$5 Fix to a $100 Problem - Pilot Vanishing Point

The to @MissMarilynDarling for swapping nibs with me. Seems like we fixed each others problem for no cost.
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#pilot #fountainpen #doodlebud

[@MissMarilynDarling]

I'm so glad you like the nib I Love the medium nib you sent its so much better for my style of writing :) so Thank you Thank you Thank you :)

[@Doodlebud]

It works exactly how I want it to now. Sounds like my medium is doing the same for you

[@yourname3336]

@@Doodlebudhello how are you?! Big fan here! I bought a VP broad nib, it never false starts and is one of the most consistent pen I own,but the nib is a little bit scratchy for my liking, can you please tell me the exact name of a sand paper or something similar so I can smooth it myself! I did my research but there are too many brands grits, I don’t which one I need to make it as smooth as possible! Please help me if possible give me a link so I can buy it!

[@peterharris5387]

That's a good news story. I found my Lamy 2000 hard to love because the was producing a broad line. I didn't fancy working on the nib. My good news story is that I found an ink that flows better and allows the pen to work with my handwriting. Noodler's Kiowa Pecan was my outlay ... I can't beat your $5

[@user-gl5ld9vm7i]

I absolutely love my Pilot Vanishing Point. It happens to use a broad. I realize that the majority of FP users prefer a finer nib. However, I'm a bit different. I like to "paint brush" lines..😂.😂

[@PalashBackup]

That is why Japanese pens have the FM nib designation. I was initially unhappy with the broad nib of my 823. I just used it for a few pages. It grew on me after about 6-8 pages and now it is my journaling pen. I think it was the pale ink that did it, the shading was awesome.

[@majajamie]

I'm glad the nib swap worked out so well for both of you 😊 It just shows that you shouldn't give up on a great pen just because you prefer a different nib on it!

[@Doodlebud]

Best $5 I've spent on a pen

[@majajamie]

@@Doodlebud 👏

[@soloraceschannel]

I got my capless 2 years ago and didnt care to check the nib. It was supposed to be fine but wrote like a pilot fine-medium nib, and is waaay too wet. I also had nib dryout issues that people who are using the same ink did not have - they can seal for at least a week, and mine have hard starts in 1 hour. I changed ink to resolve the hard start issue but well it's still too wet and can be a problem when you write quick notes, which is what the pen is supposed to do! Recently i suddenly decided to check the nib, and the tines were clearly too wide, so i fixed it, and it now writes normal and "seals" better. I usually check the nib when i get a new pen but somehow didnt do so for the capless. I guess you just need to check the nib no matter what. 😅

[@johnlopez3996]

Miss Marilyn Darling is wonderful. So glad that you saved a lot of money.

[@qvisionstudios]

For me, I love it if my nibs wrote wider than advertised. Wider the better. Give me the medium-broad, broads, double broads and stubs. I love seeing ink painted onto paper. Big fan of sheaning, shading and shimmer inks.

[@Lawraven]

For my writing style I purchased a custom ground, fine point calligraphy nib for my vanishing point. I have to sign a lot of documents with my signature and it is my go to pen for that purpose.

[@MrAndrew1953]

Good to see you showing how some proactive work can change the way a pen works for you. Worth the effort.

[@Doodlebud]

Best $5.10 I've spent yet!

[@NagiSeishirou-il2rr]

Conteoversial, but i love medium nibs. I use my fountain pens for taking my science notes, so the bold lines really help me out in terms of legibility, esp cause my handrwiting is absolute ass 😂

[@Doodlebud]

Not controversial at all. Medium is probably the most poplar in size sold 👍

[@archivist17]

Two dissatisfied people enhappied! 😀

[@niftybottle]

I don't get along with most Pilot nibs - I don't like their smoothness. But I fell in love with the click of the Vanishing Point. Sent mine off to a nibmeister (Kirk Speer of Pen Realm) and got it ground into a CSI, and I love it now.

[@briandsouza7854]

I tried 2 Pilot Metropolitans in Medium, Pilot tank in Medium, Pilot Kakuno in Medium & Fine but the nibs were not smooth at all. Mostly everyone praises Metropolitan as the beginners fountain pen, but I found it disappointing. It's just in my drawer now. I purchased Jinhao 95 Fine which costs 1/4 of my Metropolitan but it writes so smooth, just like butter. Pilot doesn't have my trust now. This is the first time that I have seen someone else complain about Pilot as well. Now I can understand that 1 pen may have a defective nib but not all.

[@OTrizy]

I bought a second twsbi vac700r iris, this time fine nib since my medium nib worked so well and i love the body of the pen makes it so nice to hold and look at. The pen at first was too wet with pilot iroshizuku yamabudo and even with rhodia 90gsm paper it was bleeding through so cleaned the pen and inked with noodlers Black swan in australian roses. No more bleed thru so i think it was the ink didnt fit with the pen, but then i noticed that there was noticceable amount of hardstarts, I cleaned the pen again this time took the nib out of the housing and the feed and saw that the tines were a bit too close to each other close to the tips. I dont own any brass sheets or basically any tuning equipment so I pressed the nib on to the paper like when you try to see if there is any line variation with the nib. I did that for a bit taking breaks checking if its ok and not overdoing it. Now its mostly fine the rare times that has it i dont basically notice it or doesnt bother me.

[@cynthiaalvarado8610]

I am now capable of fixing nibs thanks to being a DB regular viewer and can tune the nibs. However, the pens that I found that I don’t use much comes down to the grip. I love the Pilot Elite but had to let it go because my hand would cramp. Same with the Lamy Dialogue. It’s too girthy for me to hold properly.

[@osirisgolad]

Most of Pilot's nibs don't go from fine to medium, there's a fine-medium between the two, so there does need to be some space to fit that in. It also looks like you got a medium at the broader end of the spectrum, though.

[@HomerIncognito]

Lamy, for example, explicitly mention their ranges of nib widths: Extra Fine: 0.36 mm (+/- 0.06 mm) Fine: 0.46 mm (+/- 0.06 mm) Medium: 0.56 mm (+/- 0.06 mm) Broad: 0.675 mm (+/- 0.7 mm) They overlap, so getting a fine that's broader than a medium can be actually within their specs. Hard to say what are official ranges from Pilot though, or if there are any.

[@osirisgolad]

@@HomerIncognito There is a table of target sizes, but no range. I find it somewhat ironic that LAMY of all companies would publish a range, considering that they are so often outside of the stated range. I can only think of Pelikan who are more inconsistent than LAMY.

[@beherit98]

My lamy 2000 steel was giving me problems since i bought it almost 8 years ago. I always put it down to QC but when i changed my ink from monte verde blue black to a old bottle of private reserve ebony black, its the best its ever performed on paper. I was almost sending my pen for a nib grind until I decided to just try the simplest of things first. Change to a better suiting ink

[@Xyz-ij6rh]

Maybe we could use a App to connect people for nib swapps it just sucks if you're not happy with the nib

[@cloudybeforerain7134]

That’s a good idea.

[@Doodlebud]

Check Reddit and looks for the pen swap www.reddit.com/r/penswap/

[@bobcog0001]

I always use a medium nib, for me fine nibs are far too rough, especially since I don't use fountain pen paper as I am a student and I go through paper fast and buying fountain pen paper would be far too expensive.

[@Calcprof]

I love my pilot broads, and I actually have a VP stub nib. Many Japanese (including pilot, I believe) have -- on some pens -- a MF nib. This would then fit in the space between the VP F and M nibs.

[@Doodlebud]

Oh nice!

[@AndrewWertheimer]

I was wondering is the stub like most 1.1 stubs? I like smaller ones like the .6 or .8 stubs from Birmingham Pens. The VP seems like it would be a small one,so I’m tempted to try it. Thanks

[@Calcprof]

@@AndrewWertheimer I bought it years ago. Probably like 2003 or so. It may have been a nib master’s grind from a VP broad.

[@AndrewWertheimer]

@@Calcprof thanks Tom. I know Pilot sells a stub nib so it may have been that or a grind. Our pens don’t have a nib medical record as part of their provenance. Thanks for the reply and best wishes.

[@David.Buckheister]

This video cuts deep. I had the same problem, I got a VP with a fine and it was way to fine for me, to the point I didn't pick up the pen for almost two years. Sadly I went the buy a new medium nib unit for $90+ route.

[@sirdannybob]

Still have the fine? Want to sell it? (Sorry to bug; I realize the video is old.)

[@David.Buckheister]

@@sirdannybob No I moved it on to a pen pal, otherwise I would love to help you out.

[@sirdannybob]

Thanks all the same.

[@michelledelecki6224]

my medium pilot vp is due to arrive today...my first gold nib. I dont usually like fine or extra fine, so i figured i should be happy with a medium nib! we will see!

[@Doodlebud]

Hope you love it 👍

[@TheCreedBratton]

A bought a cheap Wordsworth medium off of Amazon. I hated it. Feedbackish, it was a nail, it just felt off. I did a very light grind to make the tip a little more rounded and not as oblong, broke the sharp edges, played with the gap and alignment, polished it up a bit, and it feels sooooo good now despite being a nail.

[@StampedAF]

Thank you for sharing! I am so not a fan on my EF VP but don’t want to spend $150+ on a new nib.

[@Doodlebud]

This is a place to check out for a potential swap. I see VP nib units come up frequently www.reddit.com/r/Pen_Swap/

[@McAmeron089III]

Hey DB! I'm still fairly newish on fountain pens;started out loving medium nibs. As I progress(sink deeper down the rabbit-hole) I find I enjoy somewhat finer nibs. My latest love of fineness is the E95S extra fine. It's a little bouncy and a lovely writer! I took a chance on trying it and very glad I did. Like you,I think I would prefer a fine rather than the medium I have on my Vanishing Point. Would that I could do it for $5.10.

[@Doodlebud]

The e95s does have a lovely bounce for such a small nib

[@draganaj6752]

Really nice work! I am not yet there to grind my own nib, but I have ordered a Pilot Vanishing Point last week in M - if it will be .6 line width, then I will get into the same problem as you had...🙈 How did you learn grinding and how did you start it? Trial-and-error on cheap pens' nibs? Any recommendations on training material here? Never sent off a pen to a nib meister as well, not sure to whom really here in Europe, but I have 2-3 candidates who would need a tuning definitely. I adore how you got lot of your pens for a good price and then brought them back to life, respect! I really admire the looks of your vintage Pilote Elite and even more how it writes; at ebay I do find it for around 400 Euros, not convinced to pay that price as I don't know how I will like the pen in the end. Would love to try it though. And a really cool idea to exchange that nib on your Pilot VP! I will keep learning from your videos, thanks for putting them out!

[@Doodlebud]

400 euros for a pilot elite! Damn! Was only about $100 or so from eBay. I have a whole playlist of nib videos and just did an interview with Josh Lax, a Nibmeister from the USA. Give it a watch, lots of info

[@draganaj6752]

@@Doodlebud Excactly! Almost fell of the chair when I saw that price...I am quite new to your channel, I will definitely check out your nib playlist! Thank you!

[@kevinm8770]

I found a FM Vanishing Point. The M's were way too broad and the F way too fine for my taste. The FM fits the sweet spot in between... probably 0.4mm. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available except for a few gold trim pens in Japan.

[@Doodlebud]

Ahhhh, yeah there seems to be more options direct from Japan

[@fiachrahackett]

My 'f' pilot capless is as broad as my steel nibbed pilot 'm' nibs. It doesn't bother me but I would have preferred the 'ef' in hindsight. My big issue with the pilot capless is that the nib unit has an amount of movement and give within the barrel when I write. Mostly lateral movement when I make decisive strokes but some vertical movement if I am doing big vertical strokes It's fine for printing and notes but for drawing it is no bueno. Since I've noticed it it has driven me a bit crazy

[@Doodlebud]

That's odd it wiggles, it shouldn't.

[@fiachrahackett]

@@Doodlebud just a small amount of movement a bit of wiggle, I tried some other capless models in a pen shop recently and they had the same issue but less pronounced, the decimo had even less. I generally don't notice it especially when I write lightly but when I do write or draw fast (and with passion) I notice it and it starts to bug me like nothing else. I have the birch version which has a slightly wider diameter body (slightly more expensive too) and I wonder if this has something to do with it. There are few other people that have mentioned this issue online too. I'm going to tinker with it again soon see can a thin layer of tape or something keep it more 'snug' inside the barrel

[@Doodlebud]

Interesting, yeah it might have to do with that particular pen body material and your pen pressure when doing fast strokes. If its going to wiggle, it will happen with greater pressure and faster movements

[@philippebarillecavalier9275]

Recently tried Pilot Metropolitan and Prera, both M, and performed like Western F. I It seems that it is not quite representative of their more expensive offering.

[@Doodlebud]

I did a video on the line widths of a bunch of nibs. Big difference between a medium Prera & medium VP

[@majajamie]

@@Doodlebud Yes, I noticed this when I tried a Med VP at a pen club meeting a few years ago; I asked the owner (Jim) if it was a Broad nib and he said no, it's a Medium. LOL.

[@dacksonflux]

I got my vanishing point with an EF and I honestly hate the thing. No matter how wet the ink is, it won't write any better than dragging a needle across paper.

[@draganaj6752]

I had the very same experience, I ordered a VP Decimo with EF and I never thought that a nib could be too fine for my taste, but now I understand what needlepoint means...I think I will try to widen it a little with a brass sheet.

[@ironmic9244]

Are you thinking fo re-etching the nib on the Montblanc M with your laser engraver?

[@Doodlebud]

The lasers I have can't be used for that type of engraving. It requires a different laser type & setup.

[@ichirofakename]

Sounds like you have a lot of pens that treat you right.

[@Doodlebud]

Sometimes you find out the pen will be different that expectation, so I try to make the most of it.

[@eno88]

2 things. Just bought a Mb no 22 a couple hours ago, love it, my wife may kill me but that's fine. Also, I'm waiting for my first ever flex nib from Pen Chalet. Discount code doodlebud :3 Monteverde Invincia Nebula.

[@Doodlebud]

Nice! Hope you love both of your new pens 👍

[@ameliabuns4058]

did you go to the us border with a car or something? shipping is so annoying in canada :( i really want the purple decimo but it's so expensive! wish they had a medium fine, I want medium but it's just barely too big, I can't decide on the size! not that i can afford it anyways tho. i got a moonman a1 tho and i love it! I gave it to a nib meister myself and tbh i really regret it, I liked it better before!

[@michelledelecki6224]

I want that pen too. it's gorgeous 😍

[@Doodlebud]

Yup drive across when I had an appointment close to the crossing

[@somayehmoossavi4133]

hi, i have a new gold stub 1.1 Leonardo nib. do you know anywhere i can swab it?

[@Doodlebud]

Go on to reddit pen swap and make a posting

[@ironmic9244]

I need a play-by-play about this shipping situation. You went to the US? It was cheaper to travel to the US and send it, than ship from Canada?

[@michelledelecki6224]

I wonder if he lives close to the border.

[@Doodlebud]

Yup I live close to the border. I scheduled a client appointment which is close to the crossing so just swung by to grab it quick while I was in the area. Quick 10-15min trip across & back.

[@ironmic9244]

@@Doodlebud It doesn't even take us 15 minutes to get to the custom agent in 15 minutes at any Niagara or Windsor crossing, unless it's in the night.

[@ironmic9244]

@@Doodlebud Pineider just released a triangular shaped pen called the Tempi Moderni

[@HamzaKhan-es2fi]

Hi, I have the exact same problem. I bought it with a medium nib. I would love it if someone can swap a fine or extra fine with mine.

[@Doodlebud]

Have a look on the reddit pen swap (www.reddit.com/r/Pen_Swap/) or possibly on virtual pen show (instagram.com/virtualpenshow/). I've bought a bunch from those and its a great spot for users to connect for things like this.

[@hktz1]

I wonder if a retailer would let you do an even swap if you bought it new. I can't see why not, you would just have to pay a small fee. But you mentioned you bought it second-hand, so that wouldn't have worked in your situation.

[@Doodlebud]

Not sure about their policies. That's the best thing about buying in store. You get to try it out right there to know what you like

[@fatimaSM236]

❤ my v.p. Décimo (fine). I can write hoursss

[@somayehmoossavi4133]

hi, i received a pen. i would love to swap the nib. I've got leonardo momento zero gold nib in stub. i have not use it yet but i want the gold in fine nib. do you know any one interested? thanks

[@Doodlebud]

As I did on this video, just go on to the reddit pen swap and post the same thing. You get to connect with a bunch of people

[@somayehmoossavi4133]

thanks

[@kumarkartikeya7]

For me i am probably not going to buy pilot vanishing point. Its too expensive for my country's currency. For the cost of 1 pilot vanishing point. I can live for a month, everything like rent, electricity, food, phone everything included.

[@KWKarn]

Same here. Even if I had the money, I couldn't justify spending so much on a pen given how much it costs in my country.

[@StarKnightZ]

And that's exactly why the moonman A1 exists.

[@ZoneCrasher]

You can't have it for $100 any more. It's a $150 pen.

[@Doodlebud]

The nib unit is $100, you buy nib units on their own

[@dsb1763]

After watching this video, I will never understand fine and/or extra fine nib users. If you are going to put down ink, PUT DOWN INK. Yes, I am a broad, BB, and BBB user.

[@theannoyinghistorian1812]

You sound like a person who drives an American 1000hp truck with broken breaks

[@kenshinnotifani]

That's the glory of a subjective hobby: you don't have to understand. DB says he doesn't like the way his writing looks with a broader nib. That's all you need to "understand".

[@tomnelson8515]

$20 shipping in Canada??? Ohhhhhh, you got to love socialism. Don't worry, the US is only one step behind.

[@stickoutofthemud]

You did NOT say “very” unique! Please don’t ever do that again.

[@Pararocket]

Noice. First comment

[@drainoman35]

I thought this was an actual fix... So for anyone else without connections, you just pay the 100. Cool beans.

[@Doodlebud]

You don't need connections, you just search online. Pen Swap and Instagram have postings for selling nib units or swapping with someone else frequently

[@EnCwoisant]

Dewww-dlebud