Namiki Black Celluloid Fountain Pen

This is my black Namiki celluloid fountain pen with the beautiful rose-pink and blue shimmer. I think I fell in love with the colors first, although I was definitely looking to buy a Namiki pen when I browsed the Swisher Pens booth at the 2009 NYC Pen Show. I definitely love this pen, and it was not as expensive as I thought it would be, although it was not in the Lamy Safari category either (Chuck Swisher gave a very good price on this, btw). The gold clip and ring are beautiful highlights against the black, and it's a very lightweight pen that moves smoothly over paper. As I'm partial to fine nibs, that's what this one is sporting.

What makes this really interesting is the converter, the CON-70, a vacuumatic filling system that sucks in the ink one pump at a time. And that's where I have my one problem, as I'm not a big fan of this system (yet, I suppose). I don't like sticking the nib and feed into a bottle of ink as it is, as I have a tendency to move the pen, which moves the bottle, which in one memorable case led to a nearly new bottle of J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune all over my kitchen floor. I also don't like filling this way because ink gets all over the inside of the nib, and then comes gushing out when I'm writing. What I have started to do is to remove the nib and feed, take an eyedropper full of ink and put some in the converter, then pump--the ink drops down into the converter. Three or so times will fill the converter, and I'm not pumping away worried I'll damage the nib or spill the bottle.

I love writing with this pen as well, and haven't had any problems such as skipping or "dry writing" where the ink won't flow when you put nib to paper. The fine point has just the right width of line,; I have noticed that when I begin writing, the line is much wider and more ink is flowing, then when I'm a paragraph in I get a drier, finer line--as if I need to write a bit to get the pen in the mood for writing just the way I want.

The pen is about 5 1/4 inches capped, 4 1/2 inches uncapped, and about 5 3/4 inches posted. While it's slender, that's relative--it's chunkier than my Pelikan M205, but not as wide as my rOtring Surf pens. And I have noticed ink settling on the nib, seeming to come out of the tines. That may be my fault for taking the nib and feed off to fill it and not replacing them correctly, or the pen itself allows it and is just a wet pen in more ways than one. A minor point, over all, as I wouldn't trade this pen for anything--unless it was for another Namiki!