Nebotek

Nebotek is one of the small operations—that is, other than the big three—producing pens in Japan. Its mother company is Nikko Ebonite, established in 1952 as manufacturer of ebonite (vulcanized hard rubber), a material with a number of applications. Nikko Ebonite is also the supplier of this material for all Japanese fountain pen manufacturers with the sole exception of Hakase. So, creating their own pen brand was only natural, and that happened in 2009.

Assorted Nobotek pens at a sale event in a department store in Tokyo.

Nebotek pens are created by Mr. Kanesaki Noritoshi　(金崎徳稔), disciple of the well know (well, in Japan) nibmeister Kubo Kohei　(久保幸平), now almost completely retired. Mr. Kanesaki lathes the in-house ebonite to make fountain pens and ball-pens. Fountain pens come in three different filling systems: (international) cartridge-converter, button filler, and eyedropper with shut-off valve. Nibs and feeds are provided by Peter Bock, in Germany, and are available in four points: F, FM, M, and B. They can also be made soft (springy).

Currently, the pens carry no inscription naming the maker or the model. They look anonymous save for the nib, imprinted with the Bock logo. So, the unknowing user might take this pen as a no-brand pen or as a German pen made by Bock itself.

The Nebotek Onoto-type.

The following pen is one of the Nebotek models. It is called Onoto-type, and it indeed resembles the old Onotos that arrived in Japan at the break of the twentieth century. This pen is an eyedropper with shut-off valve manned from the tail. It is medium sized out of the three possibilities (S, M, L). The nib is a size 220 (in the Bock catalog) made of 14 K gold. These are the pen dimensions:

Length closed: 141 mm
Length open: 134 mm
Length posted: 175 mm
Diameter: 15 mm
Weight (dry): 23.4 g

A typical Japanese eyedropper pen.

The Bock nib, engraved with the Bock logo.

Nobotek pens are indeed good and interesting products, but its poor marketing makes them almost unknown. And anonymous.


P. S: Around January 2014, Nebotek pens changed its name to Eboya.

Pilot Super (cartridge-converter), soft nib – Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown

Bruno Taut
April 5th, 2013
etiquetas: Nebotek, Bock, Eboya, Kanesaki Noritoshi

Sixties Music

Music nibs are not a Japanese invention, but it seems that it is only in this country where they have found the favor of pen companies on these days (see ::1:: and ::2::). As about pen aficionados, that is not the case given the popularity of these nibs in other markets.

Music nibs have been produced in Japan since, at least, 1950s, as we have already seen on these Chronicles by courtesy of nibmeister Yamada, and of some others. However, they are not easy to find –and I try hard--, and any success is always a source of joy.

The following Platinum pen is one such example. Simply put, this is a cartridge-converter pen made of plastic with a metallic cap, black with golden decorative elements. And the nib is a three-tined beauty made of 18 K gold. It is smooth and juicy, and shows a nice line variation.

The inside of this pen. The nib and feed can be taken out of the section upon disassembling the central ring. The converter on the picture in an old model.

These are the dimensions of the pen:
Length closed: 142 mm
Length open: 124 mm
Length posted: 153 mm
Diameter: 12 mm
Weight (dry): 10.8 g
Ink capacity: 1.2 ml (Platinum cartridge) and 0.53 ml (Platinum converter) (data taken form Platinum's catalog)

Writing sample with this music nib by Platinum. The small square is 2 mm wide. The ink is a Sailor Jentle in a color ordered by the Wagner group of pen collectors.

This pen is very nicely balanced and is perfectly usable as a regular pen. Some users, though, might consider this nib to be too broad, but that did not bother me at the time of writing this text.

Masa Sunami reported on a similar pen on the book The 101 Pen’s Collection of M. Sunami (M. SUNAMI and S. NAKAJIMA. Hankyu Communications Ltd. 2006. ISBN: 978-4-484-06221-1) and dates it from 1966.

NOTE added on May 31st, 2013: This pen was made in 1969. Please, check the Chronicle Transitional.

Platinum P-300, music nib – Platinum Black

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, April 5th, 2013
etiquetas: Platinum, plumín, plumín musical

Artisanal

In this world of fast-evolving technology and mass-produced goods there seems to be room for nostalgia and romanticism… But are those for real or mere illusions?

There are a number of pen companies claiming to have their products handmade or crafted by traditional artisans following ancient recipes. But what do all those words really mean? What is really handmade and what is machine-made?

What tools can an artisan –whatever this might mean— use while preserving the label and aura of “handmade”? Is the lathe an acceptable tool? And if that lathe was numerically-controlled? Should the lathe be made by the artisan himself to keep the purity of the handmade process? Or, is electricity an acceptable source of energy?

Nakaya. Japanese handmade fountain pens, we read on its website. But what does that really mean?

It is very difficult –if at all possible— to draw that red line delimiting the realm of the craftsmanship and the realm of the mass-production. Craftsmanship is, after all, only an older technology, but a technology that still uses tools made by others.

Two are the reasons for a new technology to gain favor. First is the economic argument—does this new machine makes the final product for less? Second is the quality—is the product newly made better than the one produced with the previous technologies? The final adoption of the new procedures depends on a delicate balance between those two arguments. Cheaper but lower quality is not a good strategy to keep business going, but it is certainly tempting.

At the end, the consumer decides, and it is my contention that the final decision should only be taken based on the quality of the good and not on the marketing labels attached to it to increase the price. After all, we do not judge a novel based on which instrument was used to write it.

Handmade, artisanal, hand-crafted,… Mumbo-jumbo, I am afraid.

Pilot Super (cartridge-converter), soft nib – Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown

Bruno Taut
April 3rd, 2013
etiquetas: mercado, estilofilia

3776

The current workhorse of Platinum is the model 3776—a balance pen, made of plastic in several colors, including some transparent versions.

The first year (1978) 3776. The nib is dated as made on September of 1978.

But the original 3776, from 1978, was different. It was designed by the writer and pen collector Haruo Umeda and had a clear inspiration on the Waterman “100 Years” pen. The similarities, in contrast with previous models by Platinum, are limited to the rugged body. This shape, should we note, was cut on the lathe with an ad-hoc tool. During the first year of production (1979), the pen had 9 rings on the back of the barrel. This was, apparently, difficult to machine and already on the second year of production the number of rings was reduced to five.

Platinum 3776 from the first two years of production of the pen, with nine and five rings on the last section of the barrel.

The nibs were made of 14 K gold, and they were fairly rigid. The feeds were made of ebonite, and they also show some changes between the first and second year pens.

Nib and feed of the first year pen (1978). Note the long ebonite feed.

The pen on top was made on the second year of production (production date of January 1979). Its feed shows some fins on the lower side. The one on bottom, from 1978 (production date of September 1978), has no fins.

A similar model is still on production today, but the new nibs have a different design and the feeds are now made of plastic. And there was also a deformed version around 1987—the Platinum Glamour, equipped with both steel and 14 K gold nibs.

Platinum Glamour with steel nib, and plastic feed.

As is customary on Platinum pens, all of them use cartridges (and converters if the barrel could fit them, which is not the case of the Platinum Glamour).

Pilot Vpen– Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Chuo (Tokyo), March 3rd, 2013
etiquetas: Platinum

Boxes

On the previous Chronicle I spoke about two different engravings that appeared on early Pilot pens—“N. M. & Co.”, and “Namiki Mfg. Co.”. Pilot’s Pen Station, always a source of valuable information, shows a third inscription. The following pictures show all three of them as printed on pen boxes.

This time, the meaning of R. N. seems quite clear—Ryosuke Namiki (並木良輔), the full name of the founder of the company. This one seems to the most elusive of the three inscriptions.

Pilot Vpen– Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, March 26th, 2013
etiquetas: Pilot

N. M. & Co.

NOTE added on 9/Feb/2018: I completely misunderstood the pen described on this Chronicle. In actual terms, it is not a plain eyedropper pen but a beautiful example of the naikan shiki (inner tube mechanism) present in very early Pilot pens. Its beautiful nib is, most likely, original.

More information, on the following Chronicle: http://estilofilos.blogspot.jp/2018/02/inner-tube-system.html


From the latest pen to a very early one.

The pen on display today is a very early Pilot. In a nutshell, it is a black-chased hard rubber pen with a size 3 nib made of 14 K gold. This is an eyedropper pen, as was usually the case on the early Japanese pens. However, contrary to the very Japanese trend, in this case the ink deposit has no mechanism to be sealed when the pen was not in use. No hoshiawase, no shut-off valve—nothing. In this regard, this Pilot is very much alike to many Waterman’s pens from the beginning of the twentieth century.

The engraving on the barrel is also interesting. To the right of the Namiki logo (the N inside the lifebuoy) it reads as follows: ‘“PILOT” / FOUNTAIN PEN / N. M. & Co.’ Early Pilot pens show this inscription, and it coexisted for some years, possibly up to 1925, with the one that would be stamped up to around 1938, when the company changed its name to Pilot Fountain Pen Co. Ltd., ‘“PILOT” / NAMIKI MFG. CO. / MADE IN JAPAN’. The question, then, is what that M on earlier pens meant. Nobody seems to have a clear answer to it.

The old engraving on Pilot pens: "N. M. & Co."

This engraving belongs to a hoshiawase pen from 1928.

There is another engraving on the barrel of the old pen--"P3CH". Is it be a reference to the size of the nib (3) and to the decoration and the material (chased hard rubber)?

These are the dimensions of this pen:
Length closed: 142 mm.
Length open: 134 mm.
Diameter: 13 mm.
Weight (dry): 15.1 g.

This ad from 1920 shows the more common engraving --‘“PILOT” / NAMIKI MFG. CO. / MADE IN JAPAN’-- that would last until 1938.

And this one from 1921 shows the same, and more rare, engraving present on today's pen. This (and some others) ad can also be seen on Yoshiharu's blog.

Its manufacturing date would be around 1920.

Pilot Short pen– Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Shibuya, March 24th, 2013
etiquetas: Pilot

Empress

Only a few of the pen companies that ever existed made it through the years to gain some name and to be known today. And those pens are relatively easy to document, although some particular model or some secondary brand might pose some problems. Things, then, become a lot more difficult for all those minor companies that do not show up in any book or website.

The following pen is an interesting example. It is a rare piston filler with a semi-flexible gold nib. The barrel is engraved with a very simple inscription: “EMPRESS / MADE IN JAPAN”. Its structure reminds of classical German pens—a black torpedo, a piston, and a semi-flex nib. Very few Japanese pens, actually, have used this filling system despite the popularity of German pens—the Platinum pens for the 70th anniversary of the company (1989), the two Sailor Realo models (2006 and 2009), and the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (2010).

The nib is signed as Warranted, plus an “H” at the base of it. Indeed, not enough to identify the pen.

But this pen also carries an aftermarket engraving on the barrel— 三周年記念大東産業, 3rd Anniversary of Daito Industries. And this company was founded in 1978 in Togane, Chiba, and is still active today. Therefore, this pen was in the market in the early 1980s.

The dating inscription.

I should admit that upon seeing this pen I thought it was older.

These are the dimensions on the pen:

• Length closed: 126 mm
• Length open: 110 mm
• Length posted: 141 mm
• Diameter: 13 mm
• Weight (dry): 19.4 g
• Ink capacity: 1.0 ml

Pilot Short – Pilot Blue

Bruno Taut
Machida, March 19th, 2013
etiquetas: Empress