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I recently became aware that one can easily install a Pilot Parallel nib into an Opus 88 Demonstrator pen. I have tried it, and it works. It is super simple. This provides at once the virtues of the Pilot Parallel nibs for calligraphy and the advantages of the Opus 88 fountain pen - better ergonomics, portability, huge ink capacity and economical ink use (compared to cartridges, unless you refill them). Here are links to a couple of youtube videos on this hack: Enjoy! David

Pilot Parallel italic nibs perform wonderfully in italic calligraphy applications, and they can be successfully ground, hacked, and shaped for a variety of effects. With simple shrink-wrap tubing usually used for electronic connections, the diameter of the nib unit can be expanded to fit snugly into the section of a Penbbs 456 fountain pen. This enables calligraphers to place the high-performing Pilot Parallel nib in a more elegant pen, and to add wide italic functionality — from 1.5 mm to 6 mm — to the Penbbs 456. Use scissors to create a 5-mm-long “collar” from 7-mm heat-shrink tubing. Then, use a hair dryer to shrink the tubing tightly around the Pilot nib unit. The additional diameter enables the modified nib unit to fit snugly into the Penbbs 456 section. The interior diameter of the Penbbs section is about 5 mm, and the interior diameter of the Pilot Parallel is about 4.5 mm, so the tubing needs to increase the diameter only slightly. Because heat-shrink tubing is slightly elastic, it also serves as a type of extended o-ring in this application. My first attempt, with a 10-mm-long collar that covered all of the Parallel feed’s fins, proved too difficult to insert into the Penbbs section. But 5 mm is about right. There is plenty of room within the Penbbs 456 cap for the Parallel italic nib, and the nib starts up quickly after two days of non-use. The Penbbs 456 is a vacuum filler, and it’s also still possible to vacuum ink into the barrel through the Parallel nib. These photographs display the 2.4 mm Parallel nib in a Penbbs 456 in the koi material, described in English as “tiny happiness.” The ink is Diamine marigold.

Shadow nibs - broad nibs that have had a groove ground in their tip, usually asymmetrically - are fun to play with and also very good learning tools for anyone working on broad-edged calligraphic scripts. I have some old shadow nibs from late model Osmiroid pens. Kaweco currently makes #5 Bock shadow nibs, but I am not aware of any others producing them commercially. Last year, at the San Francisco Pen Show, one of the Bay Area "Friends of Calligraphy" calligraphers had a Pilot Parallel that had been ground to a shadow nib by a friend. Just recently, Salman Khattak (smk on FPN) has offered customized Pilot Parallel shadow nibs for sale, and I bought one made from the 3.8mm model. Here are a couple photos. (No affiliation, blah, blah, blah) Enjoy! David

Is there any reasonable cheap alternative to silicone grease for sealing in eyedropper pens? I am trying to convert my Pilot Parallel into an eyedropper but can't find any silicone grease anywhere (in my home at least). Are there any household products I could use as an alternative? Vaseline?

Hello all, This is my first post on the FPN. I am looking for an opaque or at least very saturated with little to no shading red ink. This is mainly for use in a 6mm Pilot Parallel calligraphy pen. I've tried several colors but to no avail. I've highlighted the problem exemplars in yellow in the images below. Diamine Red Dragon is my favorite red ink, and it almost gets the job done, but it still looks blotchy in the 6mm PP: Here is Noodler's Park Red: I prefer the shade of the Red Dragon, but I need something that doesn't look splotchy when going over the same area with multiple strokes. Also, don't cringe too badly at the letter forms here, they were part of my practice . Any suggestions are very much appreciated. Also, I'm looking for a rich red pigmented ink for dip pens. I'd like something akin to sumi-e, the best I've found in that family is an orangish red though.

Hi all, I know in the calligraphy or art world, there are people who rave about the Pilot Parallel. I have one in the 1.5mm size and think it's a little scratchy, and wonder if it's because I'm lefthanded. Will it be fine to micromesh the "nib" I wonder? Would like to hear how you use the pen, your experiences or impressions, and how you've hacked it (if you have!). I've seen nibs that are cut or replaced with tin. If you've transplanted the nib and section to another pen, share that too! Hope this is an okay place to start the thread as I don't think people who use the pen will check out the Pilot subforum.