Managed to obtain a ‘Pilot Capless’ style Newman ballpoint to go along with my non-drafting etched MP. All the etched Newman designs have been fetching crazy prices lately, so I think this is probably the pinnacle for me.
Of course the real challenge of owning what I call the ‘reverse pen’, is the lack of working refills. This is one of those situations that call for a super slim Euro tip and a wide reservoir.
I had previously sawn down a Schneider Express 225 for some of my Mitsubishi and BOXY pens. Luckily it also works for the Newman.
The latter. I’d noticed it several years ago and passed up on a couple of listings with colored bands. I think those were yellow and green. I wasn’t ready to commit because I saw the pen tip and didn’t want to deal with it.
Then I finally found some time to cobble together the refill mod for my BOXY pens and thought it might work for the Newman.
Do you have any Newman drafting style pencils, like the wood grain or etched steel?
I’d not gotten around to picking up the woodgrain drafter, with etched grid grip. I’ve known about it for probably 6 years now, and unfortunately by the time I started to get caught up with collecting the best of Newman, prices had shot up. I just didn’t want to pay $125+ for a nice example. Finally by random browsing chance, I found one for a decent price. No sticker, but it looks good.
Yup, here’s my earlier Newman group shot…
The fauxbois drafter is ‘okay’; honestly I can’t make out the grain, lol. The other cool one is the 500-yen knurled grip model that I bought from Andrey’s eBay store before the bad times.
Ah yes. I remember that post now. Very nice group shot.
I’ve seen several different photos of the Newman “fauxbois” drafter and in some you can see the grain pretty well in the photos, but in others not so much. I thought maybe it might wear down over time, but then you’d see blotchiness–smooth where the hand comes into contact and then matte woodgrain in other places. But if it’s pretty smooth all over, then it has to be a manufacturing thing. I have to wonder if there are manufacturing variances, as I’ve seen some 1st production H-1005 pencils where the woodgrain is more subdued.
I agree, that ¥500 knurled-grip Newman is very nice, especially for the original price. There were some many years ago that sold on YAJ for cheaper than the sticker price!
