Pilot Vanishing Point

[ItsMeDave]

I've had my Vanishing Point for about two weeks and thought I'd share my thoughts.

I'm coming up on my 4 year anniversary in the fountain pen world, I can't recall exactly what sparked my interest in relearning cursive, but a colleague at work inspired me to purchase my first fountain pen shortly thereafter. As I fell down the rabbit hole of the fountain pen world, and the myriad options available, I discovered the Lamy Safari and the Pilot Vanishing Point, but not really knowing how to hold a pen correctly, they were eliminated from consideration. Fast forward a couple years, after many notebooks worth of practice, these pens popped back on my radar. Now finally, I have a Vanishing Point.

Though I like colourful pens, and am on a constant lookout for a nice yellow fountain pen, I'm a sucker for the traditional black and gold combination.

This pen has a medium nib, it's very smooth, and can be rotated quite a few degrees and keep writing. I can feel the bounce in the nib when dotting the i's and ending sentences. So far it always seems to write immediately whenever I pick it up, so I guess the 'door' does a pretty good job of sealing off the nib.

Though I've got a proper three-finger grip on the pen, I still notice the clip, and sometimes have to adjust my grip. I have a habit of rotating pens while I write, maybe the VP will help me break that habit.

On some of the other pens that I've got I tend to grip quite low, but on the VP my grip is higher, not quite touching the gold 'section' of the pen.

As a person who has multiple pens from a few manufacturers (different colours, different nibs, etc), I'm not sure that I'd consider other versions of the VP, but I really like the one I have.

 

[BaronWulfraed]

The previous generation Vanishing Point did have a more favorable clip -- the clip and nose piece were one casting, without the sudden transition where the modern design has the clip staked to the nose. Previous generation was also closer in size to the current Decimo.

 

On the bad side -- I've only ever seen that generation model in basic black faceted plastic (think Scripto mechanical pencil).

[ItsMeDave]

The previous generation Vanishing Point did have a more favorable clip -- the clip and nose piece were one casting, without the sudden transition where the modern design has the clip staked to the nose. Previous generation was also closer in size to the current Decimo.

 

On the bad side -- I've only ever seen that generation model in basic black faceted plastic (think Scripto mechanical pencil).

I like the size of the VP and wouldn't consider a Decimo.

[Intensity]

I have the LE Yellow Vanishing Point with a Fine 18k gold nib, and it has no give to the nib at all, quite rigid. Also sadly hard starts after being not in use for a few hours, with various inks. I thought that was all normal for VPs, since its the only one I have. Now I wonder if I should send mine for service to check the nib sealing in the retracted state.

[ItsMeDave]

I have the LE Yellow Vanishing Point with a Fine 18k gold nib, and it has no give to the nib at all, quite rigid. Also sadly hard starts after being not in use for a few hours, with various inks. I thought that was all normal for VPs, since its the only one I have. Now I wonder if I should send mine for service to check the nib sealing in the retracted state.

I use my fountain pens at work for note taking and rotate them in and out, leaving them at the office. I've not noticed any hard-starts first thing in the morning, nor after this most recent 3-day weekend here in Canada.

I'll take care on Monday morning to see if I get a hard-start.

[Intensity]

Mine will write indefinitely once it gets going, but once the nib dries out a bit after hours of being unused, I have to tap on the paper a while or run the nib under a small stream of water for a moment to get the flow to begin. Then it writes well again. So I know it's not the feed or ink supply issue but insufficient sealing in retracted position.

 

About the spring to the nib, I wonder if your nib is a "special alloy" or gold? I hoped my gold nib would have some slight springiness to it, but it's very much a nail in all aspects in normal writing. The pen is quite heavy to begin with, so I don't press down with it further, just let it write under its own weight. Most of my pens have gold nibs, from Japanese to European, new and vintage, and I've had some springy and even flexible steel nibs as well. When I briefly had a recent production Lamy 2000 EF, it also had zero give/spring to the nib. Makes me wonder if there are different production year variations to the VP and Lamy 2000 nibs, as some people describe them as completely nail-like and others describe a "spring" or "give".

Edited November 15, 2019 by Intensity

[ItsMeDave]

Mine will write indefinitely once it gets going, but once the nib dries out a bit after hours of being unused, I have to tap on the paper a while or run the nib under a small stream of water for a moment to get the flow to begin. Then it writes well again. So I know it's not the feed or ink supply issue but insufficient sealing in retracted position.

 

About the spring to the nib, I wonder if your nib is a "special alloy" or gold? I hoped my gold nib would have some slight springiness to it, but it's very much a nail in all aspects in normal writing. The pen is quite heavy to begin with, so I don't press down with it further, just let it write under its own weight. Most of my pens have gold nibs, from Japanese to European, new and vintage, and I've had some springy and even flexible steel nibs as well. When I briefly had a recent production Lamy 2000 EF, it also had zero give/spring to the nib. Makes me wonder if there are different production year variations to the VP and Lamy 2000 nibs, as some people describe them as completely nail-like and others describe a "spring" or "give".

 

I guess there's nothing special about my VP, bought it from a local brick-and-mortar, standard 18kt gold nib.

I've got a number of Pelikan M80x's, so I don't have a problem with stiff nibs. I also have a light touch and merely glide the pen along the page, I only notice the springiness, like I said, when dotting i's.

I like large-ish pens, so I never gave the weight of the VP a second thought.

[inkstainedruth]

I like the size of the VP and wouldn't consider a Decimo.

 

I'm just the opposite. I have girly hands, so the Decimo is a better size and weight for me. I just wish that Pilot will make them in all the really cool colors and finishes as the Vanishing Points. And then SELL them in the US. I had to go grey market [no pun intended] to get a grey one via a Japanese seller on eBay last year, because they only make 8 colors of Decimos (and up until recently only sold 4 of those colors in the US -- and when I contact Pilot USA to ask why, got told "it's a marketing decision...."

Well that "marketing decision" saved me money while Pilot USA is out the markup charges. Their loss. [shrug]

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Fatestorm]

I bought a Decimo this spring. Black and silver--I bought it as a concession because I really wanted a Decimo and NOT a Vanishing Point, and all the other finishes were weird pastel colors. I really like black and gold, and so I was disappointed it was unavailable in that finish.

 

The pen writes great -- fine gold nib -- and doesn't dry out. But the pen itself has a flaw that annoys me. I dislike the clip itself. Where the clip "sockets" into the body seems to have an unsightly gap, and it makes me think for the money I am paying, it should fit more flushly with the body. But even worse, the "ball" of the clip, the part you would slip over a shirt pocket fabric: that "ball" is a piece of the clip itself folded back up and under the clip, and on my model, it's not folded *all* the way up. What that means is that there's a little metal gap that is snagging on my shirt as I pull it up *out* of my pocket. I'm yanking threads out of some of the looser fabric dress shirts I wear as a result.

 

I could probably get some tools or something to try to push it flush myself. I just think, for a pen of this price, that I shouldn't have to do it.

 

That said, I would buy other Decimo models, probably, if they offered them in better finishes. Seems a bit disproportionate to release 38572043812 neat and limited models of the Vanishing Point and then release 6 """feminine""" models only for the Decimo.

[inkstainedruth]

That said, I would buy other Decimo models, probably, if they offered them in better finishes. Seems a bit disproportionate to release 38572043812 neat and limited models of the Vanishing Point and then release 6 """feminine""" models only for the Decimo.

 

That was my problem. There are actually 8 colors, but up until a year or so ago, they only sold 4 of them in the US -- mostly just the "girly" colors. Pilot USA told me it was a "marketing decision". So I went on eBay and got a grey one from a seller in Japan, and paid less money. Pilot's loss....

Ironically, they made some really cool finishes as LE models for the pen shows in Tokyo. You just can't get them over here -- and if you could, it would probably make the US-sold Decimo colors look like a bargain in comparison....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

I've done some more searching about nib drying out, and I've tried to follow a couple suggestions. So far so good. Specifically making sure the front section is very well cleaned of any dried ink and also screwing in the barrel of the pen very tightly. I've also added a gold-plated keyboard switch spring into the converter to help with ink agitation. There was some condensing of the ink this morning on the first stroke, but not a hard start, which is a big improvement.

 

I've also tried to push down on the nib a bit, and I can see how it could be deemed "springy" by some in that it does yield, seeing how it's so slim. It still doesn't feel springy in writing though.

[ItsMeDave]

I use my fountain pens at work for note taking and rotate them in and out, leaving them at the office. I've not noticed any hard-starts first thing in the morning, nor after this most recent 3-day weekend here in Canada.

I'll take care on Monday morning to see if I get a hard-start.

My pen has been sitting unused from 3:30pm on Friday to 6:30am today (Monday), no hard start.

[inkstainedruth]

I had start up and dry out issues with my first Decimo. I took it back to the person I'd bought it through (he had contacts in Japan, because of course it was the same issue of Pilot not selling the Light Grey in the US). He took a look at the end of the pen with a small flashlight, said "I'll be back" and took it to someone to have the shoulders ground down a little bit (I had swapped out the F nib assembly from an older VP into the Decimo, and had ordered the Decimo with an EF nib to give that to my husband for the VP -- more cost effective in the long run than just buying an EF nib assembly, to my mind, because that got me a pen as well). The drying out issues were that the little door wasn't closing correctly before that. Then it worked fine. Only I lost the pen the next day....

The nib assemblies were supposed to be 100% swappable -- in theory. In practice, because the Vanishing Point was an older one, not quite so much when it came to putting that pen's nib assembly into the Decimo.

The replacement Decimo was ordered with an F nib to begin with, and I've had no issues with it at all, other than not being overly enamored of the CON-40 converter.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ItsMeDave]

I had start up and dry out issues with my first Decimo. I took it back to the person I'd bought it through (he had contacts in Japan, because of course it was the same issue of Pilot not selling the Light Grey in the US). He took a look at the end of the pen with a small flashlight, said "I'll be back" and took it to someone to have the shoulders ground down a little bit (I had swapped out the F nib assembly from an older VP into the Decimo, and had ordered the Decimo with an EF nib to give that to my husband for the VP -- more cost effective in the long run than just buying an EF nib assembly, to my mind, because that got me a pen as well). The drying out issues were that the little door wasn't closing correctly before that. Then it worked fine. Only I lost the pen the next day....

The nib assemblies were supposed to be 100% swappable -- in theory. In practice, because the Vanishing Point was an older one, not quite so much when it came to putting that pen's nib assembly into the Decimo.

The replacement Decimo was ordered with an F nib to begin with, and I've had no issues with it at all, other than not being overly enamored of the CON-40 converter.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Lost it the next day? Ouch!

[FlyFast]

On the bad side -- I've only ever seen that generation model in basic black faceted plastic (think Scripto mechanical pencil).

 

I have old-style faceted VPs in both black and maroon.