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Showing results for tags 'capless'.
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I just got a rather good deal for a NOS vintage Pilot Capless. This is the quite sought after 1970's aluminum bodied CN-400BS/CN-500BS version. While I don't usually succumb to the temptation of buying pens at this price, I was really drawn in by the packaging of this one that I end up pulling the trigger on it (it's still well below the price of a new current generation Capless, though). Now back to the packaging, I really like the cylindrical shape and free-standing layout. I think it complements the "futuristic" look of the pen very nicely. I'm not familiar enough about vintage Pilot packaging, but I haven't seen this type before. I've seen another NOS example of this pen sold here before, but it came with the regular style flip case with a leather-like exterior. And quick online search I did before buying also didn't turn out any leads, which just made me want to buy it more!
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Majohn A1 (a capless clone)
VillersCotterets posted a topic in China, Korea and Others (Far East, Asia)
I am not sure about the model name, maybe A1, but Majohn/Moonman has definitively released a metal Capless clone as seen in several video reviews on several Chinese websites. I'll post more photographs when I found some. It's so similar to the Capless, I wonder if it's produced under licence. The only difference I can spot is the middle ring that is a millimetre bigger, otherwise the Pilot internal module fit perfectly inside the Majohn body.
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Pitching Pilot Capless SU nib against Majohn A1 EF nibs
A Smug Dill posted a gallery image in Premium Account Albums
From the album: ~Nothing to see here, move along
Partly in reply to: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/363576-majohn-a1-a-capless-clone/?do=findComment&comment=4550177© A Smug Dill
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Majohn A1 EF nib writing samples in two Pelikan 4001 inks
A Smug Dill posted a gallery image in Premium Account Albums
From the album: ~Nothing to see here, move along
This pen was given away to a friend, as an introduction to capless fountain pens. As she professes to write small, and had been frustrated by some Fine nibs (and was unimpressed by a Pelikan M205 EF nib), I wanted to confirm for myself as well as demonstrate that, after I worked on its nib, it is able to put down fine enough and crisp enough lines to support small handwriting. The selection of two inks known to be dry was thus intentional; and I also had spare bottles to give her along with the pen.© A Smug Dill
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From the album: Chinese pens
Yet another Majohn (né Moonman) A1 pen in which the steel EF nib as supplied proves to be a width grade or two broader than a Japanese F nib. The nib and feed combination only delivers a relatively narrow range of colours/shading with Noodler's Ink Apache Sunset, out of what has been demonstrated (by the Pilot MR nib mounted on a dip pen handle) the ink is capable of.© A Smug Dill
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From the album: OldTravelingShoe's Random Pics of Japanese Fountain Pens
© (c) 2022 by OldTravelingShoe. All rights reserved.
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From the album: OldTravelingShoe's Random Pics of Japanese Fountain Pens
© (c) 2022 by OldTravelingShoe. All rights reserved.
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I was photographing pens this afternoon (getting ready to sell a slice of the collection) and took these two photos of my Customs and Capless pens. I like so many older Pilot models, but the Custom may be my favorite. If you squint, you can see I’ve added a black 18K nib to the stealth faceted VP. I am afraid to use that pen because I remember the stealth finish isn’t as tough as that used today. Please pardon the imposter that snuck in among the VPs.
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Everyone knows the Pilot capless/vanishing point. But there actually seem to be quite a few fountain pen models that are capless or that have retractable nibs. Depending on the design, they can be very useful, and I find the concept of a disappearing nib aesthetically appealing (though the prices are often eye-watering). The aim of this post is therefore to start a reference list of modern capless/retractable models. Here is a first draft (many debts to FPN posts). I am by no means an expert on this class of pen: please correct and/or add, as appropriate. EDIT: Following initial comments, I have completely changed the way I present the data, in the interest of providing a more useful tool (and have added some additional comment). The rest of this post has therefore been completely re-written. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the table to render as a table, so it's actually a screen-shot I do like eyedroppers for their simplicity and ink capacity. But for the most part, safety pens are something of a footnote in this list. This is for two reasons. First, for a capless/retractable, I'm most interested in mess-free ease-of-use. It's my understanding that traditional safety pens are essentially open eyedroppers - creating a risk of covering yourself with ink if you absent-mindedly upend the pen before extending the nib (see David Nishimura's useful article on safety pens). Second, if the cork seal is damaged, then your bag/shirt gets an ink bath. It seems likely that the seal on a 1920 safety pen will need replacing before it can be used, and whilst I'd love to develop my abilities further over time, I don't have the skill right now to restore a safety pen. For these reasons, I am most interested in more modern pens, which typically means pens that aren't eyedroppers (though of course there are always exceptions, such as the Aurora Nobile). I am also not including one-off or extremely rare pens (e.g., these wonderful pens, which Dillo points to in the 3rd comment, below), on the grounds that such pens do not represent recognisable models. That all said, I'm by no means an expert in this area - in fact, I'm still fairly new to the subject overall - and in my ignorance I might miss something or mislabel a pen. If that happens, please just reproduce and correct the table. And as Venemo says, pictures would be nice.
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A while ago (time gets funny in Covidland) I purchased a 3-pack of what was reported to be Pilot Con-50 converters. I wanted to replace the Con-40s that had come with some of my pens that will not fit a Con-70. This morning I attempted to place one in one of my Vanishing Points; though it fit in the pen I could not close the pen correctly and ended up swapping back to a Con-40. Am I wrong in thinking a Con-50 should fit? I bought these from a spot @ASmugDill had mentioned - are they perhaps not actually Con-50s? I've attached a picture. I love Pilot Capless except for the lousy converters! Thanks.
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A capless pen: From the prototype to the finished pen...
Hardy08 posted a topic in Pen Turning and Making
A year ago I "accidentally" transformed a pen I failed to finish into a prototype (kind of capless bulkfiller). This pen had several issues like an uneven finish, flow issues, ink burping when retracting the nib, no clip, bad ebonite quality: not the ideal workhorse. Here is the journey to this prototype improvement... Overal view of the 3 versions: All the pens have both an inkview and a view on the capless mechanism, an ebonite feed, and hold a large amount of ink. V1 has a flexible size 2 eversharp gold nib, V2 an V3 have a cursive italic nib ground from an Pelikan M100 B nib. V3 has a stronger clip and a matching ebonite insert. V3 is made of german ebonite which seems to oxidize much less than V2 made of japanese ebonite. Evolution of the "capless" mechanism: For those pens the nib unit is activated by rotating the pen grip section. In V1 the nib unit screw (the "elevator screw") is directly set into the back of the ebonite feed which caused the feed channels to be deformed thus preventing the air to flow back to the barrel which caused bad flow issues. V1 "guts" are made of bronze and ebonite, V2 and V3 are made of stainless steel. The V3 nib unit fixed this issue with the nib housing (green) friction fit and epoxy glued into the nib screw. A crescent hole into the nib screw allows ink to flow into the nib feed. The V3 has also a modified screw shape which better regulates ink flow allowing the nib not to be too wet. An issue from V2 feed was that when the nib was retracted the breather hole burped ink onto my fingers. This was corrected in V3 adding a second breather hole "the burping hole" (blue arrow) which is hidden behind the end of the grip section: the pen still burps ink when the nib is retracted... but inside the section preventing ink stains. Evolution of the pen cap: V1 has the trap-cap mechanism directly inserted into the ebonite of the barrel with very fragile and sensitive to wear holes. V2 has a stainless ring which supports the trap-cap mechanism, the main issue with this design was ink drying in the nib after 2 to 3 days without using the pen holding the nib upwards. V3 fixed this issue inserting a friction fit bronze insert into the stainless steel ring, thus reducing the opening of the pen, preventing air to penetrate finally preventing the nib to dry. Evolution of the barrel back end screw: The back on the barrel is closed by a double sided screw with a hole in it allowing the piston rod to glide. In V1 this screw was made of ebonite which allowed free gliding but was not sufficient enough to precisely guide the piston rod the right way... In V2 it was made of stainless steel with problems of piston rod gliding. This was solved using a bronze insert into this double sided screw. Exploded view and plans of V3: And here it is with its 30 parts and countless milling/turning operations! Only one problem remains: the trap-cap is passively activated by the nib itself and goes back to its closing position with a spring blade. Had no problems with this but it appears to be fragile and... ulgly! Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks and enjoy FPN back again!
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Here is the my latest pen! This is an ebonite pen, with an acrylic window within the section and the barrel. It is a capless pen with a twist mechanism, similar to the safety pen one. Twisting the section onto the barrel allows the nib to come in and out. The nib is juicy and flexible (Wahl eversharp #2). The filling mechanism is a copy of Fountainbell's bulkfiller with a modified magnetic (neodymium magnet) mechanism to retain the filling pellet. The barrel end is decorated with an amethyst. The pen length is 12,6 mm length closed and 13,4 mm opened, the maximum diameter is 16mm. The filling capacity is 3,5ml with a regular stroke but can be extended to 4,2ml expelling the air of the pen, penpoint up and resucking ink again. Here are the pictures and the X-ray of the pen.
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What is the most fluid-writing, smoothest capless rollerball that fits standard Parker-size pens? Thanks! Gary -
I've become a big fan of the Schneider Ray rollerball that takes standard fountain pen cartridges. It's fabulous! But does anyone know of a CAPLESS rollerball that also takes these cartridges? Either a push-button or twist rollerball would be fine.
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Hello all. I'm pretty new to FPN, and I'm wondering if you can help me with a question about the authenticity of my Pilot Vanishing Point Decimo. I received the pen today, and when I opened it up to put in some ink I noticed that the nib is unlike any other Pilot VP nib I have ever seen. I have been looking online for hours, but I can't find a single image of a Pilot VP nib that looks like what I have in front of me. I'm thinking that I might have received a counterfeit. Has anybody ever seen or even heard of a Pilot VP nib that looks like this one does? Image Link (because the site is being slow for me and I can't post the images here): https://imgur.com/a/1dceyCa Short Description: The nib has these sort of cut outs in the base, where the nib and feed join with the metal tube. The "wings" that wrap around the bottom of the feed and hold the nib and feed together are also different.
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I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a U.S. source of engraved Pilots, or if people got engraving done locally. I normally would buy from Goulet, but they don't offer engraving. I'm curious about other people's experiences. Thanks!
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Hello everyone, After two days waiting, finally I got approved. So glad to meet all of you here. I love fountain pens and the most interesting thing to me is fountain pen mechanism. I love button mechanism and also the capless one (which is very easy to get in Japan). What is your favorite? Im also working on an IOS, maybe firstly an excel sheet that can help fountain pen lovers manage their pen collection. Its lovely that i can share everything about fountain pen here since my friends around my age are with iphone all day 😭. Thank you and I hope you have a nice day.
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Recently I got these three vintage Pilot Capless (1960s), but the opening systems are not working -- probably some parts are missing, like spring and locking rings. Any recommendation on repair services worldwide? Thanks in advance.
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Hi I have 2 vanishing points in 18k Rhodium plated, one Medium and one Fine. The Fine one is a bit too thin, too dry, while the Medium is wet and on the broad side for me. Attached is comparison to a Metropolitan MR Medium which I like both as a line thickness and as wetness, crispness. Is there a way to modify the VP nibs to write like the Metropolitan, and how?
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OK, cover me, I'm going in...! $20ish (£15 - ¥2160 to be precise) for a seemingly unscratched, sound nibbed (F, 14CT) Pilot Vanishing Point (Capless?). The 'knock' mechanism seems a little stiff, and when I took opened it to check out the inside, the spring came out with the nib/section assembly, but it seems fine otherwise. So, do I? Obviously, the answer is probably 'yes', otherwise I wouldn't come to you guys...! But, as someone who is primarily interested in calligraphy (as in, I write all of my work notes and to-do lists etc in italic/roundhand/summat fancy), who has almost exclusively vintage flex, modern 'flex', various italic and stub pens, with maybe only three 'regular' nibs for marking papers at work... Who can sell me on the merits of the Vanishing Point? And who doesn't like them and why? Cheers!
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I have three plastic VPs that predate the popular faceted models, and I'm trying to find out if they're considered particularly collectible. I haven't seen ones like these come up for sale or trade in years, but I don't know if that's because they're rare, or because their plastic bodies and less refined internal mechanics make them less desirable. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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I'm thinking of buying a Pilot Capless. However, I haven't seens a reliable comparison of the line widths. I have heard that the medium nib is like a European medium, but it varies quite a lot from pen to pen. Is this still the case. I have also heard that the fine nib is like a Japanese fine. This makes me consider the fine-medium nib, however it only come in one finish and is nearly twice the price of the standard finishes. I know it's quite a lot to ask, but... Does anyone have a comparison that shows the line widths? Preferably compared with Custom 74 medium and Metropolitan medium and fine. My Custom 74 medium is really nice, but I wish it put down a slight thinner line, more like my Metropolitan medium.
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Hello everybody, I have some questions about Pilot Capless. I found quite a lot of topics but my specific questions were not answered yet. So I am sure some of you can help me :-) Unfortunately I can not get one here for a test drive. - About the nib: It looks a bit short to me, although I've read that it works quite well. All my pens had pretty large nibs so far maybe except when I started school with a Pelikan, but that's long ago. So is the short nib worth a word or is it simply working as it should? I think I'd go for a M nib. - Upside down: The clip means you transport the pen with its nib up. In planes that's the way you store your pen but how is it in daily life, at work, on the road? Any danger that the pen is losing some ink if stored flat, carried around, sometimes nib down? - The clip: I saw some videos, read many reviews but I am still not sure if the clip bothers me when writing. I even made a dry test with a ballpoint pen upside down and it seems it won't bother me. Any experience? - The CON-20 converter, right? Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!
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Pilot Vanishing Point/capless Nib Size Question
ognjen93 posted a topic in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop
Hello, to all good people outrhere! I am new member of the forum, and I will introduce myself in proper section, just a lill bit later. Here is my question. I decided I want to buy Pilot Capless/ Vanishing Point. I have trouble deciding between fine and medium nib. I have been browsing the web a lot lately, and I figured out that medium is more like western mediums, and fine is like usual Japaneese fine. However I do now have Pilot Metropolitan in Medium nib, and I find its width perfect. Does anyone have both Pilot Metropolitan Medium and Vanishing Point in Fine. And if anyone does, I would be grateful if they could post a writting sample comparing the two, and generally giving brief comparison between the two. I know there is Goulet Nib Nook, but in my humble experience it sometimes can be misleading. I have also found comparisons between Metropolitan Fine and Vanishing point fine, but they are of little help, since I find Metro fine too fine for my taste. And unifortunately I do not have a chance to try a pen in the store, since where I live noobody is willing to let you dip the pen All help much appreciated! -
Earlier this week, I received a number of Pilot Vanishing Points with the carbonesque (kasuri) finish and was hoping that other VP collectors may be able to help me confirm an interesting discovery. The green carbonesque was originally released in Japan in 2004 as a limited edition. About a month ago Pilot announced that they were re-releasing it in limited quantities in Japan only. I assumed that these new green carbonesque pens would be identical in color to the original release. I acquired a few of them and when I placed them alongside my original version I noticed a subtle color difference. For reference the original 2004 green carbonesque is second from the top (the only one without a sticker). It is darker and slightly more blue-green in color than the current release. This means that there are now 7 different colors of carbonesque VPs instead of the 6 I always assumed there to be. I would sincerely appreciate confirmation from any collectors out there who own both green carbonesque VPs. Thanks for looking. http://i.imgur.com/i41ieCW.jpg
