Customer Reviews

(17 customer reviews)

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful

  Excellent Pen! I have..., April 5, 2011

By marychastain

Excellent Pen! I have 22 years experience as a calligrapher, and this is my new favorite pen. It is smooth and comfortable to write with. Highly recommend.

  This pen is okay, and..., April 18, 2011

By gee...

This pen is okay, and its my first time using a calligraphy pen. I tried it out on light weight printer paper and the ink blots really small when writing (but im sure its just the paper).

The barrel is plastic and i was hoping itd be a little better quality. The ink dries super fast tho. I didnt realize that youd need two pens to mix the ink so thats kind of a downer. But i'll be buying the other pens as well.

  Awesome pen! Bought the..., December 26, 2010

By sim...

Awesome pen! Bought the 1.5mm and fully intend on picking up a second, and then doubles of the other three sizes. Truly a joy to write with. Also, Jet Pens was a pleasure to buy through. Showed up in literally a matter of a couple days. Definitely going to order through them again!

  This is one ultimate..., November 29, 2010

By dsprabhakar

This is one ultimate tool. this is my first time to calligraphy. really its impressive. on time for Christmas cards.

simple to use for a beginner like me.

highly recommended!!!

  Bought all four! These..., August 19, 2010

By superdan_lamb

Bought all four!

These things are perfect for the pro and the novice alike! The flow is strong and very consistent. The tip glides smoothly over the page, and can be used flat for a wide line, or on the edge for a monoline.

If you love calligraphy, and hate dipping, you really have to try one of these!

  Well, everyone seems..., June 5, 2010

By ipf...

Well, everyone seems to love this pen~!~

I wanted a pen to show of with at school, this will do it!

Very good pen, considering the price.
BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY

  AMazing pen. This is..., May 21, 2010

By jul...

AMazing pen. This is my first calligraphy pen and I can't say enough great things about it. Well worth the cheap price!

  rf2444, this isn't properly..., February 26, 2010

By susan111_az

rf2444, this isn't properly speaking a forum, but I'll offer some information: the effect shown above is obtained by transferring ink from one pen's nib to another by gravity and capillary action.

Use two pens, inked in different colors: one in (say) red, the other in blue. Hold the red pen upright with its nib up. Briefly -- *briefly*, no more than a few seconds -- touch the blue pen's nib to that of the red pen. (Cap the blue pen and set it aside.) When you write with the red pen now, it will briefly write in blue; it will gradually change through shades of violet and plum until you are writing entirely in red again. This is a wonderful effect and well worth the price of the pens!

  I'm a little unclear..., September 25, 2009

By rf2444

I'm a little unclear about this "gradated lines and mixed colors" business--my understanding is that you must remove and discard the original color cartridge before switching colors (they advise against reusing half-full cartridges). I'm not sure what magic I was expecting, but that's that.

The other caveat is that the 1.5mm nib is 1.5mm--too large to use in daily correspondence. This are both terribly unfair criticisms, but I thought you might be interested. I wish the nibs magically mixed colors, and I wish they had a .5mm nib, but that's not what they were selling.

Aside from that, I heartily agree with everyone--it writes wonderfully well, both flat along the nib and on the edge (which actually gets a line that's pretty close to .5mm, come to think of it).

  Since most of what needed..., April 13, 2009

By poochacho2

Since most of what needed to be said has been said I just want to add to the love.

They are very wet writers - smooth as silk and for people like me with very non-steady hands I was able to accomplish lovely smooth sweeping lines like I was never able to do before. These pens are amazing for both beginner and experienced artist.

The mixing of inks is so sensitive - you literally have to barely touch the pens together to get your blends.

I haven't experimented with getting a converter to fit, but I'll try the syringe method - I just have a thing about disposables. I bought two sets - one to play with and one to keep pristine.

I cannot say enough good about these pens - they are one of the most precious pens in my collection now.

  I'm going to have to..., March 2, 2009

By zero.dgz

I'm going to have to join the chorus of praises on this page and sing another one for the Pilot Parallel.

It's a bit of a paradox. The Parallel is cheap - very cheap. And it's overtly plastic, and it's not even that elegantly put together. Its plastic parts have seam lines all over the place, the silver color of the body isn't 100% even... And yet, it doesn't matter one lick, because the Parallel is simply the best writing calligraphy fountain pen I've ever used.

The secret, of course, is Pilot's "parallel plate" nib. The name is a little ambiguous; After all, every calligraphy fountain pen nib consists of two "parallel" plates, one next to the other with a split down the middle. The Pilot pen, on the other hand, has two plates sandwiched on top of each other. Ink flows between them and because of the comparatively massive capillary surface area it's kept flowing smoothly and is remarkably resistant to drying out in the nib.

The end result works surprisingly well. The Parallel is somewhat sensitive to how flat you hold its nib against the paper, moreso than traditional calligraphy pens, but when used correctly it produces the cleanest, crispest, most even lines I've ever experienced. It's nib-to-paper feel is likewise excellent and is usually an indicator of how you're handling the pen. If the feel isn't silky-smooth it's a surefire sign that you're not holding the nib flat.

That said, the Parallel is a very wet writer (as repeatedly mentioned by others) and because of this you have to be a bit careful about how fast you write and what kind of paper you use. The Parallel is undoubtedly capable of being used on just about any paper (except maybe paper towels, or tissue paper) if you get the lead out and don't let the nib stay stationary for long. On coarse or porous paper, though, that huge capillary surface area can whip up an inkblot the size of a quarter in seconds if you just poke the nib into one place and leave it there, so don't do that. If you have a habit of resting or tapping the nib against your paper while you ponder your next sentence, do yourself a favor and knock it off.

The only ink I've tried in mine so far is the stock Pilot branded stuff that came with it, so I can't comment on how thinner versus thicker inks will work with the Parallel. Reports indicate that thicker inks will be more controllable, and I can certainly see how that would be true. When it's moving, at least, the Parallel is about as wet as the customized (ground nib) Sheaffer I'm used to using, so I would imagine it'd do just fine with ink similar to Sheaffer's "Skrip" stuff and equivalents.

Towards that end, the Parallel comes with a couple of goodies of varying utility. There's a nib cleaning card, for a start, which is meant to be used to floss dirt and paper swarf out from between the nib plates. You get one measley black cartridge and one red with the pen, and they're proprietary to Pilot pens and functionally unavailable in the US except by mail order. You get a converter cartridge with the set but it's a rubber "squeeze bulb" design that's got miserable suction and worse capacity. Pilot insists that the converter cartridge is only intended to be used to clean the pen (by sucking up and backwashing water or cleaning fluid through the nib) and I'd just as soon take their word for it. If you want to refill the Parallel, get a syringe and just refill an empty cartridge instead.

My only other complaint is that the Parallel doesn't come with any sort of pocket clip. It makes sense, because the pen's body is longer than your usual pocket-pen, but it makes life difficult for those of us who use our calligraphy pens for day-to-day writing. (The dingus that sticks out of the Parallel's cap, if you're wondering, is just a flap of plastic that's meant to keep the pen from rolling away.) There's also no way to affix the cap to the tail of the pen, so you'll have to find someplace else to stick it while you're writing.

  My 5th JetPens Review!..., January 18, 2009

By carveitfast

My 5th JetPens Review! Hip Hip Hurray!

Everyone here just seems to love these Pilot Parallel Pens. Well I must admit, I do too! These pens are, FREAKING AWESOME!

Now don't get upset JetPens, but these are so much more responsive than the Lamy Joy Calligraphy pens or Safari Italic nibs. I've ground my Lamy nibs and could not get the crisp line and smoothness of pen to paper as the Pilot Parallel Pens had right out of the box. But, I have to admit a predilection for the Lamy's ink flow, even if they do have a hard start problem.

Now there is one little thing, these pens are the wettest writers that I've ever used. That means you'll have to be extra persnickety when it comes to your paper and ink selection. On the right papers with the right inks these pens are a dream to use. On the wrong papers the amount of ink these pens lay down could be one of the most frustrating experiences in your calligraphic studies. And NO, I ain't telling what papers or inks (maybe) you should try, that's part of the fun of good penmanship.

Now for those of you who haven't read my previous 4 reviews, of 4 of the best products worth checking out on JetPens (You gotta search them out for yourself), I won't hold you in suspense when it comes to my choice of color to put in this pen, BLACK. Noodler's to be exact. Noodler's BulletProof Black to be right and proper. Noodler's BulletProof Black which is one of the thicker inks available today (It's right up there with Platinum's Carbon Black, also available at JetPens). Now if this pen flows like the great Mississippi with Noodler's BulletProof Black just imagine what it will do with a thinner ink like Noodler's Polar Black (I did say I liked black and Noodler's). That means I think this may be a fast writer's pen of their dreams. This pen spreads ink that'll keep up with the fastest writer in the west!

Now it also comes on good authority, from Lily of JetPens, that for those of us who write through ink faster than we can fill our pens, and prefer even more colors than cartridges alone will allow, that there are 2 other converters available for this pen, the Pilot CON-20 and CON-50. Unfortunately the Pilot CON-70 converter is not available and will have nothing to do with this pen. I hear the CON-70 has even produced a restraining order against the Parallel Pen's friendly advances. But the cleaning converter (wink wink) can also be used as an ink converter and holds a goodly amount of ink as well. So try yourself a larger ink capacity, if you think you can handle it, just be sure to thank Lily of JetPens for the good advice.