Friday, January 14, 2011

Flourish Friday: Namiki Falcon Fountain Pen

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Tempted by the video on this post at the blog of GreaseMonkeyHands, I purchased a flexible point Pilot/Namiki Falcon Fountain Pen. I don't know anything about fountain pens, but I was really intrigued by the subtle thicks and thins achieved by the pen on the video. 
©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
My pen arrived today!!

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
 With the assistance of GreaseMonkeyHands, I also bought appropriate ink for the pen.
©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
 Here is a front and back view of the nib.
©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
 To fill the pen, I dipped the entire nib into the ink.
As you can tell by the ink on my hands, I'm a rookie at this!
©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
Then I twisted the little, black end piece clockwise to bring the ink into the cartridge.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC
I have a lot of practicing to do in order to get the hang of it!
Mine doesn't seem to be as flexible as the one in the video, but maybe it needs to break in a bit. 
(or maybe it's operator error!)
I think this pen will be great for letter writing.
I've really enjoyed playing with it today.

Put a little flourish in your Friday!

17 comments:

  1. Fantastic, beautiful pen and pics! Using my Pelikan M800 today. :-)

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  2. Now you have made me want to order one- pronto! Thanks Jane. ;D
    I love your alphabet!
    Have a wonderful weekend.
    xo~Dana

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  3. Hi Jane, Congrats on your new pen, I have no doubt you will create beautiful work with it. Happy weekend!

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  4. Lovely calligraphy! My Namiki Falcons took a little time to break in and reach full potential but it was worth the wait.

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  5. The Namiki Falcon isn't as flexible as many vintage fountain pen nibs, but they are great for customizing by nibmeisters who can really put the flex into them. Greg Minuskin does tons of these. (Not affiliated with him, just a satisfied customer of his!)

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  6. Love the look of that pen. I'm feeling the need to get a new one now, since I was already missing my favorite old one that I lost a few year ago. Time to go pen and ink shopping. :)

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  7. Congratulations on getting a fountain pen! :-)
    I'm one of those strange people who have several and can't make up their minds which one to use. But I do have three vintage fountain pens that have wonderfully flexible nibs and I find them great for the sort of flexible script that you have made so much your own style. Two of them are by Waterman, and the 1935-ish one I bought has a Waterman Ideal nib which is really lovely to use.
    Anyway, have fun with your new acquisition - there's a freedom in using fountain pens and avoiding having to keep dipping!
    Ken (KenTim on Flickr)

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  8. Great treat to start the new year with. Couple of questions - where did you order from and what size nib did you get?

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  9. Thanks everyone for your comments and emails. I appreciate all the encouragement and helpful information on fountain pens. To answer Claire's question, I purchased my Namiki Falcon (soft fine) pen online from www.penboutique.com
    I hope this helps!

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  10. HI, Jane, thanks for posting about this new pen. It is intriguing! I have tried other pens before but not this one. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. Ha nice, congrats on the acquisition! Welcome to the world of fountain pens, I think you'll enjoy the Falcon.

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  12. Neat pen! I love the writing you did with it :]

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  13. That's a great gift ! I'm looking for old ones on ebay... Thanks for the video ! :)

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  14. I realize I'm late to this party, but your monoline letters made with your cool new fountain pen are terrific! I'm thinking about buying one of those pens, now, too! If you get this, and you have a minute, could you email me with contact info for the guy who made your gorgeous resin/wood oblique pen holder? I'd appreciate it, I couldn't find anything online. Thank you!

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  15. I once worked as a scribe and loved the flow of ink from my pen, but I burned out and packed it all away. Your beautiful work inspires me to get out the tools once again and just enjoy the beauty of the Word...

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  16. Always doing a beautiful work Jane, and btw very nicely photographed too, this kind of fountain pen makes me remember one I bought time ago and also is not too flexible as video shown and when I tried to open the nib applying a little bit of force the nib turn into useless because don't back close anymore, so, hope the quality of the internal metal be a better performance in order to the mechanical memory back into the original shape, but your looks amazing.

    Grertings Jane,

    Pedro

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    Replies
    1. Hello Dear Pedro!
      Thank you for your comment. I have since had this pen reground. You can read about it in this post from October 2012:
      http://janefarr.blogspot.com/2012/10/flourish-friday-fountain-pen-follow-up.html
      I hope you are well! Jane

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