Howdy. For some reason, I am unable to write with my new Danitrio Mikado tame-midori without putting my thumb over the lovely red symbol of the artist. I have tried to write with my thumb elsewhere, but I have a strange angle relationship with my nibs and write with the paper at a 90 degree angle to my body.

Anyway, does anyone know how long the signatures last on urushi? I am not going to change my grip because then I won't use the pen as much and I love it, but I don't want to ruin it, either. I imagine that 10 years from now I could send it back to Japan and get the symbol repainted. Any thoughts? Photo and pen supplied by Kevin Cheng.

Kathryn
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I was thinking the same thing Kathryn. My fingers rub the signature too.

I couldn't help but think "just spray fixative on it" ;-) Nah.... :-)

urushi is the same thing that they made armor out of in the past. I would expect that it would take quite abit of rubbing to remove the signature.

Another question would be has anyone with a vintage urushi pen seen wear on the surface.

Kurt

Hi Kathrin.
Congratulations for your outstanding BIG baby...
Regarding your question, and knowing the way in which Mikado nib is mounted, there should be no problem at all to set it to any desired angle in relation to Kogaku's signature. My advice, let it be done by an experienced hand (Kevin?? ) just because the feed sits quite well fixed with the big nib in its housing (sleeve) and there exists the danger of ruining a marvelous nib or misaligning the feed... and many other side effects which are just unwanted.
On the other hand... unless you have sandpaper hands... the signature should withstand use very well for many... many... many years...
Jose

One hundred and twenty five years.

If the signature itself is protected by the urushi lacquer, it should last a lot longer than any current members of FPN are likely to be around to verify that it is still present.

Donnie

Hi Kathryn,

Unless you have a bionic/metalic fingers, you don't have to worry about rubbing anything off :-) If the pen is screen print then yes, they will rub off, but not when it's done the traditional way. enjoy the pen and no worry there.

Best,

Kevin

The signature is not painted on top of the urushi, but is actually made from coloured urushi itself.

Unless you are rubbing the pen in ways it should not be rubbed , it shouldn't come off

Thank you everyone. I won't worry about it, then. I appreciate your replies.

Kathryn