Pilot Metropolitan for everyday college use

[Adarsh_guns]

Hello everyone, just getting started with fountain pens and found the fpn community. I'm on tight budget wish to start with Pilot Metropolitan for now but am confused between which nip size to choose. My use case will be to write some 10 pages everyday on classmate notebooks and I plan to use Bril royal blue. As a beginner I don't know if fine nib will suit me or will it be scratchy, or if medium nib will feather or cause any other problem with classmate paper. If someone has gone through the same then please help me. And if possible, please share some images of using both metropolitan nibs on a classmate notebook. 

Anticipating your help, I'm excited to start my fountain pen journey.

[hari317]

I would recommend a M nib

[Adarsh_guns]

Great @hari317, i too was thinking the same. Thank you

Edited July 18, 2022 by Adarsh_guns

[mhguda]

In my - limited - experience with Classmate paper, it is very good and will probably handle your chosen ink just fine. But yes, as a beginner, you may find an M nib more to your liking. I would not expect you to experience feathering or bleeding... and the Metropolitan nibs are usually nice and smooth. Enjoy!

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

An F with a little tuning for wetness will also suit you very well. Mine is very smooth with Herbin black/ Pilot Blue or similarly lubricated inks. If Bril is as nicely lubricated it should be quite nice. 

[inkstainedruth]

I would also recommend a medium nib.  When I bought my first Metropolitan, it was in a brick and mortar store in Boston, so I was able to try both an F and an M and found the F to be scratchy.  (They didn't have the stub nibs back then, and while I really like the stub nib on my second Metropolitan, you're likely going to not want one of those for note-taking in lectures or when doing research for papers....).  While IlikeInksandIcannotlie's advice is good, that is going to add to the cost of the pen (possibly even double it) and if you're on a budget than it's a safer option to buy the one with a medium nib for the time being.

Most Japanese nibs -- as do most vintage pens -- tend to run narrower than their European (or modern) counterparts.  The M nib on my first Metropolitan is very smooth and I've never had a problem with it (I did have to replace the Con-B converter in it when I used some vintage iron gall ink that went bad and destroyed the sac in the converter, though). 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

The question that hasn't been asked is how big your handwriting is.  I have a friend who writes with very small letters.  A medium nib, even a Japanese medium nib, would be too big.  He used to use a 0.3mm fiber tip pen.   The Metropolitan/Prera nibs run much finer than a western nib, so the fine is a like a Western extra fine.   They can be made to write nicely though very find.

 

  If you write in larger script, the medium may suit you better. 

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

9 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I would also recommend a medium nib.  When I bought my first Metropolitan, it was in a brick and mortar store in Boston, so I was able to try both an F and an M and found the F to be scratchy.  (They didn't have the stub nibs back then, and while I really like the stub nib on my second Metropolitan, you're likely going to not want one of those for note-taking in lectures or when doing research for papers....).  While IlikeInksandIcannotlie's advice is good, that is going to add to the cost of the pen (possibly even double it) and if you're on a budget than it's a safer option to buy the one with a medium nib for the time being.

Most Japanese nibs -- as do most vintage pens -- tend to run narrower than their European (or modern) counterparts.  The M nib on my first Metropolitan is very smooth and I've never had a problem with it (I did have to replace the Con-B converter in it when I used some vintage iron gall ink that went bad and destroyed the sac in the converter, though). 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I should have specified, I meant tuning the pen yourself by increasing the tine gap slightly to increase wetness. That can be done without any equipment/ sending it to a nibmeister. 

Though yes, an M nib will also be quite smooth and good. 

Classmate paper is resilient, I doubt much will happen in terms of feathering/bleeding unless you tune the M to be extremely wet/the ink is just very badly behaved.

[cvk]

18 hours ago, Adarsh_guns said:

Hello everyone, just getting started with fountain pens and found the fpn community. I'm on tight budget wish to start with Pilot Metropolitan for now but am confused between which nip size to choose. My use case will be to write some 10 pages everyday on classmate notebooks and I plan to use Bril royal blue. As a beginner I don't know if fine nib will suit me or will it be scratchy, or if medium nib will feather or cause any other problem with classmate paper. If someone has gone through the same then please help me. And if possible, please share some images of using both metropolitan nibs on a classmate notebook. 

Anticipating your help, I'm excited to start my fountain pen journey.

If you are considering a pilot metropolitan, I would recommend Pilot Kakuno - same nib but a bigger more comfortable section IMHO and also cheaper than the metriopolitan.  The metro has a really uncomfortable step down and too narrow of a section. But If you are planning to get it in India, the Pilot Metro seems to be 1.6k INR, for which you could get a much more comfortable pen from say Woodex CC Model / ASA Daily or Kanwrite Desire. If you are okay with eyedropper pens, you could use Gama Eyas (with Sheaffer NN Feed) [ < 1k INR], or Airmail 71JT / 69T ( for < 500 INR) . For all of these pens you  can get multiple variety of nibs for the reminder of the budget from Kanwrite (EEF, EF, F, M, B, Flex) from them directly or from penthouse.in and enjoy the variety

[Adarsh_guns]

Update : After a lot of browsing, i finally got the M nib Metropolitan. But it isn't smooth at all! I have Rs 2 ball pens smoother that this. I cleaned it and filled in the bril royal blue to start writing being on cloud nine. But it doesn't write well as per the reviews. It breaks a lot in between. I'm using on classmate. Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong or if I got a defective pen. It feels rough..

 

Please help @hari317 as you know the ink. Should I return the product!?

[miwishi63]

I don't know anything about the ink you are using, but the Metropolitans I use prefer a wet ink. I prefer a fin nib, so that it likely a factor. The nibs have a little feedback, but that can be adjusted with careful use of some micromesh. YMMV.

[hari317]

3 hours ago, Adarsh_guns said:

Update : After a lot of browsing, i finally got the M nib Metropolitan. But it isn't smooth at all! I have Rs 2 ball pens smoother that this. I cleaned it and filled in the bril royal blue to start writing being on cloud nine. But it doesn't write well as per the reviews. It breaks a lot in between. I'm using on classmate. Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong or if I got a defective pen. It feels rough..

 

Please help @hari317 as you know the ink. Should I return the product!?

The nib needs a bit of tuneup which I could have done for you if I were your neighbour. If you have a refund option return item for refund. 

[Adarsh_guns]

2 hours ago, hari317 said:

The nib needs a bit of tuneup which I could have done for you if I were your neighbour. If you have a refund option return item for refund. 

Thank you very much for the gesture. I assumed that a beginner pen may not need any tuning or so. I searched online and did something myself. It is now working better with bril violet than with bril rb. I'll test it a bit more but mostly I'll request a replacement. If anyone in or around Pune could help then that'd be great

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

A little tuneup would help a lot. My F is one of my smoother nibs.

[Adarsh_guns]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:55 AM, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

A little tuneup would help a lot. My F is one of my smoother nibs.

I'm returning mine ...

Maybe I'll start with something cheap like Camlin elegant or something similar, get some practice and then see if i need to return to pilot mr or not

[hari317]

8 hours ago, Adarsh_guns said:

I'm returning mine ...

Maybe I'll start with something cheap like Camlin elegant or something similar, get some practice and then see if i need to return to pilot mr or not

good call.

 

PM (personal message) me your complete postal address, I will send you something free of cost to get you started.

[BATPENS]

Even though this is posted before two years, I would suggest using pilot ink rather than bril