10% Off For All Fountain Pens At Pensachi.com

[MuddyWaters]

Upon reading your post, I tried it in Safari on my iPad Air (running iOS 10.11), and I can't reproduce what you described. I'll try again later on my Mac.

 

Edit: I tried it on my Mac, and I still can't reproduce what you described, sorry.

 

No need to apologize, perhaps the website generated differently on different browsers.

 

Edit: found the trick! The problem was still occuring, but I was able to have the buy button allow add to cart after refreshing the page once another nib was selected.

 

The 743 prices are great on this website.

Edited June 27, 2019 by MuddyWaters

[samasry]

Thank you salmasry for sharing your experience with us.

I am sorry that we could not serve you as the pen was sold out. Normally, when we get pens back in stock, we will send notification to customers who joined the waiting list for that pen. And for Pilot Custom Urushi, each time we only can get few pieces. After notifying waiting customers, the pens normally sold out very quickly.

I am sorry for that. We will check and improve our system and business scale to serve you better.

I am glad to know that you got your Custom Urushi. It is very gorgeous pen, isn't it?

 

 

 

Hi again Kyle

 

Just noticed your unboxing video of the Namiki urushi #50.

 

Do you have some ideas as to what are the main features that makes this pen almost double the price of the Pilot custom urushi?

 

Of course there is the #50 vs #30 nib, but there must be something about the urushi process in this Namiki that is driving the price difference, or some other factor.

 

There is a similar 2x price differential between the KOP ebonite only vs KOP urushi.

But the pilot custom urushi is supposed to have urushi like the Namiki, perhaps not as many layers of coating?

 

Anyways, if you have some info that you can share, it would be great.

Edited June 28, 2019 by salmasry

[KyleClapton]

Dear Salmasry,

 

I am not sure if I am knowledgeable enough to give the answer for your question, but as a person who has chance to touch and hold these 2 Urushi pens on hand, I am very glad to give some of my thoughts along with some comments that I collected from my boss, my friends (in fountain pens community) and my co-workers (who is working in this industry much more longer than me). I hope it can help somehow.

As I know, Pilot Custom Urushi and Namiki Urushi pens are all stated to be Japanese Urushi.
The value of Urushi is depend on the material (how many % of urushi, is it natural urushi or not...), number of layers and skill of artisan.

I am not sure if Pilot Custom Urushi and Namiki Urushi have same number of layers or not. Or the materials of these 2 models are same or not.

On Namiki website, you can see that Namiki states their Urushi is made by Kokkokai artisans. However, I can't find the signature of artisan making No.50 on the body.

For Pilot, they do not mention any thing about the artisan on their page.
Maybe this point is one of the matter to make the price for Namiki Urushi more expensive than Pilot Custom Urushi.

And also the nib, size 30 and size 50, although I don't think only size of nib will make that big gap between those 2.

To find more convince-able answer, I think we will need to ask some masters of Urushi and also some people who know about the back stage of Pilot Namiki.

 

 

Hi again Kyle

 

Just noticed your unboxing video of the Namiki urushi #50.

 

Do you have some ideas as to what are the main features that makes this pen almost double the price of the Pilot custom urushi?

 

Of course there is the #50 vs #30 nib, but there must be something about the urushi process in this Namiki that is driving the price difference, or some other factor.

 

There is a similar 2x price differential between the KOP ebonite only vs KOP urushi.

But the pilot custom urushi is supposed to have urushi like the Namiki, perhaps not as many layers of coating.

 

Anyways, if you have some info that you can share, it would be great.

[samasry]

Dear Salmasry,

 

I am not sure if I am knowledgeable enough to give the answer for your question, but as a person who has chance to touch and hold these 2 Urushi pens on hand, I am very glad to give some of my thoughts along with some comments that I collected from my boss, my friends (in fountain pens community) and my co-workers (who is working in this industry much more longer than me). I hope it can help somehow.

As I know, Pilot Custom Urushi and Namiki Urushi pens are all stated to be Japanese Urushi.

The value of Urushi is depend on the material (how many % of urushi, is it natural urushi or not...), number of layers and skill of artisan.

I am not sure if Pilot Custom Urushi and Namiki Urushi have same number of layers or not. Or the materials of these 2 models are same or not.

On Namiki website, you can see that Namiki states their Urushi is made by Kokkokai artisans. However, I can't find the signature of artisan making No.50 on the body.

For Pilot, they do not mention any thing about the artisan on their page.

Maybe this point is one of the matter to make the price for Namiki Urushi more expensive than Pilot Custom Urushi.

And also the nib, size 30 and size 50, although I don't think only size of nib will make that big gap between those 2.

To find more convince-able answer, I think we will need to ask some masters of Urushi and also some people who know about the back stage of Pilot Namiki.

 

 

 

Thank you for the kind reply

 

I think I have read in some of the sites that describe the Pilot custom Urushi that it has 3 Urushi layers.

In other sites, that list the details of the Namiki Urushi, it says something like "20 steps?" during the Urushi process.

Not specifically 20 layers, but steps.

 

https://nibsmith.com/product/namiki-emperor-black-urushi-fountain-pen/

 

 

Some sites that describe the KOP Urushi also indicated 12 layers in this link

 

https://www.sakurafountainpengallery.com/en/boutique/detail/kop-urushi-bordeau-sailor

 

 

While for the polot custom urushi it lists 3 Layers

 

https://nibsmith.com/product/pilot-custom-urushi-fountain-pen/

 

 

 

I have to admit that this is the first time I hear that there is Natural Urushi vs what I assume to be Synthetic Urushi?

 

In general though, you can see that the shine on the KOP Urushi and the Namiki Urushi has a different luster to it. While most people describe the Pilot custom Urushi to have the same look as the resin body pen.

 

Anyways, thanks again my friend for being so kind and informative.

Edited June 29, 2019 by salmasry

[KyleClapton]

Thank you for sharing the information. It is quite interesting in acquiring new knowledge. I am glad that I have chance to ask and learn about this field.
I think it is a little bit ambiguous in saying Namiki Urushi "is crafted with more than 20 processes in Roiro-Urushi lacquer finish". As it might be 20 layers or 20 stages or 20 steps, whatever it is, surely it is a complicated process that craftsmen has to do to finish Urushi pen.
About Natural Urushi term, it is what I heard from my friend who is quite familiar with Urushi items, he said "自然漆" which literally means Natural Urushi, which I think not really a term in Japan, but he said that to make me understand.
He said, now urushi has several types which contain different % of Urushi inside. Each type has its own characteristic which help to improve the process of making urushi items for example, to help urushi dries faster or to help the layer more shiny.

It is quite interesting to know those things. I hope Namiki or Pilot or Sailor shows us how they make their Urushi and explain what kind of technique they do for each models, so we can compare and learn a lot.

 

 

 

Thank you for the kind reply

 

I think I have read in some of the sites that describe the Pilot custom Urushi that it has 3 Urushi layers.

In other sites, that list the details of the Namiki Urushi, it says something like "20 steps?" during the Urushi process.

Not specifically 20 layers, but steps.

 

https://nibsmith.com/product/namiki-emperor-black-urushi-fountain-pen/

 

 

Some sites that describe the KOP Urushi also indicated 12 layers in this link

 

https://www.sakurafountainpengallery.com/en/boutique/detail/kop-urushi-bordeau-sailor

 

 

While for the polot custom urushi it lists 3 Layers

 

https://nibsmith.com/product/pilot-custom-urushi-fountain-pen/

 

 

 

I have to admit that this is the first time I hear that there is Natural Urushi vs what I assume to be Synthetic Urushi?

 

In general though, you can see that the shine on the KOP Urushi and the Namiki Urushi has a different luster to it. While most people describe the Pilot custom Urushi to have the same look as the resin body pen.

 

Anyways, thanks again my friend for being so kind and informative.

[samasry]

Thank you for sharing the information. It is quite interesting in acquiring new knowledge. I am glad that I have chance to ask and learn about this field.

I think it is a little bit ambiguous in saying Namiki Urushi "is crafted with more than 20 processes in Roiro-Urushi lacquer finish". As it might be 20 layers or 20 stages or 20 steps, whatever it is, surely it is a complicated process that craftsmen has to do to finish Urushi pen.

About Natural Urushi term, it is what I heard from my friend who is quite familiar with Urushi items, he said "自然漆" which literally means Natural Urushi, which I think not really a term in Japan, but he said that to make me understand.

He said, now urushi has several types which contain different % of Urushi inside. Each type has its own characteristic which help to improve the process of making urushi items for example, to help urushi dries faster or to help the layer more shiny.

It is quite interesting to know those things. I hope Namiki or Pilot or Sailor shows us how they make their Urushi and explain what kind of technique they do for each models, so we can compare and learn a lot.

 

 

Thank you my friend, Keep us posted with the new selection of these nice pens.