Is Pilot Metropolitan Fine Point Too Fine For Pilot Ink?

[miket_nyc]

I use and really like a Pilot Metropolitan with fine point. I'm a fan of fine-point nibs, but this one is a much "finer" than most I've encountered. However, I almost gave up on using the pen because it kept clogging up with all the blue-black inks I tried, even Pilot's own.

 

Then I started using Sheaffer Skrip blue-black. That's thin enough to work well but doesn't give an intense enough color to suit me. Finally, I've settled on mixing my own ink, using 2/3 Skrip and 1/3 Pelikan 4001 blue-black. This hasn't clogged yet and gives an intense blue-black line, but refilling a converter pen cartridge with a hypodermic syringe is a bit of a pain. Does anyone know if there's a blue-black ink (my favorite color) that works well with Metropolitan fine point nibs and comes in Pilot cartridges? Or is there some trick to making this pen work with Pilot's own cartridges that I'm unaware of?

[RockingLR]

If you say it works "finer" then your other nibs it could just be writing really dry. I've gotten a bit of a mixed bag of nice wet vs really dry writing nibs in the fine. If you open the times a bit to write wetter it shouldn't clog or give such a light line.

[Venemo]

Hi,

 

Yes, this can be expected: Japanese fine nibs are generally much finer than western fines. And they usually write dry (which improves the fineness even more). I've had a similar experience with my extra-fine Pilot Elite 95S. My suggestion is to use an ink which is wet and well lubricated. This will offset the dryness of your very fine nib. In the 95S, I've had luck with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite, which is a very intense blue-black color. (Looks very similar to the 4001 blue-black, but is better.) Of course, because of the fineness of your nib, you can expect less shading and less flow, but I suspect your pen will write very well. You can find several reviews of Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite on this forum. I recommend it!

 

One more thing that helps. I first thought this was nuts, but so many people on this forum recommended it that I had to try. Mix a drop of dish detergent into a glass of warm water. Then flush your pen repeatedly with this mix. This is supposed to get rid of any oily or greasy stuff that may have remained in the pen during the manufacturing process. (Thus, it will improve the lubrication of ink in the pen.) Then of course, flush it with clean water as usual, and you are good to go. After doing this, fill your pen with the Edelstein ink.

 

Hope this helps!

Edited December 11, 2017 by Venemo

[Aelie]

I have been using Pilot Fine nibs with Iroshizuku Shin-kai without a problem for two years now, but that ink doesn't come as cartridges... The only blue blacks for Pilot in cartridges that I know of are the regular Blue Black and mixable Blue Black for Parallels. Given that Pilot cartridges are proprietary, I am not aware of any cartridges from other companies that fit Pilot pens (perhaps someone can show me otherwise...).

 

I did run into a similar problem with a Pilot pen/nib combo once though. It was an EF nib from Pilot Penmanship. No matter how much I tried to fix the nib, it would remain too scratchy and dry up after few words. I tried putting the nib on different feeds on different pens (Prera and Metropolitan) but that didn't help. I ended up deciding to try again and ordered an another Penmanship with EF nib for $6.49, and that EF nib worked perfectly no matter what ink I used. Considering that a dozen or so other nibs I have bought from Pilot have worked flawlessly right out of the box, I think it was just bad luck that I ended up with a bad nib from that Penmanship.

[senzen]

When you say clogging do you mean it has problems starting? It might not be clogging at all but simply having flow problems, there are specific inks that do clog up, you can tell because theres gunk all over the feed and nib (Rouge Hematite). I only have one Pilot, a penmanship with an EF, it worked fine with Iroshizuku Ama Iro and now with Perle Noire. You might want to try cleaning the pen with a small drop of soap, before doing something more drastic like checking the feed.

[prashant.tikekar]

Pilot cartridges have large diameter opening and can easily refilled using an eyedropper. I usually refill pilot cartridges using an eyedropper only and it is far more convenient than using a syringe.

[minddance]

Every ink that comes out from my Pilot pens look alot lighter, real dry.