My Frankenpen Story: A Urushi coated Pilot 912 with a Jowo Modified Flex Nib
Consider this, you have a bunch of pens lying around in your drawer. They are all good, but you can feel that something seems missing in your collection. The holy grail that has all the elements you like—Urushi lacquer, size and feel of a Pilot, and your favorite special ground Jowo nib from a nibmeister. What will you do?
You can put together every piece of your love and assemble them into your ultimate pen! And yes, that is achievable, and it was exactly what I did!
(Click to enlarge the image.)
The idea of assembling a pen was first inspired by a friend who brought up a custom grip section for a broken vintage pen. Originally, I was only thinking—is it possible to have a section custom made to take a Jowo nib unit and to screw into a Jinhao pen? That will probably save a lot of money from buying a maker pen. I didn’t check all the dimensions, but theoretically that’s very achievable.
But wait a second! Why don’t I have a grip section custom made to take a Jowo nib unit and be screwed into a Pilot barrel, like any of the Pilot 742/912/743? Then I can use my flex nibs in my lacquered Pilots! Wow! I really am a genius!
Millions of ideas were popping into my head at that moment. There seem to be indefinite possibilities to combine a nib and pen. But first, I wanted to make sure if this would even work out. So I contacted a CNC facility on the Chinese Marketplace App (闲鱼APP) based on my friend’s recommendation and asked if they could make that happen. Unfortunately, Jowo nib units are not popular in China. They couldn’t answer me without having the nib unit in hand. Then, I quickly got the nib unit and sent it to their facility. After checking all the dimensions and selecting the materials, 2 special grip sections from my wildest dream came to life. They are both made of black ebonite, but one has gold alloy for the connection part to the barrel.
How the connection between the custom Jowo grip section and Pilot 743 barrel looks
I couldn’t believe it. It was just that easy! However, after screwing the grip section into a Pilot 743 barrel, I noticed a problem. Due to the technical limitation, the grip section was not as glossy as I thought it would be. Polishing isn’t really the specialty of that CNC facility. If you look very closely, the grip sections appeared to have some micro-scratches still.
Micro-scratches can be easily spotted
I was frustrated at first as I didn’t think they will look good with an Urushi barrel. However, in a moment of inspiration, my brain began talking to me,
“Hey, the grip sections are made of ebonite.”
“Ebonite is one the best base materials for Urushi coating.”
“So why don’t you just have them lacquered? ”
Right! That is such a brilliant idea. Thank you, my unconscious self.
I immediately contacted Roxas, a talented Urushi artist who specializes in Maki-e and Raden Urushi on fountain pens, to see if he could paint the 2 grip sections to match the 2 Raden Urushi pens that I have commissioned. Of course, the answer was yes.
After a long wait, my first commissioned pen arrived with the matching grip section (the second one is still in the painting process).
I screwed the 14K semi-flex nib unit I got from FPnibs into this pen. They look like they are meant to be together.
At that moment, contentment just filled my heart. The whole project started on a whim. But you know what, even daydreaming can be realized.
The finial has a flower pattern.
This commissioned pen (cap and barrel) was made to fit my Pilot 912 FA at the beginning and it will still fit. Meanwhile, Pilot 912/742/743 grip sections/barrels are interchangeable. That means I can easily swap the pen with any of the Pilots by screwing the grip section to it. Simple and flexible (not actually meaning flex here, lol). And of course, I can swap any Jowo nib unit on this pen with the custom grip section. The following picture shows some potential combination examples.
The left picture shows the pen connecting to a Pilot 912 while the right one shows it connecting to the FPnibs 14k semi flex nib.
I am writing this story because I think this is a quite unique experience. I also want to say that there are so many possibilities in Frankenpen. It is so much more than swapping nibs and feeds. It can be assembling a fountain pen using the elements you desire. This is only an example of what can be combined. I hope this story can ignite the inspiration of others, and let creativity run wild!
If you find this story interesting, please share this with your friends so more unique Frankenpens may happen in the future in the fountain pen community! Thank you for reading.
