I have been looking at the Sailor Profit Nashiji - which is described on the Ujuku site has having:


Now does this pen really have gold dust in the Urushi that is visible or is it just a matte finish pen?

The pictures aren't large enough to be conclusive. I have seen other Nashiji pens which range from a light sprinkling of gold (but still visible) to almost completely covered in gold dust.

A pic from Rakuten:

Sailor's site says it's PMMA resin matte black finish. Nashiji could be a makie finish with gold, or just a matte finish. I think Ujuku's site put that by mistake.

Here's a review of the pen in Japanese.
http://www.pen-info.jp/sailornaginata.html

Now I wonder if the only difference between Nashiji and Matte Black is the nib.

Profit 21 Nashiji
Profit 21 Matte Black

Taki, thanks for the input - speedy and accurate as always!

I thought it was a little cheap for an urushi pen, especially a Maki-e. BUT the price difference between it and the regular 1911 doesn't justify a matte finish. Is it ¥10,000 more expensive to make a matte pen?

So, in conclusion, the Nashiji is a matte black pen with a naginata-togi nib (¥36,750) and you can get the matte black pen (¥31,500) anyway with regular nibs. And they are both a lot more expensive than a shiny 1911 (¥21,000 regular/¥26,250 with togi).

Excuse me butting in, can you tell me what the Profit stands for, is the Profit range a cheaper range to standard or mid size? I just want to know as I can not find the Profit discribed on Sailor web site.
Thanks
Bob Cratchet

Bob, I believe the Profit moniker is a direct translation from Japanese to English of the Japanese model name for the 1911 series of pens:

Profit 21 = 1911 Large (21k nibs)
Profit = 1911 Standard (14k nibs)
Profit Young = 1911 Young

A Google search turns up the following definition of nashiji: (lit. golden pear-like color finish; gold flecked surface) lacquer finish.

The source is a Smithsonian document, so presumably they know what they're talking about

http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontribut...t/SCtA-0037.txt

The document is talking about the particular Lacquered stationery box.

I just looked up "nashiji" with my Kojien (one of the most reputable dictionaries in Japan), and it lists two definitions. 1. A maki-e technique. Gold or silver powder is applied on under urushi coat. Then Nashiji-urushi is applied and polished so that gold or silver powder can be seen through the top coating, giving the effect of texture like pear." 2. "Short for Nashiji-ori, textiles that have surface textures resembling pear skin." I also googled in Japanese, and many sites says the word nashiji means matte finish (versus highly polished finish) on painted or metal surface.

Sailor says on their Nashiji and Matte Black Profit pages that the barrel is "PMMA polymer <matte black>" and nothing else. On their maki-e pens page it says "PMMA polymer/Maki-e"

Oh I see. Hope I didn't mislead anyone. Thanks for clarifying!