Robert Oster Smoke Screen - the pictures look great but it’s been boring in every test. It was frustrating because I usually stick with Diamine and felt like wasted money.
I have had some issues with Robert Oster inks and hard starts. In particular, they don’t work well in my Lamy 2000 fine nib and Pilot Prera medium nib pens, whereas a Pilot Iroshizuku ink I bought recently seems to flow a lot better. It’s a shame, because I do like the colours; I might try them in my Kaweco sport pen (which has a wetter medium nib) and see if they flow better.
Sounds like a dud. What surprises me was that reseating the nib made the pen work for a while, and then the pen stopped working suddenly.
A few troubleshooting questions: Have you tried a different ink? How about a different cartridge?
put a sheet of paper/napkin/tissue on the top of the slit. Are you getting any ink? Or is it dry? If it’s wet, it might be something preventing the ink getting to the tip of the nib In this case, I usually try a different ink or gently adjust the tines in the case the tines are too far apart. If it’s dry, I reckon it’s more to do with how the nib is sitting on the feed. The best you probably can do is try to reseat the nib/feed.
This one will be messy. With the pen stored nib down with in the cartridge, wait like 20 minutes. Now pop off the nib and dab at the feed with paper/napkin/tissue. Is the feed saturated with ink? If it’s saturated, once again it’s probably something to do with how the nib is sitting on the feed. Reseat it and hope for the best. If it’s dry, I really don’t know what to suggest besides binning the pen. A Metro isn’t worth enough money to buy a Kakuno just to transfer the feed over.
Where did you buy it, and what kind of ink are you using? Metropolitans are really reliable, so it’s be very surprised to see a dud unless it wasn’t a real Metropolitan or the ink was India ink or iron gall ink. There are Lamy Safari fakes and other similar pens sold on Amazon. I’ve had better luck buying at pen shows and from trusted retailers.
I did buy it on Amazon, but it was shipped and sold by them so I trusted that it was legit. The ink cartridge was included with the pen. After fussing with it some more and reading all the responses here I’ve decided to return it for a refund. Guess this is a lesson to stick with more trusted retailers, I’ve been lucky to never receive an Amazon fake but I guess there’s a first time for everything.
The problem with Amazon is that they sometimes just combine all of a single item, say the pilot metropolitan, from all sellers, including Amazon, together in one place in the warehouse. If some sellers send fakes and others genuine product, when you order, you can get a dud from a reputable seller and genuine product from the counterfeit seller.
Very pretty! I have a blue diamond, and I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I didn’t like the feeling of the fine nib it shipped with. I ordered a medium nib and it feels much better to write with. When you say you love the ribs, I assume you’re talking about the grip. That’s actually one of the things I don’t like. Possibly due to the way I hold the pen, I find it becomes uncomfortable to hold sure to the ribs digging into my fingers after a while. If I could find a replacement for the grip, I think I would use it more. I also find the screw cap makes it less appealing to use at work, compared to a snap on cap.
On the other hand, it’s beautiful, holds a huge amount of ink, they sell replacement nibs, comes with a set of tools and silicon grease to maintain it, and is decently priced for what it is. Also comes in a range of really nice colours.
I agree that looks to be a Metropolitan. Great pens!
As @techwizrd said, you won’t be able to see the ink level. When your line starts get get darker, thinner, and the pen starts to skip, it’s time to refill. Or if the pen has been sitting for a while, maybe a quick cleaning.
You can try the squeeze converter, if you don’t like you can try the CON-40 converter. It’s the only other Pilot converter that can go in a Metro. But it’s not a really liked converter… I can’t really say because I never used mine yet, I just refill cartridges for my Pilot pens. Which is another option for you.
As people have already said, yes that is a Metro. The converter is supposed to be opaque, and you will need to guestimate. It’s not just guesstimating how much ink you have left, it’s also guesstimating if you have filled the pen to the maximum possible. The ink does not get sucked up into the pen as quickly as a piston mechanism, and it’s impossible to see if you have a max fill. A couple of tips since this is your first squeeze converter. I usually squeeze the air completely out before I dunk it into the ink to remove the potential of a few drops of ink popping out of the bottle (especially for Noodler’s and the bottles filled to the absolute max policy). I also leave it in an extra second or two after it seems fully puffed up just to make sure the maximum amount of ink is sucked up. Luckily, this is all much easier with the Metropolitan’s cheaper squeeze filler design. The “premium” one that came with my Cavalier was encased in a metal tube. The squeeze bar was manipulated using a “button” located near the top which made it very difficult to fully compress the sac and see if the sac was completely puffed up. Terrible design.
I’ve heard both good and bad. From what I’ve gathered quality control is still an issue for Majohn pens. So if you get a good one, they’re actually pretty good, but it’s a dice roll as to weather you will or not.
Take notes on paper with fountain pen, take a picture, OCR it, shred the paper.
Otherwise there’s literally nothing special about using a fountain pen for any task a pen can do (other than situations involving particular kinds of paper, like carbon paper or thin scratch pads).
If the convenience of doing notes digitally works better for you, then it is. You can still take out a fountain pen for a variety of other tasks (writing letters, calligraphy work for greeting cards), or recognize that for the time being there’s little in your life that a fountain pen fills practically and just enjoy using one as a hobby
I use a Hobonichi techo planner and grid notebooks. I also use Midori grid notebooks. No feathering on both, not too glossy so my nib doesn't "skate" on top. I like Rhodia pads (some of the notebooks feather). Clairfontaine is lovely smooth paper but my pens usually "skate" on it and I can't control my handwriting on it, but YMMV.
Notes and flashcards for actuarial exams. Makes me actually excited to study even the dry topics when I have a new pen and new ink. I’ve stuck to Muji notebooks since they’re so affordable and high quality.
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