June 18, 2013

Some time ago I backed the Kickstarter project for the P1 pen; a better body for the Pilot Hi-Tec-C / G-Tec pen, made from anodised Aluminium. I was absolutely delighted with the look and feel of this pen as soon as I received it — it’s completely black, and appears to be seamless; imagine if the monolith from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was cylindrical.

My one problem with the pen is that after a while the ink flow would just fade away to nothing. Apparently I’m not alone in having this problem.

At first I thought this was due to the extreme fineness of the pen nib but I still had the problem after getting some broader refills from Jet Pens in the US. After taking one of these ‘dried-up’ refills out of the pen I found that it worked fine.

I’ve now cut a small notch into the end of the refill and the pen seems to work really well now. My theory is that the refill is held in place so tightly that there’s a partial vacuum forming and stopping the ink flowing. If this proves to be the case it’s a definite inconvenience to have to dig out a scalpel and put a notch in new refills. Apart from that the pen now feels like the premium pen it was supposed to be.

Pens


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