Help
First of all, I have to say this: I LOVE this pen!!! I made all of the right choices, and I wouldn't do anything differently. My first deliberation was on the size that I wanted - Long or Portable? I went back and forth on this for awhile. Would the long size be too long? Could it fit in my suit pocket? I didn't have another pen that would compare. What I finally did was bought some doweling that had the same diameter, and cut two pieces - one to the length of the Long and the other to the Portable's dimensions. That solved the dilemma, and I could see and feel that I wanted the Long size.
Next choice - order from Nakaya directly or from John Mottishaw (Classic Fountain Pens). I was concerned about communicating with Nakaya, especially if there was a problem with the pen once I got it. I had never ordered from John, but a friend bought me a Pelikan M1000 from him, and I absolutely love that pen. So I ordered my Nakaya from John, and I would highly recommend doing the same to anyone else. First of all, the nib work is outstanding! (more on that later) Secondly, the support and service was extremely pleasant and helpful. Jonella and the rest of the staff were very patient with my questions, and made the whole experience very enjoyable. Many thanks to everyone at Classic Fountain Pens!
Now the hard choice - the nib. I wanted something special and different for this nib, something I didn't already have. So, I decided on a Stub. Too scared for a cursive italic, so the stub seemed like a good first step into the world of non-standard nibs. I did a lot of research here on FPN into stub nibs, which helped to give me the confidence to take the plunge. Now the line width. The pens I already have are of the standard sizing - F, M, B. That wasn't good enough for this pen. I printed off Richard Binder's stroke width chart, then played around on it with the pens I already had. For the intended purpose of this Nakaya, I saw that a stroke width of 0.4 to 0.5 as what I wanted. But the 0.5 seemed just a little too broad, and the 0.4 seemed a little too narrow. So I asked Mr.Mottishaw if he could grind a 0.45 mm stub, and he said "no problem". Well, I have to tell you that he got it bang on! I couldn't be any happier. In my research here on FPN, I read an expression used by QM2, which I passed on to John for this pen - "Please maximize the line variation as much as possible while still retaining the stub's super smoothness." I said that because smooth is important to me, and I was concerned that the stub would be scratchy. John came through on this to, and the stub is smooth while showing great variation. I've attached a writing sample. Never attached photos before, so I hope they turn out. If you don't have a stub nib yet, I would highly recommend it. In fact, I don't think I could go back to a standard nib now.
Another choice - the flow. I wanted this to be custom to the pen as well. From what I've read here, the 1-10 flow scale seems to be very subjective. What I might think of as being a 6 could be an 8 to someone else. So I decided to find a flow that I liked on an existing pen that I own, and that I would want on the Nakaya. The choice? My unmodified Pelikan M800 Fine. I asked John if he could match that on the Nakaya, and no surprise by now, he did! Perhaps the same process will help someone else out that's making the same decisions.
I don't think a review of this process would be complete without some thoughts on accessories. My advice - if you're not sure about getting an accessory when you order your pen, just do it. Nakaya won't sell accessories without an accompanying pen. I'm not sure about John though. Regardless, I got the Makie converter, an extra pouch, the single and triple pen pillow. Seeing as it was a custom pen, I also ordered a custom pen stand. The standard stand has a black urushi finish. I asked Nakaya, through Classic Fountain Pens, if they could do one in red (Shu), which they did for an extra charge. I did that because I didn't want the pen to get lost on the stand, as the one would have been black, the other red-black. The red stand really makes the pen stand out. In my world annyway. As you can see from the pictures, I also decided on a gold Zogan, and a Kanji Makie inscription of my given Japanese name.
So I think all in all, it's a very special and custom pen. The whole process started late last fall when I asked for your suggestions on a 20th wedding anniversary pen. After about three months of deliberating on the above choices, and five months of waiting for it to come to fruition, I'm extremely pleased. Thanks for all of your help!
KoR
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! Now, I'm planning to order my next nakaya from Mottishaw...Nakata directly was problematic for me (language gap did not help at all!).
