The Kubo Singularity

The big three Japanese pen companies make their own nibs, and it seems very hard to get those nibs as spare parts or as third party nibs for other makers. However, there are cases of that:

Hakase uses Pilot and Sailor nibs with their own original imprint. Ohashido and Taccia do the same with Sailor nibs.

A Pilot nib labeled as Hakase.

The rest either use Pilot nibs without any modification –StyloArt Karuizawa— or use some of the traditional supplies of third party nibs: Bock for Eboya and Masahiro (although previously Masahiro implemented Pilot nibs); JoWo for Taccia (lower end pens) and Wajimaya Zen-ni.

A JoWo nib labeled as Taccia.

The newcomer Iwase Seisakusho aims at sourcing its nibs from old nibmeister Kubo Kohei for its original pens. However, this is still an uncertain operation whose continuity we can only speculate about. Not to mention that the old age of Kubo Kohei –pushing 90 years old-- might affect any plan for a long term supply of parts.

A music nib made by Kubo Kohei.

Nibmeister Kubo at work.

But the bottom line is that Kubo Kohei is the sole independent maker of nibs in Japan, and his production is small, slow and artisanal.

Is there room –and market— for another independent operation in Japan to supply nibs and feeds to small pen companies?

Iwase Seisakusho prototype with Henckel nib – Takeda Jimiku Hisoku

Bruno Taut
Chuo, February 12th 2019
Etiquetas: Pilot, plumín, mercado, Sailor, Eboya, Hakase, Ohashido, Iwase Seisakusho, Taccia, Bock, JoWo, Wajimaya, nibmeister Kubo Kohei

Pen Obsessions

Once again, I encountered one of those pens that show the essential conflict between the collector and the historian, or between the the rarity and the icon. I am well aware that most collectors would not hesitate to choose the exception over the norm despite the fact that very little do these rarities offer to the understanding of the history of pens.

Today's pen is a prototype.

In 2001, on the occasion of its 90th anniversary, Sailor created the corresponding anniversary pen. This was called “Mannenhitsu Dôraku”, something like “pen obsession". That was a limited edition of 900 units, made of dark or clear briarwood. This was –dare I say-- one of the most interesting limited editions made by Sailor due to its two-fold nib—a cross nib in the Sailor way of naming its specialty nibs.

The final version of the 90th anniversary pen of Sailor's. 900 units in dark or clear briarwood.

The prototype also implements a double nib, but a more complex one: a King Cobra with an overfeed (called “emperor”) to ensure the ink supply.

The prototype.

This was, apparently, a proof of concept for the final anniversary pen. I can only guess that the actual cost of this combination, King Cobra nib plus overfeed, was finally too costly and was rejected.

A King Cobra nib with overfeed.

The very characteristic point of the King Cobra.

These are the dimensions of the prototype:

Length closed: 150 mm
Length open: 132 mm
Length posted: 175 mm
Diameter: 15 mm
Weight: 41.0 g (inked)

In actual terms there is nothing unique to this pen... save the combination of elements. And stylophiles love it.

My thanks to Mr. Sekine.

Iwase Seisakusho prototype – Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue

Bruno Taut
Nakano, January 8th 2019
labels: Sailor, estilofilia, plumín

Datation of Japanese Pens. VII. Sailor's Nibs (II)

Some years ago I spoke about dating marks on Sailor nibs: up to 2016, the manufacturing date on Sailor nibs was encoded in the form

abb

where a was the last digit of the year, and bb was the ordinal of the month: 01 for January, 02 for February, and so on.

710. On this case, October of 1957.

212. December of 1982? Maybe 1972?

A Naginata Togi nib from October 1999 (910).

Starting at some point in 2017, Sailor changed this code for another one in the form

ccX

Now, cc are the two last digits of the year, and X is a letter that encodes the month of production in the form A for January, B for February, and so on until L for December.

July of 2017 (17G). Photo courtesy of Inktraveler.

17K: November of 2017.

And now, the former ambiguities (does this 9 mean 1979, 1989 or 1999?) are eliminated.

Muji Aluminum pocket pen – Pelikan Black

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 29th, 2018
etiquetas: Sailor, plumín.

The Case of Naginata. II. The Two-Year Hiatus

Allegedly, Sailor stopped the distribution of specialty nibs (Naginata Togi and derivatives) in Winter of 2016-17. Or so we were told. The reasons behind that decision were the difficulty to attend the demand of those nibs, particularly from the North American market, and the need to train more people to make them. And in the meantime –until further notice, they said-- no more Naginata were to be distributed.

A collection of (old) Naginata nibs.

Or were they?

Indeed they were, albeit in small numbers and through selected retailers. On the following pictures we can see a Naginata Togi nib produced in 2017. The pen was purchased at a well-known stationer in Tokyo.

An old Naginata?

Not so old --2017--, but the old engraving. (And on another Chronicle I should speak about the dating codes on modern Sailor nibs).

That nib displays what now we know as the old engraving. This shows how this nibs predate the new policy –new prices, new distributions, new decoration-- of Sailor re specialty nibs.

Nibs like this –and it is not the only example-- are the last examples of the second generation of Naginata nibs, and the later pricing decisions of Sailor is making them all the more desirable.

Pilot Custom Heritage 912 – Wagner 2008 ink

Bruno Taut
Bunkyo, October 23rd 2018
etiquetas: mercado, Sailor, plumín

Anonymous Music

My latest acquisition is an anonymous pen with a very non-anonymous nib. And this combination make the whole pen all the more intriguing, and, for some, appealing.

The pen, in essence, is a Japanese eyedropper, made of ebonite with a very discreet maki-e decoration –a "tanzaku" (poem cards) pattern. The clip is of the teardrop shape, just like many Ban-ei pens.

An anonymous pen. Other than the inscriptions on the nib, the only text on it says R14K, and is on the cap ring. The very discreet maki-e --a "tanzaku" pattern-- is not signed.

And this clip, together with the overall shape of the pen and the shape of the section, and even the geometry of the ebonite feed point out at Ban-ei (Sakai Eisuke) as the master mind behind it. However, this idea is nothing but a guess, although this pen is very likely to have been made in the 1960s at Asakusa area in Tokyo.

A Ban-ei pen (top) and the anonymous pen with an interesting nib. Note the similarities in the shape. The Ban-ei pen is larger in all dimensions.

Feeds and sections of the pens on the previous picture: Ban-ei on top, anonymous on bottom. This geometry of the feed was very common in Japan from the 1960s till well into the 1990s on smaller pen makers.

The comes the nib—a beautiful music nib perfectly identifiable as made by nibmeister Kubo Kohei. In fact, the nib inscription NK stands for Nobel Kubo, where Nobel is one of the brands Mr. Kubo created during his career as nib maker. The nib is likely to be a replaced unit, but it could also show the origin of the pen itself. Then, is this a Nobel pen? Many a Nobel pen were anonymous –no brand name was imprinted on the pen--, but ebonite was not a typical material on that brand as Mr. Kubo doesn’t work with the lathe.

The music nib by Kubo Kohei. It is made of steel and is gold plated. The inscriptions read " STANDARD / NK / (JIS mark) / IRIDIUM / < 3 > / NPK ".

All in all, not much we know for certain about this pen, but the nib, and the unpretentious decoration make it most interesting.

These are the dimensions of the pen:

Length closed: 138 mm
Length open: 119 mm
Length posted: 166 mm
Diameter: 13.7 mm
Weight: 16.7 g (dry)
Ink deposit: 2.3 ml

And the search for information continues…

Twsbi Eco with Kubo music nib – Aurora Black

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 16th 2018
etiquetas: nibmeister Kubo Kohei, maki-e, Ban-ei, Nobel, marca desconocida, plumín, plumín musical

The Case of Naginata. I. The Press Release

Sailor has finally spoken out—Naginata Togi nibs and other special nibs will be back in the market on October 5th (2018). But that is the extent of the good news. The rest is not so positive.

An old Cross Music, and an old Naginata Togi.

The price of the Naginata nibs will double—from the former JPY 25000 to JPY 50000. And this price increase propagates through the whole line up of Special nibs:

Naginata Concord: from JPY 30000 to JPY 55000.
Naginata Fude: from JPY 25000 to JPY 55000.
Naginata with emperor: from JPY 35000 to JPY 60000.
Cross nib: from JPY 45000 to JPY 70000.
Cross Music: from JPY 50000 to JPY 75000.

The new design of the Naginata nibs. Photo courtesy of Inktraveler.

The pens implementing these nibs will change their appearance. The nib decoration will be simpler than the old one, as can be seen on the pictures. The pen will carry a wider cap ring with the inscription “SPECIAL NIB”.

New prices, new designs... old nibs. Photo courtesy of Inktraveler.

And, finally, the whole distribution network of this nibs will be dramatically reduced: only 50 dealers worldwide –25 of them in Japan— will handle these pens. And to make matters worse, some rumors say that few of these special nibs will make their way outside of Japan.

Sailor, at this point, has not released any information regarding the plans for the “super big” (“King of Pen”) size Naginata and related nibs.

These special nibs are becoming more special than ever.

Pilot Capless FCN-500R - De Atramentis Jeans Blue

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 3rd, 2018
etiquetas: Sailor, plumín, mercado

Nib Sizes, Feed Diameters

Few elements in a pen are really standardized. Each maker created –still creates– many of the components and they only had to match the other parts of the pen without any regard to other manufacturers.

The closes one could get to normalization was in the area of nibs, where at some point there was a consensus about their sizes. In that environment, sizes 6 and 8 were quite big; sizes 10 and 12 were huge, rare, expensive and highly desirable.

And half the world away, Japanese pen makers had their own life to live. Sure Pilot numbered their nibs in a similar fashion --from 0 to 8--, but the consistency in the size was far from exemplary. Sailor, on its side, used some crazy numbers—sizes 30, 80, and 200 for some of the nibs that, in actuality, were rather small.

An old Sailor nib labeled as size 30.

Nowadays, Japanese makers are very consistent in the sizing of their nibs, but the naming is very arbitrary.

Pilot, on its more common line of nibs, calls them as 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50. These numbers, however, do not mean much.

Platinum has three basic nibs—the 3776 with two and three tines, and the President. There is no indication of size.

Sailor, finally, has three basic sizes called medium, big and superbig.

And in the West, German nibs –third party nibs—tend to follow a more systematic approach. Bock nibs, albeit having their own number, follow a relevant pattern—the diameter of the feed. And the same happens with JoWo nibs: the feed diameter sets the nib size.

So, the question is how all these nibs –Japanese and German—compare. The following tables show the diameters of the feed of some manufacturers:

Pilot-Namiki

Nib description	Feed diameter (mm)
5	6.0
10	6.2
15	6.4
20	6.5
30	7.6
50	9.0

Pilot and Namiki nibs. From left to right, sizes 5, 10, 15, 20, and 50. Sizes 20 and 50 are implemented currently only on Namiki pens. However, the examples here shown are still Pilot (::1::, ::2::). Missing on the table is size 3. And from the picture, sizes 3 and 30.

Platinum-Nakaya

Nib description	Feed diameter (mm)
3776 old model music 2-tined nib	6.0
3776 new model	6.5

Two 3776 nibs. These are the nibs implemented on Nakaya pens, the "alter ego" of Platinum. On the left, the feed and the nib of the old version of the regular nibs. This feed is still used on the music nibs of Platinum and Nakaya. On the right, the modern nib and feed of the 3776 series of pens and of Nakaya pens save for the cases of music nibs. Missing on the table and on the picture, the President nib.

Sailor

Nib description	Feed diameter (mm)
Medium	5.8
Big	6.4

Sailor nibs and feeds of sizes medium (left) and big. Missing on the picture and on the table, the "super big" size of the "King of Pen" models.

Bock

Nib description	Feed diameter (mm)
060, 076, 180	5.0
220, 250	6.0
380	8.0

JoWo

Nib description	Feed diameter (mm)
#5	5.0
#6	6.0
#8	8.0

From left to right: Bock model 250 (6.0 mm in diameter), Bock model 380 (8.0 mm), and JoWo nib of size #6. All the feeds on the picture are made of ebonite.

The following pictures show how some of those nibs compare across brands.

Japanese nibs with similar external sizes. From the top left, clockwise: Sailor nib size big, Platinum 3776 Century (current model), Platinum 3776 (previous model), Pilot size 10.

Assorted pens whose nibs are about the size of a size 6 nib. From bottom left, clockwise: Pelikan M800, Clavijo with a JoWo #6, Senator pen with a Bock 250 (6.0 in diameter), Eboya with a Bock 250, Romillo with a Bock 250, Pilot with a size 20 nib, Pilot with a size 15 nib, and a Montblanc 146.

Assorted pens with nibs of about a size 8. From the bottom, clockwise: Romillo with a Bock 380, Eboya with a Bock 380, Montblanc 149, Pelikan M1000, and Sailor King of Pen.

The conclusion is interesting: Japanese follow their own systems and the actual sizes are very different to those of the German manufacturers.

Montblanc 149 – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Nakano, July 13th 2018
etiquetas: plumín, Japón, Alemania, Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, Bock, JoWo

Kubo Meets Sakai

The figure of Kubo Kohei (久保幸平) is already known to the readers. He is a very prestigious nibmeister with a long history of nibs made for his own brands –Elliott, Nobel–, and for others –Push, Danitrio, even Zôhiko. The purpose of this Chronicle is to show some more remarkable creations of this master.

An unusual music nib by Kubo Kohei.

Kubo Kohei has made music nibs in the past, as I have reported here. However, that example was a very traditional music nib: two slits, three tines. The following examples go one step forward: three slits, four tines. The result is a very broad and wet line showing a good –but not extreme— variation on the writing.

Writing sample of a 4-tine music nib by nibmeister Kubo.

These three music nibs are associated to three outstanding pens—three old pens made by Sakai Eisuke (酒井栄助). They had not reached the market and had been retrofitted with Henckel nibs, which is not rare in what looks like production leftovers by the Ban-ei group.

All three nibs carry the same inscription: "ELEGANT / KB / 18 K - 750 / MADE IN / JAPAN".

However, the ways their tips are cut are different--the one on top is very sharp, and that on bottom is the roundest of them.

These pens are all Japanese eyedroppers of very generous dimensions. So big, in fact, that the Kubo’s nibs seem a tad too small. These are the dimensions of the pens:

	-.Wooden.-	-.Plain, - black ebonite.-	-.Bamboo-like, - black ebonite.-
Length closed (mm)	145	173	152
Length open (mm)	130	150	132
Length posted (mm)	180	208	186
Diameter (mm)	20	18	20
Weight, dry (g)	36.3	44.0	44.9

The three pens where Kubo met Sakai--years after the disappearance of the later.
Only the pen in the middle (black ebonite in the shape of bamboo) has an additional engraving--on the clip it says "NEW CLIP", showing some parts coming from Fukunaka Seisakusho. The plain black pen (on top) has no clip.

Remarkable pens with remarkable nibs, although they might not be the best match. But sure they are attractive and desirable.

My thanks to Ms. Lai.

Platinum pocket, steel and stripes – De Atramentis Jeans Blue

Bruno Taut
Nakano, May 6th 2018
etiquetas: nibmeister Kubo Kohei, Ban-ei, plumín, plumín musical

The Sapphire and the Maki-e

Spring is always a fertile time in the pen scene in Japan. Spring is the season of the biggest pen events in Tokyo where oftentimes pen makers show their new releases. That was the case, for instance, of the new line if Sailor inks recently mentioned on these Chronicles.

At the event named “Fountain Pens of the World” at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi (Tokyo), a new pen brand showed its creations. Its name is Kemma, and it is the brainchild of Mr Tadao Abe, of Yuzawa (in Akita, Japan), and is part of the Akita Grind Industry.

Two Kemma pens and the cap of a third one. As seen at the "Fountain Pens of the World Festival" organized by Mitsukoshi.

The fundamental originality of Kemma’s pens is their non-metallic nibs. They are, actually, made of sapphire (patent US 2017/01366803 A1), and they do not have a slit. The ink is delivered through a V-groove carved in the sapphire.

The sapphire nib.

On the left, an unfinished sapphire nib--unpolished and not grinded. On the right, a finished nib.

As for the rest, the feed is made of ABS plastic, and the filling system is a simple cartridge-converter. The body is metallic, albeit the external decoration hides it. And the final result is a hefty pen.

And very expensive too.

The pen on this picture cost over JPY 1,000,000. The red and white one seen on previous pictures is one of the basic models and costs JPY 300,000, plus tax.

Then, how does it work? The sapphire nib is very rigid and its writing is boring and uncharacteristic. However, its major problem is its tendency to dry up very quickly, and this problem was present in all the testing units. I repeated those tests on a second date with much better results. This suggests that the whole system –nib and feed— had some room for adjustment, but this could only be based on the relative position between nib and feed, and this is a lot less than what could be done to a regular metallic nib.

Writing samples made with several Kemma pens. On this day, one of the pens was adjusted so that it provided a very wet flow and was less prone to drying up. But that was not the case of all of the testing units. My personal experience with most of these pens was that they dried up within seconds after stopped writing. They were not comfortable pens.

Then comes the price of these pens, and Kemma pens are very expensive—starting at JPY 300,000, plus tax. On the other hand, the master company –Akita Grind Industry— tries to add some value to the product by means of some maki-e and urushi-e decoration made in one of the Meccas of these decorative techniques: Wajima, in Ishikawa.

The sapphire and the maki-e.

But, is that all these novelty pens can offer? Are they just canvas for maki-e? The pen indeed writes… albeit a Vpen is more satisfactory at that.

Whether Kemma pens succeed or not will depend, from my point of view, on whether or not they attract the attention of maki-e aficionados. As I have already said on these texts, for those fond of maki-e the pen itself is secondary.

The sapphire nib together with the ABS feed.

Welcome be, though, the innovation of non-metallic nibs that Akita Grind Industry is offering now; but they need further development to compete with the traditional technology of steel and gold nibs.

Lamy Safari – Tomiya Original Ink (Sailor)

Bruno Taut
Nakano, March 28th 2018
etiquetas: Kemma, evento, soluciones técnicas, plumín, maki-e, urushi-e