Pilot Petit1 Mini Fountain Pen - Clear Pink Body

This pen gave me quite the \"roller coaster ride\" of an experience. When I first heard of the Pilot Petit1, I was really excited-- not only did I see several great reviews online, but it was also cheap ($? A steal!). So, as my first foray into fountain pens, I added the Petit1, Platinum Preppy, and Pelikan Pelikano to my shopping cart. When the package arrived from JetPens, I opened it with glee and immediately took out a notebook to start writing. The Pelikano and Preppy were easy to start, but I couldn\'t even unscrew the nib from the barrel in the Petit1! (It\'s pretty embarrassing to have to go to work and explain to your coworkers that you need them to take a pen apart for you--Just an FYI.) Anyways, one of my bosses opened the pen and like an addict, I immediately went into a corner, popped in an ink cartridge (which you have to buy separately), put the pen back together, and started writing. Initially, the Petit1 skipped... A lot. It was very scratchy, too, but I kept trying to write with it for about a day.

Eventually, though, I gave up. The pen sat on my living room floor for about a week. By then, I used the entire ink cartridge included with the Pelikano and the Preppy\'s ink had dried up. Going through withdrawal, I forced myself to write with the Petit1 one more time. It took a few scratches in the corner of my notebook to start the ink flowing again, but once it did... Wow. It was like I had a whole new pen. The nib just glided across the page like a knife through butter. There were none of the aforementioned skips-- my lines were continuous and uniform. I fell in love.

So what happened? I read online that it\'s a good idea to clean your pens before use-- there tends to be manufacturing residue left over when you first purchase your pens. I didn\'t clean the Petit1 when I got it, so that\'s probably why I had such a rough time with it before. Once enough ink went through the feed, though, I guess it cleared away the residue. The moral of the story? Wash your pens.

Anyways, I really like my Petit1 now. Its size is perfect for sticking in my pocket on the go-- capped, it\'s only slightly bigger than a tube of chapstick-- and now that it writes smoothly, I can see myself using it a lot more often. The feed is clear, so when I get funky with ink colors, I can easily tell what color I\'ll be writing with. The cap snaps securely into position and doesn\'t budge unless I want it to. All of these things are huge pluses. My only real problem with it now is the grip (or lack thereof). There is just a cylinder of plastic and it\'s not like my fingers slip at all, but it would be nice if there were something (rubber or shaping of some sort) to reduce strain. I don\'t think it matters, though... The Petit1 was made for portability. Judging by the cartridge size it allows for, it wasn\'t made to be a workhorse.

The Petit1 is a pretty good pen for the money. The nib is audible on paper but writes fairly smoothly. I've had my Petit1 for several months now and it hasn't skipped or spurted ink yet. It is also a pretty sturdy pen. I have no worries about it leaking in my bag. The cap gives a very reassuring *click* when capped and a reassuring *click* when I attached the cap to the end of the pen for writing. The only thing that slightly bothers me is that the ink leaks into the clear part of the body of the pen.

Just a few days ago I wanted to test if washing the pen will make the parts that that have turned blue become clear again in case I wanted to switch to a different color without having to buy another body. It worked marvelously. I was afraid that the part under the nib and the part that runs from the ink cartridge to the nib would be stained blue but it washed out very nicely! The only thing I would advise is let the pen dry overnight before fitting in another cartridge.

One really important thing I want to mention is about the ink. I fitted my Petit1 with clear blue and I hated it at first because the letters would bleed and the writing would look extremely inconsistent. Not until I wrote in a notebook with better paper did I start to love the Petit1. This pen, or at least this pen with the clear blue, is not meant to be used on papers like those found in Mead notebooks. Here is my writing sample: http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa352/anonymously_AkiMai/petit1copy.jpg

Beautiful and great quality! Ink flows smoothly. The pen is really cute and perfectly fit in a pocket. It says F in the nib but writes a little broader than other Pilot fine fountain pens like Prera. It writes like a Lamy EF. Excellent for daily use! Now my only hope is that it will last long. And again, super fast shipping!

I was so excited when I received my Pilot Petit1 in pink! This pen writes like a charm. The ink flows soooo great. But I see I can't use it much because the ink flows out thick. However, its cute as a button. I will be ordering the other colors soon.

I just got this pink pen
this is so great! it's out of my expectations even better compared with my lamy alstar ef fountain pen.
why?
1 this pen is easy to use, only need 7 seconds to let ink out of the point
2 the point is easy to write with, not sratch paper, not like my lamy ef point
3 my lamy can't write smoothly when I wrote on thicker paper, but this pen is much better than lamy. you don't need to push to hard let the point come some ink.
4 i ordered clear blue for this pen, the ink is so pretty

strongly recommed you buy this pilot petit pen if you need some pen pretty, easy to use, not cost much