Tsugaru Nuri (Urushi) Laquered Ebonite Pen With 14K Flexible Eversharp Skyline Nib

[Sharksteve]

Dear FPN Members,

 

I want to share a piece of urushi laquered ebonite with you:

 

The basis is an indian made ebonite blowfiller,

with a very nice vintage flexible Wahl Eversharp Skyline NIb.

 

I painted the pen in the style of the tsugaru nuri technique, with high quality natural japanese urushi laquers. The laquer has been cured in a controlled envirorment, with about 79% humidity.

It took about a 2 months to do the pen,

 

The following steps where done:

1.) three base layers of black urushi (cured for 48hrs each), fine sanding in between each layer

2.) adding the splotches with a painting knive

3.) a layer of clear urushi, with 23 karat gold powder sprinkled on the sticky laquer (cured for 48 hrs)

4.) 4 layers of clear urushi (cured for 48hrs each, followed by 14 days of additional curing)

5.) sanding of the clear layers, curing

6.) application of very high refined clear natural urushi with filter paper and wiping

7.) curing, micromeshing, polishing

8.) repeating steps 6&7

9.) polishing by hand

10.) fine polishing by hand

 

The result is a very glossy pen, that writes fantastic with a very flexible nib, superb for drawing as well. Working with urushi is difficult, layers have to be very thin and precautions have to be followed due to the urushiol content of natural urushi.

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_01.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_02.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_03.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_05.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_06.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_07.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_08.jpg

Edited October 14, 2015 by Sharksteve

[Sharksteve]

Additional pictures of the pen:

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_09.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_10.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_11.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_12.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_13.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_14.jpg

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/Tsugaru_15.jpg

[rpsyed]

That's gorgeous! I have a Edison Pearl in a similar Kara-nuri technique. It's such a lovely urushi finish.

[zaddick]

Congratulations on your impressive achievement. Working with urushi is not for the feint of heart.

[Sharksteve]

Thank you for your very kind comments, some new pics I took outside:

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/IMG_7605.JPG

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/IMG_7606.JPG

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/IMG_7609.JPG

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/IMG_7624.JPG

 

http://www.austrianairports.com/pens/IMG_7628.JPG

[squirrelman]

Stunning! Is this your first time working with urushi, or have you had practice in the past?

[L.Velvet]

Very nice great job;)

 

What was the total cost of the operation ?

Edited November 18, 2015 by L.Velvet

[Sharksteve]

What was the total cost of the operation ?

Hard to say, the urushi-laquer is very expensive, one small laquer tin-tube costs about 50,- to 140,- EUR, powdergold is about 180,- EUR for 2 gramms...you get more then one pen out of those but still...

I will not get a profit out of my pens, even if I would sell all of them...it will just cover parts of the expenditure.