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Finalist
December 1st, 2014, 09:08 PM
Naka-ai in Ao Tamenuri with Ruthenium plated clip and nib with John Mottishaw's Spencerian grind. Love it.
The finish feels almost exactly like the warm glass of my iphone. The nib is perfect. I have enjoyed using a Spencerian Namiki Falcon for a while now and this Nakaya nib is better. The ink flow is less wet and the thin strokes are tighter, cleaner and slimmer. While the Falcon does flex a hair more when pressed to the max the Nakaya's thin stroke is better. The smell of urushi is interesting - like a cross between a favorite dusty piece of antique furniture and a shawl from grandma's closet.

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Finalist
December 1st, 2014, 09:11 PM
Pic three above compares the Naka-ai to a Karas Ink (the coolest, toughest, daily carry ever).
The fourth pic is a good view of how much John Mottishaw thins out the nibs for his Spencerian grinds. Nakaya on the left and Namiki Falcon on the right.

Tony Rex
December 1st, 2014, 11:21 PM
Lovely pens mate. Thanks for sharing.

Great furniture and urushi colour combo.

earthdawn
December 1st, 2014, 11:26 PM
Beautiful!

Great shots as well. You really captured the color breakouts well.

That spencerian grind John puts on them is amazing... and something to be used by an experienced hand as I learned the hard way :cry: BUT man what a writing experience.

Congrats on a stunning pen!

barnaby.bumble
December 1st, 2014, 11:38 PM
Those things are so lovely to look at. The two Dorsal Fin models, too.

Finalist
December 2nd, 2014, 08:39 AM
The DFs are awesome. I also like the Nei Standard, but the Naka-ai writer was definitely my favorite when I was able to test all the grinds and models.

Choosing the nib grind was by far the hardest part. The soft medium is the best daily writer I've ever tried. It has silky smooth handling and offers a few line width variations from xf to B depending on stroke speed and pulling technique. In the end (literally hours before I paid for this FP) I decided on the Spencerian. I spent a lot of time chatting with various people (thanks Leigh, Earthdawn, Dr Joe V, CFP and others). I wanted line variation, some flex and a super fine line... Really, what other choice was there? What's very interesting is to see how the Spencerian grinds on the Falcon and Nakaya differ, yet have a lot in common. The Falcon feels more like a brush and the Nakaya feels more like dip pen. I'd also say the Nakaya is smoother across mutliple angles. The Falcon catches more easily.

tandaina
December 2nd, 2014, 12:50 PM
Beautiful pen! We need writing samples. ;)

Finalist
December 2nd, 2014, 04:33 PM
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Here's a writing sample with the Naka-ai JM Spencerian. I just started to TRY to follow all the rules for Spencerian, but there are so many it can be a killer. It's funny how some people are real into the "rules" for Spencerian while others are not. Once I memorize all the spots that are shaded and a few more majuscules I think I may take it on my own from there. I can see how much cleaner the thin lines are when I write faster as in the Copperplate style example. I'm still a bit slow with Spencerian, so hopefully once I pick up some speed the thins will look cleaner.

Here's a video I made comparing the flex points of two Mottishaw Spencerian grinds by showing a side view of the nib bending. The first is my Naka-ai and the second is my Namiki Falcon.
http://youtu.be/Vw5Y52aBIgs?list=UUHAR3G0JiISSk2XBTyEr2vQ


Ku-Jaku on a Rhodia dot pad.

Finalist
December 2nd, 2014, 04:45 PM
Here's a comparison with my TWSBI mini EF nib. This really shows how thin the Nakaya is. And, while it is very thin it is very smooth given the nib size. It doesn't stick like most nibs would at this size. I think that's mostly because I've been using a Spencerian Falcon almost daily for 9 months and this nib is just better than the Falcon. You can see more tipping material on my Nakaya than the Flacon. Also, their iridium tips are shaped differently. The Falcon's tip looks more like a falcon's beak while the Nakaya looks more like a traditional tip, but just greatly scaled down.


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GING GING
December 2nd, 2014, 06:55 PM
The side view of that nib reminds me of the Namiki falcon

brewsky
December 2nd, 2014, 08:45 PM
Finalist... That you so much for so much detail and explanation as well as the video. I plan on getting a nakaya someday, and am leaning more and more towards the Spencerian grind.

ethernautrix
December 3rd, 2014, 06:13 AM
(Laughing) I have to pull myself away from all your videos! I love seeing all that line variation - and you make it look easy, the writing and drawing. I'm going to try drawing like that! Thanks for sharing!

GING GING
December 3rd, 2014, 08:30 AM
The side view of that nib reminds me of the Namiki falcon

Dumb ass. If you had read the preceding post, you'd know what they are.

reprieve
December 3rd, 2014, 07:58 PM
The side view of that nib reminds me of the Namiki falcon

Dumb ass. If you had read the preceding post, you'd know what they are.

Goodness, don't be so hard on yourself. I didn't notice how similar the nib profiles were until I read your post and went back and looked at the side view photo again.

discopig
December 5th, 2014, 09:04 PM
That is a nice looking pen, and I love the writing samples. I had no idea his Spencerian grind on Nakaya nibs worked out so well.

Finalist
December 6th, 2014, 11:39 AM
When I tried the Spencerian grind on a Nakaya at the SF Pen show it seemed like the demo had much less flex than mine, but that could have been more me. I was writing on a small notebook that I brought that put my hand in a funky spot and I was a bit nervous from the excitement and crowd watching/waiting for their turn.

The more I use the Nakaya Spencerian the more I like it better than the Falcon. The Nakaya is a little easier, much better fine line and doesn't stick on up strokes like the Falcon can. The Falcon takes a lighter hand, but is very usable - it's just that the tipping interacts with the paper much differently than the Nakaya. You can hear it well. The Nakaya has a very consistent sound that produces an even, consistent pur while the Falcon has a more staccato sound.

Neo
December 6th, 2014, 11:43 AM
Finalist, what do you think someone should learn first, Spencerian or Copperplate?

Finalist
December 6th, 2014, 05:58 PM
Finalist, what do you think someone should learn first, Spencerian or Copperplate?

I have no way of answering. I'm just starting to learn Spencerian and have a long way to go.

Here's my history...
I saw the famous immovablemovers youtube videos with the Namiki Falcon with Spencerian grind for the first time earlier this year... I was hooked like mad. I watched those two videos a dozen times per day for a few months it seemed. I had to have that exact pen. I copied his style fairly well after a few weeks of practice. I guess it's closer to copperplate, but I don't honestly know what it is. Very recently I started paying more attention to Joe Vitolo's posts on facebook. He shows lots of hostorically awesome Spencerian examples and I started to get hooked on that. It seems harder for sure than the immovablemovers psuedo copperplate. There are so many more variations of each majascule and the rhythym is much more complex it seems. I can rarely make a Spencerian majascule to my liking - they at best turn out OK. The miniscules are easier. Spencerian seems more like a gestalt project that is all about the whole page and copperplate has greedy parts that each want to stand out on their own.

Neo
December 6th, 2014, 06:16 PM
Thank you for replying Ryan, I am even earlier in the process than you.....am trying to decide which instructional DVD to order, Spencerian or Copperplate. Agree on that video, that was what hooked me on getting interested in improving my handwriting also.