NIVI Urushi Lacquered Ballpoint Pen, Horse Chestnut Wood
The NIVI Urushi Lacquered Ballpoint Pen is a Japanese wooden ballpoint pen turned from solid tochi (Japanese horse chestnut) and hand-finished in genuine urushi lacquer, made by two Japanese ateliers. It takes a standard, replaceable refill, so it stays a working pen for years rather than a display piece.
The finish is fuki-urushi, natural lacquer wiped thin into the bare wood and cured between coats, so the grain reads through the surface instead of being painted over. Genuine urushi hardens with humidity rather than drying like paint, and it turns more translucent with handling, so the figure of the wood surfaces more clearly the longer you carry it. In Brown, the barrel wears clear raw urushi and shows the wood's own color. The tinted versions are translucent colored urushi (iro-urushi) named for the nature of Fukui: arakon, the deep indigo of a winter sea; nezuzora, an overcast grey; shinryoku, a deep green; and benisabi, a rusted red.
Tochi, or Japanese horse chestnut, is a lighter, fine-textured wood prized for a soft, rippling shimmer that Japanese woodturners call chijimi-moku. Where the zelkova pencil reads bold and linear, the horse chestnut catches light in gentle waves that shift as you turn the pen. The body stays slim, about 14 mm at its widest and near 20 g in the hand, with a quiet knock and a replaceable standard 4C (D1) refill in black oil-based ink.
If you prefer pencil, the same slim wooden pen body is made as a mechanical pencil in a different wood. See the NIVI Urushi Lacquered Mechanical Pencil, turned from keyaki with its bold, linear grain.
Details
- Size: 5.5" × 0.55" (14 cm × 14 mm)
- Weight: 0.7 oz (20 g)
- Refill: standard 4C (D1) ballpoint refill, black (replaceable)
- Material: tochi (Japanese horse chestnut) wood, natural urushi
- Origin: Japan. Turned in Toyama, urushi-finished in Fukui.
- Brand: NIVI
- Note: Genuine natural urushi. Wipe with a soft, dry cloth; keep away from water, heat, and long direct sunlight. In rare cases natural urushi may cause a skin reaction.
The Story of NIVI
The NIVI pen brings together two Japanese workshops in neighboring regions. The wood is turned in Shogawa, Toyama, by Watanabe Mokkougei, a workshop founded in 1950 that works in the Shogawa turned-wood tradition, a nationally designated Japanese craft, shaping the barrels from premium offcuts of its own lacquerware. The lacquer comes from Echizen, Fukui, where Tsujita Urushi-ten has refined natural urushi for six generations, close to 150 years. Two workshops, two regions, one pen you use by hand.
Original: $145.00
-65%$145.00
$50.75
Description
The NIVI Urushi Lacquered Ballpoint Pen is a Japanese wooden ballpoint pen turned from solid tochi (Japanese horse chestnut) and hand-finished in genuine urushi lacquer, made by two Japanese ateliers. It takes a standard, replaceable refill, so it stays a working pen for years rather than a display piece.
The finish is fuki-urushi, natural lacquer wiped thin into the bare wood and cured between coats, so the grain reads through the surface instead of being painted over. Genuine urushi hardens with humidity rather than drying like paint, and it turns more translucent with handling, so the figure of the wood surfaces more clearly the longer you carry it. In Brown, the barrel wears clear raw urushi and shows the wood's own color. The tinted versions are translucent colored urushi (iro-urushi) named for the nature of Fukui: arakon, the deep indigo of a winter sea; nezuzora, an overcast grey; shinryoku, a deep green; and benisabi, a rusted red.
Tochi, or Japanese horse chestnut, is a lighter, fine-textured wood prized for a soft, rippling shimmer that Japanese woodturners call chijimi-moku. Where the zelkova pencil reads bold and linear, the horse chestnut catches light in gentle waves that shift as you turn the pen. The body stays slim, about 14 mm at its widest and near 20 g in the hand, with a quiet knock and a replaceable standard 4C (D1) refill in black oil-based ink.
If you prefer pencil, the same slim wooden pen body is made as a mechanical pencil in a different wood. See the NIVI Urushi Lacquered Mechanical Pencil, turned from keyaki with its bold, linear grain.
Details
- Size: 5.5" × 0.55" (14 cm × 14 mm)
- Weight: 0.7 oz (20 g)
- Refill: standard 4C (D1) ballpoint refill, black (replaceable)
- Material: tochi (Japanese horse chestnut) wood, natural urushi
- Origin: Japan. Turned in Toyama, urushi-finished in Fukui.
- Brand: NIVI
- Note: Genuine natural urushi. Wipe with a soft, dry cloth; keep away from water, heat, and long direct sunlight. In rare cases natural urushi may cause a skin reaction.
The Story of NIVI
The NIVI pen brings together two Japanese workshops in neighboring regions. The wood is turned in Shogawa, Toyama, by Watanabe Mokkougei, a workshop founded in 1950 that works in the Shogawa turned-wood tradition, a nationally designated Japanese craft, shaping the barrels from premium offcuts of its own lacquerware. The lacquer comes from Echizen, Fukui, where Tsujita Urushi-ten has refined natural urushi for six generations, close to 150 years. Two workshops, two regions, one pen you use by hand.
