Pilot Penmanship Fountain Pen with Ergo Grip - Extra Fine Nib - Black Body

Costomer reviews are usually helpful - before considering a product, I scroll down the reviews, hoping those are genuine, client, ones.

Now, this this pen is so extraordinary, that I have decided to write a review, too, to make sure to praise the writing wonderpen!

First, the price / quality ratio is amazing! It is a very well-crafted stylo à plume, like the Japanese make them, epecially the Pilot company. (I have recently realized that I have many Pilot pens and mech. pencils - more than those manufactured any other firm.)

So, the Penmanship is yet another addition to that fine, legendary family.

I read here that with this pen some buyers have had some problems - well, mine started writing beautifully from the very first stroke. Ideal ink flow, perfect line, strong and flexible enough nib (the same the Prera has, only the EF calibre). I fell in love with this pen and crave grabbing it, going back to it the moment I can. You need a good paper though to have an optimal writing experience - but the Penmanship will write well on virtually any paper.

I intend buying one more of this pen, to carry one around and to keep one home, in a safer environment. Arigato, Pilot team! And thanks to JetPens for importing and promptly delivering the products.

An amazing pen for the price! Produces a very fine line, comparable to my 0.3mm Hi-Tec C. The ink that came in the included cartridge seems to make the pen a little scratchier (and it has a bit of an odd chemical smell to it?), but once I refilled the cartridge with Noodler's Heart of Darkness, it writes very smoothly considering how fine the tip is. I emptied and refilled the included cartridge with a syringe, but I believe the Pilot CON-20 and CON-50 converters are also compatible.

The body is lightweight plastic, and the triangular molded grip is actually quite intuitive and comfortable. The screw-on cap can be inconvenient, but it's a minor complaint in an otherwise effective design.

All in all, a wonderful choice for those looking for a cheap, refillable pen that produces a very fine line. With a converter and a bottle of ink, you can also write in any color. Perfect for detailed drawings or sketches...I'll definitely be using this a lot!

I'm relatively new to fountain pens in general and am used to writing with gel (Signo 207) or liquid ink pens (Pilot V5) typically in .5mm, but have recently switched to the .38mm. My goal was to find a fountain pen that wrote in a thinner line compared to my Lamy Al-Star Safari in EF. I did some side-by-side comparison lines with a .5mm Pilot V5 (liquid ink), .38mm Signo 207 gel ink, Lamy Al-Star Safari w/EF nib and the Pilot Penmanship in EF. The results are as follows...the Lamy appeared to be just the tiniest bit wider than the .5mm V5, however that could have simply been because it feathered a little on the cheap paper I used, so we could almost call it a draw. The Pilot Penmanship was noticeably thinner than both and was just fractionally wider than the .38mm Signo, which again, could have been the paper, but probably less of an issue between these two pens compared to the V5 & 207 though. If I had to put a number to it, I'd say the Penmanship is approximately equal to a .4mm gel in width. Now all that said, let's talk about how it is to write with...on cheap paper, it felt scratchy, on nicer papers it smoothed out considerably...in my regular journal, I wrote a full page without a single skip or scratch on the up-strokes, so I feel this pen is simply more susceptible to paper quality than some of the wider tips (which I guess make sense since the wider the tip, the more surface area the pen has to scroll over the minute imperfections in the surface of the paper itself).

If one is obsessive about tiny writing, I don't think you're going to find anything thinner than this nib...from what I've read in other reviews, it appears that this nib can be swapped onto a few of the other Pilot FPs (78, Prera, Plumix), but I don't know if it can go on any others. For $8, it's a heck of a deal! The screw-on cap is secure, but maybe slightly awkward to take on and off continuously, but at least it can post on the other end. Just wish there was a clip to hook onto the rings of a notebook!

I lost the first of these pens last week (6 days ago) at work, and it only took 3 days for JetPens to ship my replacement! Awesome!

I love the way this pen writes! The extra-fine nib is perfect for the way I write (I have to write between small spaces), and the blue of Noodler's Ink Baystate blue looks wonderful on paper with this pen.

The CON-20 and CON-50 fit well into this pen, and well worth the purchase.

For the price and daily utility, this pen is gold!

I just wish it had a clip to stay put in my lab coat (which is the reason why it was lost to begin with).

For the money, you couldn't ask for a better extra-fine fountain pen.

True, the Penmanship is usually a little dry and scratchy at first, but after some tuning or a short breaking-in period, it's well worth the investment. The line is indeed *extra fine*, slightly thinner than a Signo DX 0.28 mm. The steel nib provides only a tiny amount of flex and virtually no variation. The sleek design is surprisingly ergonomic, but extended periods of writing may tire your hand as the nib dries out and becomes scratchier, requiring a half hour of capped time to "recharge."

These quirks aside, however, remember that you're paying only $7.50 for an amazingly precise and refillable fountain pen.