Maki-e Pen Review -

[picautomaton]

Fountain pen review:

 

Pen under review: ‘Urushi' Makie Japanese Fountain pen raden * Butterfly’ (Item # 220414038101 e-bay seller iwami-jp (68*)

 

 

 

Last year March I happened upon this site (i.e. FPN) and it not only revived my fountain pen interests it connected me to a good quarter million fountain pen users worldwide (wow!). So naturally the spiral began into the world of pens, inks, paper and more pens and inks (you know what I mean). I read write-ups on Japanese fountain pens that were made of ebonite, then coated in a substance called ‘Urushi’, then a host of wonderful finishings like ‘Raden’ (luo dian) and many others. The desire to hold one of these pens and naturally use one was fuelled with pictures from postings and browsing the ‘net’.

I browse the e-bay bay and come across the pen listed above for 49USD (shipping excluded). So I write to the seller and ask if the artwork is ‘silk-screened’ or the real thing and he replies it’s the real thing. The listing makes no misleading statement – the pen body is plastic and the tip is the ubiquitous ‘Iridium Point Germany’, the close up pics look quite nice. The seller says the pictures don’t do the pen justice and must be seen in real life to appreciate. In addition the seller’s site has a host of Japanese utensils in the famous red urushi finish among other, no bad feed back many sales and a good set up. I did my own little risk assessment and was fine with going ahead with the purchase. There was a choice of finishes and I chose the three butterfly design and asked for a fine tip.

I received the pen in the mail approximately three weeks later (I live in South Africa the country not the region) and the pen was beautifully packaged (an art in Japan I’ve been told) with lots of bubble wrap and then a little surprise was the excellently made little wooden box containing the pen and a cartridge.

My first impression was that this was too good to be true and I had not even uncapped the pen let alone dip test. The artwork on the pen looks beautiful, I held the pen and turned it around in the bright sunlight and I was truly impressed with the colours gleaming of the shell inserts, the fine brush strokes and detail. The bands on the cap and clip appear to be plated in possibly gold (time will tell if brassing occurs), looking good and so far there has been no tarnishing.

The shape is a normal classic look – nothing over the top, simple lines with a small step from barrel to section with a gold ring at the connection. (9/10)

 

 

Artwork, Construction and Quality:

The artwork is of three butterflies (two on the barrel and one on the cap) with size going smaller from cap to barrel. The basic coloration of the butterflies is the cap gold and white as it’s main colors next one white silver pink and then next one green and silver. The wings have inlays of raden (which is a type of mother of pearl shell that has been sliced into a ultra fine wafer and then glued into place with Urushi not only the wings but some of the leaves in the foliage. The leaves are gold, pink gold and silver with some of the silver leaves having raden inserts. Looking through the loupe you are pleasantly surprised at the detail in the paintings and like the seller said photos do not do it justice. As light moves along the artwork the mother of pearl inserts gleam with their trademark colour spectra. The artwork runs done one facet of the pen and the back is plain black. The black plastic looks good and well polished. B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!

The tassies, barrel, section and cap would appear to be plastic. The other fittings, steel with gold plating. Clip is in the shape of an elephant trunk. The barrel thickness is +-2mm thick which is quite thick if you see the pic. below. The thread of the barrel and section fit well with reasonable tolerance. Given that the pen is probably a generic that has been given an upgrade I would say that the construction and quality is good for the total package. (5/10)

 

Mass and Dimensions

I have not used a scale and would say that the pen should be similar to other plastic pens with a plastic barrel and section. It feels medium weight and you can write for long periods with no fatigue. See pic for comparison to Lamy Safari below. (9/10)

 

Nib and Performance

The nib is the Iridium Point Germany type and has a number ‘1’ on the feed, you can see that it is bigger than the Duofold International nib (pic below). Flow is medium to dry with Pelikan Royal Blue and the nib is smooth with feedback. (6/10).

 

Filling System and Maintenance:

The pen uses international cartridges and I have currently installed the converter from a Manuscript Calligraphy kit. Until I am able to locate a high quality converter the pen will be penalised in this area, naturally given the cost of the pen you can’t expect much. It all works well anyway. (3/10)

 

Cost and Value:

The cost 49USD plus shipping. If I consider all of the above and that I’m quite sure the artwork look pretty good and real I think it was a good introduction into the world of traditional Japanes / Chinese artwork on a pen. (10/10)

 

Conclusion:

You take a look and decide or maybe you know something I don’t. This is the type of pen I would say is of souvenir grade however it works, looks and impresses as a pen that can be used regularly. One concern is how long the plastic cap closing system will last with continued use over time. (7/10)

[Ed Ronax]

Nice review, thanks. You appear to have found a little treasure, it looks beautiful and at a give away price.

[picautomaton]

Thank you. It's my first pen review with images. I can't wait to do another.

[Spector]

Very nice looking pen. Thanks for reviewing it

[Lorna Reed]

Thanks for a great review. I have several of these generic, no-name maki-e pens. I have unsuccessfully bid on the one you have on e-bay! I will try again as they seem to come up for sale fairly regularly. I have only ever dipped mine so it is interesting to hear how it works for you. I have wondered whether the design would wear or peel off in time as they seem so inexpensive.

[picautomaton]

I wonder about durability and therefore not a workhorse type pen for me. Rests peacefully in box on night table.

[Strang]

The second pen I bought was one of these beautiful-looking pens - in the same butterfly pattern. And I would definitely concur that it is not a "workhorse". Mine completely disassembled in my hands one day. It breaks into about 6 pieces. I tried to confirm the country of origin of these pens with the seller but their grasp of English diminished the more questions I asked. Stunning to look at but I was able to foist mine off on someone who was in need of a pen. I think about it now and again...but I don't miss it.

[CRB]

I bought one of these pens a couple of years ago, in a pattern with Japanese fans and shell inlay. I think it's beautiful. But a big flaw was the placement of its clip, which covered part of the pattern. There was no need for that, as there is a blank space where the clip can extend, without hiding any of the precious decoration. If an artist goes to the effort of embedding luminous shell into the surface, you don't want it covered up by a clip. To my great delight, I was able to loosen the screw inside the cap and reposition the clip so it covered the plain area on the cap. Now the entire pattern can be taken in. That makes a huge difference in the overall presentation of the pen.

 

Thanks for the interesting review, and the images.

[Brian]

An interesting review. I like the close up work showing the details. Its funny that today its not always easy to discern a real IPG point from a copy.

[picautomaton]

Yeah, those IPG nibs are decent.

[iroshizuku]

Cool!

Maki-e is just too expensive for me...

[breaker]

cool pen