HisNibs.com update
You're sick of hearing it by now, but...
Greetings all,
I hope you had a great holiday season. Teresa and I certainly did -- by doing as little as possible!
Speaking of Teresa (Lai Yee to most of you), she's opened a new Etsy shop for her Quilted Throws. I've been led to believe (ok, I've seen it as a work in progress ), that I'll be receiving a full-sized quilt on or around my birthday on the 8th. The only other thing I want is for the Giants to beat the Packers (and, ok, I'm still waiting for the Jaguar I've asked for since age six).
Other famous people born on January 8th include Elvis, David Bowie, Stephen Hawking -- and to balance the equation -- Kim Jong-un.
As I'm posting this, I just received an early birthday present -- a cartoon from my oldest brother, Bruce:
If you have some reading time this week, and don't already subscribe to Pen World (you don't !?!?!?!?), then Part II of Barry Gabay's series on Chinese fountain pens can be read on the website.
On the new pen front, we've just added two beauties from Jinhao, the Yellow Celluloid and the Ruby Gold Dust.
I wish you a glorious 2017 -- and lots of new fountain pens!
As this newsletter goes out to a mailing list of thousands of customers, please understand if there's a delay in answering your email queries or orders after one of these is sent. We will respond in order received and as soon as possible!
IMPORTANT SERVICE NOTE: Every nib that ships from His Nibs is closely examined under high magnification and tuned or adjusted if needed. About 85% of modern nibs need some adjustment out-of-the-box from the manufacturer for an optimal writing experience. Most commonly, the tines of the nib are misaligned -- which would cause scratchiness at the minimum; the slit between the tines is partially or fully closed -- which would starve the nib of ink and at best cause skipping; or the slit between the tines is too wide -- which will either again cause skipping, or conversely, flooding. There are other factors -- such as separation of the nib from the feed -- that are inspected and repaired before any pen leaves the Palace.
The only 100% guarantee of course comes when the pen is actually filled with ink and written with for the first time, but our pre-shipping inspections and tunings have eliminated 99.99999 (my finger is getting tired) of the frustrations that a customer experiences when first using a new fountain pen. Although this can be time-consuming on occasion, it affords our customers a much more pleasant experience when receiving a fountain pen from His Nibs -- and saves us the frustration of dealing with returns!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~in this issue
* Chinese fountain pens -- Part II
* Jinhao Yellow Celluloid
* Jinhao Ruby Gold Dust
* 'His Nibs' page on Facebook
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Chinese fountain pens -- Part II
This is reprinted with the kind permission of Pen World magazine.
Read both Parts I and II here... - http://hisnibs.com/news_articles1.htm
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Jinhao Yellow Celluloid
Part of a series of pens (the others are temporarily sold out), the new Yellow celluloid is a real stunner.
Let's get the initial question out of the way as much as possible. Are these made from celluloid *, as opposed to another form of plastic? Not having a chemistry lab in the palace, I can't definitively say one way or the other. There's a real mystique that's grown up around this material and its use in pens. Celluloid -- or its allied formulations -- is not the rare substance that some seem to think it is in pen manufacture. I have no reason to doubt Jinhao's claim, and the large majority of the stock I received have that distinctive camphor order inside the cap, which I've always associated with vintage celluloid. So, I vote 'yes'!
For those of you that are Parker fans, the Jinaho Celluloid series is quite reminiscent of the design of the Centennial Duofold -- at a small fraction of the price, of course.
"Dear Norman, It seems like with each order, the pens just keep getting better. The Jinhao Jasper that arrived this morning looks like it belongs on some executive's or statesman's desk with the translucence giving it a presence that is truly noticed. Ink flow is excellent, and the nib puts down a most satisfying medium/fine line that is right now in rich PR Sherwood Green. The solid feel bespeaks a well-made pen, and overall it is a joy to engage this pen on paper. Thanks so much for making these pens available to us, Norman..."
C. K., San Antonio, TX
"The pen arrived and is certainly an attractive specimen. I have an imitation centennial made by Hero which wasn't too good. The Jinhao looks a lot better. As regards its size, it is closer to the International (the smaller model) than the centennial. Its cap is smaller than that of the international. I can't use Jinhao's pens for spare parts for Parker, but it is certainly a nice pen in its own right. Many thanks."
C. S., Israel
More photos here... - http://hisnibs.com/celluloid.htm
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Jinhao Ruby Gold Dust
I've had a bit of difficulty photographing this new pen properly. I find it to have an absolutely gorgeous finish, but a bit deceptive from a distance. Out of direct light, it's dark enough that it's hard to tell what color it might be. In direct light, one sees a highly reflective ruby color. It's only as the pen is brought close that one begins to see the color depth, accentuated by what appear to be black swirls. Brought close -- and under direct light -- those black areas actually resolve themselves into gold-dust flecks, much like those seen on high-end Japanese Maki-e pens.
Read more here... - http://hisnibs.com/ruby_gold_dust.htm
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Regards,
Norman Haase
www.hisnibs.com
