TimeOut

patrick_y
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Allow me to make an unsolicited recommendation.

I had been collecting Montblanc pens for over 20 years.  And while I always knew about Namiki fountain pens, I never really paid that much attention to them.  One day, a few generous individuals loaned me their pens to write with.  Some for just 20 minutes.  And I realized that the Namiki fountain pens provide an incredible, amazing, and superb writing experience that is so refined that it exceeds that of Montblanc pens.  While I still use my Montblanc pens with great pleasure, for a lot of writing, I now prefer the Namiki - the Namiki is smoother.  I'd say Namiki nibs are just ground better and the tip of the nib (the iridium ball) is just shaped in a smoother way to allow for even more smooth writing.  Both Montblanc and Namiki pens are fairly wet too.  Also, Namiki pens are famous for their Urushi lacquer and their art.  The art is phenomenal, genuine, and painstaking.  I have taken the pleasure of visiting the Namiki factory, which is about a 90 minute train ride south of Tokyo.  And I was impressed at the small facility that was a part of a larger Pilot factory.  The small facility, the size of a small Western house, housed several employees and a small museum exhibition area.  You can see the individuals painstakingly painting on a layer of Maki-E paint on the pen and then putting the pen in a special humid room to dry.  Oddly, Urushi dries in a humid room "better" than a dry room.  But between each layer, they are sanding it down with charcoal.  Just an incredible miniature art form.  BUT!  The art itself doesn't make the pen better to write with, so a standard Namiki writes just as well as a Maki-E painted one!