JIS 3232

After showing a luxurious pocket pen, a Yotsubishi with urushi-e decoration, it might be worth to describe a plain and functional workhorse with the same structure.

This particular pen carries a non descriptive name on the cap —”SUPER GOLD LINE”— which might be the brand name or not. The nib, however, is more informative as it is imprinted with the JIS number 3232. It corresponds to the operation of Haruo Kawakami, which, according to Masa Sunami, made parts to order. Therefore this might very well be a nib unit made for a pen produced and manufactured by some unknown company.

A Super Gold Line, according to the inscription on the cap.

Two details strike out as different on this pen if compared to most pocket pens. The first one is that the barrel and the section do not separate on the central ring —now almost just decorative—, but well down in the section. This geometry, though, is not unique—some pocket pens by Morison share this feature.

Two unusual pocket pens--Morison on top, Super Gold Line on bottom.

The other unusual element is a space in the barrel for a seal stone. Again, this is not unique to this pen. In fact, we had seen this in a Swan pen from the 1910s and in a wartime Asahi Tsubasa.

Under the blind cap of the barrel there should be a stone on which to engrave a seal.

Pen-wise we have a stainless steel nib associated to a cartridge filler. Trial and error attaching cartridges led to the old double-spare cartridge by Pilot. However, it is very possible this pen had some dedicated cartridge that could fit inside the barrel.

These are its dimensions:

Length closed: 119 mm
Length open:97 mm
Length posted: 145 mm
Diameter: 12.0 mm
Weight: 11.6 g

The steel nib with the JIS number 3232 registered by Kawakami Haruo. Under the name it reads "S63".

So all in all here we have a workhorse pen with some unusual features in pocket pens. And this pen also informs us of the ways of Haruo Kawakami in the 1960s or early 1970s.

Opus 88 Koloro — Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku

Bruno Taut
Nakano, November 16th 2020
etiquetas: Kawakami Haruo, Morison