On Candies. Correction

Some months ago I wrote several texts (::1::, ::2::) on the Clear Candy fountain pen Sailor released in 2011. On those texts, I mentioned that the origin of those pens was a previous line called A. S. Manhattaner. Well, that was true, but just in part.

The 2011 Sailor Clear Candy.

Actually, some sources (Masa Sunami and Andreas Lambrou, magazine Shumi no Bungubako –issue 19-- and some websites like ::1::, ::2:: and ::3::, all three checked on January 2013) teach that there was a Candy fountain pen, by Sailor, released in the 1970s. It was, actually, a big success, selling about four million units in two years. The structure of this first Candy was entirely the same as the current model, as can be seen on the pictures. But as commentator and friend Koskas K pointed out, these early Candy pens had their nibs marked as made in Taiwan.

Several ads of the Sailor Candy from 1970s. Picture taken from Sailor's shop website, as shown on the picture's watermark.

A 1970s Sailor Candy. The motiff of the cap jewel has changed along the history of the model since 1976. Picture by Kostas K.

The F-2 nib made in Taiwan. Picture by Kostas K.

Incidentally, I will add that in 1979 there existed the option of a three-tined music nib made of steel on these inexpensive pens. They were called Candy Music and are now a rarity. Let us remember that the current line of music nibs by Sailor has only two tines.

The 2011 Clear Candy pen does not have its nib imprinted with the "MADE IN TAIWAN" sign.

2011 Clear Candy pens at stationery shops in Japan (2011).

To summarize—the true origin of the Sailor Clear Candy line of pens released in 2011 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the company dates back from 1976, when the first Sailor Candy was released.

My thanks and appreciation to Mr. Kostas K.

Sailor Profit Junior, 14 K music nib – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 30th, 2013
etiquetas: Sailor, plumín musical, Shumi no Bungubako, plumín, Taiwan

On Gold and Steel

This is, lately, a recurrent topic of discussion: how important is to have a gold nib? What are the differences in performance between those materials? These are my experiences, my conclusions, and also my doubts.

1. Nib flexibility is more a matter of its geometry than of the material it was made of. To illustrate this point, I am including two pictures. First, a Pilot’s steel nib from the 1950s with remarkable flexibility.

Second, a very rigid modern Sailor nib modified by nibmeister Yamada to make it flexible. Needless to say, Mr. Yamada did not change the composition of the nib but just its shape.

2. Now, in the case of two identically shaped nibs, the one made of 14 K gold is more flexible than that of steel. But higher gold content does not make the nib more flexible. In fact, higher gold content makes the material more prone to plastic deformation. Therefore, high grade gold nibs –21 K and up— must be very rigid to avoid deformations.

Nothing can I say about the flexibility of poorer, below the usual 14 K, gold alloys. Those, in any event, are rare in the pen industry.

On top, a 22 K gold nib by Platinum. On bottom, a 23 K nib by Sailor. Both are very rigid.

3. The raison d’être of gold nibs is, over any other consideration, its very high resistance to corrosion. But with modern inks and correct pen hygiene nib corrosion is a very minor risk despite what some ink producers might claim. Consequently, the wish, or the need, to implement a gold nib is mostly a matter of marketing over any practical justification.

4. Writing smoothness has nothing to do with the nib material. The contact point between pen and paper is the iridium point (no longer made of this metal), and the smoothness of that contact point lays on the tipping material and on the quality of the polishing.

5. Having said that, I also want to add a caveat. In my experience, gold nibs tend to run a tad wetter that their steel counterparts. The reason for this might be related to differences in the interactions of the ink with the different nib materials. More ink, then, means more lubrication on the tip and a smoother writing experience. But this factor is secondary to the quality of the polishing or to the characteristics of ink and paper, and it could easily be corrected with an adequate design of the feed.

6. Finally, we should never forget that the writing experience depends on the pen, on the ink, and on the paper. And on our way of writing.

Morison pocket pen, 18 K nib – Sailor Jentle Black

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, February 2013
etiquetas: soluciones técnicas, mercado, plumín, Sailor, Pilot, Platinum, Yamada

Out of Production (I)

I can think of a very big reason to rather self-filling over cartridge-converter. With self-filling pens, the owner will never run out those essential elements, cartridges and converters, to use the pen. An acceptable alternative might be standard/international cartridges whose manufacture is shared by a big number of companies.

A Morison pocket pen from the 1970s.

The risk is clear—should the maker of that particular pen disappear, its proprietary cartridges and converters might also become extinct from stationery shops. That is the case of the following Morison. It is a well made pocket pen with a semi-hooded 18 K gold nib. But it uses Morison-proprietary cartridges, long gone and very hard to find after the company stopped the production of pens in the early 1990s.

In an attempt to ink this pen, I tried to use Sailor slim cartridges (for the Chalana model). These are thin enough, but too long to fit inside the barrel. On the side, the plastic tassie of the barrel.

Some other models of this brand can use Platinum cartridges, and in fact, the cartridge nipple of this pen accepts Platinum cartridges, but not the rest of the pen. Its body is too small –both short and narrow— to host it. And neither can this Morison be used as eyedropper as the tassie at the back of the barrel does not seal the body and can easily be removed.

Therefore, this pen is not usable without the proper –and missing—cartridge or converter. And it is frustrating as the pen is in perfect working conditions with only minor cosmetic defects. This issue obviously reduces the value of this pen in the second hand market.

Platinum P-300, music nib – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Taito (Tokyo), January 27-29th, 2013
etiquetas: Morison, conversor

Cut-away (II)

As we all know in here, the Pilot Myu-701 is an all-steel pen in which the nib is just an extension of the section. Therefore, it is not possible to make a real demonstrator version of it. There existed transparent versions of its close relative the Pilot Volex, and those were shown on these Chronicles.

The all-steel Pilot Myu 701.

A Pilot Volex in black and its transparent sister.

But Pilot does have a cut-away model of the all-steel pen. It can be seen at their museum of pen—the Pilot Pen Station in Tokyo.

The cut-away Myu 701 at the Pilot museum.

Montblanc 221 – Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 25th, 2013
etiquetas: Pilot

Ramie

Little is available in books or in the Net about the pen brand Ramie. It produced, some sources say, low quality ebonite pens in the 1950s. Their filling systems were either eyedropper or plastic-squeeze filler. And there is at least one example of a pen in carved sterling silver. And that is it.

By looking at a Ramie pen in the flesh I can offer some more information. The mother company was called Hayashi Manufacturing Co., and was located in Tokyo. It adopted the certification system of the Japanese Ministry of Industry and, therefore, it was active in the mid 1950s.

On the barrel, not visible on the picture, there is an engraving: "RAMIE / HAYASHIMFG / GUARANTEED".

The engraving on the nib reads WARRANTED / RAMIE / (JIS logo) / 14 K / GOLD / <1>". And note the TS monogram at the low end of it.

This pen in particular is a lever-filler in urushi-coated ebonite. The nib is a size 1 in 14 K gold with the brand name engraved on it. The barrel carries the imprint of the mother company together with an inscription about the occasion in which the pen was awarded to an honor student at Hosei High School in Tokyo.

Its overall condition is very good. It construction quality, pen-wise, makes me question the alleged low quality of Ramie pens as stated online. The urushi finish, however, is certainly not top class.

These are its dimensions:
Length closed: 130 mm.
Length open: 111 mm.
Length posted: 152 mm.
Diameter: 13 mm.
Dry weight: 14.4 g.
Ink deposit: 0.8 ml

The Push, celluloid lever filler – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Chuo (Tokyo), January 22nd, 2013
etiquetas: Ramie

Taiwanese Sailor

Records say that Sailor Pen Company opened a manufacturing plant in the Republic of China, aka Taiwan, in the early 1970s. It started operations on October 1973. it remains unclear whether that plan is still active today, but there seems to be no Sailor fountain pen manufactured in Taiwan nowadays. Some claim, though, that some pen parts, like the F-2 nib, are still manufactured in there.

This pocket pen I am showing today came out from that plant, as the engraving on the section clearly implies. It is an inexpensive pen. Contrary to most pocket pen models, there is no central ring keeping section and barrel together. Instead, the section is build with a plastic thread on which the barrel is attached, and a narrow metallic ring separates externally both pieces and limits the movement of the cap when closing the pen and when posting it on the barrel.

On the other side of the barrel, another engraving reads "412", possibly a code number of the model.

However, the most relevant indicator of how inexpensive this model was is the gold-plated steel nib. The problem does not lay on the material –we all know of excellent nibs made of stainless steel— but on the quality of the steel. The gold plating hided some imperfections on the base material—some pores that showed poor manufacturing conditions. The nib is engraved with the company logo and the label F-1. It dates from mid 1970s.

A relevant question is whether Sailor kept the Taiwanese plant for simpler and inexpensive models. Let us remember that around that same time (mid 1970s) Sailor was producing 23 K gold nibs.

The steel nib of the Taiwanese Sailor.

A 23 K gold nib by Sailor. An expensive way to avoid corrosion.

This pen, as was the case on all Sailor pocket pens nowadays, can only be inked with proprietary cartridges (and by refilling them with our ink of choice, of course). These are its dimensions:
Length closed: 112 mm.
Length open: 95 mm.
Length posted: 137 mm.
Diameter: 12 mm.
Dry weight: 9.8 g.

The Push, celluloid lever filler – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 18th, 2013
etiquetas: Sailor, Taiwan

Pilot Super Ultra 500

(Note for non-Spanish speakers: I wrote this text for a pen forum in Spanish. However, the final result made me think it was worth to publish it as one of my chronicles, despite most of the information here included had already been published in here. One of the reasons is that there is very little information in Spanish about this pen).

1953 es un año muy importante en la historia de las plumas estilográficas en Japón. En ese año se adoptan dos decisiones de gran relevancia:

La primera es la adopción de un sistema de control sobre el material de los plumines. Esta medida del Ministerio de Industria japonés nunca fue obligatoria, pero las grandes empresas –Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, SSS— la adoptaron rápidamente. El resultado fue que muchas empresas pequeñas, con productos de menor calidad, cerraron ante la imposibilidad de competir con ellas.

La segunda medida fue el final del embargo sobre el uso de oro para plumines. Desde el año 1939 el uso del oro para artículos de consumo había estado prohibido y las estilográficas se vieron obligadas a utilizar plumines de acero inoxidable. Son los llamados plumines shiro, que significa blanco en japonés.

En consecuencia, en ese año 1953 el mercado quedó abierto para nuevos productos y con más garantías de calidad. En ese año, Pilot lanzó al mercado el modelo 53R. En ella, los plumines (de oro y de acero) y los alimentadores son visibles. Respecto al sistema de llenado, son dos los métodos preferentes: cuentagotas con válvula de sellado y palanca lateral que acciona un saco de goma. Ocasionalmente también se emplea un sistema de pistón pulsado llamado sistema A (A-shiki) y alguna fuentes hablan de que también se empleó el sistema del bebedor (nomikomi-shiki) en ellas.

Un ejemplo del modelo 53R. Se trata de una pluma con llenado por palanca, por lo que estrictamente es del modelo 53R-T.

Pero esta pluma 53R no es, en el fondo, más que una recreación del modelo R anterior a la Guerra. Y es en el año 1955 cuando finalmente Pilot lanza al mercado una nueva pluma. Se trata de un diseño de un joven ingeniero, Shigeki Chiba. Sus ganas de comerse el mundo no le granjearon muchas simpatías en la compañía y le envían a las líneas de producción para que aprendiera lo que era posible y lo que no era posible hacer. Y de su mano salió el diseño de la Pilot Super. Es una pluma que muestra el plumín mientras que oculta el alimentador dentro de la boquilla. Es la configuración que muchos llaman “en uña”. Es un estilo que ya había iniciado Platinum con sus plumas “Honest”, aunque sin llegar a ocultar completamente el alimentador.

Una selección de plumas de la serie Super de Pilot. Todas las mostradas tienen sistemas de autollenado. En versiones posteriores, algunas de ellas pasaron a ser de cartucho/conversor.

La foto muestra los tres sistemas de autollenado de las primeras Pilot Super. Arriba, sistema de llenado por saco en forma de acordeón; en el medio, el sistema de manguera (hose-system); abajo, sistema aerométrico. En las dos últimas se puede ver la geometría típica del plumín en uña. La pluma superior es el modelo Super 500G.

La serie Super, en cualquier caso, se convierte en la pluma fundamental de Pilot. En ella hay desde modelos muy baratos con plumines de acero hasta productos de gran lujo con decoración maki-e. Respecto a los sistemas de llenado, el método más empleado es el de manguera (hose-system), pero hay otras dos opciones: aerométrico para plumas pequeñas y de saco en acordeón para algunas de las más lujosas (modelo Super 500G).

Modelo Super con decoración maki-e. Se trata del diseño seirei-nuri, exclusivo de Pilot.

La obsesión de Shigeki Chiba, sin embargo, eran los plumines enrasados y finalmente logra un diseño que atrae la atención de la dirección. Es la Super Ultra 500 y se erige como el modelo más lujoso de toda la serie cuando se lanza en 1959.

La Pilot Super Ultra 500.

El plumín enrasado de la Super Ultra 500.

El sistema de llenado es el más habitual de la serie Super: el sistema de manguera (hose-system). Pero el capuchón metálico del saco está dorado.

Este diseño conserva el sistema de llenado típico (el mencionado sistema de manguera) de la serie Super, pero el resto se hace mucho más refinado para hacer un producto de lujo. El acabado de la pluma es lacado en negro con apliques (anillos, prendedor) chapados en oro de 14 quilates. Incluso la vaina del saco del sistema de llenado está dorado. Hubo algunas variaciones, menos habituales, con el cuerpo de color gris y con el capuchón completamente recubierto de oro.

El diseño del capuchón sigue las líneas del plumín enrasado. Este detalle hace decir a muchos que el capuchón negro es más atractivo que el modelo más lujoso con todo el capuchón dorado.

Detalle del alimentador y de la parte inferior del plumín.

Dos de las versiones de la Super Ultra 500 expuestas en el museo de Pilot, Pen Station, en Tokyo.

La pluma en sí era muy cara de producir y se mantuvo en el mercado durante menos de dos años. Es una de las pocas plumas japonesas realmente apreciadas en el país de origen. Es buscada y admirada, pero no es fácil de encontrar y, en consecuencia, sus precios son altos.

A pesar de su limitada difusión, la Super Ultra 500 marcó una tendencia estética. La admiración despertada impulsó a otras marcas a hacer plumas con un aire similar. A esas plumas; de Platinum, de Morison, de Navy; de las llama, genéricamente, modelos Ultra.

Plumín y boquilla de la pluma Gold 200 de la marca Navy.

La Super Ultra 500 original, de 1959, y la réplica de 1995.

En el año 1995 Pilot hizo una réplica en una edición limitada de 350 unidades con el nombre de Pilot Ultra (número de catálogo, FU-6MR-BM). Esta nueva versión cargaba por cartucho y conversor.

Teclado español de 87 teclas.
(Sí, ésta es mi primera crónica escrita directamente en el teclado).

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, 15 de enero de 2013
etiquetas: Pilot, Navy, Platinum, estilofilia, Morison