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This is the AP Limited Nashiji Red from the Apprentice series of the Urushi and Sakura Lacquer Art lineup. The Apprentice series comprises pens between ~$800 to $2000, that is, AP Limited’s most affordable line of pens. Interestingly, AP sells through dealers and to some extent at least online as well on their own website. This pen lists for $1200 on the AP Limited website. AP Limited was started by Anuj and Smita Podder and features many fantastic art pens of Russian and Japanese aesthetics. Sometimes, the Russian painting and Japanese urushi/maki-e appear on the same pen but for the most part it’s an either-or situation. The higher end pens are well received by the community but having headquarters in Los Angeles they are not either a Russian or Japanese company. Nevertheless, the urushi work is completed in Japan so like Danitrio I think they qualify as Japanese for if it was not for the artwork the pens become uninteresting. IMG_1950 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1958 by Ja Ja, on Flickr This particular pen is a curious beauty and a good writer. It may be one of the least expensive pens from AP Limited but it is not exactly affordable. The name of the pen, Nashiji Red, is a bit misleading despite their marketing language/wishful thinking. Nashiji is pear and in the art realm refers to the texture of a freshly sliced pear. Japanese swords can have a nashiji texture appearance (due to how the steel was folded and, more importantly, polished) and maki-e work in nashiji typically uses gold or silver powders to create the appearance. This pen uses raden or crushed Abalone and the info from AP Limited acknowledges the schism from tradition. The pen is attractive, which is a large part of why I bought it, but it does not look like nashiji to me, it just looks like densely sprinkled raden. The base color appears to be red or shu urushi upon which the raden is built upon. The shu urushi is visible by itself on the section and on the clip creating a nice and calming visual counterbalance to the intense sparkles of the rest of the pen. I appreciate the pen is signed by the artist. IMG_1952 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1951 by Ja Ja, on Flickr The ebonite pen body itself is fairly simple tube shape with sharply tapered ends, and a step down to the cap threads. The cap itself features a metal clip with ball termination. The section tapers going down towards the nib before flaring out again in a somewhat vintage fashion. The #8 18k AP branded nib sits on a plastic feed and drinks from a cartridge converter. I’m told that the nib is a medium and that AP Limited is only shipping with medium nibs from now on since minimum orders from Bock are too large (300 units?) to make offering more tip sizes viable. The pen is large but is barely big enough to make the #8 nib appear at home. For a size comparison the Nashiji Red it is pictured next to the Sailor KOP in vermilion urushi, which itself has an oversize nib. The AP nib is not all that well fitted to the feed as there is some play, but it is not loose per se. Perhaps it is more how the nib is fitted to the section, but the Sailor nib/feed/section are much better engineered and fitted. IMG_1959 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1953 by Ja Ja, on Flickr Compared to the Sailor and indeed just about any other high-end urushi pen, including other AP Limited pens, the finish on this pen can perhaps be found wanting. From arm’s length nothing is amiss. Examining the pen up close one begins to notice some areas that seem to fall short of perfection. For example, the urushi piles up unevenly at the step transitions on either end of the pen. Likewise, there is some unevenness and small-scale roughness at the caps edge and near the section threads. This can be seen to be a flaw, as charming evidence of hand work, or perhaps to an expert as an unavoidable consequence of this type of finish. I suspect that as the name implies this pen was not made by a highly experienced master and/or was made to a price point. If not made by the master himself the master would have approved the work of the apprentice, who may indeed be very skilled. In any event, it seems X amount of effort was put in to the perfection of the finish in consideration of the price paid for the work. I’m not unhappy about the quality or lesser perfection of the finish but some may reject the pen for not having what they believe to be an ultimate urushi/maki-e finish. IMG_1955 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1970 by Ja Ja, on Flickr The nib is a wet writer and is smooth offering little to no feedback. Putting down a line is effortless, and it is a lux writing experience. There is no line variation, no flex, no nothing interesting in the writing characteristics. It just writes. ap by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1963 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1964 by Ja Ja, on Flickr IMG_1966 by Ja Ja, on Flickr One of the nice things about this pen is the packaging, which is a lux presentation. The paulownia wood box is as expected for an urushi pen from Japan. There is the addition of an AP branded cleaning cloth and a more interesting card with the artists name as well as the signature of the AP Limited founder. These items contribute to the buying/ownership experience in a positive way. While I have dozens of urushi pens this is first AP Limited. I’m much more impressed with the AP lineup, well, the lineup I can afford, than ever and this may not be my last AP Limited pen. IMG_1965 by Ja Ja, on Flickr