Nakaya
Nakaya Naka-ai Writer Sumiko
Nakaya Naka-ai Writer Sumiko
The Nakaya Naka-ai in Sumiko finish is a study in smooth black stealthiness. When combined this tapered body and a smoky ruthenium trim, the result is a pen both timeless and contemporary in appearance. Made by mixing carbon based sumi ink with urushi lacquer, this ancient technique yields a matte surface unlike any other.
Designed by Nakaya master pen designer Shinichi Yoshida in collaboration with John Mottishaw, the Naka-ai, with its cone-shaped ends and tapered body, combines many of Nakaya’s most distinctive design features in a single model. ""Naka-ai"" has the meaning of middle or in-between, and brings to mind the Middle Way of Buddhist practice with its emphasis on balance, integrity, and centeredness. Appropriately enough, the Naka-ai occupies a midway position between Nakaya's smaller Piccolo series pens and the longer Deskpen.
Each Naka-ai pen is made of hand-turned ebonite hard rubber, then sent to the Wajima region in western Japan for finishing. Application of Sumiko finish is a particularly time intensive process. Final assembly of the pen is then accomplished in Nakaya's offices in Tokyo and at the Nibs.com office in Miami, where each nib is hand-tuned for the writing characteristics of the individual user.
Nakaya pens can be filled with bottled fountain pen ink using the provided converter and can also use the excellent Platinum brand ink cartridges. Hand-painted Maki-e converters are also available.
The Nakaya Naka-ai Writer in Sumiko is provided with your choice of solid gold 14k single-tone nib in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, or Extra Broad, with Fine Soft, Medium Soft, and Super Extra Fine nibs also available.
The double slit Music nib is available at an added premium, as are plated nibs in Pink Gold, Rhodium, Ruthenium, or Two-Tone - consult our Nakaya Nibs page for details.
The larger tipped 14k nibs are well-suited to customizations including Stub, Cursive Italic, and Left Oblique, as well as the modification for added flex.
Nakaya pens ship in a solid softwood shipping box decorated with Japanese Kanji script and lined with decorative rice paper. A fabric pen ""kimono"" and starter box of Platinum brand cartridges are also included, making this pen a lovely presentation item. Sensible and elegant packaging has long been a hallmark of the Nakaya brand.
Nakaya pens are individually handcrafted in a process that requires a minimum of three to six months and often much longer.
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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. 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.. |