Pilot Soft Nibs: More Saturated Inks?

September 27, 2018

So I got Kyo No Oto Hisoku, which is a very calm, pale ink; I've never tried a soft nib, but beyond the writing experience, would this be the way to go to get more ink saturation? I usually look for exactly the opposite, some inks come out too dark and I've managed to get something more interesting (to my eyes!) with Lamy Studios in EF, for instance with Ama Iro and Ajisai.

I'm thinking of a Pilot 91 with an SM nib.

I don't press on nibs so I'm not really interesting in flexing them.

Edited September 27, 2018 by pseudo88

September 28, 2018

I do not have this ink. Since the Pilot soft Medium nib is mentioned, I would like to put my experience in words wrt Pilot 912sm and 74sm. I have no experience with 91sm.

I have tried some lighter inks like Fuyu Syogun, Cacoa du Bresil, etc. I dislike the look produced: way too light for legibility.

I write script-like, joined strokes, lightly, not stroke by stroke deliberately. I do not print. I do not lift the nib from paper often. These determine the lightness/darkness of appearance of inks.

I would say it depends on the nib you eventually get. Although both are Pilot sm nibs, my 912sm and 74sm write very different. In terms of softness, I find my 74sm softer than 912sm. Both can be wet but the shading quality is different. My 912sm writing surface feels like a smooth plane with ocassional slight feedback from inner tines. My 74sm feels more like a rounded ball but with sweet spot fenced up by rather feedbacky edges. The feedbacky edges create more friction with paper than my 912sm. 74sm has the ability to also scrape ink from papers, constantly revealing the lighter base colour tones of inks as I write. Inks that are easily 'rubbed' are spread out and can appear lighter. Inks that are not easily rubbed, either pastey or penetrates fast into papers appear darker. Rheology at play?

I prefer my 74sm to be smoother at the inner tines and outer ridges of the sweet spot so that ink is laid onto paper and not touched/scraped off by edges. Ink, in this way, is allowed to stack up and produce a more 3dimensional line, and a darker look.

My Waterman Phileas, though not a wet pen, does this with rather frugal ink consuption and produces a consistently darker appearance of inks. Because it does not scrape/distribute ink away from paper.

(Pens that enjoy distributing/scraping ink from paper are Pilot Prera, Sailor Somiko Medium, Broad, also the gold nib medium and broads)

Writing speed and pressure also very much affect the look since these nibs are soft. If the ink is the type that penetrates papers very quickly, a darker look results. If the ink contains alot of water and pale and has no affinity to papers, the appearance is light. Viscosity at play?

On Rhodia, my 912sm, due to its flatter writing surface, gives a broader line while 74sm with a slightly rounded sweet spot gives a finer line due to the smaller surface contact with hard and inabsorbent paper like Rhodia.

I suspect there are differences in nib grind and possibly softness between 74 and 91 nibs. But I have no way of confirming this.

Of course, your Pilot 91sm might differ entirely from my experience. I do not find Pilot quality control, if any at all, to be stellar. I have already come across all sorts of bad nibs from Pilot in my rather limited experience.

Also, I find my 912sm alot drier ootb (it was bought long ago,nib dated 2011) than my 74sm (dated 2018). Things might have changed at the Pilot factories. Or vendors might have touched the nibs.

These two pens do not make light pale inks consistently/generally darker but they sure shade alot, too much for my liking but that's just me.

To get a darker look, I either add Kodak Photoflo and/or use absorbent papers. This is one of the many reasons why I do not enjoy Rhodia papers.

My guess is, you might, just might, be able to get a darker look from a 74sfm if the nib is well smoothed and tines apart enough to allow ink to pass through without applying pressure.

Other ways would be, please forgive me for stating the obvious, to dip the nib into the ink bottle and write, or priming the feed to saturate it but this magic only lasts for a very short while and not always the most practical approach.

(I see Ajisai being mentioned, which is one of my favs, I suspect it might be interesting in a Pilot 91sm. )

Edited September 28, 2018 by minddance

September 28, 2018

I do not have this ink. Since the Pilot soft Medium nib is mentioned, I would like to put my experience in words wrt Pilot 912sm and 74sm. I have no experience with 91sm.

Wow, thank you! There's a lot to digest. There was a small discount on ebay, I ended up getting yet another Lamy Studio with an EF nib, mostly to complete my current collection, but I've been interested in trying a higher end Pilot, my medium nib Metropolitan is very nice, the Penmanship is frankly barely legible and has been know to burp, so it seemed like an interesting idea, I might still try it later. My one higher end Japanese pen is a Sailor Pro Gear with an H-M, it's a joy to use with Tsuyu Kusa.

Budget wise the 74, 91 and maybe even 92 are acceptable (with a discount coupon!), although I'd prefer a bigger sized 912 it's too much money to experiment, particularly given the quality control issues you've experienced and the fact it wouldn't be easy for me to resell. In the meantime Hisoku seems to be getting along with a Parker Sonnet.

September 28, 2018

Welcome , Tsuyu Kusa is another of my fav. I enjoy the saturation from my feedbacky Sailor 21k Progear MF (not the smooth same pen, I have 2) and a rather toothy/feedbacky Pilot 74sf on absorbent papers

I must say my Pilot steel medium nibs are all very very nice and, to my dismay, easier to handle than my 74 gold medium nibs.

I had a rather uneasy experience with Sailor M and B nibs due to the unique nib grind but I guess they do deserve a second chance. They are all very precise pens, will never close up loops, perfect for smaller writing, even the broad in my Somiko can write very precisely for small characters (if I do not spread the tines). But for cursive or big fonts, it demands quite alot from the hand to always stay in the sweet spot.

I personally find the F and MF nibs from Sailor much easier to handle as they tolerate me inevitably rolling the pen. But many of my Chinese friends think otherwise. They enjoy the medium nibs for the ability to produce variations in line - not of the flex or stub variety - to execute certain strokes in Chinese characters.

Pilot, for me, can be quite random in terms of nibs they produce. Maybe it is different factory, different date of production, different vendors, etc. I wouldn't know.

That said, please don't allow me to discourage you from a Pilot, or any Pilot.

September 28, 2018

Pilot 912: some people might not see much value in getting the normal nibs in this range. I understand some people get the 912 for the special nibs like the FA.

But if a larger section diameter and a bigger pen is preferred, the 912 is quite a good size: it doesn't make the 91/74 feel much smaller and doesn't make the 743 feel alot larger.