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The Nakayas Have Landed!


ethernautrix

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Eek, that's unlucky, Ken... But customs has been known to do weird things to goods occasionally and here in Germany they open and inspect almost every package. The best thing to do would probably be to unpack every parcel in front of the delivery guy so you could claim goods as damaged immediately - but I don't do it either. Sigh. Is there any way you could get reimbursement from customs for this?

(I mean, a firm Nakaya nib is far from being soft or fragile - what would they have to do with it to do such damage...? :yikes: )

 

Hope your pen will return in a better condition!

Read more about me, my pens, photography & so on my little blog

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We came to the conclusion that it must have been opened and monkeyed with at customs.

 

Makes me wonder what one could reasonably hide in the nib and feed section of a Nakaya, which, from what I've heard, is tight as a drum. Sure, open the upper section where the ink goes - I'd understand that, but to mess with the nib and feed, and then put it back together like nothing happened, is outrageous! And you probably can't prove a thing, even if you wanted to claim.

 

Our packages go through customs too, but as far as I know, they x-ray for hidden organic material, plus unexpected weight and other things, and only then open if there is something suspicious found. Sorry you've gone through this.

 

It's been more than a week since I sent my pen back (sent on 3rd Nov), but I haven't heard anything yet. Takes a week to 10 days to get to/from the USA. Hoping it will be any day now. Fingers crossed! I'm almost happy for the extra time because I'm so undecided about what nib to get. Do I get M or F or custom in between? Do I get a rhodium? Do I try a stub? I have italic nibs that are smooth as butter, but I'm being told that I have to sacrifice that smoothness somewhat if I want a stub or italic. I don't get it... how come under $10 Chinese pens can be smooth as butter, even italic ones? :bonk:

 

Cheers...

Sue

_________

Susi

from Sydney, then Byron Bay, now Gold Coast, Qld, Australia

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It looks like I'm going to tack at least another 4 months onto this thread: I just pulled the trigger on another Nakaya order.

 

The pen will be a Naka-ai Writer in Heki Tamenuri, with a gold Zogan on the section and a translation of my first name in Kanji, also in gold, on the rear of the barrel. This is going to be a real carry pen. The nib is based on the soft medium, which John Mottishaw will grind into a small, crisp L-oblique, while adding a bit more flexibility. I'm not interested in dramatic line variation, but, rather, in a subtle expressiveness which neither requires nor abets overt nib mashing. In other words, I want that sort of old-fashioned semi-flex which could most times be mistaken for a European fine.

 

Expect a review sometime in May (I hope).

Edited by Mickey

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. (4 Bl. Com. 151, 152.) Blackstone's Commentaries

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It's been more than a week since I sent my pen back (sent on 3rd Nov), but I haven't heard anything yet. Takes a week to 10 days to get to/from the USA. Hoping it will be any day now. Fingers crossed! I'm almost happy for the extra time because I'm so undecided about what nib to get. Do I get M or F or custom in between? Do I get a rhodium? Do I try a stub? I have italic nibs that are smooth as butter, but I'm being told that I have to sacrifice that smoothness somewhat if I want a stub or italic. I don't get it... how come under $10 Chinese pens can be smooth as butter, even italic ones? :bonk:

 

Cheers...

Sue

 

Unless you specify a formal or crisp italic nib, there is no reason why an italic nib shouldn't feel smooth. As to butter, that's more a matter of flow rate and weight of hand. Wet pens and light hands tend toward a smoother experience, as do certain ink and paper combinations. Regarding stubs, they should be smoother feeling still and demand even less technical competence and attention than cursive italic nibs.

 

That said, see my post above. A pen of the sort I just ordered would not be particularly user friendly for many folks, but, while my handwriting is nothing to write home about (or anywhere else, for that matter), it is at least technically solid.

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. (4 Bl. Com. 151, 152.) Blackstone's Commentaries

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I'm almost happy for the extra time because I'm so undecided about what nib to get. Do I get M or F or custom in between? Do I get a rhodium? Do I try a stub? I have italic nibs that are smooth as butter, but I'm being told that I have to sacrifice that smoothness somewhat if I want a stub or italic. I don't get it... how come under $10 Chinese pens can be smooth as butter, even italic ones? :bonk:

 

Cheers...

Sue

 

Terrible about the damage done by customs. I imagine it was someone's curiosity got the better of them. (Sad face.)

 

I wonder about sacrificing smoothness for line variation. Maybe it's more about a limited range of angle and for folks like me who aren't careful about that (who don't pay attention so much, cos we're writing fast and not trying to flex or flourish), an italic or stub can feel less smooth sometimes.... Although... a stub? I don't know.

 

Maybe that's a caution about fine stubs and italics? Which, italics of any size and I just don't get along. And that's okay. I don't have to like EVERY nib.

 

Anyway, if you hold your pen at a high angle and like rigid nibs and fine tips, then I'd suggest a ruthenium-plated F. But that's pretty specific and probably no help. (Sorry!)

Edited by ethernautrix

_________________

etherX in To Miasto

Fleekair <--French accent.

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Beautiful pens, Lisa.

 

I, too, hope to one day have a Nakaya family of my own.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you for the pictures :puddle: They are magnificent.

 

Someday a Nakaya will be mine . . . someday . . .

 

 

I've been saying that for five years now! :roflmho: :headsmack: :rolleyes:

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  • 3 weeks later...

My "Nakaya Shield" cracked. Okay, it shattered to pieces. First came a lovely little copper Estie from the FPN classifieds. Cheap satisfaction, right? Couldn't hurt anything. But then came the new Pelikan M101N Lizard--it was just too beautiful and cool to resist. The Pelikan was my holiday consolation prize and its (Mottishaw-tuned) nib is perfect. But the Naka-ai kept taunting me. My kuro-tamenuri Writer has been on order for so long!* The unpolished shu kept calling to me. I tried to resist. I enjoyed my other Nakayas, wrote with them, admired their beauty. Yet--oh, that unpolished shu. That beautiful red with the black peeking through... now UPS is ferrying a special red Naka-ai across the country; the next few days are going to be wonderfully tortuous while I wait and obsessively refresh the tracking page. It will be my first pen of 2013, such a very happy start to the new year!

 

 

 

*Okay, okay! It just seems like a long time. In reality, it's only been a few months, and the kuro-tame Naka-ai should be here soon. I'm being incredibly impatient. But won't the unpolished shu make a perfect match with the black-over-red kuro?

Edited by reprieve
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But the Naka-ai kept taunting me. My kuro-tamenuri Writer has been on order for so long!* The unpolished shu kept calling to me. I tried to resist. I enjoyed my other Nakayas, wrote with them, admired their beauty. Yet--oh, that unpolished shu. That beautiful red with the black peeking through... now UPS is ferrying a special red Naka-ai across the country; the next few days are going to be wonderfully tortuous while I wait and obsessively refresh the tracking page. It will be my first pen of 2013, such a very happy start to the new year!

 

 

 

Please post photos when it arrives - I just sent a request for a Negoro Naka-ai quote... that might be a really long wait... If I won the lottery I would buy 10 Nakayas in one day! Lol

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Please post photos when it arrives - I just sent a request for a Negoro Naka-ai quote... that might be a really long wait... If I won the lottery I would buy 10 Nakayas in one day! Lol

 

The Negoro finish on the Naka-ai would look lovely! Which color are you thinking of? Shiro-tamenuri? Or something else?

 

The wait for a custom pen is very hard; I waited over five months for my fox Neo Standard, but it was totally worth it. Somehow, the long wait adds to the special-ness of the pen; it makes me appreciate it even more.

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So I've made a management decision and sent my Nakaya back to the USA for a nib change and possibly something custom. I came to dislike the writing experience with the Soft-Medium nib immensely, although I could have looked at that beautiful urushi finish forever! Even the weight and balance of the pen was lovely for me. Sad really, that this is going to cost me an arm and a leg more. Hopefully it'll be worth the extra expense, otherwise I might be the only person on the planet who has a Nakaya that is only good to look at!

 

I am in the same boat.

 

I bought a new Nakaya Naka-Ai in Heki-Tamenuri, and absolutely fell in love with the pen itself. A work of art indeed!

 

But...the nib (let me preface the following by saying that there was no fault on the part of Classic Fountain Pens) - The nib tines were grossly misaligned, with a gap between nib and feed. There was abosolutely no way to get ink flowing. Truly, and sadly, the worst writer I have ever received. I managed to align the tines, smoothed them, and with an immense amount of work on this nib and feed, managed to get a tiny bit of ink flow, but would never last more than a line or so. After contacting Classic Fountain Pens (wondering how they could send me something like this), I was reassured to find that they had indeed done the nib work, and that it wrote well when it left - in fact they had the record of this. We came to the conclusion that it must have been opened and monkeyed with at customs. They quickly offered to take the pen back to make it right (and write) but also gave some advice as to what I could do on my end to try to avoid the return. After some further nib work, and feed work, I came the the conclusion that this was the first pen I have ever owned that I simply could NOT convince to write well. So, it is heading back to Classic Fountain Pens (Nibs.com) to fix or replace the nib/feed.

 

While I am very disappointed with this experience, I have been more than impressed with the quick and helpful responses from Classic Fountain Pens.

 

So, I will wait to see if John Mottishaw et al can work magic to turn this lovely pen into a lovely and useable pen.

 

Cheers,

 

Ken

 

 

Thought I would update about the above send-back. I have received the pen back from Classic Fountain Pens (nibs.com), and have had a chance to ink it, and even put it through a good test by using it as my 'carry' pen at work for a couple of days.

 

First of all, Classic Fountain Pens took the pen back with not the slightest hesitation (in fact, John Mottishaw gave me several tips for me to try to avoid having to send it back, all extremely useful tips to add to my 'nib armamentarium', but was quick to say send if need be). Mr. Mottishaw replaced the feed, and refitted and aligned the nib, and the pen works beautifully now. I was not charged anything for the feed, nor for the work done, just for the return postage.

 

I must say, two thumbs up for Classic Fountain Pens for most excellent service, and for a lovely pen, and excellent writer! I look forward to purchasing my next pen from them! (we all know there will be a 'next pen', don't we...)

 

Ken

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Thought I would update about the above send-back. I have received the pen back from Classic Fountain Pens (nibs.com), and have had a chance to ink it, and even put it through a good test by using it as my 'carry' pen at work for a couple of days.

 

First of all, Classic Fountain Pens took the pen back with not the slightest hesitation (in fact, John Mottishaw gave me several tips for me to try to avoid having to send it back, all extremely useful tips to add to my 'nib armamentarium', but was quick to say send if need be). Mr. Mottishaw replaced the feed, and refitted and aligned the nib, and the pen works beautifully now. I was not charged anything for the feed, nor for the work done, just for the return postage.

 

I must say, two thumbs up for Classic Fountain Pens for most excellent service, and for a lovely pen, and excellent writer! I look forward to purchasing my next pen from them! (we all know there will be a 'next pen', don't we...)

 

Ken

 

What happy news! Hooray! I'm very glad that your pen is back and is now writing well! I am always impressed by the excellent service from Nibs.com, and by just how kind everyone always is.

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Glad to hear your pen is back and working properly, Ken!

 

All of the folks at Classic Fountain Pens have treated me very well. It's a pleasure to do business with them.

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My unpolished shu Naka-ai is here! It is even better than I expected! I really like the Naka-ai shape; it is lighter and more balanced than the Neo Standard; it fits in my hand perfectly; the nib, a soft medium stub, is delightful. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

 

Here is a not-very-good-cell-phone-photo of my currently inked Nakayas:

fpn_1357599352__naka-ai.jpg

Neo Standard, Naka-ai, Piccolo, Portable Cigar, Portable Writer

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I can only wait, but I did get a preview this morning (for approval) of the kanji I want put on it. That's something, I suppose.

 

Back to waiting.

The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity. (4 Bl. Com. 151, 152.) Blackstone's Commentaries

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