Japanese Vs European Fountain Pens

[KBeezie]

You can chop a thousand bucks off the price if you buy through Engika though. That's still a $1300-$2000 pen depending on design, but not quite as horrifying.

 

I assume you're talking bout the paint job they do themselves, which in my mind isn't nearly the same quality as what you can get for ~$160 (ie: Platinum's Modern Maki-e silkscreened), especially in terms of long term durability.

[KBeezie]

A lot of pens with a so called 'Japanese' label are mass produced in China too. These mass produced cheap pens, like the Platinum Preppy, are in terms of quality, as bad as anything with a 'Chinese' label.

 

Incorrect, a "Made in Japan" pen is Made in Japan, including all the parts, and my Pilot Petit1's outperform most of the slightly more expensive chinese pens. There's a clear difference when using a Petit, Preppy, Varsity, etc compared to anything of the Chinese brand under $10, especially in consistency, reliability and smoothness.

[alarickc]

 

I assume you're talking bout the paint job they do themselves, which in my mind isn't nearly the same quality as what you can get for ~$160 (ie: Platinum's Modern Maki-e silkscreened), especially in terms of long term durability.

I was talking about the Sailor porcelain pen. Engika has it for $1200-$2000 depending on the design instead of $2000-$3000.

 

Are you talking about hand-made Maki-e? I don't really see how one would be less durable than a silk-screened pen.

[georges zaslavsky]

I am a huge fan of vintage American nibs mostly Sheaffer and Parker but I will broaden my scope with perhaps in the future with a Ford pen, a Chilton wingflow, a Conklin Nozac, a Wahl Eversharp Doric with adjustable nib, plungerfill and vac filler system with shut it off valve and a security pen. I am a big fan of vintage and modern Italian (exception made of Visconti, Aurora and Delta) and German nibs because quality control is excellent and the pens are very durable.For Japanese nibs I mostly own Pilot made pens, 2 AD 2000s and 1 Pilot bamboo which are very well made but nothing flexible, I am hunting a very very scarce pen the very limited edition of the sailor realo made in 2005.

Edited September 21, 2014 by georges zaslavsky