De Atramentis Sepiabraun in a Namiki Falcon
10/25/2009Here’s another look at De Atramentis Sepiabraun from a pen that shows its best qualities, the Namiki Falcon SF (soft fine). It has enough softness to qualify as a stiff semi-flex nib that is both easy on the hand and very light weight. Put those characteristics together and you get a pen that has good versatility and suits most any application.
In an Apica 6A10 journal Sepiabraun feathered very lightly but also bled-through showing small dots of ink though it behaved very well on Rhodia as you can see in the sample. Lighting conditions at my desk are mediocre at the moment making the color look a lot like Waterman Havana. Last night it looked like a less saturated version of Noodler’s Walnut.
Regardless, it is a medium dark brown with a hint of red. Sound intriguing? The only store that carries it in the U.S. so far is Art Brown. At $13 for 35 ml it’s a little more expensive than many inks but not exorbitant. Only you can decide if it’s worth it.
Namiki Falcon + De Atramentis Sepiabraun
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[…] De Atramentis Sepiabraun in a Namiki Falcon « An Inkophile’s Blog inkophile.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/de-atramentis-sepiabraun-in-a-namiki-falcon – view page – cached Here’s another look at De Atramentis Sepiabraun from a pen that shows its best qualities, the Namiki Falcon SF (soft fine). It has enough softness to qualify as a stiff semi-flex nib that is both… (Read more)Here’s another look at De Atramentis Sepiabraun from a pen that shows its best qualities, the Namiki Falcon SF (soft fine). It has enough softness to qualify as a stiff semi-flex nib that is both easy on the hand and very light weight. Put those characteristics together and you get a pen that has good versatility and suits most any application. (Read less) — From the page […]
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Hi, Margana. Thank you very much for demonstrating the Falcon’s range of stroke thicknesses in this post. I’ve been planning on buying one of their soft-x nibs as my first “non-nail,” but I’d like to be sure that the stroke will be broad enough to show off the colours of the inks I use. Do you think the soft-fine nib you’re using would be appropriate to this end, or should I consider going with the soft-medium or even the soft-broad?
Thanks very much!
– Danny
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Hi Danny,
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the writing sample. My only experience with a Namiki Falcon is with the soft fine nib so I cannot comment on the other two sizes. Logic would indicate that the SF would produce the finest line. A soft medium nib with a very light touch might produce more contrast but I can only guess at that. The soft broad nib won’t produce a fine line but it will go wider than the other two.
One caveat with the Namiki Falcon, both of mine took a few fills of ink and a bit of use to become decent nibs. I am hesitant to press them too hard as the tines could become misaligned. That’s been a problem with vintage nibs for me so I am now gun shy of using anything but a light touch with a flex nib. “They don’t make them like the used to” applies in a big way to modern flex nibs in terms of the ability to flex. Vintage nibs flex more but are delicate. Add to that the more fragile condition of many vintage pens and I would go for a modern pen with certainty save one exception. The Esterbrook ‘J’ with a 9128, 9048, or 9788 nib isn’t bad though not as soft as the Namiki Falcon and in my experience not as smooth. Still it can be a great introduction to flexible nibs.
When writing with flex the goal is to get the greatest line variation but modern flex doesn’t offer enough in that regard at least not without modification by a nibmeister. Check out Nibs.com (John Mottishaw) or RichardsPens.com for more information. Note that if you purchase the pen from them and pay for a modification at the same time, the pen will ship fairly quickly. There are other nibmesiters who can do modifications but these two also sell the pens.
Hope that helps. Come back soon!
Margana
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Thanks so much, Margana.
– Danny
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[…] De Atramentis Sepiabraun – In my Namiki Falcon it produces both shading and outlining. […]
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