Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Big Cat, Small Cat, Which is Your Prefer Cat?

Namiki and Sailor seems to like Cat this year. Both of them released Cat in 2009. Strangely, both fountain pen manufactorer uses the same Chinkin technique for their Cat pen. The major different is their chose of Cat, art work layout and the presentation.

The first different is the size of both pens. While the Sailor may called their pen Supreme, their size doesn't match up with the name in term of size. The Namiki Emporer size pen give the artisan more space of expression as compare to Sailor. We would think this is a plus one for Namiki.
Namiki's artisan created big cat (tiger) prowling down a hilly bamboo landscape.The tiger is integrated into it environment.
The Sailor cat in this case is crafted on the cap of the pen, and stand alone looking infinity without any Kiku. around it.

Both cats are skillfully crafted on the cap of their pen. The face expression on both cat are living and no lack of details. However, the Sailor added a little color on the eyes of the cat making the cat come alive. One point for the Sailor.


The Namiki art layout in our option are one knot above that of Sailor. Integrating the cat into it environment give the design more complete in term of form and layout. A true piece of art. One point for Namiki.

If you look closer on the hilly bamboo landscape on the Namiki pen, it is crafted across both the cap and barrel. The artisan needs to be skillful to be able to align both the landscape from the cap and barrel to make them look like one.

The Sailor Kiku is crafted only on the barrel, similar to the cap. Both the cap and barrel have no link. We would think this is a plus one for Namiki.
The next considerable different is the nib used by both pens. The Namiki used the stand emporer size nib, while the Sailor used the Togi nib, which is king of nibs. We think this is a plus one for Sailor.
The next different is the presentation of the pen. As Namiki is not a limited edition, the presentation follow the standard emporer size pen presentation, which come in a standard wooden box and a standard bottle of ink.


The Sailor is a limited editon of worldwide 10 pieces. The presentation is very beautiful. It come it a beautifully crafted chinkin box and a fibre pen pouch. This is a plus one for Sailor.
Beside the beautiful Chinkin box, it also come with a beautifully Chinkin bottle of ink. This is another plus one for Sailor.
The round up show Namiki scored 3 points and Sailor 4 points. The other items that we exclude the price of both price. This is just our option as a end user, and not professional.

1 comment:

  1. The Sailor cat is much more beautiful than the Namiki one. I hope I have the change to see the actual piece.

    You are right that the layering bamboo landscape on the Namiki is more difficult to make. While on the Sailor, the dark outline between the flower in the foreground and background are too conspicuous

    ReplyDelete