Saturday, June 9, 2012

Namiki Vanishing Point Fountain Pen


I have always been fond of beautiful utilitarian objects.;Common things like drinking cups, notebook, paper and linen. These items are a part of our personal space, and I find it is a shame for them to be drab or unlovely.

One of the things I use most often in my day is my Namiki vanishing point fountain pen.Fountain pens can be pricey and complicated to use, but I love them none the less. When I decided that I wanted to gen a pen, I looked at a lot of pens in a lot of stores before I found the Namiki. The Namiki was pretty, the right size, and weight. My pen is navy blue with silver accents on either end. Oddly, this fountain pen didn't have a cap, like every other fountain pen I had ever seen; the pen was retractable, similar to a simple ballpoint.This amused me, because the Namiki contradicted the traditional notion of a fountain pen. A typical pen cap often has a clip to attach to your pocket; however, the clip on the Namiki is on the barrel down near where the writing nib is so that when it is clipped to your pocket the barrel is nib side up. The pen design may sound counter intuitive, but over the last five years I have come to appreciate it more and more. This pen's unique clip keeps the pen from leaking.

When it comes to filling my fountain pens, I usually prefer to use the prefilled ink cartridges because they are quick and clean. This pen takes cartridges and has a converter if you want to fill it with another ink. Though I love beautiful things, I do need them to be somewhat practical. Even though I do have to load the ink cartridge, it is nice that it only takes a short amount of time to do so. I can grab one ink cartridge from the pocket of my planner and refill my Namiki in about 20 seconds.I haven't found cartridges with waterproof ink.

The writing tip of a pen is called a nib. Nibs come in various widths. Most people prefer medium width, but you can find them in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium and Bold. I use an Extra Fine point because I like my handwriting to be narrow and precise.

The ink flow is consistent and I do not have any issues with it skipping or dispensing too much ink so that it blots the paper. The ink will show through paper. How much depends on the type and thickness. It works wonderfully on Moleskine and Rhoda notebooks.

Ballpoints and rollerballs do not care about writing quirks, or how you hold your pen, that is not the case with the nib on a fountain pen, they were designed to wear into your hand forever. Whether you hold your pen perpendicular to your paper, or nearly parallel, whether you choke the barrel in a death -grip near the nib, or hold is loose like a wand, nibs flex and wear down in unique,identifiable ways like a gun barrel or a typewriter keys hammer.

I use different pens for different reasons. I own over 200 pens and only 12 are fountain pens. I am excessively fond of pens, a pen fanatic. Many people who have never used anything but a disposable pen think that if a pens costs more than $1.25 it is a waste of money. I think these folks are missing out. A nice pen that gets to know you is kind of like dressing nice for work: It improved your attitude and performance. It makes you feel good about yourself. When I write a list or a note in my planner,when I doodle or copy quotes into my notebook, or when I write a letter I use my Namiki. Why? Because I am in love with this pen.

I am reminded of E.B White's "Here is New York" which describes writers honing their craft. I imagine many of them  (like the members of the Algonquin Round Table)with a proper pen in one hand, a drink in the other (even though most of them probably use typewriters). When I see someone else using a nice pen I feel like we share a common aesthetic.

We use so many tools in our daily life, why should they not be beautiful? The smaller details in life matter precisely because there are so many of them and we deal with then day in and day out.

Namaste



  

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