The Namiki Effect

Stylophiles are a special bunch. Driven by our anachronistic passion we often crave for certain features: gold nibs, self-filling mechanisms (as opposed to cartridges and converters), ebonite feeds, some specific materials like celluloid or ebonite,… And we demand those features for pens over certain price. Or, in other words, we might despise pens over certain price if they didn't offer some of them.

But the market might be telling us that we are mistaken. Just a quick look at today's catalogs shows how many luxury brands offer nothing but cartridge-converter pens with plastic feeds. Materials and gold nibs are less of a problem, though.

An expensive Pilot. Cartridge-converter and plastic feed.

Luxury pens of Platinum-Nakaya and Sailor are cartridge-converters. Pilot-Namiki does offer Japanese eyedroppers, but only for the biggest nib size. All the others, with nibs sizes 5, 10, and 20, are cartridge-converters despite how expensive they are.

An expensive Hakase.

Then, small makers like Eboya, Hakase, Ohashido, Stylo-Art Karuizawa, all focussed on higher-end pens only offer cartridge-converter pens. The only exception to this trend might be Masahiro and the newly-arrived Iwase Seisakusho.

Now, are these two brands –Masahiro and Iwase Seisakusho— on the right path or the success of all the other brands shows the opposite? How important are those details like ebonite feed and self-filling mechanisms in the final price –and in the final value-- of the pen?

A Masahiro pen. Expensive, but it implements an ebonite feed, a self-filling mechanism, an ebonite body, and a gold nib.

The market might be telling us that we stylophiles are still a minority in the business. Or it might only be that I am very mistaken about what we demand, and cartridge and converters and plastic feeds are perfectly all right even on very expensive pens.

Or it might be that we are very easy targets. After all, every pen has its charm, and all those cravings are not so important.

And that is the Namiki effect--expensive pens can be, in essence, very simple. Namiki has proven it through years in the market.

Iwase Seisakusho prototype – Takeda Jimuki Hisoku

Bruno Taut
Bunkyo, February 9th 2019
etiquetas: estilofilia, mercado, makie, Eboya, Hakase, StyloArt Karuizawa, Masahiro, Sailor, Ohashido, Iwase Seisakusho, Pilot, Platinum

Masahiro Again

Past July, I wrote a text –“From Shizuoka”— about the small pen maker by the name of Masahiro Seisakusho. Its website, I said at the time, was only written in Japanese and was also very confusing. That, together with some questions asked on the Fountain Pen Network made that Chronicle of mine extremely popular. I wonder now if that new information translated into more sales…

A thick Masahiro. The engraving on the nib is the only brand sign.

Anyway, another Masahiro pen became available for me to inspect, and writing about it was only natural.

On this occasion we have one of the bigger models, and therefore it implements a Pilot size 15 nib. The body, as usual on this brand, is made of (probably) German ebonite.

The nib is a typical Pilot unit: "PILOT / 14K-585 / 15 / < F > ". Closer to the section, the manufacturing date: 314.

However, despite the size of the nib –similar to a Bock size 6, or a Pelikan M800—, it seems too small for the very wide pen body. Sure enough, its girth allows for a big amount of ink thanks also to the old fashioned and efficient A-shiki filling system. This system, let’s remember, was briefly used by Pilot in the 1950s, although it is very common nowadays in the form of the Pilot’s CON-70 converter.

As was the case with the other Masahiro pen here analyzed, the feed is made of ebonite, which is a significant change with respect to Pilot pens implementing these nibs, whose feed are made of plastic.

The very beautiful ebonite feed, custom made by Narihiro Uchino.

These are the dimensions of this Masahiro pen made in Shizuoka:

Length closed: 143mm
Length open: 133 mm
Length posted: 170 mm
Diameter: 17 mm
Weight: 43.9 g (inked)

The tail of the pen is the handle of the pulsated piston (A-shiki system).

Pens like this go over JPY 100000 (actually, almost JPY 110000), according to Masahiro’s website. Now, it is up to us to decide whether this pen is a good value and how it compared to Pilot pens with the same nib.

My thanks to Mr. Minagawa.

Romillo Nervión – Sailor Blue Iron

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, October 11th 2017
labels: Masahiro, Pilot

Ebonite Feeds in Japan

This text is long overdue. This is, in essence, a correction to a couple of old posts on the Pilot (and Namiki) pens with size 50 nibs (::1::, ::2::). I said (but I cannot recall when or on which text) that their feeds were made of ebonite, and that is not correct—they are made of plastic. Actually, all feeds made by Pilot are made of plastic.

Emperor size pen by Pilot, later on labeled as Namiki.

The feed of the previous pen. It is lacquered on one side, but the material is plastic.

And not only those by Pilot, but also those by Platinum and Sailor are made of plastic. Are there, in fact, any exception to this rule? There is, but it comes from small makers and in unusual forms:

-- Eboya (formerly Nebotek) pens implement ebonite feeds on its higher end pens, but Eboya feeds and nibs are made by Bock.

Ebonite feed on a pen made by Nikko Ebonite. But the feed is made by Bock in Germany out of, probably, German ebonite. The rest of the pen is made of Japanese ebonite.

-- Masahiro creates ebonite feeds for its pens, which use Pilot nibs.

And that seems to be it. Stylo-Art Karuizawa, Hakase, and Ohashido take their nibs from the big three Japanese companies, and they do not modify the feeds. Onishi Seisakusho employs Schmidt nibs and plastic feeds.

Some old nibmeisters –and I am mostly thinking of Kubo Kohei— keep on making their nibs on demand, and their feeds are often made of ebonite, but these craftsmen do not manufacture pens regularly or according to a established model.

A nib made by nibmeister Kubo Kohei. Its feed is made of ebonite.

Nibs and feeds of a Platinum 3776 and of a Nakaya. On both cases, the feeds are made of plastic.

So, the interesting conclusion id the almost complete absence of ebonite feeds among Japanese maker. This fact does not pose any functional problem to Japanese pens with one possible exception —the irregularly behaved Pilot’s size-10 falcon nib implemented on the models Custom 742 and Custom Heritage 912. And there are powerful arguments to support the use of some plastics, mostly ABS, on feeds.

Sailor's nib and feed. The nib is made of 21 K gold. The feed is made of ABS plastic.

But for some stylophiles, ebonite feeds are the one and only way to go. And they will never be satisfied with modern Japanese pens… save for a couple of exceptions.

Pilot Custom 823 – Sailor Blue Iron (original ink)

Bruno Taut
Nakano, July 27th 2017
etiquetas: soluciones técnicas, Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, Masahiro, Ohashido, Stylo-Art Karuizawa, Eboya, Kubo Kohei, Japón

From Shizuoka

Besides all the big pen companies there are always some much smaller brands doing their best to stay alive in a very competitive market. In Japan we have already seen the case of Eboya and Onishi, and I have also mentioned brands as Ohashido, Stylo-Art Karuizawa and Hakase. But there are more.

Masahiro Seisakusho is the brainchild of Narihiro Uchino (内野成広). It is a small company located in the city of Shizuoka, about 150 km South-West of Tokyo. Its pens are only sold on-line through its own website, which happens to be only in Japanese (and very confusing on top of being in Japanese), thus limiting the distribution and visibility of the brand.

Masahiro Seisakusho.

Masahiro pens use Pilot nibs in sizes 5, 10, and 15, and no effort is done in hiding its origin. In fact, Masahiro Seisakusho is also a selling agent for Pilot pens. But Masahiro Seisakusho makes a point of making custom ebonite feeds for its nibs instead of using those manufactured by Pilot in plastic.

Ebonite, indeed, is the signature material of Masahiro pens. Most of its pens are made of this material, which is imported (presumably from Germany) instead of sourcing it from Nikko Ebonite, as all Japanese makes do save Hakase. However, Masahiro also produces some pens in acrylic plastic.

As for the filling systems employed, cartridges and converters (Pilot proprietary) are reserved for the lower cost models. More expensive models use the so-called M-system, which is nothing else than the old A-system implemented by Pilot in the 1950s on some 53R pens. This system, a pulsated piston, is the obvious predecessor of the Pilot’s CON-70 converter.

The pen whose pictures accompany this text is a fine example of all those characteristics: ebonite body, Pilot’s size 10 nib, A-system filing mechanism…

Its price was JPY 40000 in 2012. Since then, its price has increased greatly—JPY 98000.


My thanks to Mr. NK.

Romillo Nervión – Sailor Blue Iron (original ink)

Bruno Taut
Nakano, July 25th 2017
etiquetas: Pilot, Masahiro