Pilot Parallel - A Real Gusher

[inkeverywhere]

I seek your advice on a Pilot Parallel, 1.5, I have recently bought, please forgive me if this is not the right forum for this post to appear.

 

I enjoy both Italic and Gothic calligraphy, with my gold standard, go to pen, being Osmiroids. For something different I purchased the Pilot. I have at this time only used it with the supplied black ink cartridge. I use normal 80gsm copy paper for practice.

 

My problem is the pen just gushes ink, it feathers quite badly and there is also some degree of bleed through on this paper. I use the same paper when practicing with my Osmiroids and a Pelikan fitted with and 1.5 Italic nib, and have no such problems.

 

Whilst the Pilot will never replace my Osmiroids for formal writing such things as wedding stationery, for example my daughter's recent wedding, I do like to try different pens. I know it is only a cheapie but all reviews of the Pilot led me to think it warrented buying.

 

Your advice and experiences would be appreciated.

 

 

Greg

[Chthulhu]

My 6 mm Parallel is also a *very* wet writer. While your other pens may be dry enough for the copy paper to be used, I would strongly suggest a better paper for use with the Parallel.

[patrickfp]

I received my first Pilot Parallel (2.4mm) on Friday. It is a wet pen indeed. While I prefer the sharper hairline produced by my Manuscript pen, I do like the fact that it can be a wet pan for the wider nib side.

 

It is picky as far as paper is concerned. It feathers on Velin de France. It does not feather on Rhodhia paper, but does seem to bleed. I find it to be okay with Neenah Parchment paper.

[Chthulhu]

My 6 mm is filled with Noodler's St. Patty's Eire in a CON-20 converter. I use it as a highlighter. :-)

[Algester]

6mm apica premium notebook... no problems

[Lively]

I have Pilot Parallel Pens in all four sizes. I have only used the Pilot cartridges in them so far (black, red, and various pinks and greens). It is awful ink. I have various other pens and inks and the Pilot ink feathers and/or bleeds on all the (cheap) papers I use, whereas none of my others do. I mostly use a lined Spirax "non-bleed" notebook for practising. On this the Pilot ink doesn't feather, but it does bleed.

 

I love the Pilot Parallel pens despite this. The ease of use, transportability, the smooth feel of the tip on the paper, and the amazing crisp lines when they don't feather. I think the 3.8 mm is the best of them all - the 6 mm is a bit too big for most things. 1.5 mm is smaller than I'm interested in most of the time.

 

I find the 1.5 mm is the least satisfying of all the pens because the combination of feathering, bleeding and gushing means you might as well be using a calligraphy texta that's been dipped in too much ink. However I have high hopes for its performance with a non-Pilot ink! I haven't been confident so far to try another ink. I have a few Winsor and Newton inks (both blue and red cap bottes) and they can be really sticky. I also have a heap of Sumi inks but I don't really trust them because I can't read their labels. I have some Higgins Eternal, but this is very runny so not sure how it would go, and I have some diamine and some other brand, but in pinks and purples which weren't the colours I wanted at the time that I last refilled the 1.5 mm pen.

[Algester]

I also used the Muji loose leaf paper for practicing to minimal bleedthrough and showthrough

[patrickfp]

The cartridge that came with the pen ran out of ink today, and I decided to refill it with Waterman Black. While Waterman Black is okay in fine to maybe broad nibs, it is not good, in my opinion, for wider nibs. It seems to be thicker than the Pilot ink and hence flows slower than the Pilot ink. But the biggest problem is that the Waterman Black ink is just not as black as the Pilot black.

 

I don't know if the Pilot bottle ink is the same as the one in the Parallel cartridges, but what I can say is with the right paper, the ink will produce letters in a black which will make the work pleasant to the eyes.

[Chthulhu]

Pilot says that the ink in the Parallel cartridges and the Vn Cartridge System Rollerball cartridges are each different from that in their fountain pen cartridges, and likely from one another, in spite of being physically identical cartridges. Different additives, perhaps? I'm using a Noodler's ink in my Parallel without any problems.

[inkeverywhere]

Thank you to FPN'ers who responded to my post. To update I flushed the pen and cartridge and have refilled with Diamine Ancient Copper. I cannot believe the difference this has made to this pen.

 

I am still a snail mail user and address all my envelopes by hand and mostly in Italics, even on cheap quality envelopes the pen now behaves very well.

 

 

Greg

[dragos.mocanu]

I've had the same problem with my Parallels (I don't even use the 1.5 and 2.4 anymore...the thin lines are simply not crisp enough due to the wetness), but now I use Pelikan Black in my 3.8mm and Diamine Oxblood in my 6mm. These perform wonderfully even on cheap copy paper.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Murky

[abstractsbybrian]

I'm an abstract artist and I just ordered a Pilot Parallel 6

I'm very excited to get this pen. I plan on using on 140# and 300# artists smooth paper for gestural marks.

From what I've seen I should be able to bring some bold markings to my art.

[galem]

I have been using the Parallel Pen for about 2 years now. I absolutely hate the cartridge ink which bleeds and feathers like crazy on many different papers. I wrote the company via their website and received a response today. They said they are passing my concerns along to the appropriate departments and are sending a free box of refills for my troubles. I would like to encourage EVERYONE who has concerns about the cartridge ink to send an email. Perhaps they will actually do something if there are enough complaints! I use grid paper from Paper and Ink or John Neal for practice, but this ink is always a problem. I have filled my cartridges with other inks that have been mentioned in this forum, but my walnut ink made from crystals clogs the corners of my pen. Any suggestions? I have found the purple parallel cartridges to work better than the other colors. I also tried spraying my paper with a fixative first and this helped too. I feel the company REALLY needs to improve their ink! Please write,them. Thanks!

[purplepen]

I have never used the ink in their cartridges - I just empty the cartridges and refill with my own choices of ink. I love the pens though.

[pitonyak]

I know, old, but.... I have found that HP Printer Paper, Premium32, 8.5 x 11, Letter, 32 lb, 100 Bright – 500 Sheets / 1 Ream (113100R) works well with these pens and the standard ink for this pen. I bought it here

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000099O2W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Minimal feathering and bleed through.

[Evion]

I was talking to a Goulet customer care representative earlier this week about the Pilot Parallel. They recommend Tomoe river as they said it seemed to be the most ink resistant paper. I'm still not completely familiar with the options from Tomoe, but at least it's worth a shot.

[DilettanteG]

+1 for HP 32 lb. premium laser paper. Its worked very well for me, too. I havent had any feathering or gushing issues. Ditto with my Graphic Image Journals. I do get some bleed thru with the larger nibs and wet ink like Noodlers 54th.

 

Ive been using the Jacques Herbin 1670 and 1798 inks exclusively in my Pilot Parallels (all sizes.) Its easy to pull the feed out and clean up the excess particles. I like to keep these Pilots around for inks that might damage my more expensive pens. Theyre good sacrificial pens. However, Im not crazy about the CON-40 converters, which have air gap issues.

[lawrenceg]

I use the pilot parallels a lot. Feathering and bleeding is function of the paper. When paper is made is starts of with chopped up paper, wood, cotton etc depending on the paper so the more it has been chopped up the more it will feather.

 

The better the quality of paper then feathering and bleeding should not happen. i find recycled paper is the worst as it has been made, and then recycled which makes the paper fibres smaller.

 

Newspapers use reclycled/ cheap paper for a specific job, hence they will bleed and feather.

 

At the end of the day writing is a function of the pen, the ink and the paper.

Most pens are pretty good within reason, as are most inks (but some are waterier than other).

I find the paper governs most, the better the paper quality the better the ink should take to the paper.

[Inkyways]

I have all four pens and have see how people are using them. These writing is a very specific art from wring of fountain pens and dip pens.

These pens are like brush pens and if you use a thin ink definitely you are going have and create lot of smudge and furthering. I have notice people who use them use very thick ( added Chelak based or gum Arabic to hold and controls it' viscocity for less feathering and choose very different quality to minimise those problem. I find it more broader nibs with fountain pens need more precise quality paper than the narrow nibs. Water cooler inks too work well with these pens.