Kemma Fountain Pen @ Ginza Six

November 9, 2019

Kemma Fountain Pens had a display at Tokyo Ginza Six today. They had a display of their sapphire nib material that was very interesting. If you like stiffer nibs you should give this a try. Their Urushi and Maki-e is top notch. If I understood the sales lady correct, their Urushi and Maki-e is on wood not ebonite. Nice bigger pen with international converter.

November 9, 2019

I saw these at Mitsukoshi earlier this year. Unique a beautiful, but at a significant price...

November 9, 2019

Sapphire as nib. Pretty. And interesting.

No tipping on those nibs, or will they have tipping drilled in or attached with prongs?

Did you have an opportunity to write with a sapphire nib, or see one set into a pen?

November 10, 2019

Sapphire as nib. Pretty. And interesting.
No tipping on those nibs, or will they have tipping drilled in or attached with prongs?
Did you have an opportunity to write with a sapphire nib, or see one set into a pen?

I did test, they are very stiff with no flex but super smooth. More like a glass dip pen.

November 10, 2019

I did test, they are very stiff with no flex but super smooth. More like a glass dip pen.

It believe it is glass because I think they use synthetic sapphire.

November 10, 2019

Most likely it is lab-grown sapphire, which would still be corundum and almost as hard as diamond.

Custom grinds may be a challenge and replacing a dropped nib may cost a bit.

Beautiful nibs.

November 12, 2019

I happened to be at Ginza Six last weekend and was glad to try the pen. I had been curious how the writing experience would be like after seeing it in magazine previously.
It writes smoothly but really wet and makes the stroke quite wide. I tried to ask for fine nib to try but she indicated she just had medium nib. So it’s not a pen for me.

November 20, 2019

I wonder if they've improved from this review:

https://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-sapphire-and-maki-e.html

I remember hearing about them but according to that the actual writing experience was really bad (not even mentioning the price). The idea definitely seems interesting but I'm wondering if it doesn't need some iteration.