I'm confused.... What is the Pilot CM nib everyone seems to be raving about, and is it as good as they say?

[Mercian]

13 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

In which markets, and since when, were CF and CB nibs available on the Prera Iro-ai? Pilot's websites pilot.co.jp, pilotpen.co.uk, pilotpen.eu, pilotpen.us, and pilotpen.com.au do not corroborate that CF and CB nibs are, or were, available on/for that pen model.

On their ‘Enso’ sets, no?

So other users said.

 

As I am a Brit, Pilot actively prevents me from even accessing any information about their ‘Enso’ sets, or their ‘calligraphy’ nibs, or their Plumix/Pluminix pens.

Pilot even (according to the retailers themselves) prevents European retailers from selling such pens to us Brits.

 

As such, I am dependent upon the observations made by other members - people who Pilot has not decided to ‘unperson’.

 

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, Mercian said:

On their ‘Enso’ sets, no?

So other users said.

 

As I am a Brit, Pilot actively prevents me from even accessing any information about their ‘Enso’ sets,

 

That is true, in the present tense, only insofar as Pilot appears to have taken down its website at pilotenso.com, which was the place from which to get authoritative information about that range of products. It does not matter whether I'm requesting pages from my IP address in Australia without disguise, or using a VPN connection with an exit node in the (Manchester) UK, (Salt Lake City) US, or (Tokyo) Japan. Last I checked that website myself, when it was still up, would have been in 2022.

 

However, it is still possible for you and me to retrieve content previously hosted at that website, through the use of the Internet Archive (aka The Wayback Machine), which has taken a snapshot as recently as December 2022.

 

All that said, the Enso sets to which you referred are specifically the Pilot Enso Plumix hand lettering calligraphy sets, which had nothing to do with the Prera Iro-ai range.

 

Quote

 

That was what I was questioning. The nibs on the pens in the Pilot Enso Plumix sets are indeed only marked F, M, and B — without a preceding C — for their nib types/width grades; but when has anyone mentioned, or posted photos of, Pilot steel nibs that are marked CF or CB, even if they weren't fitted on Prera Iro-Ai pens (which are considered sufficiently different to have a separate product page from the opaque Prera pens, and even more different from the MR aka Cocoon models)?

[AmandaW]

 

 

[Mercian]

12 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

That was what I was questioning. The nibs on the pens in the Pilot Enso Plumix sets are indeed only marked F, M, and B — without a preceding C — for their nib types/width grades; but when has anyone mentioned, or posted photos of, Pilot steel nibs that are marked CF or CB, even if they weren't fitted on Prera Iro-Ai pens (which are considered sufficiently different to have a separate product page from the opaque Prera pens, and even more different from the MR aka Cocoon models)?

👍

As I said, I can only go by what other people have said about these pens, because I am not allowed to buy them, and even looking them up is ‘a challenge’.

 

@AmandaW mentioned them in the past, on (iirc) the ‘What pen are you using today’ thread, and a discussion about Pilot’s edged/stubby italic/calligraphy nibs ensued between several people.

That conversation piqued my interest to try them - because I find European/‘western’ italic nibs to be too broad for me to be able to use them comfortably.

 

I now have two Plumixes (‘M’ and ‘F’), and a Metro with a ‘CM’ nib. My preliminary impressions of these nibs are very favourable, but I have yet to spend much time with them.

 

If you have access to information that shows that there aren’t in fact any Pilot nibs in production that are marked ‘CF’ or ’CB’, only ones that are marked ‘CM’, I’m happy to take your word for it.

After all, as far as Pilot is concerned, for many of their products we Brits are pretty much Unpersons (the blame for which I am minded to lay on their official UK distributor).

[A Smug Dill]

3 minutes ago, Mercian said:

If you have access to information that shows that there aren’t in fact any Pilot nibs in production that are marked ‘CF’ or ’CB’, only ones that are marked ‘CM’, I’m happy to take your word for it.

 

I don't and cannot have evidence for the negative, the non-existence of something. That is why I asked you in which markets and since when they were available, looking for/at an alternative assertion that could be proven by published material if true. As far as I can see, from the aggregate of several of Pilot's websites, the only nib options for the Prera Iro-ai are F, M, and CM (and CM is not shown on any of Pilot's regional websites, even where the Prera is listed as an available product). However, I cannot vouch for whether they are available in Zimbabwe, as I haven't personally checked what websites Pilot may have set up for its African market(s), or whether once upon a time there were indeed CF and/or CB nibs.

[51ISH]

No wonder I was confused....😁 🙃 🤣  

[A Smug Dill]

On 4/13/2023 at 12:06 PM, A Smug Dill said:

… insofar as Pilot appears to have taken down its website at pilotenso.com, which was the place from which to get authoritative information about that range of products. It does not matter whether I'm requesting pages from my IP address in Australia without disguise, or using a VPN connection with an exit node in the (Manchester) UK, (Salt Lake City) US, or (Tokyo) Japan.

 

Well, what would I know… the website now appears to be back up, and accessible from IP addresses in the UK:

[mhphoto]

On 3/28/2023 at 2:33 PM, Mercian said:

 

I have two examples of their ‘Pelikano’ school pen, one M205, and one Souverän M805. They are all ‘gushy

Ooooh man… Gushy, wide Pelikan nibs are my life.