Pilot White Stripes

[haywoody]

Hi,

 

Anybody who cares has probably seen MYU's excellent review of the Pilot Black Striped pens. Well somebody forgot to put the black chrome on a few of mine !

 

 

I thought about doing a review of these but they are well covered and what more can be said... same excellent and durable pens without the black chrome in the etched areas. I love all of them but I have to say the Capless looks a bit odd with the black middle section. Maybe they should have molded a white section for it or covered it in stainless steel.

 

A friend in Japan asked an employee at the Pilot Pen Station about these and was informed that there were few made because the production process was more difficult than that of the black striped pens. I find that hard to believe. The way I see it they simply skipped the black chroming step before brushing the outer surface, so they should be easier and less costly to produce. Maybe I am missing something. Does anybody out there know more?

 

/Woody

[smarcus3]

Im not exactly sure, but the vanishing points, at least to me, have always looked a little weird. Maybe i am old fashioned, but i like the classic look of a capped pen.

[Opus104]

Neat. Nice collection. I actually love the stainless/black capless look. Reminds me of the expensive Pentel Pencils I gused to have back in the late '70s.

[blak000]

Them's some clean lookin pens. Yip...

[penguinmaster]

Beautiful pens. I've been waiting for a while for someone to pop up on here to show some more pictures of them. I'm going to assume you the person Russ Stutler mentions on his page about the elusive white striped myus. (woodbin ltd?). I for one would like to see more pictures of them if you have then (some closeups of each pen would be great!)

 

If you want to make them more normal looking I'd be happy to take them off your hands and paint some black stripes in :-P (or....mysteriously send you back normal black striped ones!) j/k.

Edited December 7, 2007 by penguinmaster

[PigRatAndGoat]

The middle pen has amazing nib integration. Seamless flow from nib to body. Might be a problem if your hand starts migrating down towards the nib section as you write, but still cool.

[chibimie]

In this beholder's eyes, the Capless looks very attractive. The clip looks to be down the barrel a bit and unobtrusive. Maybe I'm fortunate to enjoy a wide range of pen designs (though there are many ugly ones, too, especially among the very high end LE's that are laden with jade and other materials used for their gaudiness).

[marsos52]

ther are all beautiful looking i think pilot does a nice job with en design state of art and didnt forget about function maybe i not pen addition

[haywoody]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I was only picking nits with my complaints about the capless. I still think it is a very well designed pen with nice looks; it just looks a bit off when you compare it to the black striped version. The only ugly thing about them is the stickers... I really want to take them off but have not quite worked up the nerve. For a long time I stuck to user-only pens and had no problem removing the stickers from a NOS pen and inking it up. Sometime this year I crossed the line and found a few pens that will remain unused for now. It hurts to see them just sitting there. Is the attached sticker really worth something or is that just my perception?

 

I am not woodbin ltd, just woody . I see now why somebody thought there might be a connection. Thanks for the modification offer penguinmaster but my daughter beat you to it. She already suggested that I paint the stripes pink and offered to take care of it with one of her magic markers. The pens are now stored HIGH on a shelf. I will try to post some closeups and individual pictures later. Here is one that I had sitting around:

 

 

 

PigRatandGoat (great name) you should check out this page on Russ Stutler's site for some details on the pen with the integrated nib. They are quite well known in some circles. I think everybody should have at least one!

 

/Woody

 

 

 

[Nikolaos]

Thank you Woody for posting the photos! They are amazing pens. I have also reached the point where i am on to buy pens that i will not use. Keep them stickered!

 

Thanks for sharing

Nikolaos

[MYU]

I stumbled upon this thread by accident while searching for something else. And my lack of a comment means I didn't see it back in '07. So, bumpity, BUMP, da BUMP BUMP!

 

Beauties, Woody. You must still suffer a super ear-to-ear grin every time you look at them all together like this.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I love the look of that white striped Myu.

 

Dillon

[talkinghead]

Those are beauties Woody! Definitely worthy.

 

Gary and I had this discussion once (right after he beat me out on a 'white" striped Custom!!)..Gary don't you have a theory that the white striped models of these pens (the Custom, MYU) are actually factory "rejects"..in the sense that the black laquer stripes didn't get put on during production.hence these were factory "seconds". I love that theory and am sticking to it...that would make these pens even more valuable in my opinion.

 

Anybody else have any thoughts?

 

Rick

[stan]

Those are beauties Woody! Definitely worthy.

 

Gary and I had this discussion once (right after he beat me out on a 'white" striped Custom!!)..Gary don't you have a theory that the white striped models of these pens (the Custom, MYU) are actually factory "rejects"..in the sense that the black laquer stripes didn't get put on during production.hence these were factory "seconds". I love that theory and am sticking to it...that would make these pens even more valuable in my opinion.

 

Anybody else have any thoughts?

 

Rick

 

 

There are more than a few white stripe Capless and Custom out there and they are not accidents or rejects. Otherwise, why the factory sticker? They are rarer and more expensive.

[talkinghead]

There are more than a few white stripe Capless and Custom out there and they are not accidents or rejects. Otherwise, why the factory sticker? They are rarer and more expensive.

 

Fair enough Stan..I'm sure you're right...it was just a theory...makes 'em sound more exotic though.

 

Rick

[Nikolaos]

I managed to add the white stripe custom and the white stripe capless recently to my collection. Now for the MYU one i can only dream. The black striped will have to do for now

[MYU]

Well, my theory was that there were some very minor production discrepancies with some of the models, whereby they were pulled before the final step of applying the black treatment onto the surface, followed by the sanding which would leave the black only appearing in the stripe grooves. These would be very minor--you'd only notice them with a loupe.

 

Then, someone at Pilot took notice of the appearance and thought that it was a nice variation. They decided to sticker the pens and sell them (SAME price as the black stripes, mind you), in addition to intentionally leaving off the black stripes for selling more of them.

 

I have one of these white stripe custom pens and I noticed that the 'S' in custom is not perfectly formed. You can only see it with a loupe. I examined several other black stripe customs and all of the imprinting is basically perfect. I also saw a white stripe custom sell on eBay and it had a nick in the barrel side that looked like a manufacturing defect. This is what led me to the theory... but again, just a theory.

Edited December 18, 2008 by MYU

[Siv]

Gary, normally I swear at Woody for waving that white strip3 MYU under my nose but this time I swear at you for resurrecting this thread!

 

What an incredible collection of pens Woody. I am trying to resist the urge to search them out and it's working so far you you boys aren't helping! Nikolaos you are close to getting abuse from me too with your wonderful collection.

 

A word of warning to all you Japanese pen fanciers out there - these (especially the white stripe MYU) are about as rare a Japanese "normal" pen as you can go looking for. Forget the Maki-e, these are supposedly regular production models that you almost never see...

[haywoody]

Whoa, the stripes are back. Congrats to all those who recently acquired some stripes and best of luck to those looking. They're out there somewhere...

 

I learned from the manager at Pilot Pen Station that the non-black-striped pens are officially called "Silver Stripe," hence the model numbers MYU-500SS and C-400SS... not sure about the Custom.

 

Speaking of Silver stripe Customs, I accidentally popped the the little black cap off of mine the other day. I took the opportunity to reconfigure the pen more to my liking...

 

 

I replaced the black aluminum jewel (?) and the insert in the clip with new parts made from brushed stainless steel. I really like the low-contrast, subtle appearance. What do you think, did I wreck it?

 

/Woody

 

[Nikolaos]

Nice Woody......wrecked it ? No way!! A tasteful modification ? Most certainly!! Where did you get those custom made parts ? I think i like your version better now

 

Nikolaos