695452023-08-09T23:43:00.001+09:002023-08-09T23:43:59.286+09:00Hifra AgainHifra, Joker and Presidente are three brands I have documented on these texts with the help of some friends from a number of countries. These brands, let us remember, were operations that used Platinum pens as their own in the late 1950s in their own countries: Hifra in South Africa, Joker in Greece, and Presidente in Spain.
Among them, Hifra seems to be the better established company, and usedBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-79480309557242406392023-07-28T18:49:00.006+09:002023-11-17T02:59:59.293+09:00Japanese Workhorses in 2023We have just seen that the Pilot's model Custom 74 has been in the market for over 30 years. But what about the direct competitors in the Japanese market?
The three contenders. From back to front, Platinum 3776 Century, Pilot Custom 74, and Sailor Standard Profit.
Platinum had released the 3776 model in 1978, but this model has gone through a number of modifications over the years, as we Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-23578057402413228542023-07-19T11:47:00.003+09:002023-07-19T17:29:47.687+09:00Signature (II)So, Pilot created a new nib point for its size 10 implemented on the model Custom 742 (and potentially on the rhodium-trimmed Custom Heritage 912). But, only on that size? No, but this other Signature nib came as a limited edition.
Also in 2022, Pilot celebrated the 30th anniversary of its workhorse pen, the Custom 74. And for the occasion, the company released a special edition of the pen.
Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-16646961232124483002023-07-16T23:30:00.002+09:002023-07-16T23:37:28.935+09:00Signature (I)Last year, 2022, Pilot released a new nib point for the model Custom 742—the Signature. And by doing this, the number of points available in Pilot's size 10 nibs (::1::, ::2::) is 16.
The Signature point—a sort of smooth stubbish broad nib— is not particularly new. In Japan they existed in the 1960s and 1970s by the hand of Pilot and Platinum. On the picture we can see two of those Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-86161330121712383922023-07-08T18:37:00.001+09:002023-07-08T18:59:06.427+09:00Mannenhitsu-no YamadaNothing lasts forever...
万年筆の山田. Mannenhitsu-no Yamada.
Mannenhitsu-no Yamada, the operation run by Mr. Kubota in the city of Matsumoto (Nagano, Japan) closed its doors this past May. Therefore the production of pens came to an end.
Mr. Kubota, born in 1939, took over the business in the 1980. Initially he used maki-e techniques to decorate his pens, but that proved tooBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-54397852527735333522023-07-02T22:32:00.002+09:002023-07-03T13:18:51.713+09:00Gold 60thMeanwhile...
Pilot continues with the old policy of rehashing the well-known Capless through yearly special editions or, less often, exclusive/original models made for a particular customer. Nagasawa, Isetan, Mitsukoshi had their own Capless pens at one point or another.
And by the end of 2022, Pilot went one step further—Pilot collaborated with the company JMA Management Center to produce a Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-37166500665116754322023-06-29T22:35:00.001+09:002023-07-02T22:56:29.123+09:00Moonman AgainSome months ago I analyzed the Moonman A1, the capless pen made by the Chinese company. The main conclusion in that text was that the Chinese copy was a good product for a very good price. But did it offer anything new with respect to the Pilot original? The answer, suggested by a commentator, was the existence of a clipless variation of the model.
Moonman, apparently, had paid close attention Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-37173855519219518962023-06-16T23:38:00.001+09:002023-06-22T18:41:41.873+09:00The 23rd Pen Trade in TokyoThis past Sunday –June 11th–, the 23rd edition of the Pen Trade event took place in Tokyo. As I had said in the past, this is the actual pen show in Tokyo, at least in the Western sense of the concept.
The drawback of this event, though, lies in its size—17 tables and around 100 visitors. But why is it so small when the metropolitan area of Tokyo hosts about 36 million people, there is Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-47431774376300926942023-06-10T23:12:00.004+09:002023-06-10T23:12:41.474+09:00The Odd Relative: Platinum GlamourAfter writing about the Platinum 3776 and its more than 40 years of history, it is only natural to mention its weird relative, the Platinum Glamour marketed in 1987.
The reason for this is clear—not only the Glamour follows the style of the original 3776 of 1978, but also Platinum described it as a modification of that model “by giving it a thicker body but making it compact”. And on Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-66979364174270230682023-06-01T21:56:00.002+09:002023-06-01T21:59:09.670+09:00New 3776 NibThe Platinum Decade pen described on the previous entry implements, as we saw, a new nib. And this nib represents a new step in the evolution of the 3776 nib.
So this is a good time to revise that evolution of nibs and feeds along forty-something years of history.
Early models, (between 1978 and some time in the early 1980s) had very cylindrical nibs and ebonite feeds. The first year model hadBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-65272581405528997022023-05-31T23:54:00.000+09:002023-05-31T23:54:06.768+09:00DecadeOne of the most interesting pens released in 2022 was the Platinum Decade, made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the model 3776 Century. And it is interesting because it somehow departs from the very trite trick of rehashing a well known model by simply changing the color.
The Platinum Decade in the box.
For this pen Platinum changed two elements with the result of a more attractive Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-90427116288627630432023-04-29T12:00:00.006+09:002023-04-29T22:36:26.977+09:00Brazilian Capless (III)The following ad appeared June 1968 in the Brazilian magazine Realidade:
Realidade. June 1968.
We see two different Capless models on it. On top, a C-300GW made in Brazil like the one described on a previous Chronicle. And right under it, a long RW unit.
Just like the pen shown on the following picture—a RW Capless marketed in Brazil:
Capless C-100RW.
It is made in Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-47120106761059467022023-04-27T20:00:00.003+09:002023-06-01T21:34:38.359+09:00New Izumo (II)As we saw yesterday, Platinum has announced a new Izumo series of pens with a relatively new nib—a #3776 made of 18 K gold.
It could be argued that Platinum had paid attention to a typical complain—the President nib looks small on the Izumo pen. But how do President and #3776 nibs compare? Is the #3776 unit going to correct that perception?
The fact is that the #3776 is just slightly Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-83056032529262829422023-04-26T19:49:00.006+09:002023-04-26T20:07:14.561+09:00New Izumo (I)Platinum has just announced a new release of the well-known Izumo series of pens.
The name of this new variations is Iro Urushi, colored lacquer, and is composed by two models –Aitetsu Iro, a bluish green pen; and Budô Nezu, brown with greyish tones.
Platinum Izumo Iro Urushi Aitetsu Iro.
Budô Nezu Izumo. Note the silver trim on both pens.
But what might be more relevant to thisBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-57611122736056064782023-04-21T18:27:00.003+09:002023-04-23T11:18:48.187+09:00Brazilian Capless (II)NOTE (April 23rd, 2023): I have added a couple of sentences and a picture of the instruction sheet to show the lack of mention to ink cartridges re how to ink the Brazilian Capless.
There is nothing like reading the pen.
Some months ago I published a text on the very obscure Pilot Capless made in Brazil. Now I have on such pen in my hands and can look further into the details.
The Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-77985564993277701372023-04-07T18:49:00.000+09:002023-04-07T18:49:07.624+09:00Brazil Ink (I)The Pilot Pen Station, the old museum of Pilot Corporation in Tokyo, was an invaluable source of information. In there, more than ten years ago. I took the following picture of an ink bottle of the brand:
24 ounces, 709 ml. It seems Japan was not yet metric in the 1950s...
24 ounces of ink for JPY 270. In rational units, 710 ml assuming US ounces instead of imperial ounces. And the Bruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7102136995670709271.post-57069919063662481522023-03-30T12:12:00.001+09:002023-03-30T23:45:32.926+09:00The Marzullo Collection“A maior casa de canetas-tinteiros da America do Sul”. The largest shop of fountain pens in South America—that was the claim of Casa Marzullo in the early 1940s.
Published in A Noite, August 1944.
Might that be right or just a marketing slogan, the fact is that Casa Marzullo was a very prominent stationer in the 1930s in Rio de Janeiro. According to their ads, and there were many of themBruno Tauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11488831918740838491noreply@blogger.com0