Editing The Pen Addict 582/transcript (section)

== Expensive Vintage Pilot Fountain Pen as a Retirement Gift ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Richard writes in and says, I am looking at buying a significantly expensive vintage Pilot fountain pen as a retirement gift for myself, but I have not yet used a Japanese fine nib. Is there a relatively inexpensive cartridge fountain pen that would let me see if the fine Japanese nib is my jam or not? Thank you for any insight and assistance.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. There's a couple of options here. So, the obvious one is the Pilot Metropolitan. Now, let's just say that you're not going to get an inexpensive cartridge fountain pen with a gold nib, right? But you can test these steel nibs, at least for the line widths. And if it was something like Pilot, even the vintage pens, I think their lines are, they're a very consistent line width manufacturer, right? Like, there's not, your expectations should be reasonably similar whether you're having a steel or gold nib or modern or vintage, right? They're always in the ballpark. I've never found anything weird. As far as line widths go. So, Pilot Metropolitan is your easy choice for the standard fine steel nib. They run about $15. You can check them out. It's a classic style fountain pen. If you want something, you know, just fun to play around with, the Kakuno is another option. But it's a more, you know, youthful, modern, silly type of fountain pen that's actually very, very high quality. Um, and then finally, the extra fine nib, I have to give out, give a shout out to the Pilot Plumix. Um, that's probably too fine for like your vintage pen. Like if it just has a Japanese fine nib, like you are, if you already know it has a Japanese fine nib, you don't need to necessarily try the Plumix. But if you want to try a Japanese steel extra fine nib, they're pretty spectacular. And they're like $8, something like that, right? It's a very, it looks like a drawing pen, right? It's got a long barrel, weird cap. It's just kind of funky. But the nib quality is the same as like you're going to find in the Metropolitan. And all of other, all of Pilot's lower end steel nibs, it's the same nib that's in the Plumix. But I don't think they have a fine version. I think the Plumix, or no, no, I'm sorry. I'm making a mistake here. The Plumix only comes in the cursive italic. The Penmanship is the name of the pen that has the extra fine. And so I apologize. Rewind that a little bit. So the Plumix has the cursive italic. You can skip that one. The Penmanship has the extra fine nib, I believe. So my mistake. But yeah, I would probably look at the Pilot Metropolitan. That's going to be your best bet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So the Plumix would not be helpful in this?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Not for Richard. For me, it's amazing. But no, because it only comes in a cursive italic shape. So it's not going to help with that, with the fine, the more traditional fine nib shape. So no, scratch that one.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Scratch it out. Don't even think about it. Rebecca asks, I'm a fountain pen newbie on a limited school teacher budget. I tried a Sailor recently and it was amazing. The smoothness, the weight, and balance, the look. But I don't care for the look of their budget pen, the Compass 1911. Any suggestions, recommendations for buying used or another brand that offers something of the same appeal or a lower price point?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So shout out Rebecca for dogging the Compass 1911. I hate that pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sailor makes the worst entry-level pens. Right after the Pilot praise I just gave and Platinum has amazing entry-level fountain pens, I despise Sailor's entry-level fountain pens. They're just not good enough for what they charge. They're not bad pens. But in a broader comparison of that market, they don't even rate. So anyway, just a shout out to Rebecca for noticing that like really, really quickly. So you want a Sailor, but on a budget.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So buying used is always an option. Sailor has a lot of good options. The other brand that offers something of the same appeal at a lower price point is probably going to be the Platinum's that I mentioned before. You're going to get a really, really good quality. They don't necessarily have the barrel shape feel, like the barrel feel of like Sailor's.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's just a fun design too, like if you're not going to get that there either.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but like the Procyons and the Plaisirs are both Pilot brands and they range from like $20 to $50. They're aluminum barrels, but not plastic barrels. But the nibs are awesome. And they're cool looking, right? But in a different way from Sailor. They don't look like Sailors at all. But just the feel and the quality of those pens is really, really good. That's going to get you that same type of writing feel, even though if the aesthetics are not a perfect match to that. And then after that, you're going to look. So that's like your $20 to $50 range. Then you can start going into the Pilot Custom 91, which is Pilot's low-end gold nib. That's going to be very close. But that's going to be over $100 for the 91s. But that's going to be really close to the Sailors. But it probably half the price, to be honest, right? So the 91 and then on up from there is the 74, which is more shaped like the Sailor 1911s with the rounded ends, not the Progares. And those are like in the 160 range. So I think that's three different levels of pens that you can at least look at. So the Platinum, Plaisir, and Procyon. They're just two different styles, two different price points in the $50 or less category. The Pilot Custom 91 is in the low $100 range, I believe. I haven't looked at those in a little bit while. Like a little over $100, maybe $125, something like that. And that's very similar to like the Sailor Progear style and shape. And then you get into the Pilot Custom 74, which is about $160. And they get into like the colorful demonstrator styles of like the 1911. So I think that's my recommendations. And if you have like more specific questions, I'm totally open to like discussing this further.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Pilot Custom 91 and 74. I prefer the look of the 74 myself. Yeah. The 91, I don't like so much. I think the 74 isn't too far away from some Sailor stuff. But if you don't like the 1911, you might not like this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, because it's rounded finials.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Similar-ish, I think. I think there's some similarities there in those kinds.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Where the 91s are flat, but they're less stylish, if you will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep. Yep. Yep.