Pilot Vanishing Point Fine Or Medium?

[Rissa13]

I'm thinking about getting a Pilot Vanishing Point, and I can't decide between a fine or medium. I love pens with a wet flow, and I've heard conflicting opinions on how wet the fine and medium nibs are. So I guess my question is, just how wet are they?

[austinwft]

I have both and have found that the ink used was a major factor in how wet the pen wrote, much more so than any of my pens with more traditional style nibs.

 

I don't care much for fine nibs, much preferring medium-broad, and initially tried a couple Diamine and Noodler's inks in my fine VP nib but was never really pleased with how dry that I perceived it to write and then wanting to use a permanent ink I filled it with Montblanc Permanent Black which immediately transformed the pen to a more pleasant smooth juicy writer.

 

I've also had similar results with my medium VP nibs finding that I prefer the DeAtramentis inks I have in them which seem, as I perceive, to flow and produce a line more like my medium Pelikan M800 than one would expect from a typical Japanese medium nib.

 

If I were to pick one or the other it would be the medium only because I believe it would give you greater flexibility in finding an ink that would give you the writing experience your looking for. YMMV

Edited November 16, 2019 by austinwft

[Karmachanic]

A nib can be adjusted to write either wetter or drier. Then there's the ink, as stated above.

There is no definitive answer.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Karmachanic

[BaronWulfraed]

And then... for the Vanishing Point, one can always purchase an alternate nib unit later and swap them around.

[TSherbs]

Medium is much wetter. For example, the medium is too wet for me to grade student papers (copier paper). The ink line is too wet and broad for my handwriting in the margins. So I use the fine, which is perfect for my needs.

[DonM]

I'll give you my limited experience with one of each width. The medium I have is very wet and wide, compared to a typical Pilot medium. The fine is closer to a Pilot fine or medium fine, and much finer and more dry than the medium. So there is a large difference between these two nibs, and honestly I'm not happy with either one. I can only describe the medium nib as "floppy", and I don't care for it. The fine has a more typical feel on the page, but is very fine.

 

On the subject of adjusting flow, well maybe. But these nibs and feeds are very small and adjusting flow in either direction I expect would be a real challenge.

[Honeybadgers]

For a vanishing point, I feel like the primary point is everyday use on fairly poor paper -

 

Fine or extra fine are kind of mandatory. My fine is almost too wet for bad paper.

 

You could also just buy both an F and M in the "special alloy" steel nib, which behaves funcitonally identical and feels the same. they cost almost exactly half of what the 18k versions do. And if you adore one so much that you decide to upgrade, for $80, you can get the 18k nib in the size you want and just resell whichever steel nib VP you didn't want for $50 easily.

[Jamerelbe]

Of the two options you describe, I only have experience with the VP F nib (I also have an older B ). I find it relatively wet, but it lays down a *very* fine line (comparable to the EF nibs on my TWSBI pens), which may cause the flow to *feel* less generous. The M is reportedly a fair bit wider and wetter - so unless you're wanting to write small and/or on lower quality paper, I'd suggest that's the better starting point for you?

Edited November 17, 2019 by Jamerelbe

[A Smug Dill]

So I guess my question is, just how wet are they?

How do you (want to) measure, assess or report the wetness of a nib?

 

I love pens with a wet flow,

So put Sailor Shikiori yodaki in a Pilot Capless 18K gold Medium nib and weep with joy , if you don't feel there's such as thing as "too wet". Why bother with the Fine nib, if you have no critical requirements and/or strong preference to satisfy in terms of line width, only wetness of the lines the nib puts down?

[Intensity]

I have a Fine vanishing point nib in 18K gold. It's not too wet, not too dry, writes quite fine. Subject to particular inks. Now that I've added an agitator to the converter, it writes a bit wetter. Compared to my Sailor Extra Fine 14K nib, it writes significantly wider, but it's as fine as or even slightly narrower than my Bock #5 Fine steel nib (the latter is also much springier than the VP nib). My VP nib can write with the reverse side as well in a consistent and smooth line, just a tiny bit wider than Sailor EF, so it's quite versatile. Overall I'm fairly happy with the VP Fine nib for a general purpose pen.

Edited November 18, 2019 by Intensity

[A Smug Dill]

I find it relatively wet, but it lays down a *very* fine line (comparable to the EF nibs on my TWSBI pens), which may cause the flow to *feel* less generous.

See, I don't quite understand this. I just sent my Parker Duofold Centennial Classic Big Red Vintage by Express Post today off to Parker's local distributor for a nib exchange, and along with the paperwork I sent them a writing sample (akin to this here, but more focussed and with a couple of other pens/nibs I have for comparison and illustration). My Pilot Cocoon's F nib probably lays down not any more ink than the Parker Duofold's F nib does, but because the Cocoon's nib leaves thinner and crisper lines, those lines come out darker in colour, and wetter (which can be observed as the ink is drying on the page) on a volume per millimetre-squared (i.e. dye load density) basis. A wider line with the same volume of ink would be "drier" because the dye is spread more thinly over the area covered by the visible line.

[leporeju]

I also have several VPs and have found that it's rare to have a dry or very wet nib. One of the features that makes the VP so loved in my daily use is the relative affordability of nibs. I annolight and annotate standard copy paper daily and find that the M is a little too wide (I'm a fairly small-letter-maker) and prefer the F. However, when drawing or writing in journals (especially on fountain-pen-paper), I prefer an M or wider.

[Orval]

I have a VP Fine since many (more than 10) years. It's my EDC. The converter has a tiny capacity, so you need a fine nib unless you want to refuel daily.

Curiously, it writes much better (wetter line) with a drier ink than with a wetter one. I had problems wit Aurora blue and also with Aurora black. It was much better with J. Herbin Perle noire. But my VP really excels with Pelikan 4001 Blue-black. Since I use this ink, I never looked further.

[ryanboyd]

Recently acquired my first Vanishing Point. I'm generally a medium nibbed person, so, of course, went with the medium nib. I do find it on the generous side of medium and with the very small capacity of the converter, find myself filling it up frequently.

 

I've been thinking about swapping in a fine nib unit just to improve a full tank's run time.

[A Smug Dill]

I've been thinking about swapping in a fine nib unit just to improve a full tank's run time.

 

 

It's probably cheaper to buy a new-old-stock, out-of-production CON-20 converter from whoever is still holding some units of that, or refill an empty cartridge with a syringe (or pipette) and use it with the metal shell supplied in the retail package for that purpose, if "[improving] a full tank's run time" is your core objective.

[Mattematical]

My $0.02 - get a fine nib and a wet ink (e.g. anything Sailor-made, like Bungubox) and you will be sitting pretty.... Also, once you start syringe filling old cartridges you will never go back.

[Aysedasi]

I have a broad and a stub for my VP. I could never use a fine.....

[ryanboyd]

Also, once you start syringe filling old cartridges you will never go back.

 

 

I'll occasionally do that for some of my other pens, but haven't yet tried it for the VP. Will be sure to try it soon.

[A Smug Dill]

I'll occasionally do that for some of my other pens, but haven't yet tried it for the VP.

 

The only pen I've done it for is a "vintage" Platinum pocket pen in which modern Platinum (proprietary) converters do not seem to fit properly. Pilot Capless pens, and other pocketable "jotters" as EDC pens (as opposed to desk-bound pens), do not need a lot of ink to get me through normal use for a day's (or even a week's) work at the office or at client sites.

[WLSpec]

Medium