Scrikss in Spain

Some weeks ago, the author of the blog Write to me Often –Zeynep— spoke of the Turkish brand Scrikss and about the Spanish origin of the brand. She mentioned the lack of reliable records on the history of the brand as well as the contradiction between the Spanish records (Registry of the Intellectual Property) and the claims of the Turkish company. These are my findings related, mostly, to the Spanish history of the company.

This brand, Scrikss, was first registered in Barcelona in 1959 by Luis Gispert Miró for his company Industrial Gispert [NEBOT 2009]. The name, some say, was inspired by the Catalan word for to write: escriure [SCRIKSS 2012]. During these years, besides producing pens, the company also supplied nibs to, at least, the Spanish pen company Soffer. In 1963, the brand name and the machinery were sold to Estilográficas Jabalina [NEBOT 2009]. Juan Navarro Sánchez had founded this company in 1948 [SAM DIVERSA 2012] or 1949 [NEBOT 2009] (application filed in November 1947 [RODRÍGUEZ 2003]) as a one man operation to repair fountain pens in Albacete, Spain.

Two Scrikss pens made in Barcelona. Photographs by Mr. Alberto Linares.

It seems, however, that Jabalina barely used the name of Scrikss for its fountain pens. On the picture we can see a transitional model: box and pressing plate of the filling system are labeled as Jabalina, while the cap still holds the name of Scrikss. Although some accounts exist [RODRÍGUEZ 2003] of some initial production of pens in the early 1950s, it is reasonable to think that the main production of pens started with the acquisition of this machinery in 1963.

A transitional Scrikss-Jabalina model--both brand names coexist on the pen. Photographs by Mr. Eduardo Alcalde.

A Jabalina pen made in Albacete. Photograph by Mr. Alberto Linares.

At some point during the 1960s (maybe in 1963), the brand name Scrikss was sold to a Turkish entrepreneur, eventually with the intervention of the Swiss company Mowe SA. [SCRIKSS 2012]. Was Jabalina just interested on the machinery and then sold the brand rights right after acquiring them?

Jabalina, actually, continued producing pens and sometime either in the 1950s [SAM DIVERSA 2012] or in the 1980s [MOLINA 2005] it changed its name to STYB (its model Compact has already shown up on these chronicles), as it is known nowadays.

On the Turkish side, the company was established in Istanbul and started the development of products with the initial support of Spanish technicians (reference). It produces pens mostly for the domestic market while acting as importer of Cross in Turkey. Its website also mentions Pelikan as imported by this company, but some other records claimed this was not the case for the past years.

On the picture we can see the model 17, the first fountain pen made by Scrikss in Turkey in 1966, and still on the online catalog of the company. This model 17 has an uncanny similarity to the Súper T Olimpia released in Spain in 1961.

Turkish Scrikss model 17. This model dates from 1966.

My thanks to Alberto Linares, Eduardo Alcalde and Zeynep; all friends in the unreal realm of fountain pens.


REFERENCES:

MOLINA 2005. Carlos MOLINA. “Styb: tinta líquida para cien millones de bolígrafos”. Cinco Días. August 26, 2005.
NEBOT 2009. Pedro NEBOT. La estilográfica española. November 2009.
RODRÍGUEZ 2003. Juan Carlos RODRÍGUEZ. “La increíble historia del boli ‘Made in Albacete’”. El Mundo. España. November 2, 2003.
SAM DIVERSA 2012. Sam Diversa Corporation. Website. http://www.sanchez-muliterno.com/samdiversa/industrial.html . Retrieved July 2012.
SCRIKSS 2012. Scrikss Turkey website. http://www.scrikss.com.tr/History. Retrieved July 2012.

Montblanc 221 – Wagner 2012 ink, red-black

Bruno Taut
May-July 2012
etiquetas: Scrikss España, STYB, Scrikss Turquía, Jabalina, España, Turquía

Family Portrait (IV)

If, as I claimed, the Pilot Capless family of pens is one of the very few icons in the Japanese pen scene, it truly deserves a family portrait. On the following picture we can see all the models of this pen. Color variations are not included here.


However, two rarities do figure on it—the transparent version, never for sale, of the Spring 1965 model; and the Platinum’s short lived Knock model.

My thanks to Mr. Niikura.

Pilot G-300V – Wagner 2008 ink

Bruno Taut
September 7th, 2012
etiquetas: Pilot, Platinum, Capless

Pelikan in Japan (II)

On a recent text, I pointed out the popularity of Pelikan pens among Japanese stylophiles. Therefore, it was no surprise to see all those brand-new Pelikan M800 in tortoise shell finish at the last meeting of the Wagner group in Tokyo. However, the truly interesting detail was that some of them were also carrying the 1987 version. And this allowed for a direct comparison of these two pens.

The new Pelikan is on top (top right on the third picture) and the 1987 version on bottom. The stripes are straight and darker on the new model and wavy and brighter on the old. The golden circle on the knob belongs to the 1987 model.

They are far from identical. From the celluloid patterns to the decoration on cap jewel and piston knob, the differences are very clear.

My thanks to Kugel 149.

Montblanc 144 – Sailor Tokiwa-matsu

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, March 17th, 2013
etiquetas: evento, Pelikan

Kobe in USA

The Kobe-based stationery shop Nagasawa started selling its rage of inks—the Kobe inks—in Tokyo last February. The Tokyo partner for this operation is Itoya, and its headquarters in Ginza are the only place where these inks are sold in the big city.

Nagasawa in Kobe.

This marketing decision seems successful, and the pile of Kobe inks at Itoya does shrink down. The arrangement is stable, though, and the stock of inks should be replenished regularly.

Kobe inks at Itoya. They seem to go fast, but not being a limited offer, the shelves should be replenished regularly.

But the more interesting news are that Nagasawa intends to sell these Kobe inks in the US market in a near future. Not much more information is available now. In particular, not about what retail channel the Kobe shop will use for this move. However, it is only reasonable to think Itoya America could be in charge of the distributing these Kobe inks made, after all, by Sailor.

Pilot Prera – Gary's Red-Black (Wagner ink 2012)

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, March 29th 2017
etiquetas: tinta, Nagasawa, Tokyo, Estados Unidos, Sailor, mercado

Drilling

This coming Sunday 29th, the August meeting of the Wagner Association will take place at the Subaru building in Ebisu, Tokyo. And now, checking my notes of the July Pen Clinic I see some pens worth to mention here.

On a previous entry I spoke about the creations of Mr. Yamada. This time I focused my attention on his modification of a Pilot Custom 823.


On these chronicles and in some other discussion fora, pen users have complained about the boring looks of the pens equipped with more interesting nibs. The case of Pilot is very significant. This company makes as much as 15 different nibs –actually, many more--, of which five or six really stand off the common trend of purely symmetric points. But these interesting nibs only come in black torpedo pens.

Mr. Yamada’s way to correct this problem is quite radical—and inspiring. He modifies the nibs by thinning the nib plate and by drilling holes on them with the final goal of making those rigid nibs more flexible. When needed, he also works on the feeds.


On its side, the Custom 823 model is often praised by its self-filling system (one of the few self-filling pens in the Japanese pen scene) and by its huge ink capacity. On its cons, the small selection of nibs: F, M, and B.


Then, he chose this interesting pen to create a more exciting writer. The result, looks aside, is not spectacular. Maybe because the baseline of this nib is a B, quite broad by default. Therefore, the apparent increase in the line-width is compared to an already wide line. To create more striking results, a fine nib would be more suitable.


There is, however, another alternative to this DIY (do it yourself) approach. Pilot’s size 15 nibs come also as a flexible falcon (FA). Exchanging the nib and feed in a Custom 823 is easy—just grab them firmly and yank them out of the section. A different story might be where and how to find this extra nib and feed.

The discussion on how efficient the falcon nib actually is should be the topic of another chronicle.

(Pilot Custom 742 music nib – Sailor Red Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, August 21, 2010)
[labels: plumín, evento, Pilot, Tokyo]

Matching (XIX). Dagong 56

There is more to retractable-nib pens that just the Pilot line of Capless pen currently on production. Stipula, Lamy, Visconti, Stypen… even Montblanc has something like a retractable-nib pen… And there are some lesser known companies re-interpreting this style of pen.

One of them is the Chinese company Wuhan Pen Factory, located in Wuhan (Hubei province, PR China). Under its brand name Dagong, it produced the model 56 during the 1980s.

The box of the Dagong 56. Knock-type (push button) fountain pen, by Wuhan Pen Factory.

The Dagong 56 is made of stainless steel and has a gripping section in black knurled plastic. The nib –of gold plated steel— is operated by a push button at the back of the pen. The filling mechanism is an aerometric system integrated in the nib unit.

The empty box and the nib unit. The nib is made of stainless steel, gold plated. The filling system is a built in aerometric.

The pen clearly follows the Capless tradition of Pilot, but it is not easy to pinpoint which particular Pilot model was the source of inspiration. In fact, it looks like if the designers of the Dagong 56 had taken elements from several of the Pilot pens. The result, however, is attractive while keeping it clean and simple.

The Dagong 56, on the front, together with the Pilot Capless from 1971 on. The latest of those shown on the pic, close to the Dagong, started its production in 1998 and, therefore, it could not be a model in any way for the Chinese pen.

The click mechanism looks and sounds sturdy—maybe too much so, as it requires some strength to operate it. Apparently reliable, but less refined than the mechanism of the Pilot pens. Both, Pilot and Dagong, share an important element—a closing lid to prevent the nib going dry. This is not so obvious as there are other Chinese-made capless pens that do not implement such a lid.

The construction quality is decent, but shows some flaws. The steel, particularly on the nose has some obvious imperfections: it has some pores, and its surface is far from uniform. The mouth for the nib is not well finished—the lower edge is not straight and could erode the feed.

This picture shows some of the flaws of the Dagong 56. The steel has some obvious imperfections, and the opening for the nib is not nicely cut. Inside, by the way, there is a white lid to prevent the nib from drying out when the pen is not in use.

The engraving on the nib is very shallow and is barely visible. It includes the logo and the name of the manufacturing company: "WUHAN".

These are the dimensions of the pen:
Length closed: 139 mm
Length open: 144 mm
Diameter: 11 mm
Weight: 16.5 g (dry)
Ink deposit: 0.7 ml

A nice detail: the threads are made of steel on both sides.

Now, is this pen competitive? The Dagong 56 is no longer on production and it is mostly a rarity for collectors. The price at auction sites, erratic as it may be, often reaches EUR 60 to 70. Given the current exchange rates, a stainless steel Pilot Capless seems a much better deal.

Chuanren 3323, Student Pen – Wagner 2008 ink (by Sailor)

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, Nakano; February 6th, 2016
etiquetas: Wuhan, Capless, Pilot

Got Ink?

Enough ink?

A lot could –and should— be said about how much ink we store and the reasons for such behavior. However, in what seems like a distant past, when fountain pens were the tool of choice there were big bottles of ink to be used in schools and offices. This was the case of this one-liter bottle of ferrogallic blue-black Pelikan ink from around 1960.

A liter of ink for 53 pesetas... Made by Productos Pelikan S. A, Barcelona. And with the name of Günther Wagner on the box...

That ink was made in Spain, in the manufacturing plant this company had in Mollet del Vallès, in Barcelona. Apparently, only consumables –ink, erasers, glue— were produced in there. Other, smaller, inkwells came out from that plant.

(Sailor pocket pen with 14 K gold nib – Pilot Iroshizuku Sho-ro)

Bruno Taut
August 14th, 2011
[labels: Pelikan, tinta]

New 3776 Nib

The Platinum Decade pen described on the previous entry implements, as we saw, a new nib. And this nib represents a new step in the evolution of the 3776 nib.

So this is a good time to revise that evolution of nibs and feeds along forty-something years of history.

Early models, (between 1978 and some time in the early 1980s) had very cylindrical nibs and ebonite feeds. The first year model had a feed with no fins at all. There were also music nibs with this geometry.

Nib and feed of a Platinum #3776 from 1978. Note the ebonite feed.

The feeds of these early models changed quickly. By the second year, they had implemented some fins.

Later on, the nib became flatter on the top area, but there were few, if any, changes on the ebonite feed. This detail changed at some point and from then on all Platinum feeds have been made of plastic.

Nib and feed from 1984. The nib is obviously flatter on top while the feed is still made of ebonite.

Nib and feed from 2002. The nib is apparently identical to the previous one (1984), but the feed is now made of plastic.

Nib and feed from a #3776 Century. Labeled as manufactured on November of 2011. Note the shorter nib and the very specific feed. Needless to say, it is made of plastic.

The #3776 Century was launched in 2011. On this newer edition, two-tine nibs (i. e., non music nibs) changed with respect to previous models. Now they are shorter than before, and the feed had been modified to anchor the nib on the right position.

On the left, a music nib of a #3776 Century, dated on 2012. On the right, a music nib of a #3776 of 2009. The feeds are identical. The nibs share the same basic geometry.

Music nib and feed of the Wagner 2015 pen. Note the absence of holes in the tail of the nib.

These changes, as I said, did not affect the three-tine music nibs. In some occasions, some gold was removed from the tail of the nib –that area hidden under the section-, but is also seems not to be always the case. The feeds of these music nibs are more cylindrical in shape and have no fixed position for the nib.

Two and three tine nibs dated in 2009 and 2010. They were interchangeable in their sections. I am well aware that the two tine nib is a Nakaya, but Nakaya implements #3776 nibs.

And in 2022, the model released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 3776 Century sported the following nib:

It is slightly narrower and longer than the previous nib. The feed remains untouched.

Now, the question is whether this new nib will become the standard for all 3776 Century and associated products (::1::, ::2::). Time will tell.

Pilot Custom 742, S nib – Diamine Imperial Purple

Bruno Taut
June 1st, 2023
etiquetas: Platinum, plumín, plumín musical

Stars

Monthly meting of the Wagner association this past Sunday. As in previous occasions, lots of exciting pens, although the attendance was this time lower, maybe due to the heatwave we now suffer in Tokyo—terrible heat and mortifying humidity.

Mr Niikura, this time, came with a beautiful selection of Pilot pens from the 1920s. Their common characteristic was this security system called hoshiawase (星合せ)—star system.

The box with the sixteen hoshiawase pens Mr. Niikura presented. All of them, eyedroppers.

The story goes that Japanese manufacturers were, in the 1910s and 1920s, obsessed about leaking pens that could stain the valuable kimono of their customers. Sounds certainly charming, but I wonder if that is an element unique to Japanese pen manufacturers. I guess American and European brands were also concerned about the ink stains in the more boring suits and shirts. Boring maybe, but equally valuable to their owners.

Anyway, Japanese companies devised a number of systems to seal the ink deposit of the pen when this was not in use. The hoshiawase system is only one of them. It consists of a section composed by two parts that rotate one with respect to the other. Only when the two red dots are aligned the ink can flow from the deposit to the nib. Misaligned, the ink deposit was sealed and, we assume, it was safe to carry the pen with a minimal risk of staining kimono or shirts.

The stars (red dots) are aligned—the pen is ready to write.

The stars are crossed—the ink is sealed in the deposit and the pen is ready for your pocket.

The pens Mr. Niikura presented showed the evolution of this system. But the chronicles say it was never a good enough to fully confine the ink in its reservoir. Apparently, these pens were discontinued in 1926.

This is the back of the section. Note the two concentric cylinders: they rotate between the two ends, limited only by the small stick attached to the inner cylinder.

The barrel of the pen whose hoshiawase system was depicted before. Note the brand name engraved on the metal.

Regarding the nibs, they had a full gamut of possibilities—from hard nails to fairly flexible.

This was another example of the pens on display.

And this is its nib.

A total of sixteen hoshiawase pen were presented. Impeccable, uninked, with the original price tags—few yen could buy them back in their days. And that raises the question of the purpose and goals of pens and of pen collecting. But that demands a chronicle all for itself.

Suffice to say that I would use one of those pens if I had the chance.

(Sailor 21, black pocket pen – Sailor Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, July 26 2010)
[labels: Japón, Pilot, evento, soluciones técnicas]