- Lami Safari: I'm a grownup who doesn't need my fingers to be told where to rest on the pen.
- Platinum Toy Pen: Doesn't write well, never did. Is it the ink? What is it? I finally got one to work just barely, while another (both are fine) doesn't write at all. I've tried to set them up as eyedroppers.
- A chinese pen: bulky, writes ok. To thick of a point. Jinhao. Has a standard #6 nib, which may be interesting in the future.
- I've used wings nibs for the PMP, and they are ok, but not up to the Pilot standard, IMHO.
- Some knockoff Parkers from the Philippines, they write.
- An Eversharp Skyline from my Mother is a hopeful one, and I've used the nib on my Charlie, which works. I don't trust myself to fix the bladder, even if I could afford to buy a bunch of tools.
- Noodler's Charlie: Interesting enough, but I didn't have the courage to set the nib, the supposedly amazing ebonite feed. Maybe I should. It's too broad of a point, but my eyedropper experiments have not yet been 100% there. Interesting enough that one day I'll buy a different Noodler's pen.
I finally broke down with my Father's Day gift card and purchased a Pilot Prera, which looked interesting because it (1) is a Pilot; (2) is reportedly convertible to an eyedropper pen; and (3) was not too expensive for this gift card.
I have found my main ink: Sailor Kiwa Guro black. I love the color of a Monteverde California Teal. I have multiple pens inked with those, so I thought, what of the Noodler's Bay State Blue? I love the color, it's permanent (or so), but the bladder of the one PMP I used it in was difficult to recover from BSB.
This time I could use it as an eyedropper, the only contraindication being a note on a web site that it damaged the prera feed, but this was disputed. I'll try anything once, so let's try.
I am so incredibly impressed with this pen and ink combination that I cannot imagine any other pen in the future. There are one or two things that bother me about the comments on the WWW (which, in fact, have been mostly positive). There are a few horrible comments among the almost unanimously raving ones. The headscratcher for me is the claim that the nib is identical with that of the Pilot Metropolitan and is interchangeable.
I have about 6 or 7 PMPs, including my wife's and son's. None of their nibs have the same engraving (or stamping) on the nib. This pen writes so much better than any PMP I have used that it's hard for me to imagine how I could have been so taken by them!
It's hard to describe the writing experience. And when my wife---who loves the PMP that was a gift to her---tried it, she immediately said "I want one." I am not going to go into detail about this at this point.
A second point makes this pen the best I have ever tried (and the Montblanc pens I used to use never got this sense of smoothness of writing): the useability as an eyedropper pen. It's not a wrinkle free experience, but it works. The only wrinkle, so far, however, was my experience trying to use an o-ring.
The smallest o-rings I have are from Ace Hardware, and are 1/16" in stock diameter, and approximately 0.9cm diameter or so. The 1/16" diameter of stock is too thick. The cap will not snap into place with this o-ring for me, no matter how tight I make the connection with the body. So I have used Silicon Grease.
I tried plumber's tape, which was described elsewhere as aesthetically unpleasing. I have to agree. It would work, but it's a bit of a mess. I tried cutting the teflon tape, which is extremely thin and hard to work with, down to a narrower size, but it's tricky to get the pen to thread over it. I'm not HAPPY with using only silcone grease, but it's the best option, for now.
Silicone grease is no silicone grease. I had a dow corning brand of SG from a machine shop supply that was a completely different beast. The one that comes from a pen supply company is regular, run of the mill silicone grease. It's not a big deal, but it's something I might play with in the future. I tried at first a light coating. Well maybe not all too light, but somewhat light. Then I saw a photo on a posting that showed how another person had applied grease, absolutely slathering the SG onto the threads, screwing the barrel onto the section, then wiping the excess away.
The light silicone application did not seem to be sufficient for this pen, with BSB. But a somewhat heavier application has been working find. The experience has been incredibly good. Even BSB hardly stains my fingers.
I found a web site with a description of how to unscrew the metal disk (holding the clip) n top of the cap, using pliers (protected with something) to allow to unscrew and remove the inner liner of the cap. This will be necessary, since BSB has gotten past the liner and in to in between the liner and cap. It's not serious.
Fingers are crossed. So far, absolutely so good. SOoooo.... Goooodddd....
I will clean this pen when the ink is near empty. At that point I'll decide whether to purchase another PPrera for the Black Kiwa Guro, or clean and change inks. I'll be searching for other o-ring options---hopefully an extremely thin o-ring.
