Buy these Fountain Pens? - Pilot Kakuno

[@CatholicZola]

"Children like myself who are 31 years old" I feel so seen and so understood

[@stationery.shenanigans]

The Kakuno in medium nib with Pilot black cartridge + Kokuyo paper is the ultimate combination in my opinion, can't explain it! Thanks for sharing.

[@BlankFirstPage]

Kokuyo is such good paper.

[@HEYitsTRAV]

You are exactly right about the ball bearings. They are in there to agitate the ink as the pen moves so that ink is less likely to stick and get stuck on the interior. I haven’t used these pens before, but Pilot makes good stuff. My go-to fountain pen is the Pilot Vanishing Point.

[@BlankFirstPage]

The vanishing point is such a cool design!

[@kan-zee]

Yeah ....What @HEYitsTRAV , Said .. ✍🏼🖋😎👍

[@IvyRoad]

I have 5 Kakunos, all clear demonstrators, in all nib sizes, and haven’t had a skipping problem with any of them. I love them❤ I’m glad you did not give up on them because of the reluctant red. I very much like the quality of the plastic which feels quite sturdy, and I love the look of the demonstrators, but not the others. People never fail to comment on how cool it is when I take it out of my bag. I like it so much that I don’t crave other pens… freeing up my money for ink ;0)

[@IvyRoad]

I miscounted - I have 6!

[@BlankFirstPage]

Nice! You are right, they feel really good quality, especially for the fact they're not particularly expensive. I've since cleaned it out a bit better and it's flowing much nicer, change of ink helped as well.

[@IvyRoad]

@@BlankFirstPage Oh, good!

[@DarrenWalley]

What is a demonstrator pen...?

[@BlankFirstPage]

@@DarrenWalley It's a pen you can see through - it 'demonstrates' the ink and the mechanism inside. They're particularly good for when you've got a shimmering ink that you want to enjoy in the pen as well as on the paper.

[@rostinfarm]

Good video :) The Pilot Kakuno was my first fountain pen purchase. I have two of them now. I'm 72 and have not written with fountain pens since I was 12 years old. I wanted to practice using one that was was not too expensive in case I ruined the nib. I found it very easy to use and have not had any problems with it yet - using a cartridge or bottled ink. Since I have come across your channel, I am now into Field Notes and expensive pencils !

[@BlankFirstPage]

Thanks for watching and glad you’re into the Field notes and pencils! Hope you’re enjoying them!

[@nohandle-01]

Phenomenal bleed through actually sounded like a compliment 🤣

[@BlankFirstPage]

Kind of is! Sometimes it’s a nice aesthetic. Thanks for watching!

[@sealine8717]

I had a very similar experience with a Pilot Metropolitan medium and ferris wheel press ink in a converter. I think it uses the same nib and feed as the Kakuno. Cleaned it out and put in a standard pilot black ink cartridge and it's been free of skips and hard starts since then. Maybe ink issue or cleaning issue, hard to say.

[@roxannevan1503]

Yes, rinsing with water usually helps clear the pen & converter. I find just a touch of liquid dish soap w/water is even better. Not a drop, that’s too much. Just touch the tip of the soap bottle & rinse into a small glass then flush like you were filling & emptying pen. I do a final only water flush

[@BlankFirstPage]

Thanks for the tip - I used your method on another fountain pen recently and it worked extremely well!

[@spangancayco]

Hi! Really enjoying your channel and content. Would love to hear more about your fountain pen collection, and what works well in your Field Notes. Cheers!

[@BlankFirstPage]

Thank you for watching! I have quite a limited fountain pen collection compared to most stationery people. My all time, reliable, regular favourite are my Twsbi 580ALR with a fine nib, and a Muji fountain pen. I like both because they feel robust, and they write with a great balance of smooth and scratchy.

[@fabriziogiannoni5466]

Normalmente la misura M del nib ha meno probabilità di dare quei problemi rispetto ad un F nib. Mi è successa la stessa cosa con una Faber Castell , dopo mesi di tentativi l’ho portata alla Casa della Stilografica di Firenze dove mi hanno risolto il problema (gratuitamente!). Si trattava, in quel caso, di un difetto di stampaggio delle plastiche del conduttore.

[@fabriziogiannoni5466]

Puoi utilizzare i fazzoletti sporchi di inchiostro come test Rorschach, un altro vantaggio delle stilografiche, tra le migliaia di altri vantaggi.

[@KendallW]

I haven't tried the Kakuno, but I've noticed I generally prefer the medium pilot nibs. But, sometimes that "crispier" feedback is really, really nice.

[@BlankFirstPage]

A fine Pilot nib can definitely feel like a scraper sometimes, but when it's good it's like you say - crispy.

[@stephenchung]

Preppy is pretty good

[@playingcardsasmr7751]

I’m new to your channel but enjoying all the field notes love. Something I’ve always wondered is which field notes pocket notebooks work best for fountain pens. Have you done a test video? Would love to see that!

[@BlankFirstPage]

I haven't done a test video, but that's a good idea. What I have done is written in a lot of field notes with fountain pens. FN paper is definitely not what is normally referred to as 'fountain pen friendly', meaning you will get some feathering. I personally don't mind it that much when it does happen, and it's certainly not a big problem - the standard 60# innards on most field notes will take a fountain pen just fine, with minimal feathering. Thank you for watching!

[@ambuj64]

The ball-bearings cause the ink to stop happened to me before.

[@dannychen1064]

never had issue with pilot skipping. It's probably more of the problem of ink than the pen

[@7775Kevin]

I love my Field Notes but sometimes have trouble with fountain pens on certain of their papers. I’ve never understood the wildly different quality of their papers.

[@jkardi9803]

I have only tried the waterproof Adventurer Field Notes so far, but I know what you mean. because it is meant to repel/not absorb moisture, pencil lead transfers between pages super easy. I like Lucas' tip to use phone book or map tears between pages, almost like blotters

[@BlankFirstPage]

It’s true about the paper - the editions tend to have different specifications so the papers are intentionally a different type but I’d agree they’re not the most fountain pen friendly in the traditional sense. I still use my fountain pens in them, I just embrace the feathering and bleed!

[@kimmcee]

I have a Kakuno in Medium and I also get issues with the skipping. To be honest, that happens to my Muji too(since you showed it). Every single pen I've used Herbin ink in, has given me problems. Its a bit discouraging because I clean my pens properly.

[@BlankFirstPage]

Very interesting - could be that ink. I've given it away so I haven't tested it out on other pens. I have had good luck with my Muji fountain pens. I have one which I've used a lot and another spare. I think they wear in, in a good way, as over time the one I've used a lot has become a smoother writer.

[@kimmcee]

@@BlankFirstPage Well, I gave my Muji another try. 😮‍💨 Still skips. If you have a po box, I will send it to you and you let me know what I'm doing wrong haha!

[@valeriegriffith5409]

If you used a Kakuno EF and didn't put so much pressure on them, you wouldn't have bleed through. I have 14 of them, and I rotate them out to use different inks. I'm in America. I write on cheap notebook paper.

[@kellydavis6954]

Always wear disposable gloves when cleaning or filling fountain pens.🙂

[@BlankFirstPage]

That is a very smart suggestion!

[@sunnycharacter]

Maybe the problem is the Herbin ink?

[@BlankFirstPage]

Quite likely, I wasn’t a fan of it in general.

[@sunnycharacter]

@@BlankFirstPage ice toyed with the idea of getting a bottle to try it out. Thanks!

[@laurieline3888]

Hi everyone, I just ordered a Kaweco Liliput fountain pen fine nib. I’ve tried the Muji fountain pen and loved it. I also have the Indigraph that can use India ink. Pricey and doesn’t post at all but reliable and fun. Thanks for the great video, @blankfirstpage !

[@BlankFirstPage]

Thank you for watching! How is the Kaweco liliput fountain pen?

[@laurieline3888]

@@BlankFirstPage Unfortunately I haven’t tried it yet because it came with a blue cartridge (I prefer black). As soon as I get the black cartridges, I will update my response. 😊

[@laurieline3888]

⁠​⁠@@BlankFirstPage UPDATE: I finally got some black ink cartridges. I don’t think a piston converter is available for the Liliput, so I will probably use the Platinum Carbon ink in an empty cartridge. The Kaweco ink is not water resistant. I got the fine nib which is not as fine as I would like. Hard to tell as I used my current Field Notes notebook as a test. When the pen is closed, it is the same length as the Liliput ballpoint. When the pen is posted, the fountain pen is about 2 cm longer than the ballpoint. Nice balance with or without the cap. Even though it is a pocket pen, I will probably stick with ballpoint (less chance of being messy). I will be adding the fountain pen to my pencil case, however. Overall, I’m glad I bought it. It’s a nice addition to my collection. 😊

[@BlankFirstPage]

Sounds like a great addition to the rotation!