The Pilot Vanishing Point is a pen I kind of knew I would not love, but kind of got it anyways because it is one of those pens everyone should experience.

It is really weird with a retractable fountain pen, and for some stuff it is really awesome. Especially when you for example write in public place like a train or somewhere you might have to get up fast. And don’t want yet another thing to remember.

It could also have been awesome for taking quick notes, like in the office or what ever. But this doesn’t really work for me with this pen because in the time it would take it to start, I could have uncapped my Lamy 2000 or my TWSBI Eco in less time. And for this reason I usually just use a pencil for this.

This pen is not for everyone, for obvious reasons.

• The placement of the clip makes it unusable for a lot of people
  
• It is simply to thick for a lot of people to write with it comfortably
  
• It looks like shit
  
• The CON-40 converter doesn’t have enough capacity to make it a good option for a one pen all day option. I tried this multiple times (with my Lamy 2000 as a backup) at the end of my student days. And it never lasted me to lunch.
  
• It’s a slow starter

There are also a lot of good things about it

• This is one of very few areas where Pilot actually are creative and makes interesting designs
  
• It is retractable
  
• You can get replacement nib units for it
  
• It writes very well once it gets started

It is an interesting pen, but in no way a favourite of mine. And I don’t really recommend anyone to get it. There are much better stuff to get for the same money.

To be honest, I get more joy out of my TWSBI Eco with a stub than this.

This is the stuff I use as of July 2021.

Notebooks:

• Leuchtturm1917 A5 hardcover: Lined and dotgrid
  
• Leuchtturm1917 A5 5 year journal

Not using that many notebooks during COVID.

Pens and inks:

• Lamy 2000: Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Kai
  
• TWSBI Eco Broad: Pilot Iroshizuku Shin-Kai
  
• TWSBI Eco Stub: J. Herbin - 1798 Collection Améthyste de l’Oural
  
• Pilot Vanishing Point: Pilot Iroshizuku Kosu-Mosu
  
• Ystudio Brassing: Pilot Iroshizuku Kosu-Mosu
  
• Franklin Christoph Pocket 66: Pilot Iroshizuku Kosu-Mosu

To answer this I’ll start with what I don’t like.

• Scratchy nibs
  
• A very thin line

In the past I have been more into medium and broad nibs. These days I prefer a stub or anything that makes my wrting be varied and look more interesting. But I have also noticed that my writing works better with finer nibs. So where I’m in the past was a borad and medium guy, I’ll probably do more fine and medium in the future.

To be honest I think everyone start out with “I like this type of nib” and then at some point they move away from that and instead focus on what attributes they like or dislike.

For a very long time I had to order everything I wanted from either UK or US stores. So ever since I discovered Tudos.no I have bought what I could from them.

There are a number of reasons why I chose to do this:

• Having it available from a Norwegian store makes this stuff more accessible and more popular
  
• I save a lot in customs and shipping
  
• Much faster delivery most of the time

Some stuff are more expensive. But usually not by that much if I include shipping and customs.

If something isn’t available from them, I usually look for it in this order:

• Goulet Pens
  
• JetPens

For pencil stuff, I usually start in this order, and look at JetPens if neither of them have it.

• CW Pencils
  
• Pencils.com

But if something isn’t available at Tudos but I can get it directly like from Nock Co or Field Notes I get it direct.

Unlike the first fountain pen where I think it is very difficult to find the perfect pen, I think we have the perfect option for your second pen.

This is for anyone who have had a fountain pen and decided that they like it.

The perfect second pen is the TWSBI Eco. There are a bunch of standard color options, plus more limited editions a few times a year. They have a standard nib line up from EF to 1.1 stub.

Of my current 5 pens in use, two of them are Eco’s. It’s kind of weird having pens I paid like $30 for among a bunch of $150-$200 pens.

I think there are two good options for your first fountain pen. Either the Lamy Safari or the Pilot Metropolitan.

The issue here is that neither of them are the perfect option. It kind of depends if you want more color or nib options and are willing to deal with the Lamy Safari grip section or if you are not and are willing to deal with much less color options and fewer nib options.

I think the Pilot Metropolitan is the better bet.

I have one of the “bullet” space pens, that I got to check out if it worked as a pocket pen for me.

The short version is that it didn’t.

I think it is a great pen, and if you need something very small or something that will work anywhere, this is it.

But it didn’t really work out for me for a number of reasons.

1. I lost like 5 clips in a month
   
2. I prefer the P8126 refill to the space pen one; or a god gel ink pen.
   
3. It wasn’t the worlds most comfortable pen to write with for me.

So I ended up going back to the Pilot Metropolitan and later changing to the Ystudio brass portable pen.

It’s a cool product though.

I’m not sure if I recommend it. Except for very particular use cases.

Golden Bear is a great inexpensive pencil, sold exclusively by Pencils.com. I ordered a pack of 144 of them at one point. So I guess it is safe to assume that I love them.

The 144 pack costs like $35 so it is very inexpensive. I’m going to order another one of them at some point.

It comes in a great blue and a great orange color. It is a harder pencil. And it also comes in a jumbo version.

If you come from a Blackwing to this, it isn’t really the same kind of thing. Blackwing is much nicer, this is a regular #2 pencil, so much harder than the Blackwings.

But if you look for a really good pencil that is much better than what you’ll find in most stores this is it.

When I’m going to write a lot with pencil and don’t want to sharpen a lot, this is my go to.

This pencil is a no brainer recommendation for anyone. It’s great and inexpensive.

It is important to clean your fountain pens. It isn’t difficult or hard.

Note: there are some weird “only use sterile water” thingy in most fountain pen warranties. I have never followed this, but YMMW.

The way I clean my fountain pens is that a few times a year when I have written a pen dry I find a few glasses of room tempered water and get started.

For a piston filler I just move the piston up and down a bunch of times, until the water coming out of the pen is the same color as clean water.

The actual process of getting there is a little bit more to it than that. But I usually start with one glass and and do the first round to get out most of the ink.

Then I move over to a second glass and repeat the process a while more. When the water coming out of the pen is identical to the water in the glass I do a final fill and kind of rotate the pen for a while before emptying it. Sometimes it gets out some of the ink around the piston.

Then I do a symbolic rinsing in the third glass, but at this point it is typically more or less 100% clean.

For cartridge converter pens I take out the converter and find my syringes. Fill up the bulb and press water through the nib section two or three times.

And then I do the same with a ink syringe with the converter 4 or 5 times.

After all of that I find some tissue paper and put the nib to it to soak up as much water as possible, before I refill them.