PILOT became rather prolific with vertical lines etched steel writing instruments, particularly with black acid etching. The CUSTOM series featured them in fountain pen, ballpoint, mechanical pencil, and felt tip. And the LAUREAT series featured them as well. Less common was the silver (or “white”) stripe variant. It was just the absence of apply the black acid etching. While it was notably silver, in the pen community it became known as the “white stripe” as a kind of opposite to the black stripe. The stripes even made it to their venerable Capless fountain pens.
In time, PILOT began to experiment with other etched patterns. A kind of “fabric” pattern was created with a kind burlap mimicry. I think some other pen companies like Platinum utilized it as well. But much less common is the “swirling triangles” model. It was made based on the steel CUSTOM model platform. I have the fountain pen as featured above. But a ballpoint and mechanical pencil were made as well, much less common. I tried to bid on a pencil once and was blown away by how far up it went. I think it was ultimately near $300 USD.
Anyway, if you’ve seen another brand who has used patterns like this or similar, please share!
Btw, of course one of the most notable of patterns is the Egyptian one produced by Sailor. It’s gorgeous. It was made in stainless steel and sterling silver. It has never been cheap, but in more recent years they’ve skyrocketed much higher due to crossover collectors. At a pen show about 12 years ago I saw a Greek pattern motif produced also by Sailor, but I’ve never seen it in the wild. The seller wanted over $1,000 for it… naturally.
I’m constantly amazed about how nice the etching work was by Pilot, Mitsubishi, and others in the 80s and 90s and how under-appreciated it is in the pen world. A lot of these fountain pens used inset nibs which have really dropped in value, but they are otherwise great looking pens, pencils, etc. Something like a Pilot Hi-tecpoint Etched Stripe is really a nice looking pen and pretty unknown these days!
(Not quite at the level of what you are talking about above of course, but definitely agree with your point)
For the Japanese writing instrument makers of the 70’s~90’s there was definitely an innate striving for artistic flair, but also tempered with a certain degree of minimalism. Where things got a bit daring was more with designs targeted for children and teens.
It seems there was a certain “know-how” derived in that era for making etched steel designs that may have been lost to time. I’ve not seen any anniversary editions made that hearken back to those techniques. PILOT definitely “got the hang of it” where simple etched stripes are concerned. Their black stripe steel executive mechanical pencils are ubiquitous. Even to this day, you’re bound to see at least a few auctions for them almost every month or so. But then there are some variants not commonly found that have become sought after by collectors. I’ve gotten a few of them, but not all.
As for PILOT’s Hi-Tecpoint pens… there were 2 main etched steel models–a grid pattern and a spaced grouping of black stripes. The rest were mostly lacquered models in various colors that I believe were made with urushi. It is technically the predecessor of the currently produced Hi-tecpoint V5 and V7 plastic models that takes fine point replaceable cartridges. But those lack the most amazing feature of the original steel bodied Hi-tecpoint pen–the trap door. More details, HERE.
To be fair, those inset pilot nibs are quite bad for a gold nib, and the pens dry relatively quickly. The fines are decent but the mediums are terrible. Fp nerds do like the myu with stripes.
In the pencil community, I’d say that the etched items are quite valued.
