Got my Pilot PENKO F today from across the Pacific bought at eBay (you can see a picture there). Gold metal (just color or real gold?) ends, ring, clip and nib. Body advertised as black but looks dark green to me, but then I'm partly color-blind.

Couldn't wait to fill it with Noodler's Polar Blue. Very creepy, over the nib, etc. Speaking of nib, it's scratchy and very flexible, can go from very, very fine (and light) to somewhat bold depending on pressure. Will need to do the paper-bag nib smoothing thing.

The pen is small enough to fit in my wallet notebook. Not as small as advertised, but small enough. (An aside: The internals of a VP, using a cartridge with its metal cover, could make a great tiny pocket pen if only someone built a cap to fit the nib section. Just a thought.)

The converter is removable and is the transparent bladder type. Hoping to find a cartridge before the bladder dies (any help out there?).

Your first act, once you get that cartridge in your hands, should be who to will it to. The sacs in Parker "51"s are nearing 70 years young and still going strong. I would hope there have been improvements in plastics in the last 70 years.

Ron

Out of curiosity I pulled out my OTHO Tasche, a Pilot VP nib section and my calipers. Both are less than 4"/100mm long. The OTHO Tasche is `1/2mm shorter, capped, than a Pilot VP nib unit bare. It might be nice to have a VP nib tube just to keep a spare nib about.

Ron

The Penko takes an ultra-slim cartridge / converter which is no longer made. Look for Sailor "Chalana" ultra-slim cartridges, as these fit the Penko.