Pilot Pluminix

[william m]

Hi all,

 

I have a Pilot Pluminix, for which I will write a quick review.

 

The pen itself is a very dinky italic fountain pen, which is great as most of the italics I have are much larger and the Pluminix is great for chucking into my pocket. However saying this, the cap does not have any form of clip but instead has two small ears. These ears are better looking than the larger Pluminix or Italic writer, plus they are pretty useful for unscrewing the very tight cap and preventing the pen from rolling.

 

The nib is quite fine but has M stamped on the nib. To my knowledge the Pluminix only comes in medium. Because of this I have plans to regrind the nib to create a broader stroke.

 

The nib writes smooth enough but is hampered by the somewhat stiff nib. You can get some flex from the nib, but I found that this will eventually distort the nib and push it off the feed. This killed off my last pen!

 

The pen takes international cartridges and cannot take any of the Pilot converters. I am not a great fan of these mini cartridges so I have used an eye dropper instead. This works great as you can screw the barrel very tightly. This works very well as the barrel is transparent.

 

I do think that for the price it is a good little pen and I like the finger grooves.

One bad thing against it however, is that ink loves to jump out and cover the inside of the cap, which is then smeared on the end of the barrel if you choose to store the cap there.

 

Overall a neat little italic that will serve you well if kept on the desk, but wouldn't trust to carry around.

 

 

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/william-m/PLUM.jpg

 

Leakage into the cap.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h156/william-m/plum2.jpg

Edited September 9, 2009 by william m

[MOVIESTAR]

nice pen

[Edgar Allan Bo]

I had few but didn't liked the grip, so I put the nibs on my 78 G's...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Always thought this was a cute pen, and one's on its way to me! ^^

 

Like your writing and the review. Good images!

[Chthulhu]

I'm still wishing these were available in the US; all we get is the longer Plumix that takes Pilot cartridges only. Is your Pluminix's barrel deep enough for a standard converter?

[Edgar Allan Bo]

I'm still wishing these were available in the US; all we get is the longer Plumix that takes Pilot cartridges only. Is your Pluminix's barrel deep enough for a standard converter?

 

IIRC it's too short for a converter, only 1 small cartridge will fit!

 

In Europe, the Pluminix seems to be only available in the UK... here in Germany I can find the longer PLUMIX with M (italic) nibs only, but it takes international cartridges, the long ones too, and of coure - a converter will fit!

[Chthulhu]

I'm already refilling my Pilot cartridges, but I may try a Plumix as an eyedropper one of these days; I have a purple one that hasn't been inked yet. :-)

 

Edit: It has now, and looks gorgeous with a barrel full of red ink. :-)

Edited September 9, 2009 by Chthulhu

[william m]

I think I prefer this pen with the entire barrel full of ink, rather than a poxy mini cartridge. Plus it looks way better!

 

Along with the UK these pens are also sold in France, although they are being discontinued from the UK.

[Chthulhu]

I think I prefer this pen with the entire barrel full of ink, rather than a poxy mini cartridge. Plus it looks way better!

 

Oh, yeah ...

 

The ink is Hunt Panache Exceptionally Red; not meant for fountain pens except calligraphy types, but the fibrous feed in the Plumix/Pluminix and Varsity/VPen handles it nicely.

[frostdoll]

I have one and I love it so much I'm thinking about getting another (only thing stopping me is having to order it on the Net).

I think I've read somewhere, I can't recall where right now, that it's an M nib as in Music, not medium, and it sort of makes sense.

[Chthulhu]

I have one and I love it so much I'm thinking about getting another (only thing stopping me is having to order it on the Net).

I think I've read somewhere, I can't recall where right now, that it's an M nib as in Music, not medium, and it sort of makes sense.

 

If it's the same nib as on the Plumix sold here in the US, it's an M italic stub, but Pilot's nibs are always smaller than they're marked. It's more of an F italic stub, but a very nice writer. :-)

[Margana]

Leigh found the Plumix nib can be fitted to a Pilot Prera. A BB would be great fun on my unloved Prera but I have only seen the medium offered in the U.S.

[tawanda]

I bought one and stuck the nib on my Prera! Perfect!

[william m]

This Pluminix is the Pixie version. It has a different shape and is slightly smaller than the one you have Chthulhu.

 

With the cap on, total length is 12cm. I think I would prefer the non pixie version due to the more ergonomic barrel.

[PDW]

A couple of additional points after inking my first Pluminix a couple of hours ago.

 

The nib does have a steel-type tooth, which I like. Also, and very usefully, you can with gentle pressure rotate the nib and feed in the section, which means that if you need to change the orientation of the nib to match way you hold the Safari-like section handgrip you can do it - very helpful!

 

Another useful point is that for the Pluminix only the Monteverdi mini converter fits nicely in the barrel, and as both converter and section are transparent you can see how much ink is left very easily.

 

This is, I suspect, not a school pen for the terminally cack-handed; I'm not sure how durable the plastics are, but I've a feeling that with care it'll survive. Oh, and the turquoise plastic goes with Waterman South Sea Blue rather well and Diamine Damson looks as though it'd be good with the purple.

 

Overall, a very pleasant surprise and a ridiculous one for the price.