Kuretake's Dream Galaxy Pen - part 2: the test

I wrote recently that the company Kuretake from Japan seems to show more interest in fountain pens. Their unique material (deer antler) used for the barrels makes their pens collectible pens.

I was lucky that I could borrow one of their pens.

I had reported the unpacking and the pen measurements in report part 1

In short, a nice pen which is my preferred pen size. It writes a European M size and delivers a lot of ink.

The pen has a Bock nib, size M - which means that you will find this VERY broad - if you, like me, are used to Japanese nib sizes. However, it is a pleasure of smoothness.

I once tested Bock nibs of different nib sizes. Bock M is the first size where you will not experience any feedback of any paper. With size F, you can feel already feedback - with MF, I was not sure if I did feel or not. Above M is not my world. Below F, I use my Sailor pens for writing Kanji. If I can chose, I usually chose European F for writing Western text.
 
I recommend to change your writing style as this Kuretake pen is a quite wet writer. In the beginning of my writing tests, I regularly got inky fingers from the wet lines on the paper.

The pen lies perfectly in my hand. It is the exact size with which I feel comfortable. I also like that the cap is screwed on. A full turn of the barrel and the cap can be taken off. I say it in this way because of my handling style, I keep the cap in my left hand during writing. I have several other pens which need, that I put the pen back into the cap to avoid drying out. With the Kuretake pen, this is not necessary. It doesn't dry out quickly. You really have to put it down and wait some minutes - still then, it quickly restarts writing. And it also didn't dry out when letting it in my desk for a week.

A picture of a text written with the Kuretake pen is shown in the picture below (the ink is Waterman Serenity Blue).

I cannot imagine writing Japanese Kanji easily with such a broad nib. However, my wife likes this nib very much and she can - without any problems.

My efforts are shown in the photo on the left side.
You can the big difference of the Bock M and the Sailor M.



I have measured the line size in the Western text above and found that it varies between 0.55 and 0.65mm.

Fortunately, the pen was delivered with an ink converter as it uses a lot of ink. I also prefer to use "my inks".

I had to wash out the pen with diluted soap water. Before I washed it out, it had some ink flow problems with quick strokes top-down as in "l", and "k". After the wash-out, the problems were gone. Not so unusual for new pens and the washing should become standard procedure before using a new pen. However, it is so difficult to not use a new pen immediately.

I would love this pen if it had a F-nib. But perhaps, the feed is a standard Bock feed and then it should be easy to switch nibs. I should ask.

I use this pen everyday for writing my "todo" notes and I love that it always starts flawlessly.

You might want to have a look for this pen when you are coming to Japan.

(I will edit this report, if I feel that I have forgotten something important.)