Honest 66 Cartridge

In 1956, Platinum introduced the ink cartridge in Japan. To do so, the company marketed a modified version of the model Honest, an aerometric filler, under the name Honest 60, and the cartridge was labeled as Honest Cartridge. Many a pen brand adopted it for its pens and thus it became a standard. That was the case, for instance, of Mitaka and of Nobel’s, the later being another brand worth to write about.

The picture shows the initial Honest 60 cartridge, on top, and the current Platinum cartridge, on bottom. Note the differences in the area where the cartridges attached to the section.

That initial cartridge immediately went through some minor changes in the opening. By 1960, a further evolution of the Platinum pen, now called Honest 66, provided a larger and longer barrel where a bigger cartridge could fit. That was the Honest 66 cartridge. Unfortunately, this was short lived, and only the smaller version is available today.

Both cartridge/converter Platinum Honest pens. The Honest 66 (1960) on top, and the Honest 60 (1956) on bottom. The nipple of the former is well inside the section, thus allowing more room for the longer cartridge.

Both cartridges and the current converter. This has a capacity of 0.6 ml (0.53 ml according to the Platinum catalog).

The Honest 66 cartridge had a capacity of 1.7 ml, while the regular Platinum cartridge only holds 1.2 ml.

Pilot 53R in red celluloid – Pelikan 4001 Royal blue

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 6th, 2013
etiquetas: Platinum, conversor, Mitaka, Nobel

Sírvase usted mismo

De vez en cuando me pregunto por qué el mercado japonés de plumas estilográficas es tan activo y tan atractivo. No tengo respuestas claras y determinantes, tan solo conjeturas. Sí veo que es muy sencillo encontrar estilográficas en las papelerías y en los grandes almacenes de este país. Es, de hecho, habitual darse de bruces con expositores de plumas a disposición de los clientes. Así que probar cómo escriben en un papel casi siempre decente, sin la mirada vigilante y controladora de un vendedor desconfiado es una experiencia casi trivial.

Las siguientes fotos muestran un procedimiento muy atractivo de dar a conocer y de vender plumas Pelikan: ¿qué modelo y con qué plumín desea probar la pluma? Sírvase usted mismo, por favor.

Las fotos fueron tomadas en los grandes almacenes Odakyu en Shinjuku (Tokyo), cuya sección de papelería está gestionada por Itoya, el pasado mes de noviembre.

Pilot 53R, red celluloid – Pelikan 4001 Royal blue

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, 7 de enero de 2013
etiquetas: mercado, Pelikan, Japón

Naginatas

Sailor’s Naginata Togi nibs are characterized by being longer than regular nibs—or so they say at Sailor. They are the starting point for the specialty nibs by nibmeister Nagahara. According to Sailor’s way of sizing their nibs, the usual Naginata comes in size big (大型) —neither the super-big (超大型) of the King of Pen nor the medium (中型) of the Profit Standard series of pens.

Naginata Togi nib (medium fine) in the regular big size (大型).

However, Naginata Togi nibs exceptionally come in those other two sizes, as can be seen on the picture.

Naginata Togi nibs in three sizes. From top to bottom, in a King of Pen (super big, 超大型) in medium; in a big size (大型) as a cross-music nib; and in medium size (中型) as a fude nib.

Super T Gester 40 – Sailor Yama-dori 山鳥

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, January 3rd 2013
labels: Sailor, plumín

Double Flow

I often wonder how special the Japanese fountain pen market was. There were, in this market, a large number of unique technical solutions—hoshiawase, shut-off valve, hose filler, A filler (A-shiki), easy drink filler… Japan seems, at times, a large laboratory for new solutions, although most of them never left the country.

The very rare Double Flow Fountain Pen.

Such is the case of today’s pen—a Double Flow Fountain Pen. Apparently, it is just a BCHR pen in the very traditional shape of Japanese eyedroppers, often called Onoto shape. Usually, the tail operated the shut-off valve. But that is not the case of this pen.

The engraved marks on the section are similar to those of a hoshiawase pen.

The pen has two concentric ink deposits--the innermost is attached to the section on the picture. The ourtermost is the barrel (on the background), as is the case on all eyedropper pens.

On this picture, both deposits are dettached from the section.

This pen is still an eyedropper, but it lacks any shut-off valve. In exchange, it has two concentric ink deposits inside the barrel, and the section has separate channels for each deposit. On the outside, the gripping section has some engraved marks—similar to those in a hoshiawase pen—to select the deposit from which the ink would feed the nib. Three are the options: outer, inner, and a mixture of both. Needless to say, the inks used with this pen had to be compatible; that is, mixable as the mixture would take place directly in the feed.

This picture shows the back of the section. The wider thread attaches the barrel; the smaller, the inner deposit for the second ink. Two feeding holes are visible--the central for the innermost deposit, and the lateral one for the outer reservoir.

The Double Flow Fountain Pen together with a copy of the instruction sheet.

In summary, this Double Flow Fountain Pen, such was its name, is a dual eyedropper with an ink selecting mechanism. Very few units of it are known, and on the one here shown, the nib is a later replacement. There exist, however, some instruction sheets. On it, the manufacturer explains that this dual flow system had been patented in Japan (patent number 36005), and that applications had been filed for patent in Britain, USA, France, and Italy. It dates back from the mid 1920s.

Indeed another original solution of the Japanese laboratory.

My thanks to Mr. Sugimoto.

Platinum 18K full size pen (ca. 1970) – Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue

Bruno Taut
Yokohama, December 31st, 2012
labels: soluciones técnicas, Japón, Double Flow, tinta

Duets

Ban-ei (挽栄) pens have shown up on these chronicles several times and their double history –as mostly anonymous and as limited edition pens commissioned by the American company Danitrio—is well known. But how do those pens from different times and different initiatives compare?

The differences are indeed minor, as we can check on the following pictures. The first example is a pair of pens made of black urushi. There are some small differences on the dimensions but, the main one lies on the nib. The original Ban-ei’s nib is signed by Kabutogi Ginjirô’s (兜木銀次郎) initials (GK). This was, in actual terms, the only reference to the authorship in the whole pen.

On top on both pictures, the Danitrio-commissioned pen. On bottom, the previous, unsigned (save for the nib) unit. The most obvious difference is the engraving on the cap band of the later model.

The second pair is decorated with a subtle urushi-e pattern. In this case, there is a very obvious difference—the cap ring present on the Danitrio-commissioned unit where the brand Ban-ei and the serial number were engraved. And as was the case with the black urushi pens, only the old Ban-ei nib is engraved with the initials of the nibmeister.

The pre-Danitrio pen does not have any band on the cap, and its nib has a heart-shaped breathing hole. This nib is also engraved with the initials GK of Kabutogi Ginjirô just below the JIS mark.

As it is known, Danitrio-era Ban-ei pens were limited editions of less than 500 units. However, the old pens, made in the seventies and eighties, are in my experience harder to find in the market. These older pens are also known as Tsuchida pens, after Tsuchida Shuichi (土田修一), who was in charge of the final assembly of the pen.

My thanks to Mr. Shimizu.

Platinum sterling silver pen, 14 K nib – Platinum Brown

Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 25th, 2012
etiquetas: Ban-ei, Danitrio, nibmeister Kabotogi Ginjirô, urushi, urushi-e

Bohemia

Pen company Ripet is one of those dark horses in the world of writing tools. Not many people might know about it or about pens from the now extinct country of Czechoslovakia. Actually, about a dozen pen brands existed before the Second World War. The Communist regime of 1948 reduced this number to just three —Centropen, Hardtmuth and Bohemia Works, all under the umbrella of Koh-i-Noor L. & C. Hardtmuth National Company— by the late 1940s by grouping together the facilities and designs of the previous brands. The great paradox was that many of those  —Ripet among them, plus some others like Barclay and Penco— lived a golden time in sales and profits right after the war, between 1945 and 1948. Bohemia, the Westernmost Czechoslovakian region, did not suffer so heavy bombings as was the case in Germany. Consequently, these companies could go back to producing good quality pens much faster then their German competitors.

The creation of the Communist State after the coup d’état of February 1948 brought a centrally planned economy. As a result, the pen company Ripet, founded in 1919 in the city of České Budějovice, became part of the already mentioned public enterprise Centropen (founded in 1941 by Mr. Stejskal and Mr. Novotný and nationalized in this same year of 1948).

A Ripet Popular 90D from the time when Centropen already existed.

The instruction sheet includes the names of several pen brands: Ripet, and Centropen; and Koh-i-Noor/Hardtmuth as the mother company. The coexistence of these three names shows this pen belonged to the 1948-1950 period in which the brand Ripet was kept alive within the Centropen operation.

The name Ripet was preserved for just a couple of years. By 1950 all traces of it had disappeared from Centropen. But between 1948 and 1949 both names coexisted on catalogs and other related documents.

Such was the case of the Ripet Popular 90D. The instruction sheet carries the name of several pen brands: Ripet, and Centropen; and Koh-i-Noor/Hardtmuth as the mother company. The coexistence of these three names shows this pen belonged to the 1948-1950 period in which the brand Ripet was kept alive within the Centropen operation. The pen, on its side, is a very interesting piston filler, as the letter D indicated. It is made of celluloid from the UMA plant (within the Synthesia national company) in Pardubice, also in Bohemia.

This factory, created in 1942, had been spared from the bombings and its state-of-the art machinery could produce high-quality celluloid, among other plastics, for both domestic and foreign markets. Aurora and Montegrappa used this Czechoslovakian celluloid on some of their models. The UMA plant was destroyed by an explosion in 1984. It was reconstructed afterwards, but that event marked the end of the fountain pen industry in Czechoslovakia. On its side, this country disappeared on January 1st, 1993.

The barrel is engraved: "RIPET POPULAR / 90D / CZECHOSLOVAKIA".

The steel nib is also engraved, but it is not legible beyond the obvious "WARRANTED".

These are the dimensions of this Ripet Popular 90D:
Length closed: 119 mm
Length open: 110 mm (this pen does not post)
Diameter: 12.5 mm
Weight (dry): 13.9 g.
Ink deposit: 1.1 ml.

This text was elaborated with information provided by Fountain Pen Network member Khufu.

My thanks to Mr. Álvaro Romillo.

Montblanc 221 – Pelikan 4001 Royal blue

Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 18th, 2012
etiquetas: Checoslovaquia, Ripet, Centropen, Koh-i-Noor - Hardtmuth, Aurora, Montegrappa

Platinum Platinum

Cartridges and converters, retractable nibs, pocket pens, generalization of gold nibs,… All these elements saw the light or became normal at some point during the 1960s in Japan. These years were a time of strong competition between Pilot and Platinum, struggling to increase their share in the market.

Different views of two Platinum Platinum pens of full and pocket sizes. There existed a smaller third pen for ladies.

As part of its strategy, Platinum released in 1967 a line of luxury pens made of sterling silver. And the marketing argument was that they implemented unique nibs made of some platinum alloy. And the pens were called “Platinum Platinum”.

Two full-size Platinum pens. The one on top implements a Pt-alloy nib whereas the other uses a more common 14K white gold nib. It is questionable whether the compositions were any different.

Actually, these nibs were made of white gold whose non-gold content included platinum. There are discussions of whether these Pt-alloy nibs were made of 14 or 18 K gold. In fact, years later, they were replaced by both 14 and 18 karat white gold nibs labeled as such. In 1976, a special edition of the full size silver pen was release on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Emperor Hiro-hito. It was equipped with a 14 K white gold nib, and displayed the 16-petal chrysanthemum seal (菊紋, kikumon) on the cap.

Platinum sterling silver pen, 14 K WG nib – Platinum Brown

Bruno Taut
Madrid, December 17th, 2012
labels: Platinum, Japón