# What is this called and how do you do it?



## BryanMurphy (Jul 8, 2020)

I have seen this on a number of (mostly Japanese) fountain pens.   It can best be described as; edges of the pen, most commonly on the bottom of the cap and where the barrel meets the sections, are a slightly different color than the rest of the pen.  

I included a couple of images to help illustrate what I'm talking about.

Does this have a name?
Can it be achieved with allumilite resin and/or other acrylics?
How?


----------



## Curly (Jul 8, 2020)

It is a characteristic of some of the Urushi finishes. Base coat colour showing after the top coat colour is rubbed back at the edges during polishing. A simplified explanation. You see similar stuff on DYI shows where they paint several colours on and then sand through to distress and age the piece. I'm pretty sure you can't easily cast the effect in resin.


----------



## FGarbrecht (Jul 8, 2020)

Not sure how these pens were made but the traditional method for this kind of effect is called Negoro nuri, in which black base urushi coats are applied and covered with red urushi which is then gently abraded with charcoal to reveal the undercoat.  Any urushi undercoat and topcoat colors could be used, but red and black are traditional.  The red pen in your post is a color that I've never seen in urushi, so not sure how that one is done.


----------



## magpens (Jul 8, 2020)

As Curly and Fred have said, it is done as part of the Urushi finishing technique, a set of very "classic" techniques developed in Japan.
There are some youtube articles about how to do some aspects of it.


----------



## FGarbrecht (Jul 8, 2020)

Here's an example of a negoro pen I made, black undercoat with vermillion urushi on top, abraded to reveal some of the undercoat and then polished.


----------



## BryanMurphy (Jul 9, 2020)

My gosh, do you guys know your stuff!     Thank you so much for the prompt and informative responses.  

Now that I have a term to google for I have found a lot of great resources.  

And *FGarbrecht:  *That pen is absolutely beautiful!  I can't wait to try my hand at this technique, but I need to learn to walk before I can run.


----------



## FGarbrecht (Jul 10, 2020)

@MurphyPens thanks!  If you are interested in urushi, one of the few texts available in English is "The Book of Urushi: Japanese Lacquerware From A Master" by Gonroku Matsuda (available on Amazon).  And as magpens noted, there are some you-tube channels devoted to urushi.  If you decide to give it a try, you'll have to wait a bit since there isn't any shipping out of Japan to the U.S. due to Covid-19 and there aren't any domestic suppliers of urushi.


----------



## howsitwork (Jul 11, 2020)

Fred ( if I may shorten your name to that? ) that is truly beautiful! 

Also damn good photography BTW ! A perfect shallow curve to the body ,I am so jealous .


----------



## Dieseldoc (Jul 11, 2020)

Fred: Classy looking pen, lot of work developed it in to very stunning look.


----------



## Pierre--- (Jul 13, 2020)

I guess the correct name for this particular technique with colored edges is Tamenuri. First some layers of colored Urushi, then some so-called clear Urushi - more amber colored in fact, very dark if thick - then sanded until the color shows up again, like through water, which is the meaning of tamenuri. Of course you can see the base color more on the edges where the sanding is heavier, even with a light hand.
Here is Nakaya's tamenuri pen


----------

