Foreign (and also Domestic) Urushi

There are some people, mostly outside Japan, for whom anything related to urushi acquires a semi-mythical value. In Japan, some companies do cash on this perception through high prices and long, very long waiting times to deliver the order.

Expensive and slow.

But the landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. An increasing number of craftsmen both in Japan and overseas have started their business decorating pens, and other goods, with urushi-related techniques. Their names are becoming well-known—Bokumondoh in Japan, Tamenuri Studio in Poland, Manu Propria in Switzerland, Vivek Kulkarni in India, Mr. Cypress in Taiwan, … Needless to say, their quality and styles are different, but they do offer an alternative to those companies with high prices and long waiting times.

Urushi-e made in Japan. Bokumondoh in action.

All these operations make me think that the excuses some use are just means to control the demand instead of real arguments. The fact right now is that most of those artisans are producing more and cheaper, and with high standards of quality regardless of the local climate—if someone can polymerize urushi in the very dry Spanish plateau you can do it almost anywhere!

Urushi-nuri made in the dry plains of Spain. Nuart Cygnus (base pen by Antigua's).

But the consequences of this popularization of urushi, and the proliferation of craftsmen all over the World, is the cheapening of urushi and the decoration associated to it. Now, urushi is no longer something rare and difficult. Now, urushi decoration can come from Japan or from the US; from Korea or from Poland. The offer is deep and wide and the market will apply its rules.

The label “made in Japan” will still hold some value, but that label is no longer the exclusive property of a couple of makers. And in the meantime, third-party craftsmen, in Japan and abroad, compete with the same tools.

Pilot Vpen, M nib – Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku


Bruno Taut
December 18th, 2021
etiquetas: Japón, urushi, mercado

Thai Pilot Inks

Some months ago I got to know about some Pilot inks made in Thailand, where the company had a manufacturing plant since the 1950s.

There were at least three ink colors manufactured in Thailand—blue, blue-black, and black. I could only get my hands on two of them, and the current analysis is limited to those—blue and black.

Two Pilot inks made in Thailand. Photo courtesy of Papishdama.

The question to answer is obvious—are these Thai inks of the same formulation as those made in Japan?

Two blue inks by Pilot, one is made in Japan; the other, in Thailand.

Smell wise, the Thai inks have a very distinctive phenol odor whereas those made in Japan are almost odor-less. The black ink, though, releases a hint of ammonia.

On paper, both pairs show similar tones. The Thai blue is slightly lighter in color, and the Japanese version occasionally adds some purple sheen. The Thai ink has a higher surface tension.

Re black ink, the Thai one is again slightly lighter and less brilliant than the Japanese  ink.

Mise en place.

Finally, the chromatography shows that the dye composition is different in both pairs. The differences are bigger in the black inks. But the conclusion is clear—Thai and Japanese inks are different formulations.

Chromatographies.

Not much can I say about Pilot in Thailand. It started in 1953, and the manufacturing plant was located in Bangkok. The Thai black ink is dated in 2013, and we can assume that the Pilot plant was open until at least that year. As of today, the Pilot Thailand website (http://www.pilotpen.co.th/) is not active, and there is no reference to Thailand in the Pilot Global site.

Manufacturing date of the Thai black ink--Thai year 2556, which corresponds to AD 2013. Photo courtesy of Papishdama.

My thanks to my friend and ink connoisseur Papishdama.


Note (August 2022): It seems that the Thai Pilot was related to the Korean Pilot, a different company than the Japanese one. Korean Pilot is not operating currently.

Chilton Large – Sailor Yama-dori

Bruno Taut
January 12th, 2022
etiquetas: Tailandia, tinta, Pilot

East and West

The following picture shows the fundamental difference between pen shows in in the East and in the West:

Pens, pens, and pens. Madrid Pen Show 2021.

On this picture alone there are more pens than in any of the pen shows celebrated in Tokyo. And that is a representation of the differences in philosophies associated to them—Western shows are about pens, pens, and pens. Second hand and vintage pens are the name of the game, and after that you could also find some new pens and some inks and paper.

On the contrary, pen shows in Tokyo –and in other East Asian cities- are about cute things... and some pens, mostly new. Sure enough a couple of traders might be there offering used pens, but their offer pales in comparison to what you can see on a single table in Madrid, as the firs picture showed.

Lots of people, very few pens.
Tokyo International Pen Show 2019.
(Picture courtesy of Inktraveler).

As I have repeatedly said (::1::, ::2::), they are not pen shows but stationary salons where brands and new entrepreneurs show their products. But the formula works and there is no real incentive to change it.

Bottom line—if you were interested in pens go West, paradise is there.

Omas Extra ca. 1940 – Sailor Yama-dori

Bruno Taut
December 17th, 2021
etiquetas: España, Japón, evento, Tokyo, Madrid

The Pen Show of Hope. Madrid 2021

The Madrid Pen Show of 2021 was not like those of previous years—it just could not be.

This pen show had everything against—a pandemic, a hotel that was closed on the planned dates, a new venue, the changing local policies, the unclear and ever changing travel requirements, a new mutation of the virus discovered days before the event... So, not much was in there for the pen show to be celebrated and, much less, to succeed.

But the people responded. There was a real crave in the Spanish aficionado to reconnect with the community and with the market.

Needless to say, the event figures did not reach the values of 2019 (no pen show in Madrid in 2020) and before. On this occasion, only 49 traders and about 1000 visitors joined the party. But it was a good party.

Several traders reported that they were selling more pens than on previous pen shows, which shows that there were some savings after two years without similar events.

But it was the sense of community what made the event successful. Visitors from all over Spain –from the Canary Islands and from the Balearic Islands, from the Basque Country and from Andalusia, from Murcia and from Catalonia...-- gathered at the Meliá Castilla Hotel and spent their money on pens that came all the way from all over Europe (UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, …) and from the US.

So, the Madrid Pen Show is alive and kicking. This year´s edition proved how well connected the Spanish community is despite the pandemic, and in 2022 the Madrid Pen Show will be even better.

Montblanc 146 – Sailor Yama-dori

Bruno Taut
December 15th, 2021
etiquetas: España, Madrid, evento, mercado

Anonymous 6-bu

The problem with anonymous pens is that not much you can say about them. You can describe it, guess its age,... and not much more.

An anonymous 6-bu.

So, this is an oversize balance pen made of ebonite and coated with urushi. The nib is made of gold plated steel. It is a generic nib and is not imprinted with any recognizable brand name: “WARRANTED / SPECIAL / IRIDIUM / PEN”. 

The anonymous nib.

The filling system is the Japanese eyedropper.

These are its dimensions:

Length closed: 151 mm
Length open: 135 mm
Length posted: 185 mm
Cap diameter : 21 mm
Barrel diameter: 18 mm
Weight: 40.0 (dry)
Ink deposit: 5.2 ml

The barrel diameter –18 mm-- characterizes this pen as a 6-bu (6-分), where bu is a Japanese traditional unit of length equivalent to 3 mm. (In previous texts I kept saying that this was a 5-bu pen. I have corrected those mistakes. 5-bu pens do exist though, but this is not one of them).

This type of pens –jumbos between 12-bu (36 mm) and 5-bu (15 mm)- are relatively common in Japan, where you can find them in flea markets and antique fairs. Most of the times they are anonymous, as is the case now.

Four balance pens in the same fashion as the anonymous one I am describing today. These, however, are less anonymous --they are Ban-ei-- although you might need to know how to look at them to find out who made them.

A 12-bu pen together with a very normal Pilot Super from late 1950s.

And not much else can I say. Its construction quality and some of its elements –clip, feed-- point at a pen made in the 1950s or early 1960s. Its quality is certainly better than what we can find the myriad of pens made in the early post-war years, which are also common finds in flea markets.

The pen condition, however, was far from perfect—some rust on the nib, some scratches, a faulty back seal... But replacing that seal was enough to discover a very pleasant writer... for a ridiculous price.

The Piiton, unknown model – Unknown blue-black ink

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 2021
etiquetas: Japón, marca desconocida

Short

I wrote about the Pilot Short many years ago, at the beginning of these Chronicles, and it might be worth to back to this pen with more information.

Sailor released the Mini model –Sailor's idea of a pocket pen— in 1963, and Platinum followed, or copied, the idea soon afterwards. Pilot, on its side, waited til the end of 1968 to join the ranks, but in the meantime an original approach to a compact and expandable pen was attempted—the Pilot Short.

That was in 1966, and the idea was a telescopic pen—a pen whose body could become longer for the comfort of the user. To accomplish that idea, the lower end of the barrel, made of plastic, slides inside the metallic overlay of the pen. And to complete the trick, the barrel tail has the right diameter for a secure posting of the cap, thus making the pen even longer and easing a comfortable grip.

The telescopic mechanism makes the pen 15 mm longer.

As for the rest, these pens sport semi-hooded nibs made of 14 K gold, although some on variations the gold grade is hidden inside the section. The nib point is not stated on the nib engraving. The filing system is by cartridges (standard “simple spare”) and converters (CON-20, CON-40, CON-50).

Nib and feed. On this example, the gold grade is not shown when the nib is in place in the pen.

The variations of these pens were mostly related to the external appearance: plain or checkered steel, checkered gold plated, and an aluminum alloy named Alumite by Pilot. Most of them are flat-tops –”vest” style in Pilot vocabulary--, but there is a couple of rounded-end models—balance. Prices ranged between JPY 1500 and JPY 4000.

Chronologically, the last model of the Short model was, paradoxically, non extendable. It shared the external dimensions of the balance model (SB-200SS) when closed, but when open nothing would slide in or out of the barrel. This model –SB-100MS— was cheaper: JPY 1000.

SB-200SS (top), and SB-100MS (bottom). The later does not become longer.

The Pilot Short was discontinued in 1968, and soon afterwards the first Pilot pocket hit the market.

It is hard to asses whether the Pilot Short was a success or not. The short time in the market says it was not. However, this pen is easy to find in flea markets and in pen events, which points at it being a popular pen with many units produced and sold.

Anonymous 6-bu jumbo pen – Kobe Ginza Sepia Gold

Bruno Taut
October 13th, 2021
etiquetas: Pilot

Haikara Ink

Yet a new ink in the market...

The company Teranishi Chemical Industry has released a line of four inks under the name ハイカラ, Haikara in Romaji, which could in turn be either “high color” or “high collar”, a term with some history in Japan.

The advertisement brochure. Four inks: Gentle Green, Melancholic Blue, Modern Red, and Salon de Violet. Note also the ideograms 大正浪漫, Taishô Roman, on top of the katakana ハイカラ.

ハイカラ / Haikara, as derived from “high collar”, is a word coined in Japan in the Meiji era (1868-1912) to describe with scorn the mostly male fashion of dressing with Western clothes. The term, however, became more neutral once Western clothes became less of a novelty, and is used even nowadays to describe something nostalgically trendy. In the packaging of these inks we can also see the inscription 大正浪漫, Taishô Roman (Taishô Romance): a term use nowadays for a romantisized view of the Taishô period (1912-1926).

Anyway, these inks come in 40 ml inkwells at a price of JPY 1500, plus taxes. This means JPY 37.5 / ml, which is more expensive than Pilot's Iroshizuku inks (JPY 30 / ml for the 50 ml inkwells) but a lot less than Sailor's Ink Studio (JPY 60 / ml) and Shikiori (JPY 50 / ml) inks.

Two of the inks: Modern Red and Melancholic Blue.

So, is this just another company trying to cash in on the ink bubble with some more attractive prices?

The low tech and the low cost involved in making inks is indeed an incentive to enter this activity as we have seen in recent years. And the company Teranishi Chemical Industry comes with good credentials.

Teranishi Chemical Industry was founded in 1919 in Osaka. In 1931 it started making fountain pen ink that eventually carried the brand name “Guitar” or “Guitar Mark”. However, the main product of the company is the oil-based marker “Magic Ink”, very popular in Japan, and the fountain pen ink disappeared from the Teranishi catalog at some point after the War.

The Magic Ink marker.

Then, in 2021 Teranishi Chemical Industry has made this new ink named generically ハイカラ or Haikara, which could be “High Color” or “High Collar”, while mentioning the old in-house brand “Guitar” and speaking of "Taishô Roman"...

Can this ink be a success with so many names?

Anonymous 6-bu jumbo pen – Kobe Ginza Gold Sepia

Bruno Taut
September-October 2021
labels: tinta, Japón, mercado, Haikara