Center

2500 pen ventures at any given time anywhere are a huge number. But that is what Andreas Lambrou and Masa Sunami say about the post Second World War pen scene in Japan. Many of them simply assembled pens out of pre-bought parts and did not last long in the market. But nonetheless, the number of Japanese companies registered in texts and websites remains big. Most of them are minor and their pens are hard to find in the market, not to mention that too often their quality do not justify any effort in finding them. But some do find their way to your hands…

Not much can be found about the pen brand Center. Ron Dutcher, from Kamakura Pens, says that it was based in Osaka, either from the 1930s or from right after the war, and closed down by the mid 1950s. On the other hand, the Fountain Pen Network list of Japanese pen manufacturers speaks of this brand as owned by the company Sanwa Kogyo Co. Ltd. from Tokyo. It produced, the FPN link says, some celluloid pens in the 1950s.

The Center 61.

Today’s pen is a cheap model labeled as Center 61 on the barrel in bright pink celluloid. The nib is of the nail type, with the feed totally covered by the section. It is a semi flex, most likely made of steel. The filling system is aerometric. The dimensions are as follows:

Diameter: 10 mm.
Length capped: 127 mm.
Length uncapped: 116 mm.
Length posted: 140 mm.
Weight: 14.4 g (empty).
Cap weight: 5.0 g.
Ink deposit: 0.6 ml.


My best estimation is that this pen dates back from the late 1950s given its similarities with some Pilot Super models of that time.


Obviously, not all Japanese pens show good taste. This one is certainly kebai.

(Kaweco Sport – Diamine Amazing Amethyst)

Bruno Taut
July 4, 2011
[labels: Center, Japón]

Note added on May 7th, 2013: The company Sanwa Kogyo still exists, but it is (and was) based in Nara, not in Tokyo. More information, on this other Chronicle: More Center.

JIS

On the previous chronicle I mentioned that the pen company SSS could not survive the tough competition in the Japanese market after the Second World War. Japanese pen collector Masa Sunami and Andreas Lambrou speak of over 2500 small ventures producing pens in Japan by the late 1940s. This number decreased quickly due to competition –the survival of the fittest— and to the control induced by the Japanese Ministry of Industry through the implementation of the Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) in 1952.

The JIS logo, prior to 2008. Image taken from the Wikipedia.

A size 1 nib by Meizen, in steel, with the JIS logo. This pen dates back from the late 1950s.

A Platinum pen from 1970. This nib is made of 18 K white gold.

The visible effect on pens was the new logo that from 1954 was imprinted on pen nibs to guarantee the material out of which they were made. Until that moment, a number of companies advertised theirs as golden when they were merely gold plated. Adopting the logo was, apparently, not compulsory, but Pilot adopted promptly thus pushing other brands to follow suit. However, some brands were reluctant to imprint the logo. With time, its use has decayed and in modern pens is no longer present.

A size 2 nib by Morison, made of steel. It belongs to a lever filler hard rubber pen.

This is the nib of a Pilot R, a popular pen in production for a long time. The JIS logo dates the pen in the late 1950s.

A nice side effect, fifty years later, is that the logo provides an argument to date the pen—any nib with that logo was certainly manufactured after 1954.

(Pilot V pen, F nib – Diamine Teal)

Bruno Taut
June 29, 2011
[labels: Japón]

San-essu

Mr. Asashirô Hosonuma’s jewelry company Kinkôsha started in the pen business by producing high quality nibs for other companies around 1911. Some years later, the company was renamed as Hosonuma Shokai and included pens in its catalog under the brand SSS, San-essu, "three S" in Japanese.

This brand became one of the top three in Japan before the Second World War, together with the Japanese Swan and the well-known Pilot-Namiki. But the company disappeared in the 1950s unable to compete in the post-war Japanese market, overflown with pen companies.

This hard rubber pen is a nice example of a 1930s pen by SSS. It uses a shut-off system to seal the eyedropper ink deposit—all very Japanese.

Inside the barrel, the conical seal of the shut-off valve.

The nib is made of steel due to the war restrictions (the Sino Japanese war had started in 1931) in the use of gold. This led to the creation of the so called shiro nibs (shiro means "white" in Japanese). As many of them, this one is fairly flexible and has a very fine point.

The engraved clip.

The flexible shiro nib in size 4.

The brand name is engraved on both the nib and on the barrel. The clip sports the company logo.

The pen dimensions:
Diameter: 13 mm.
Length capped: 132 mm.
Length uncapped: 116 mm.
Length posted: 160 mm.
Weight: 16.8 g (empty).
Cap weight: 6.1 g.

It is not difficult to find SSS pens in the second hand market in Japan.

(Pilot Capless, 14 K gold F nib – Montblanc Irish Green)

Bruno Taut
June 27, 2011
[labels: Japón, SSS]

PS: I am having serious troubles uploading images to this blog server. Blogger is certainly NOT what any blogger expected.

The Otaku Syndrome

Para Ningyo-chan y Kendo-san en Sampaka.

I guess we all otaku are bound to experience this syndrome… Otaku, almost by definition, are obsessed with their pens and related objects –or whatever the object of their dreams might be—and we easily become very knowledgeable about them. More so than most professionals. But these professionals are in charge of catering our dreams when we enter their shops.

That has been my experience in most shops I have visited—mostly in Madrid and in Tokyo. Very soon you learned that there is a very shallow knowledge of the product they are selling in the person attending you. The logical exception to this rule is the second hand shop, but only when the owner is also the person in charge.

Sales people seem to have a hard time following Sailor's ink policy in the last years.

I wonder then, if those clerks were aware of the fact that some of their customers knew a lot more than themselves, and that those customers would be very pleased with a more knowledgeable attention.

I guess, finally, that suffering from this otaku syndrome is, more often than not, unavoidable… But I wished different.

(Kaweco Sport as eyedropper, 1.1i nib – Senator Regent Royal Blue)

Bruno Taut
June 23, 2011
[labels: estilofilia, mercado]

Safari Japonés

La Lamy Safari es una pluma bien conocida. Es uno de los diseños más característicos de Lamy, que es una marca que se caracteriza por sus diseños innovadores desde que a principios de los 60 Manfred Lamy se hizo cargo de la empresa. El modelo Safari en particular fue diseñado por Wolfgang Fabian y Bernt Spiegel y salió al mercado en 1980. Desde entonces, esta pluma ha pasado por varias modificaciones –hasta cuatro— sin que apenas afectaran al aspecto externo.


El material básico de esta pluma es plástico inyectado. Por tanto, la creación de una gran variedad de colores es fácil y está presente en el catálogo de la marca desde el comienzo del modelo. A principios de los 90, con la tercera generación de la Safari, Lamy lanza al mercado la versión transparente, que muchos consideran la primera edición limitada de esta pluma. Posteriormente, con el nombre de Lamy Vista se incorporó al catálogo como un modelo más. Desde entonces, los cambios de color y las ediciones limitadas han sido una constante en este modelo. Después de todo, estas tiradas reducidas alimentan la demanda del producto e incrementan el negocio. La última de estas ediciones especiales, la del año 2011, está hecha en color azul: es la Safari Aguamarina (Aquamarine).

La portada del último ejemplar hasta el momento de la revista Shumi no Bungubako. Las pluma de la portada es la Sailor del centésimo aniversario. También merecen mención especial la Safari Aguamarina.

Y la pluma que aquí presento es otra de ellas. Se trata de una edición hecha para la revista japonesa Shumi-no Bungubako (趣味の文具箱). En estos momentos, esta revista cuatrimestral es la referencia de obligada consulta en el mundo de la estilográfica japonesa.


Por cierto, la Safari es muy popular en Japón.

(Pilot Vpen – Diamnie Teal)

Bruno Taut
22 de junio de 2011
[labels: Lamy, Shumi no Bungubako]

Kaweco Sport Eyedropper

I know I have advocated in favor of small deposits in fountain pens. And I do agree with the wise comment of Sven Opitz—not refilling a pen for a month makes it a boring month.

But I am also a tinkerer, and I enjoy experimenting. So, I tried to use a small Kaweco Sport Demonstrator as eyedropper pen.


That is a particularly well-suited pen for this transformation: a cartridge/converter of reduced size, all plastic made, and transparent. Then, I proceeded to fill the whole barrel with ink. I did not apply any grease nor added any gasket to the thread. And it does not leak at all. The nib I chose is a 1.1 mm italic from the Kaweco Calligraphy set.

Two sets of threads can be seen on the demonstrator pen. The one on the left is for the cap. The one on the far right is to attach barrel and section. This thread seals the barrel tightly--no ink leak after days of carrying the pen around in my pocket.

The result is a very well behaved pen—a generous flow, a big ink deposit (about 2.5 ml of ink, versus 0.7 ml in a short international cartridge), and an interesting nib. The drawback, of course, is being bound to use this royal blue ink for quite some time.

(Kaweco Sport, 1.1 mm italic nib – Senator Regent Royal Blue)

Bruno Taut
June 16th, 2011
[labels: Kaweco, soluciones técnicas]

Parallel Converters

Pilot’s Parallel pens have already been described on these chronicles. Arguably, they are the best italic nibs in the market. But their ink demands –these are wet writers— are not matched with equally generous ink deposits.


The official position of the company can be summarized as follows:

1. Pilot’s Parallel Pens use a dedicated ink—more fluid than most standard fountain pen inks. And all of those dedicated inks are mixable among them.

2. The cartridges containing that ink are the same as the regular Pilot cartridges. However, inside them there is a metallic ball.

3. The converter included in the package is only for cleaning purposes.

A disassembled Parallel Pen.

My experience, as can be seen on the video, is different:

1. Pilot’s Parallel Pen inks are indeed more fluid than other inks, but I have used some other inks –by Sailor, for instance—with no mayor problem. Slowing the writing pace avoids any problem associated to the thicker texture of those inks. And we all know that most inks are mixable—Sailor’s, in particular, are well behaved.

2. The cleaning converter can be used as regular converter on these and on other Pilot pens.

From left to right, standard (empty) Pilot cartridge, and converters CON-20, CON-50, CON-70, and CON-W. The CON-W cannot be used in the Parallel Pens.

3. Standard CON-20 and CON-50 converters can be used on these Parallel Pens. The CON-70, with bigger ink capacity, does not fit inside the barrel.

4. There is no problem in using these pens as eyedroppers, thus enlarging their ink capacity a great deal.

The 6 mm-Parallel Pen nib unit.

In my opinion, the only point of those warnings, as stated by Pilot, is to protect its market of dedicated ink and cartridges.

(Pilot Vpen, F nib – Diamine Teal)

Bruno Taut
June 5th, 2011
[labels: Pilot, soluciones técnicas, papelería, conversores]