Japanese Skylines

After reviewing a couple of Japanese copies of the Wahl-Eversharp Doric it is only natural continue with another copy of an iconic American pen—the Wahl-Eversharp Skyline (1941-1948).

Platinum did make such a copy, as we can see on the pics.

Wahl-Eversharp or not?

According to Masa Sunami, Platinum marketed this pen in 1948 in the Uruguayan market. And the pens here shown were indeed sent to Uruguay, as the import sticker clearly shows. On it we can read that it had been imported and taxed in conformity with the law passed on September 15th of 1952.

Quite a faithful copy...

The sticker from the tax office of the República Oriental del Uruguay.

In contrast, it seems that Platinum does not have records of these international operations –Platinum in Uruguay, Presidente in Spain, Joker in Greece, Hifra in South Africa--, and these labels and pens are the few actual documents anyone can have. However, they pose many more questions—why Uruguay? Were they sold in any other country? How big the production was? Between which years were these models manufactured?…

These Japanese Skylines are very close to the original model, as can be seen on the pictures. The differences are on the filling system —aerometric on the Platinum, lateral lever filler on the Wahl-Eversharp—, and on the nibs —more cylindrical and made of steel on the Platinum.

Skyline Standard on the front, and four Platinum copies on the back. Platinum bodies are engraved: " PLATINUM / TRADE (logo) MARK / R. NO. 374902 ".

Steel vs. gold. Steel for the Platinum copy, gold for the original Wahl-Eversharp. Note the number on the Platinum nib: P.96216. I do not know what it means.

These are the dimensions

	.Platinum "Skyline".	.Wahl-Eversharp Skyline Standard.
.Length closed (mm) __	132	132
.Length open (mm) __	117	125
.Length posted (mm) __	135	146
.Max Diameter (mm) __	14.6	14.6
.Weight, dry (g) __	16.0	16.0

My thanks to Mr. Sunami

Yamada raden and ivory – Noodler's Beaver

Bruno Taut
Nakano, December 17th 2019
etiquetas: Wahl Eversharp, Platinum, Uruguay

Japanese Dorics

To my friend Croma, after a nice conversation in Madrid.

Copies are part of any industry, and therefore part of the pen industry. What is not tradition is plagiarism, some say...

On these pages we have already seen some examples of Japanese pens that were inspired –what an euphemism!- on models of success (see, for instance, ::1::, ::2::, and ::3::). So, this is nothing new, but there are always more models to describe, and some of them are very interesting.

Today I will call the attention to two different makers caught in the act of copying the same model—the Wahl Eversharp Doric (1931-1940).

The first example is a Sailor.

This is a plunger filler made of semitransparent celluloid. Its general shape is indeed close to that of the Doric. The clip, to name a detail, is remarkably similar.

Gold nib: "14 CRT GOLD / Sailor / REGISTERED / PATENT OFFICE / -1-".
On the clip, "SAILOR".

And engraved on the body, "SAILOR FOUNTAIN PEN".

Sailor manufactured this pen in 1937.

These are the dimensions:
Length closed: 123 mm
Length open: 110 mm
Length posted: 150 mm
Diameter: 11 mm
Weight: around 13.5 g (broken filling mechanism)

The second pen belongs to a very secondary maker called Order, about which nothing can I say.

An Order pen, signed on the cap and on the nib. On the cap, the inscription reads '"ORDER" / FOUNTAIN PEN'.

On this case, the pen is a lever filler, and also implements a golden nib. These are the dimensions:
Length closed: 120 mm
Length open: 112 mm
Length posted: 155 mm
Diameter: 13 mm
Weight: 16.3 g (dry)

On the nib: "ORDER / 14 KT / 5 / GOLD PEN".

These two pens show how copying was, and still is, a universal shortcut. And that Japan was paying close attention to what was happening beyond her borders.


My thanks to Mr. Sugimoto and Mr. Shobutsuen.

Yamada buffalo horn and silver – Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown

Bruno Taut
Nakano, December 13th 2019
etiquetas: Wahl Eversharp, Sailor, Order

Torion Nib, by Kubo Kohei

Many different elements already mentioned on these Chronicles come together today by the hand of a very interesting nib.

At some point I spoke of the brand Push, owned by the company Tanaka Daigen Do, from Osaka. This company is still active today, but its pen production was stopped by the late 1960s.

A Push pen, by Tanaka Daigen Do, in celluloid.

On another text, I described the nib of the Pilot Justus, now well known after the release of the Justus 95 model. These nibs –old and new— can be adjusted in their flexibility by means of a sliding plate moving up and dawn on their backs. Fellow blogger KMPN provided additional information on the actual patent of these nibs (US patent US4347011), invented by Yanagita Shikichi (柳田清吉). This invention connected the Pilot Justus with the much older adjustable nib of the Wahl-Eversharp pen. On this case, the flexibility was limited by a zipper-like plate that kept the tines more or less together. This mechanism was patented in the US in 1932.

New and old Justus, side by side.

The Wahl-Eversharp nib patented in 1932.

Finally, on a third text, the protagonist was nibmeister Kubo Kohei, an old master still active in Tokyo. In the past, Mr. Kubo had worked for a number of pen companies –Elliott, Nobel— and ended up owning the later of them.

A music nib by nibmeister Kubo.

So, what do we have for today that combined all these elements?

The following is an adjustable nib in the fashion of the old Wahl-Eversharp unit. It was made by Mr. Kubo Kohei for the brand Push, as can be read on the nib. Its material is stainless steel, and was manufactured in the late 1930s.

The back of the nib shows that the feed had to be very special in order to allow the zipper to limit the flexibility of the nib.

The inscription on the nib: "PUSH" / TORION / PEN / 4".

Needless to say, this is a copy of the Wahl-Eversharp nib for the Japanese market. It is questionable whether the American company ever got to know about its existence.

My thanks to Mr. Sunami.

Kato Seisakusho 800F – Sailor Yama-dori

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 10th, 2014
etiquetas: Push, Pilot, plumín, Nibmeister Kubo, Wahl-Eversharp, Elliott, Nobel

Matching (XIII)

The controversy is always there: Is that pen original or a copy of another? Which company did father that idea? Sometimes, the answers are clear…

This Platinum pen is, in essence, a copy of the well-known and highly valued Waterman’s Hundred Year pen from 1939. The Platinum is, as well, a lever filler. Its nib, however, is a “10-years” nib made of stainless steel.

This is not the first example of a copy cat made by Platinum seen on these Chronicles. Another “10-years” pen was a knock-off of the Parker 51, and by the 1940s, Platinum manufactured a copy of the Skyline model by Wahl-Eversharp. This trend, of this learning process, ended up in the late 1950s, although some might say that it was revived with the current model 3776, so close to the Montblanc balance pen.

The "10-Years" nib made of stainless steel.
The incription reads as follows:
"PLATINUM / 10 YEARS / S*N Platinum logo / IRIDIUM / JIS logo / -< 5 >- / P-A".

My thanks to Mr. Sunami.

Pilot Vpen – Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Chuo (Tokyo), March 3rd, 2013
etiquetas: Parker, Platinum, Waterman, Wahl-Eversharp, Montblanc

Justus Again

NOTE (February 2014): This text has been corrected after fellow blogger KMPN published data on the actual patent of the device to limit the flexibility of the nib.


Well… More advertisment.

Pilot’s last fountain pen is already in the market. Its name is Justus 95 and, as the name pointed out, a re-issue of the model Justus, that pen with an adjustable nib marketed initially in the 1980s.

Or is it? The new pen certainly sports an adjustable nib to fine-tune its flexibility. However, the design of the pen is completely different to the original. This was an original idea of Shigeki Chiba, the man behind the Super line of Pilot pens in the late 1950s and, more important, the Super Ultra 500.

The adjustable nib. This is size-10 nib, in the Pilot way of numbering them.

Chiba Shigeki filed the patent number D260658 in November of 1979, and it was approved two years later, in September of 1981. The key element of the patent was the decorative arrangement of the pen body, although in the drawings accompanying the application we can clearly see the adjustable nib. This feature was also patented by Pilot (invention by Yanagita Shichiki) in 1979. And there is an obvious common goal with the design by Wahl-Eversharp of 1933.

Drawings of the patent application by Chiba Shigeki in 1979.

Drawings of the US patent application by Yanagita Shichiki 1979.

Both Justus, side by side.

The nib in the original Justus, on the front on the picture, is a bit smaller than that of the modern release. The plates to limit the flexibility and the rings on the section to move them are apparently identical.

The modern version, the Justus 95, is, on the contrary, a flat top pen. It is made of black plastic with barleycorn decoration and golden trim. The nib is a size 10 (just like the Custom 742 and the Custom Heritage 912) of limited flexibility. In this regard, it is not different to the original nib—flexible but not excessively so; semi-flex some might say. It comes in three different points—F, FM, and M. The price in Japan is JPY 30000, plus tax. It does not seem to be a limited edition. The number refers to the fact that Pilot (as Namiki Manufacturing Company) was founded 95 years ago--in 1918.

Detail of the clip. The decorative pattern on the body is also visible.

My thanks to Mr. Niikura and Mr. Sunami.

Pilot Short – Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, March 6th, 2013
etiquetas: Pilot, mercado, Wahl-Eversharp

Adjustable

The two nibs I am showing today belong to two very different pens. But both of them are very similar in their exoticism—these nibs can be adjusted in their stiffness.

Wahl-Eversharp Doric.

The older one belongs to a Wahl-Eversharp Doric, a true classic American pen from the 1930s.

The plate acts like a zipper on the nib. Closed, on top, the tines cannot open. Open, on the bottom, the tines can give under pressure.

The small piece on top of the nib slides up and down along the slit. Placed on the bottom end, the nib is very rigid. On the upper end, the nib –free from the constraint— shows its maximum flexibility. This nib's system was patented by Wahl-Eversharp in 1932.

Pilot Justus. The model number was FJ-1000R-B. That shows its price was JPY 10,000.

The Pilot Justus’s nib does exactly the same. This time, however, the pen owner does not need to stain his hands—the sliding plate is operated through a rotating ring inserted in the section.

The plate on the nib works simply by adding some resistance to the natual flexibility of the tines. this mechanism is less sophisticated than that of the Wahl-Eversharp.

The knurled ring acting on the plate, and the indication showing how to make the nib Harder or Softer.

The Pilot Justus on these pictures was manufactured in 1993 (December). This model reached some markets outside Japan.

The Pilot nib was manufactured in 14 K gold, on December 1993.

My thanks to Mr. Álvaro Romillo (Wahl-Eversharp Doric) and to Mr Nozue (Pilot Justus).

(Waterman CF – Sailor Red Brown)

Bruno Taut
(In exile, December 29th, 2010)
[labels: Wahl-Eversharp, plumín, Pilot]