More recent than this thread? No. However, IMHO, you order from Japan to get the best price, and you hope for the best. You will probably not end up with the best price out-of-pocket if there is any problem, and sometimes there is. I've ordered 4 pens from Taizo, and half of them were perfect. The other two were in serious need of adjustment, and one, a cross concord emperor, had an unfinished fine point grind and a crooked emperor tab (not because of the way it was installed but because of the way it was bent in the first place, one bend not quite at a right angle to the ribbon of gold). I had Richard Binder (well, actually turned to be Jim Baer) adjust the first one because I didn't have the skill for it when I sent it in. The cross concord emperor I ground and smoothed the fine point and eventually (long story short) ended up removing the emperor tab. So that was a bit of a loss, but I considered it a bargain not to go through the return process to Japan with accompanying frustrations.
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