Kuretake's Dream Galaxy Pen - part 1: the unpacking

Kuretake's Dream Galaxy (夢銀河)

I have a fountain pen from the company Kuretake (Japan). Kuretake is a famous maker of brush pens and seems to have decided to enter the fountain pen market (disclaimer: this is my speculation). Cronicas Estilograficas has reported already about their offer some time ago.

They are from the area of Nara (Google Maps). Nara is not only famous for their old temples but also for the many deer roaming freely among temples and tourists.
Deer also means that deer antler is abundantly available. And Kuretake has started using it as material for part of their pens. It is the white material at the barrel in the picture above. This material can also be died and Kuretake has additionally an indigo-died pen and a red one - see their catalogue in an earlier post LINK.

The pen I would like to show you here is called 夢銀河 (Yume-Gin-Ga) in Japanese which translates either as "Dream Galaxy" or "Dream Milky Way".

When I unpacked the parcel, I first saw the beautiful blue box made from Japanese paper and died with indigo (I don't know). Blue is a traditional colour in Japan which is highly valued. Inside the blue box is another box made from some light wood, it reminded me balsa-wood.

Opening this box then brought to light - the pen. My first impression was: "Wow, it looks better in nature than in their catalogue".

In the picture on the left, I show it together with a Sailor ProGear21 (left) and a Sailor Profit21 (1911 Large).

Lengths:
Capped: 140 mm
Uncapped: 125 mm
Feed section: 43 mm
Nib: 23 mm
Barrel: 81 mm

Diameter:
Barrel: 13-15 mm
black end: 10 mm
feed: ca. 11mm

Weights:
Pen total: 25.2 g
Cap: 9.3 g
Barrel: 10.6 g
Feed section: 3.0 g
Converter: 2.6 g

The nib is a 14K Bock nib, size 6, M.

(I will try to retake the pictures with a better camera.)

The pen comes with a converter and a set of 3 small cartridges - certainly "international size small" cartridges - length 38 mm.

You can also see in the picture above that the cap is screwed onto the barrel.

The cap is made from black resin and has a gold-plated clip and trim band, at the onset and the end of the barrel is also a gold-plated ring.


The barrel is made of natural materials, so probably each pen is unique and every "side" is different.



First conclusion: an interesting pen, not cheap, this one costs 50000 Yen plus tax, but it would be unique in your collection.

I will start using it from today, using different inks, looking how it behaves with cartridges and converter. I will report back about my findings.