Nakaya
Nakaya Long Cigar Cypress Gold Gradation
Nakaya Long Cigar Cypress Gold Gradation
"Maki" is the general name for cedar and cypress in Japanese. Cypress keeps its green leaves through out the year even when it snows, and in spring young leaves sprout quickly. The motif on the Nakaya Long Cigar Cypress Gold Gradation fountain pen is loved by the Japanese people and is a reminder of their ability to endure the tough times patiently as well as to be resilient in times of set-backs.
Where the gold powder is to be sprinkled, it is painted with thick urushi lacquer then dusted with the gold powder. After hardening, colored urushi lacquer is applied and gold powder is polished to a shine. Then the hand painting is done and gold powder is sprinkled again. Finally it is painted with black, white, and blue urushi.
The urushi painting has to be done in exactly the correct thickness; this is the most important part of the urushi painting method. Otherwise it will not dry enough for the all of the layers to be revealed.
A final process including polishing is repeated three times. It is the Suri-urushi and is performed on the whole fountain pen surface. Raw urushi lacquer is applied and wiped off immediately, removing microscopic scratches. This is a complicated process because the urushi must be wiped down completely to avoid darkening. If performed incorrectly, it is easy to ruin the effect of the wonderful gold gradation.
The Nakaya nib, imprinted Nakata, the family name of the manufacturer is made of solid 14K gold.
Each of these nibs is suitable for our customization to extra flexible. The medium and broad tip can be customized by us into cursive italic, stub or oblique points.
The Maki-e fountain pen is the perfect collaboration of Maki-e artists in Wajima and fountain pen specialists of Nakaya with very detailed artwork which becomes more and more beautiful the longer you use it. Because of the many layers, wear only makes this pen more precious.
The heavy decorative rice paper, simple solid softwood shipping box and fabric pouch make a lovely presentation for Nakaya Urushi pens. Sensible and elegant packaging have been a hallmark of Nakaya.
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Customization Guide
Stub
 
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Above is the same size nib after a regrind to Stub. A regrind to Stub is often a good place to start for your first customization. Â A Stub nib provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes while writing, and is less position-sensitive on the paper than the crisper and slightly more demanding cursive italic.
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Cursive Italic
 
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More demanding, but also providing crisper edges and more line-width variation, is the very popular customization to Cursive Italic. This also provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, but is also more position-sensitive in terms of how the pen is held and requires more skill on the part of the user. This is a common customization for artists and calligraphers, but is still smooth enough to make for a good everyday writer.
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Formal Italic
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Formal Italic is an even crisper and more demanding customization than either cursive italic or left oblique, and is usually utilized for calligraphy and by the most experienced users. This provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, with even crisper corners and edges than a cursive italic - this is an extremely position-sensitive customization.
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Left Oblique
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 Commonly used for signatures and correspondence, the Left Oblique customization provides broad diagonal strokes and narrow cross-strokes, and like a cursive italic, is more position-sensitive and demanding than a stub. The whole pen must be rotated to the left in order to write smoothly, without skipping. The "Left" in Left Oblique refers to the cut of the nib itself, and does not refer to the handedness of the writer. |
Architect's Point (Also for Arabic and Hebraic writing)
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A more exotic regrind is that to Architect’s Point. Named after the style of writing used by Frank Lloyd Wright, this regrind is the opposite of cursive italic, and provides for broad cross-strokes and narrow down-strokes. This also tends to be a particularly useful customization for those practicing Arabic or Hebraic calligraphy. |
Spencerian
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Perhaps our most popular customization, but also one of the most advanced, the Mottishaw Spencerian Customization has gained special attention from being featured in a customer's YouTube video which has now received over twelve million views! The Spencerian starts from a semi-soft 14k nib and adds additional flex and a regrind to needlepoint to create a specialized writing point used for copperplate calligraphy. For more details, visit our special Spencerian page.. |