Customer Reviews

(10 customer reviews)

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

  AMAZING!!! I absolutely..., October 8, 2011

By soy.elisa.o

AMAZING!!!

I absolutely love this pen. I am an illustration student and this is of the best quality. As artists and art students, well all know of sable hair. The best hair in the market and the longest lasting too! ( it will not loose its point)

The price is what i would expect for this type of pen, actually a great price. (they usually go for $100 or more!)

Great PEN!

  More info and pictures..., October 25, 2011

By mail

More info and pictures on http://www.elizafrye.com/wordpress/?p=1745

The Box
In typical Japanese fashion, the pen is packaged better than most Christmas presents. It comes in a slipcase box with gold foil details, and just opening it made me feel special. Look at that rice paper hang tag! I’m a professional artist now.

The Ink
The pen comes with three cartridges, and the ink itself is actually pretty decent. It’s water based and flows beautifully through the pen. Not quite as opaque as I would like, but then I find almost all inks disappointing in that regard. Luckily using the Platinum Converter the pen can be filled with any type of ink. Pretty awesome! Replacement Brush tips are also available. I feel better about a tool when I can replace its key parts.

The Brush
The pen itself has a really sleek matte finish that just feels good in your hands. The response of the brush is very similar to the other Kuretake brush pens, but better in all the ways you would expect from natural hair. It holds a nice point and produces gorgeous line quality. Quick strokes result in a dry brush effect that I found especially pleasing. The pen’s versatility of line is definitely it’s strongest feature. I used it for all of my Mid-Ohio Comic Con sketches, and could only have been happier if the tip were slightly larger, specifically size #6 like my favorite Isabey brush.

Like any natural hair brush, the No. 40 will be your best friend for life if you pamper it just a little. The instruction booklet recommends washing out the brush tip if it gets stiff or sits unused for a long period of time. ‘A long period of time’ to me means more than 24 hours, so the one to five day washing procedure is a little annoying and perhaps the pen’s only downside.

The Conclusion
If inking a line with anything besides your favorite sable-haired workhorse makes your eyebrows crinkle and your mouth scrunch up, this pen is for you. The No. 40 is beautiful to hold, performs like a champion racehorse, and comes in elite fancy packaging. However, if you just need a fantastic travel brush, I recommend the No. 13. I wore mine out and would have bought it again if the No. 40 didn’t mash all of my brush snob buttons. Congratulations Kuretake, you win the Best Brush Pen Prize. For life.

  Sorry, link was cut on..., November 29, 2010

By wckd79

Sorry, link was cut on in my previous post. Here is one that will fit. http://flic.kr/p/8WZ3Hj

  I wanted to post again..., November 29, 2010

By wckd79

I wanted to post again after having used this pen for over a year now. Again I have to say it is the best brush pen I have found. I have used about everyone offered on this site, and some other random and cheap ones I have found other places. I also have been using platinum carbon ink in it as opposed to the regular kuretake that it comes with, and I find it works better this way. I recommend this pen to anyone.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/Angry_spirit/IMG_0334.jpg

  Update: I just got a..., July 10, 2010

By disappearingact

Update: I just got a bottle of the Platinum Carbon ink from JetPens and a converter, and the pen has ratcheted up into the amazing category. Dries dark, quick, and no feathering on any of the papers I tried in my last review. The downside: I basically spent $90 on a brushpen system. But it's the most like a brush I've seen and I can get really detailed thin lines with it-- and since the ink is in a pretty big bottle, it's going to last me quite a while.

So I'd recommend if you have the money to invest, ditching the ink in favor of the Carbon ink and refilling yourself with a converter or syringe. It's night and day.

  I want to love this pen,..., June 19, 2010

By disappearingact

I want to love this pen, but so far I'm not sure.

The good: this pen is one of the most responsive brush tips I've used (and I've bought quite a few from JetPens!). It goes from thick to thin in no time, which is awesome for expressive drawings. Snaps back to a point pretty easily too-- granted I've only had it a few days, but I'm impressed with the quality. The packaging and pen itself are very nice and I feel like I bought a pen I'll have for a long time, which I definitely like.

The less-good: The ink. It's a very wet, not super-dark ink-- I can forgive the color, as when I scan drawings in it's usually not an issue. But I've tried using this on cheap printer paper, plate bristol board, a Maruman Mnemosyne sketchbook (my favorite!) and two brands of marker paper with varying results. I'm a lefty, and so fretting about smudging is not a new issue for me-- but still, it didn't dry fast (and I'm in a super-dry climate in Arizona, so I can only imagine how it'd be in a more humid place) and in the Mnemosyne there is a tiny amount of feathering (although it seems to dry fastest on that paper). While the feathering is not the end of the world and could be much worse, it is a bit of a disappointment.

I'm curious about using the converter, but nervous it might muck up the pen. There's not a lot of information on the internet, and I've heard some people say good and bad things about replacing the ink with the Platinum Carbon ink... I have Noodler's ink here though, so if it is a better match perhaps I'll give it a shot.

Overall this is a bittersweet brushpen-- awesome for its 'hardware' but at least for me a bit lacking when it comes to the 'software'. Better ink would make this an amazing pen! For now I'll just say it's really pretty good and perhaps experiment to find a better ink solution.

  I'm an illustrator and..., March 17, 2010

By jason

I'm an illustrator and was looking for a good brush pen that could emulate an actual brush and still be pocketable. I've used brushes and brush pens for years and this one is the best I've found, hands down. The sable hair has a good snap that most pens are missing and holds a point perfectly. It makes a great range of marks from very fine to thick. It also has a fantastic weight and I love the matte finish both aesthetically and functionally. The one downside is the supplied ink. While the flow is very nice, the opacity is not. The ink seems to be more dark grey than black. I'd recommend getting the converter for sure. All in all, a great tool and worth the cost, far superior to the other Kuretake brush pens I've tried. The next best thing to using a brush!

  Just got the pen yesterday...., September 1, 2009

By ozbugger

Just got the pen yesterday. After putting the ink in and getting few strokes on, I was amaze the finesse of the brush.

This is def the pinnacle of pocket brush pen. Even way finer than pentel pocket brush and very natural.

GREAT STUFF

  I just received my Kuretake..., May 14, 2009

By wckd79

I just received my Kuretake no. 40 and have to agree with the previous poster. The difference the natural brush made is apparent from the first stroke. The level of control and detail it gives is very high. I do not use them for art so I can not comment on using them to draw, only for writing kanji as I am learning Japanese. I have used chearp felt tips, decent synthetic nylons, and now this sable hair. Definately a very nice brush pen, very simple an elegant in style as well. I do not find it very heavy at all either, but sticking on the cap on the back end in use does add a bit of weight to it.

And thank you to Jet Pens for supplying us with all these great products and on the fast service on all my orders.

  Hello, and a wonderfull..., March 28, 2009

By TheHOINK

Hello, and a wonderfull (whatever daytime you might be reading this...)


I am one of the crazy illustrators and freelance-artists mentioned here, who eagerly requested these pens, nib refills AND Pens...

This pen is proof that even the best synthetics can not mess with mother natures gifts.

The Kuretake DV140-40/50 is THE best Brushpen I have ever had the pleasure to handle.


TIP:--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------

It's natural sable bristles offer a higher flexibility than any other pen with a brush-like tip you might find on this page, better than the Pentel GFKP FP10 or the Kuretake DV140-13C or or or... I have them all, but THIS one is the best.

In the beginning there is a cartridge inserted in the tip with oil and water, so the bristles do not dry out, a very clever idea by the company.

The Bristles spring back to a sharp point, offer a very high resiliency and very good controll of pressure and line width.

After 9 months of being in use and 27 used cartridges, the tip looks quite like new, so the possibility to buy spare/replacement tips/nibs is great and counts as a plus, but it is not necessary too often, a second plus.

Sometimes you should clean the tip, just use some cold to mid-temperated water and wipe the pen out on a clean tissue.
For larger areas, you should, after all, stick to synthetic bristles, since natural hair is more about control and detail, and not for fast colouring of large areas, which would (di)stress the hairs a lot.


BARREL AND CAP:--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---

The Pen closes with a wonderfull clicking sound, and you can feel the "resistance" of the pen while closing the cap, so you know it is "closed" and tight. It gives you a good feeling about the bristles not getting too much air and drying out.

The Barrel and Cap are made out of Aluminium or resin, it seems, it seems more durable in feel and more elegant in look than the Pentel GFKP. Maybe thus the price is so much higher, but invested this pen it is more than worth the money.

For some people this pen might seem heavy, it is around 18 to 20 gramms, somewhere very close to the Pilot Décimo which has 20gr. So it might be too heavy for some, but it is perfect for me.

The Price is very moderate for a pen of this quality.


INK:--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------

The Ink is a very dark and saturated black, watersoluble and even after drying not waterproof. If you want to make washes or use aquarellistic colours on your paintings, do it before using the Kuretake-ink, and you will be fine.

And you can use any "noodlers" (have not tried the eel-inks) to refill empty cartridges with a syringe.


IN THE END:--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

Kuretake DV140-40 AND DV140-50 are all getting five stars, since they are very close one to antoher in weight, and since they share the same tip their performance equals one another very closely, too.

And they are highly better than the synthetic counterparts of the DV140-13C.

Forget about all the other brush-pens which use synthetic bristles, when you use this kind of pens a lot, buy one with natural bristles, especially if you are up to detailed, evry controlled work.


TheHOINK