Nakaya
Nakaya Portable Cigar Ascending Dragon 3 Ao-tamenuri
Nakaya Portable Cigar Ascending Dragon 3 Ao-tamenuri
Layered and evocative dark blue Ao-tamenuri is the favorite urushi lacquer finish for many Nakaya lovers, and it is showcased here to perfection on the Portable Cigar Ascending Dragon 3 Ao-tamenuri.
The dragon motif, almost invisible on the newly lacquered pen seen here, will gradually become more bright and prominent throughout the years as the outer layer of fuki-urushi lacquer ages and matures - the name of this pen is doubly appropriate, as the dragon image truly will ""ascend"" in time.
Dragons of all kinds are ubiquitous and packed with multiple meanings in Chinese and Japanese art - the ascending dragon motif seen here has connotations of wealth, health, immortality, and triumph over adversity. Each ebonite body pen is hand-painted by a skilled urushi artist in the small town of Wajima, a traditional craft center on the west coast of Japan.
The pen fills using any bottled fountain pen ink when fitted with a converter, provided by us free of charge with your order. It can also use convenient Platinum brand disposable ink cartridges. Nakaya 14k nibs are hand-crafted at the Nakaya nib workshop in Tokyo.
Each pen ships in a softwood presentation box with kanji-style script. A cloth pen kimono and starter pack of cartridges are also included.
Our complimentary nib tuning adjusts pressure and ink flow to your personal preferences, and our optional nib customizations can add to the character and distinctiveness of your writing on the page. We are an authorized Nakaya dealer.
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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.. |