Danitrio Genkai (Bengala)

January 9, 2013

Here is my first pen review. Hopefully it is not too terrible

The pen I am about to review is the Danitrio Genkai. The first thing that probably comes to mind to those who are familiar with this pen is Hugeness. The Genkai, for a lack of a better description, is plain and simply HUGE. Now, I have wanted a Danitrio for quite some time now. I had heard nothing but good things about the brand plus I have a fascination for Japanese fountain pens. I have a few Nakaya's (which I love) however the converter leaves something to be desired in a filling system. So I figured what could be better than a pen with a reputation as good as Nakaya's plus the option for an eye dropper filling system. Well enough babbling, on to the review.

Appearance and Design: Stunning. That is the best word to describe this pen. The coloring is amazing. It has a reddish brown overtone with a whitesh undertone that comes out on the edges of the pen. It's easy to get lost in all the subtle color shifts. I never get tired of rolling the pen in my hand admiring the depth and warmness of color. The design is wonderful. It's a flat top behemoth. Very clean and elegant. Score: 10

Weight and Dimensions: One would think , based on its size, that the pen would be quite heavy. This is not the case. It is actually quite light. I do not think the weight of this pen would pose a problem for anyone. Now to the dimensions~~~~it's huge. Score: 9

Nib and Performance: This is the fun part. Let me clean up the drool puddle off my iPad. Ok. The nib on this pen is magnificent. It's a number 8 danitrio nib, which is the (second)biggest they offer if I am not mistaken. It is very large to match a very large pen. The nib is roughly the same aize as a pelikan m 1000.The nib on my pen is a medium. I love this nib. It is very soft and springy. It puts down a wonderfully smooth and wet line. There is just the perfect amount of feedback or drag. No scratchy ness at all. You have complete control over this baby.. I love smooth nibs but I hate it when they feel like you are out of control and sliding all over. When a nib has no feed back I feel rushed in my writing. The only nib I have ever experienced that compares to this is on my MB Gaius Maecenas. Score : 10

Filling System: Eye Dropper Filler. In my opinion this is the best filling system made. It's is very easy to use. One simply scews the section with nib off the barrel and fills the pen with ink using an eye dropper. It's quick clean and efficient. Another bonus with this pen is its shut off valve. To operate the ink system all you have to do is twist the blind cap a turn or so and this allows ink into the feed. What's really nice is when you close it up it seals the pen making leaks nigh impossible. This system is very easy to clean as well.. And it holds a TON of ink. The perfect filling system in my opinion. Score : 10

Construction and Quality: Not much to say here. I literally can not find any faults at all in this pens construction. Everything is flush tight and clean. It easily matches Nakaya's quality. Score :10

Price: This by my standards is a very expensive pen. With that said. This is one of the few times with any product I have ever purchased where I feel like I was getting a bargain. You definitely get more than you pay for. Score :10

Conclusion: This pen is as perfect as a pen can be in my opinion. The only reason it did not get a perfect score was because of the size. I have fairly large hands so this pen is quite comfortable to me. However someone with smaller hands might feel this pen is too much to handle. I would like to thank everyone at nibs.com for making this purchase a reality for me once again you have a very happy customer "no affiliation".

Total Score. 59/60.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Sblakers

January 9, 2013

Nice. thanks for sharing. Coincidentally, I am carrying a similar pen, a bright red Mikado with a BB retipped nib in my shirt pocket to work. Only one thing, the shutoff valve bothers me,. i keep it open all the time. I would love it if I could reversibly defeat it somehow...

January 9, 2013

Haha..I have to train myself as well with the shut off valve. I really like the Mikado. It was honestly a toss up between the two. However the flattop design of the genkai is what pushed me for its purchase. I forgot to mention this. To take the cap off takes quite a few turns. More so than any pen I have used before.. This actually sets the tone for the pens use so the blind cap doesn't bother me .. If that makes sense.. Sort of puts me in this methodical type mode.. Hari, is the process of taking the cap off the mikado similar ?

January 9, 2013

Minor correction: the Danitrio #8 nib is about the same size as the MB149 nib, and Danitrio offer an even bigger nib on their Yokozuna pens.

January 9, 2013

Wow wow. I did not know that. Talk about a monster nib. Hmm. I read that the genkai nib was bigger than a pelican m 1000 which I thought was the same size as a 149 ?

January 9, 2013

Hari, is the process of taking the cap off the mikado similar ?

I just checked, takes full two turns (720degrees) to uncap. My Deccans take 3-5 turns!

January 9, 2013

Wow wow. I did not know that. Talk about a monster nib. Hmm. I read that the genkai nib was bigger than a pelican m 1000 which I thought was the same size as a 149 ?

Genkai, Mikao have same nib shape and size as M1000. MB149 nib is same length 40mm but wider thus visually looks larger. Yokozuna is a 50mm giant nib.

January 9, 2013

The MB149, M1000 and Danitrio #8 nibs are all about 40mm long. The MB nib is slightly wider than the Danitrio nib, which is slightly wider than the M1000 nib. I believe the Danitrio #8 is a Bock 350 nib, and thus except for firmness and tuning, should be identical to similar nibs used by Delta and a few other brands.

Eventually, I'll have to get one (or a few) of those Danitrio #50 nibs. If they really are 50mm long (and I hope they are!), they would dwarf even the Namiki #50, which looks to be about 43mm long:

http://kmpn.blogspot.ca/2010/04/pilot-nibs.html

Edited January 9, 2013 by raging.dragon

January 9, 2013

Nice pen and congratulations!

What exactly does "Bengala" refer to?

Also, to chime in, I love the shut off valve and Danitrios are probably the best crafted pen I have personally ever had the pleasure to write with. Take care!

January 9, 2013

Thanks for the spec info hari and raging dragon. I ijust kind of eyeball sizes so its nice to know exact specifications. I am not sure what bengala stands for in exact coloring. It's pretty close to the nakaya shiro tame. But on the nakaya the white is more visible. The danitrio is a little more reddish brown

January 9, 2013

Thanks for posting the picture! Congratulations on your pretty new Genkai.

Based on the picture - which could be misleading - I can't really see though how the color could look like shiro-tame nuri. I have a Nakaya shiro-tame nuri Negoro and it's a light brown, amber-caramel color. The pen on the photo looks dark red to me, more like aka-tame.

Nibs.com seem to have introduced some new names for models and colors when they started selling Danitrio.