Nakaya
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Suigyo
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Suigyo
Utilizing meticulously hand-applied raden over a Shobu urushi base, the Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Suigyo fountain pen is available exclusively from us at nibs.com. Each pen is hand produced in a process that can require up to a year to complete.
Our complimentary nib tuning adjusts optimum pressure and ink flow to your personal preferences, and our optional nib customizations increase line-width variation and can make this pen a valuable tool for calligraphy and other advanced handwriting techniques.
Raden Maki-e has a tradition stretching back for hundreds of years, and the Naka-ai Cigar Suigyo uses this technique to achieve a lyrically stylized evocation of a moving fish. Each pen is hand-finished by skilled artisans in the traditional craft center of Wajima on the west coast of Japan. The Naka-ai body, exclusive to us at nibs.com, is hand-turned from natural ebonite hard rubber at the Nakaya workshop in Tokyo.
A reusable ink converter, provided by us free of charge with your order, allows for the use of any bottled fountain pen ink - to ensure the best possible writing experience and avoid the need for service, we strongly suggest choosing from among the carefully curated selection of inks we offer. Convenient Platinum brand disposable ink cartridges can also be used.
Each Nakaya pen ships in a special wooden presentation box which includes a fabric pen kimono and starter pack of ink cartridges along with the converter. We are the sole authorized Nakaya dealer in the English speaking world.
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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.. |