Nakaya
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Bamboo By Silver Powder
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Bamboo By Silver Powder
Featuring silver powder over a lush green midori finish, the Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Bamboo By Silver Powder is a study in meticulous Maki-e technique. Each pen is hand-finished in a process which can require up to a year.
Available exclusively from us, the Nakaya Naka-ai model was designed by nibs.com founder and owner John Mottishaw in collaboration with Nakaya master pen designer Shinichi Yoshida. We are the sole authorized Nakaya dealer in the English speaking world.
The versatility of traditional Maki-e techinque is showcased on this pen, with its meticulously stylized representation of bamboo stalks. The complex root structure of bamboo has led to it being viewed as a symbol of strength and prosperity, and also as indicative of innocence and purity. Whatever the meaning, it is a frequent used symbol in Japanese art, both traditional and contemporary.
The Naka-ai utilizes Nakaya's convenient cartridge-converter system - the pen can be filled with any bottled fountain pen ink with fitted with the provided reusable converter, and can also use Platinum brand disposable ink cartridges. A softwood presentation box with kanji-style script and farbic pen kimono are also included, along with a starter box of ink cartridges.
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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.. |