Pilot Birdie, The Quintessential Pocket Pen.

October 13, 2013

One of the first ever Fountain pens that I was given for use as a kid learning to write with FPs was the Birdie. Pilot pens were very popular in India and in the early 80s, the Birdie was one of the cheaper Pilots easily and commonly available in the bigger Indian cities. Even though laughably cheap by Western standards, the amount one paid for a Birdie in India in those days was substantial and the pen was of very high quality, I am not sure many pens can meet the quality to price ratio afforded by the Birdie today.

Understandably, I have a fondness for this model and I think I have never left a shop without buying this pen if it was there with them. I have accumulated a lot of these pens and each one is dear to me... The FPs were available in F and M, the F being more common.

The Birdie FPs were available in Mumbai even as late as 2005. I have not seen any new ones for sale post this date, unfortunately Pilot seems to have discontinued the manufacture.

However a few weeks back, while perusing the vast Japanese Pilot website, I noticed that both the Birdie Ballpoint and the Birdie 0.5mm Mechanical pencils were shown as still available at equivalents of 4USD each. I was placing an order for some Platinum goodies and placed the order for these pens as well as spare refills and eraser refills. The items arrived yesterday.

This review will document the Birdie BP and the MP.

The Birdie Trio:

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9140.jpg

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9141.jpg

In writing position:

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9142.jpg

The Model no stickers:

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9146.jpg

The clip engraving:

The mechanical and the FPs say Japan on them, the BP does not say anything reg country of manufacture, perhaps it was outsourced.

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9147.jpg

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9149.jpg

These pens are very small to easily carry in a shirt pocket or a ladies purse.

Critical dimensions:

FP:

Capped: 111mm

Open: 105mm

Posted: 129mm

Barrel Dia: 8.4mm

Section Dia: 7.5mm

Uses Con-20/hop type squeeze converter/Pilot Carts.

BP:

Length: 111mm

Dia: 5.8mm

MP:

Length: 111mm

Dia: 5.6mm

In comparison to the new Elite 95S long short pocket pen:

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9145.jpg

http://i957.photobucket.com/albums/ae54/hari3172/PilotBirdie/IMG_9144.jpg

You can see that the Birdie is slimmer.

Writing:

The Birdie FP is comfortable to use posted, the bps and the pencil will be used for quick jots only and will be carried clipped to a corner of my shirt pocket. The BP and MP mechanical action is very smooth and the stock black BP refill is also quite good. It uses the ordinary plastic BP refill commonly available in India for 1INR each!!

I wish they had not stopped making the Birdie FP.

I hope you enjoyed this small review.

Cheers!

Hari

October 13, 2013

You might like the zebra mini... it's a very slender pen... sold by jet pens among other places.

skyppere

October 13, 2013

You might like the zebra mini... it's a very slender pen... sold by jet pens among other places.
skyppere

Thank you for the tip! I already have the Zebra pull to expand mini BP. The Zebra Mini looks interesting, I should be able to find the pen locally, Zebra is quite popular in India and sold widely. However, at Jetpens website, I also discovered the Birdie switch, a BP Plus MP combined pen that I must order in my next consignment from Japan.

Best

Hari