Owners' Thoughts On Nakaya

[brahe]

I owned 2 Nakaya's: Writer long in black urushi and a Neo Standard in kikyo. Loved the Writer more than the NS. I sold them both to find fundings for my .... Hakase pens. If you are looking for a great pen for the daily use and spending $ 1.500,- on it, I'd seriously consider a Hakase. Will take a couple of months, like 16 or so, but you will get a true hand made pen from Mr Ryo Yamamoto. Materpieces with nibs that are absolutely fantastic.

Good luck with your choice.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I'm hoping they're good pens. After saving for one three times and chickening out at the last minute over the years, I finally spent that money over Christmas. It will arrive in a few months, probably long after I forget that I ordered it.

 

Two expensive pens in one year...yep, done with that for a while!

[DaveyWonder]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Even though I'm still on the fence with getting an Nakaya, I think I'm going to go ahead and thin down my herd a bit soon... I'm much more of a user than a collector. I'll wait and see if I can get a good deal on a used one so I can get to know the brand before purchasing a new one at full price.

 

I wish you all a wonderful day!

[ekc976]

I daily carry my Nakaya Neo standard. It's by far my favourite nib for daily writing (a fine flex). I was a bit devastated when I dropped the cap for the 1st time and a chip flew off but now I accept it as part of the patina.

[dapprman]

I daily carry my Nakaya Neo standard. It's by far my favourite nib for daily writing (a fine flex). I was a bit devastated when I dropped the cap for the 1st time and a chip flew off but now I accept it as part of the patina.

wabi sabi

[MartinSimonnet]

Hello,

 

I would like to share some pictures of my newly acquired Nakaya Portable Cigar in Aka-Tamenuri. The nib is a Medium flex nib.

 

Nothing but good things to say about this pen. The craftsmanship is otherworldly, and the nib is amongst the best Ive tried so far!

 

Saw it in the store and it was love at first sight.. it came with me!

 

Cheers,

Martin

[DaveyWonder]

Gorgeous pen, congrats! Which store did you buy it from?

[MartinSimonnet]

Gorgeous pen, congrats! Which store did you buy it from?

It comes from Mora Stylos in Paris.

[jar]

It comes from Mora Stylos in Paris.

Great store and a true gentleman.

[2airtoon20]

Greetings and Happy New Year to you all!

 

I've been very intrigued by Nakaya pens for quite some time now, but somewhat nervous about stepping into the brand - mainly due to price. I'll have to downsize my current collection in order to keep my total investment in pens to a minimum (and still stay married, lol). However, I am afraid of buyer's (and seller's) remorse.

 

I have several pens now, and all have European nibs... MB 149 M, MB 146 OBB, Pelikan M1000 F, Visconti HS Dark Age F, Edison Collier 1.1mm stub, minty British P51 M, Lamy 2000 M, to name my top pens. Admittedly most were purchased pre-owned so my total investment isn't as high as some who buy only new pens. However, the pre-owned market for Nakaya is pretty small and only a few, if any, ever pop up in the classified listings are are sold within a few hours.

 

This brings me to my point: Is it worth selling some of my flock in order to purchase a Nakaya? I'm most interested in a Dorsal Fin, most likely from nibs.com, but looking at ~$1500 which would mean selling off at least half of my collection to afford one. My thinking is that I can only write with one pen at a time, so why have so many pens? Laughable thought for some reading this I know, but practicality, and marital pressure are hard to fight with.

 

Any thoughts on this are more than welcome. Thanks for reading and for any advice you may give.

 

David

I have a Nakaya Neo-standard which I'm tihnking of selling off because to be completely honest, it just doesn't feel like a 650 dollar pen... I understand the amount of lacquer work that goes in but I just don't see it. Guess I 'saw it' when I bought the pen but I became completely disillusioned. Right now I'm more obsessed with 'cooler' looking pens like OMAS's and Viscontis which are completley different from the minimalistic approach of most japanese brands (minus Maki-e)

[jar]

I have a Nakaya Neo-standard which I'm tihnking of selling off because to be completely honest, it just doesn't feel like a 650 dollar pen... I understand the amount of lacquer work that goes in but I just don't see it. Guess I 'saw it' when I bought the pen but I became completely disillusioned. Right now I'm more obsessed with 'cooler' looking pens like OMAS's and Viscontis which are completley different from the minimalistic approach of most japanese brands (minus Maki-e)

What do you think might be a reasonable hourly wage for a master craftsman?

[jmccarty3]

Great store and a true gentleman.

 

Mora Stylos has some intriguing Nakayas that John Mottishaw doesn't carry. I particularly like the raden Milky Way on the Portable model, and the Maki-e goldfish.

[oldrifleman]

I have a number of Nakaya pens and I have sold a couple as well. Those that I have are in my rotation, right now I am in my European section, but soon I will be bring out more of my Japanese pens. There are two pens that are always inked. One is an Ebony Conid and the other is a string wrapped portable in Toki-tamenuri with a medium Elastic nib and a Dragon stopper. I dearly love both pens and will never part with either. I love them for different reasons. The Conid just writes, like even if I let it sit for two months it writes perfectly every time. It is a marvel of precise engineering and build. The Nakaya is just beautiful and the Nib is so wonderfully bouncy and colors are spectacular! Would I sell half of everything to fund another Nakaya, probably not, but I would sell a couple of existing pens that I bought on impulse (and never even inked) to get a grail, but it would have to be really special.

[oldrifleman]

I have a number of Nakaya pens and I have sold a couple as well. Those that I have are in my rotation, right now I am in my European section, but soon I will be bring out more of my Japanese pens. There are two pens that are always inked. One is an Ebony Conid and the other is a string wrapped portable in Toki-tamenuri with a medium Elastic nib and a Dragon stopper. I dearly love both pens and will never part with either. I love them for different reasons. The Conid just writes, like even if I let it sit for two months it writes perfectly every time. It is a marvel of precise engineering and build. The Nakaya is just beautiful and the Nib is so wonderfully bouncy and colors are spectacular! Would I sell half of everything to fund another Nakaya, probably not, but I would sell a couple of existing pens that I bought on impulse (and never even inked) to get a grail, but it would have to be really special.

[2airtoon20]

What do you think might be a reasonable hourly wage for a master craftsman?

Interesting question. To my understanding, standard Nakaya pens (2 different colours of Urushi lacquer) are made from scratch completely by hand starting with a block of ebonite as the base material. I know all threads and hand-carved and then many layers of urushi lacquer applied. I'm not going to put a number but I don't think these pens should be as expensive as they are because I feel like most of the production time is due to the wait between applying layers of the lacquer. Maki-e is more of an art form and so I would pay a lot of money for well-done Makie but applying urushi lacquer just doesn't seem to require as much skill as people think .In my opinion and apart from carving everything by hand, I just don't see $650 worth of pen in a Nakaya...

 

Of course feel free to correct me as I've never actually seen any of these master craftsmen work in person (only through videos) but having held a couple Nakaya's and as a current owner of one, I personally just don't see it.

[jar]

Interesting question. To my understanding, standard Nakaya pens (2 different colours of Urushi lacquer) are made from scratch completely by hand starting with a block of ebonite as the base material. I know all threads and hand-carved and then many layers of urushi lacquer applied. I'm not going to put a number but I don't think these pens should be as expensive as they are because I feel like most of the production time is due to the wait between applying layers of the lacquer. Maki-e is more of an art form and so I would pay a lot of money for well-done Makie but applying urushi lacquer just doesn't seem to require as much skill as people think .In my opinion and apart from carving everything by hand, I just don't see $650 worth of pen in a Nakaya...

 

Of course feel free to correct me as I've never actually seen any of these master craftsmen work in person (only through videos) but having held a couple Nakaya's and as a current owner of one, I personally just don't see it.

There are a few more steps involved; after applying a layer of urushi (poison ivy sap) and allowing it to cure, each layer is then rubbed down and polished before the next layer is applied and the process repeated. Also before applying urushi lacquer the craftsman makes and colors the urushi lacquer. It is a small batch process which is why there are tonal differences between two pens nominally the same color.

 

I also have and enjoy some plain ebonite pens made by Eboya (Nikko Ebonite). They make the ebonite and also the pen and use generic Bock nibs and feeds but do not coat the ebonite. That can serve as an idea of the cost differential that might be attributed to the urushi process. They retail between $330.00 and $500.00 depending on sizes. The Eboya pens similar to Nakaya size would be the medium and large models and so a little over $400.00 is reasonable.

 

Now the question is whether a Japanese 18K nib and the urushi work can be a $200-250.00 extra cost? If as is the case with Nakaya pens there are several layers of urushi, each cured and then polished and the Japanese 18K as opposed to a generic 14K Bock nib are more inline?

 

Remember we have not considered any profit for the company yet, just materials and labor.

 

Some Eboyas:

http://www.fototime.com/57F24B900215B8E/large.jpg

Eboya nib:

http://www.fototime.com/9577C5FAD961C00/large.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/405D64928CED22C/large.jpg

There is no real correct answer and of course each person needs to decide on their own what value to place on an object but in reality there is as much visual and tactile different between an ebonite pen and an urushi coated ebonite pen as there is between a Montegrappa Classica resin from the MB ownership era to the same pen in celluloid.

 

http://www.fototime.com/BDCD60D9C0C135F/large.jpg

[2airtoon20]

There are a few more steps involved; after applying a layer of urushi (poison ivy sap) and allowing it to cure, each layer is then rubbed down and polished before the next layer is applied and the process repeated. Also before applying urushi lacquer the craftsman makes and colors the urushi lacquer. It is a small batch process which is why there are tonal differences between two pens nominally the same color.

 

I also have and enjoy some plain ebonite pens made by Eboya (Nikko Ebonite). They make the ebonite and also the pen and use generic Bock nibs and feeds but do not coat the ebonite. That can serve as an idea of the cost differential that might be attributed to the urushi process. They retail between $330.00 and $500.00 depending on sizes. The Eboya pens similar to Nakaya size would be the medium and large models and so a little over $400.00 is reasonable.

 

Now the question is whether a Japanese 18K nib and the urushi work can be a $200-250.00 extra cost? If as is the case with Nakaya pens there are several layers of urushi, each cured and then polished and the Japanese 18K as opposed to a generic 14K Bock nib are more inline?

 

Remember we have not considered any profit for the company yet, just materials and labor.

 

Some Eboyas:

http://www.fototime.com/57F24B900215B8E/large.jpg

Eboya nib:

http://www.fototime.com/9577C5FAD961C00/large.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/405D64928CED22C/large.jpg

There is no real correct answer and of course each person needs to decide on their own what value to place on an object but in reality there is as much visual and tactile different between an ebonite pen and an urushi coated ebonite pen as there is between a Montegrappa Classica resin from the MB ownership era to the same pen in celluloid.

 

http://www.fototime.com/BDCD60D9C0C135F/large.jpg

Sorry, I don't know why my replies don't pop up in my notifications... Anyways, after having used many pens, I feel any pen over the $200-$300 will give a similar writing experience and whatever surplus you pay is for the design of the pen (materials used, filling mechanisms etc). Under this assumption, I would say that any expensive pens- Nakayas, Viscontis, MB's etc, you buy for the looks and feel that you prefer. In this case, I don't particularly enjoy the fragile feeling and filling mechanism of Nakayas but I cannot say that I don't think these look fantastic. I would say the Nakaya is in my top 3 in terms of aesthetics but I just do not like the feeling and functionality of the pen (holds 0.5ml of ink). I think I would really love this pen if it had a Japanese eyedropper system which would give a little more weight to the pen when filled with 5-6 ml of ink.

 

I didn't know about the extra steps required to create a Nakaya but the urushi foutain pen is quite a niche market on the larger scale of things and so it is only fair for these pens to be priced at this range considering the length of time it takes to finish one of these pens.

 

P.S those Montegrappa pens look fantastic. Are they yours?

[2airtoon20]

Are they the Montegrappa 1930 Extra models?

[jar]

Are they the Montegrappa 1930 Extra models?

No, the ones shown are Classicas.