Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

Brown urushi over light turquoise becomes the popular heki-tame finish. I picked the Neo Standard form, one of Nakaya’s 2009 releases along with the Decapod Piccolo and the Equilibrium Piccolo. Mrs. Tan removed the matte gold clip and replaced it with the dragon stopper I’d been wanting for ages.

Hello, heki-tame

The Neo Standard gently tapers along its body down to the end, unlike the Aesthetic Bay proprietary Long Piccolo which is straight. It’s a subtle difference. Many fans of Japanese pens are also fans of subtlety, so having these choices available can only be a good thing.

Dragon stopper and nib

The dragon stopper is not meant to be a tight clip. In fact, the metal is not springy, but on the soft side.

Peeking at urushi layers

I like the way the underlying urushi color shows on the edges. The dragon seems to be snorting in approval.

The nib, a flexible medium

Mr. Yoshida replaced the feed and fitted it very well to the nib, as I explained like that the other pens, I would be using this one for calligraphy, not just daily note-taking.

Writing sample with Pilot Iroshizuku yama-budo

On the same sheet, you’ll see writing samples from the nibs he adjusted.

Four Nakayas

After rehoming two Nakayas and buying the heki-tame, I now have four. (This advanced method of computation, which can also power spacecraft, is called nakayamathics.)

This was my first Danitrio. I haven’t seen another pen similar to it, so perhaps it never passed the prototype stage. The entire pen is ebonite, except the feed. The barrel features sterling silver inserts: one engraved with a phoenix, the other with a dragon.

I’ve had it a couple of years, and it shows. It’s scuffed in places, and it used to be shinier.

Danitrio Dragon and Phoenix

It’s big, but not heavy. The girth of the barrel makes it comfortable to grip. I do hold my pen in an unusual way, with my hand higher on the barrel and my thumb hiding under my forefinger, so this observation might not hold true for others.

Danitrio - detail

It came with a flexible extra-fine nib, originally. I had it replaced with a flexible stub.

Danitrio flexible stub nib

The ink is J. Herbin’s Gris Nuage, and the writing sample is on Rhodia paper.

Another dragon joins the collection. This time it’s Italian. Claudio Mazzi is best known for his airbrushed Zippos. This was his first collaboration with Visconti. His style reminds me of Heavy Metal covers and 80′s posters beloved of teenage fanboys.

The pen’s clip is the classic Visconti arc. The capband is inscribed with “Visconti” and “The Dragon,” in Gothic capitals.

The nib is a stub, and it’s a juicy one. Noodler’s Antietam shades well. And surprise, it was a nib I didn’t have to tweak.

Why do we never tire of dragons?