Pilot Petit1 Changing Ink

[TSherbs]

Has anyone had experience changing inks in the Pilot Petit1? The feed uses a fibrous wicking system. Do you just put a new ink/cartridge in and wait for the old ink to run through the wick and then wait for the new ink to wash the old ink out? Can I flush it with water or something?

 

Thanks for any tips.

[caribbean_skye]

i have flushed mine with a bulb syringe between colours

[cleosmama]

I also flushed mine with a bulb syringe. You can also run it through an ultrasonic cleaner.

[arcadeflow]

I flushed mine and it was horrible, you had to let it dry for days or new ink would not flow. I guess the Preppy is much better in that sense.

[sakayume]

I've had mine for years (mine is the old version), and I've never once flushed it. I just put in a new cartridge when the old one is finished (usually a different colour), and keep writing. It's always worked, and written, perfectly.

[TSherbs]

I've had mine for years (mine is the old version), and I've never once flushed it. I just put in a new cartridge when the old one is finished (usually a different colour), and keep writing. It's always worked, and written, perfectly.

Can you go from a dark ink to a light ink? I am kind of surprised if the wicking material doesn't stain or otherwise hold onto the darker ink color for a while. I guess I will be finding out.

[TSherbs]

I flushed mine and it was horrible, you had to let it dry for days or new ink would not flow. I guess the Preppy is much better in that sense.

interesting info

[TSherbs]

I also flushed mine with a bulb syringe. You can also run it through an ultrasonic cleaner.

I have the former, but not the latter

[tinkerteacher]

As others have said, the "feed" in Pilot V pens/Petits is a synthetic cloth "wick" designed to work with a special viscous Pilot ink. It doesn't play well with water or inks that don't mimic the charateristics of that Pilot ink.

 

On the Petit1 I've found it best to stick with one ink and one colour (other than the Pilot stuff, I've had good luck with Sailor inks), and not switch them around or attempt to change from one colour to another in the same pen.

[arcadeflow]

As others have said, the "feed" in Pilot V pens/Petits is a synthetic cloth "wick" designed to work with a special viscous Pilot ink. It doesn't play well with water or inks that don't mimic the charateristics of that Pilot ink.

 

On the Petit1 I've found it best to stick with one ink and one colour (other than the Pilot stuff, I've had good luck with Sailor inks), and not switch them around or attempt to change from one colour to another in the same pen.

 

That is true. I had trouble using many inks with mine. Sometimes they would stop flowing. I made them into eyedroppers with Sheaffer inks once and it wasn't reliable. Then I dedicated them for Pilot Blue and it also was not very good. It was only good with the supplied blue-black cartridge. The green and orange cartridges were too dry and fainted. This wick design is no true fountain pen, I extremely dislike it.

[mooshi]

That's funny. I hadn't done anything special to my Pilot Varsity and I have Chesterfield Archival Cault (iron gall) running through it just fine.

[sharmon202]

Can you use the petite cartridges in another Pilot pen?

[TSherbs]

Can you use the petite cartridges in another Pilot pen?

probably. The opening width looks the same as the longer Pilot cartridges. But the Petit cartridges don't hold much ink.

[TSherbs]

 

That is true. I had trouble using many inks with mine. Sometimes they would stop flowing. I made them into eyedroppers with Sheaffer inks once and it wasn't reliable. Then I dedicated them for Pilot Blue and it also was not very good. It was only good with the supplied blue-black cartridge. The green and orange cartridges were too dry and fainted. This wick design is no true fountain pen, I extremely dislike it.

I am running Aurora Blue through mine now and it is doing great. I flushed the nib and feed for a bit with water using a bulb syringe, blew some air through the apparatus to help dry it a bit, then filled the cartridge with Aurora Blue. Voila!

[tinkerteacher]

This wick design is no true fountain pen, I extremely dislike it.

 

Well, it isn't a fountain pen feed truth be told. And, it could be argued on pedantic technical grounds that the V Pens and the Petits aren't really fountain pens at all.

 

They're good olde 1980s era Pilot V7 and V5 gel ink pens with a pressed steel fountain pen nib swapped in inplace of the roller ball. Same ink too.

[TSherbs]

 

Well, it isn't a fountain pen feed truth be told. And, it could be argued on pedantic technical grounds that the V Pens and the Petits aren't really fountain pens at all.

 

They're good olde 1980s era Pilot V7 and V5 gel ink pens with a pressed steel fountain pen nib swapped in inplace of the roller ball. Same ink too.

categories, shmategories

[arcadeflow]

 

Well, it isn't a fountain pen feed truth be told. And, it could be argued on pedantic technical grounds that the V Pens and the Petits aren't really fountain pens at all.

 

They're good olde 1980s era Pilot V7 and V5 gel ink pens with a pressed steel fountain pen nib swapped in inplace of the roller ball. Same ink too.

 

I liked the pens size and how they wrote with the original blue black ink, it was really nice and free flowing, not buttery smooth but decent feedback. But I will no longer recommend them to fountain pen users. The Preppy is the disposable fountain pen people need.

[leewm]

If u find that the pilot v/petit pen

writes for a while, then slowly runs dry,

after waiting for awhile,

writes for a while, then slowly runs dry,

I found that the reason for this is the tiny air exchange slit at the top of the feed has dried ink in it.

 

To clear it, see "refill pilot pen using vacuum coupling" in youtube; except don't put any ink. Use compressed air from the syringe to dislodge the choke.

 

Pelican 4001 green ink tends to clog up the hole/slit. Pelikan 4001 blue and Parker Quink inks hv no issues at all.

[tamiya]

I liked the pens size and how they wrote with the original blue black ink, it was really nice and free flowing, not buttery smooth but decent feedback. But I will no longer recommend them to fountain pen users. The Preppy is the disposable fountain pen people need.

We adopted a triplet of Preppies earlier this year... can't say I love them all that much. They were hard to get started using original cartridge, they write dry and scratchy. Invested some time in giving them a hone & polish, now slightly better... just had to refill one tonite, nup still not a fan.

 

Whereas there's been a 1st gen Petit1 in residence for nearly a decade and that's still going sweet; recently I bought it a few gen2 brothers for company - these write sweet too.

 

As for V-pens... have had them since the 1980s. Uncapped a 25yo+ example that's been sitting in a pencup the other day just out of curiosity and by golly, that thing still wrote with no hesitation. Mind blown!!!

[TSherbs]

If u find that the pilot v/petit pen

writes for a while, then slowly runs dry,

after waiting for awhile,

writes for a while, then slowly runs dry,

I found that the reason for this is the tiny air exchange slit at the top of the feed has dried ink in it.

 

To clear it, see "refill pilot pen using vacuum coupling" in youtube; except don't put any ink. Use compressed air from the syringe to dislodge the choke.

 

Pelican 4001 green ink tends to clog up the hole/slit. Pelikan 4001 blue and Parker Quink inks hv no issues at all.

thanks for this advice

 

and Pel RB 4001 is just what I have in mine!

Edited September 21, 2015 by TSherbs