The Pilot Penmanship is, for a lack of a better term, an odd duck. Reviewing this pen has proved a challenge because in a lot of ways, I am not reviewing a pen, but rather, just a nib holder. The great thing about this pen is the silky smooth Japanese EF nib that comes as standard, all for a ridiculously low price point.
Fountain pen aficionados often talk about Japanese Extra Fine nibs and the unique quasi-needlepoint sensation (and resulting penmanship), but sadly for so many years, the low end of the Japanese market only offered fine nibs. Thanks to the Penmanship (and now, the new 78G) it gives people the opportunity to try a unique nib without the high cost, and no matter what other boons Pilot brings to the table with this pen, this reason alone makes it worth it.
Pilot Penmanship Clear Body Demonstrator Fountain Pen – Amazon / eBay
The entire construction is transparent plastic (also comes with a black plastic option with red highlights). Included are some cartridges and not much else.
In a lot of ways this is a dip pen (aesthetically), but with a filling mechanism and a feed. I wouldn’t say the design is boring, in fact it’s pretty unique, but it does lack the traditional “fountain pen” look if you know what I mean. A lot of people expect fountain pens to look and handle a certain way based on the premium notion of such a writing implement, and then you have a pen like the Pilot Penmanship that breaks all convention and is geared almost exclusively towards performance. Aesthetics are a secondary concern here.
As a side note; still rocking the J. Herbin Stormy Grey in this pen. Still works perfectly with no skipping although the feed does look heavily saturated with gold flakes. I did previously assume that this would cause extreme issues with flow, but I remain proven wrong. We shall see the damage once I take it apart for cleaning, but clearly J. Herbin conjured up some magic and didn’t simply stick some gold in a pot of ink – I’m guessing there’s some kind of lubricant.
J. Herbin 1670 Stormy Grey Gold Flake Fountain Pen Ink – Amazon / eBay
Anyway, back to the pen. The general trend of performance over aesthetic considerations continue with the lil’ stubby pen cap. It’s threaded (nicely), but features no clip and exists solely to protect the nib. One thing to note; the cap has two little wings on the side to stop the pen rolling around – weird looking but it works.
A closer look at the feed – it’s made of a cool transparent plastic with a channel width you would expect taking into account how fine the extra-fine nib is. Works amazingly well. I have never had it skip, no flow issues (ever) and it starts immediately. For a pen with a nib this fine and at this price point – it’s super impressive.
It’s also very pretty, the pen being a demonstrator – it’s fitting that the feed is transparent too!
The nib itself is interesting. It features wing clips to attach itself to the feed. Zero options for adjustments and sadly, the only way to Frankenstein this nib onto other pens (without keeping the feed) is to clip the wings off. Which incidentally is what I did. My Twsbi Eco has one of these and it works perfectly.
The other notable feature of the Pilot Penmanship is the ergo grip. Basically, it’s a Lamy Safari ergonomic cut out, which forces you to grip the pen in a certain way. I imagine that’s why its called the Pilot Penmanship.
Practically speaking, it’s solid insofar as comfort goes. Obviously the grip section is a smidgen on the anemic side and the balance is non-negotiable due to the all plastic construction + lack of a proper cap to post (although the cap can be posted). I didn’t find my penmanship improved significantly, however it does lend itself to precision. Messy handwriting will be somewhat neater as a consequence.
Some people love ergo features, others hate them. At the end of the day this is utterly subjective. As for myself, I used to hate the idea of them but I accepted them after playing with a Lamy Safari. No one wants to be told that they are holding a pen wrong, but then again – pens like this exist in the marketplace for a reason.
The tipping is ridiculously acute, only my Platinum #3776 with its UEF nib is finer. This does mean that it loves to catch on garbage-tier paper and consequently I would advise sticking to the better stuff. Other than that, the tipping is beautifully finished with a very smooth and even polish.
Objectively, this will never feel like you are writing on glass, but that’s due to the line width it cranks out. I have a F and M Pilot (Vanishing Points) and they are superb. Not as much feedback as the Platinum and not as “skating on glass”-like with the Sailors, but I would say something in between.
Which leads me to the writing sample. Now, as usual I am using a macro so it’s hard to gauge (visually) how fine this is, but by Western equivalents it would be an Extra-Extra-Fine. Once again though, very smooth with zero skipping or flow issues. It’s all very impressive and taking into account the entry level price, it makes pens that squeak or skip out of the box inexcusable.
Pens like this are why I have an issue with the Nemosine Singularity.
When you buy this pen (as an aficionado), it’s because of the sexy, sexy nib. It’s glorious and there frankly is no alternative at this price point outside of the new 78G, as I mentioned before.
As far as its performance as a pen goes, the Penmanship works perfectly, but it’s almost like a Bic in nature. It’s so unsubstantial and plastic-y that if it didn’t have such a great nib, I would hesitate to purchase it – even at its low price point.
I have bought maybe a dozen of these pens. I use them to test new inks (I always convert mine to eyedroppers) and to give out to friends as an introduction to fountain pens and cursive penmanship. With that said, I don’t love this pen. Its lack of presence and clip just rubs me the wrong way, and I tend to treat them almost like disposables. I pragmatically acknowledge that this is a silly way to grade a pen, but at the end of the day, I don’t want my blog to be all about performance or the advertising glib.
Pens are personal, they evoke certain emotions when you use them and the Pilot Penmanship fails in this regard. It excels at its primary function of scribbling, but leaves me feeling cold.
Make of that what you will. In any case, I reckon everyone should have one – if for nothing else, to test out an EF Japanese nib.
How many turns does the cap require to unscrew??
Alas, the Penmanship is now $43 on Amazon and not much better on eBay. Why, why, why?
Fortunately, the Kaküno (finally,someone remembers the umlaut) and Plumix are still affordable. If I am going to,try a Pilot UEF nib on a $43 Penmanship, I’ll just go for the UEF on a Platinum 3776 for about $25 more, and add it to my F and M 3776s. One of them, quite by accident, went unused but capped and inked for nearly two years, and wrote at first try! The other one was re-discovered in storage after only 14 months, and launched with equal aplomb.
I actually finally settled for ordering a “new style” 78G, made in Japan, with a EF nib on eBay for $19 shipped. So we’ll see . . . . I may now search out a Plumix with a similar -or finer?- nib.
Love your scribblings: thoughtful, literate, entertaining while being insightful and well worth reading. Keep following your curiosity, and let us in on what you find!
Thanks Brian, I recently moved to Portugal (last month) so I admit I have been slacking as of late. I will get back on the treadmill pronto though. Can’t believe the Penmanship is so expensive. When it comes to UEF nibs, I tend to make my own these days- I buy No.8 size chinese nibs that are boring but have good consistency, I tune them, regrind them and throw them inside donor pens. Keeping up with the skyrocketing prices these days is becoming too much hassle. I either feel like i am getting ripped off (how does a pen go from $13 to $43?!) or that I am being overly swayed by price because I think I got a deal.
Really love your comments Brian, much appreciated.
I think we both recently came here down a rabbit from a reddit post! I’m posting all the links at the end since they’re just horrendous looking. What a wonderful review you have here Thomas, a resource I was very grateful to find.
I had never heard of this pen before, and I wanted to know more since I love an asian EF pen and carry a moleskine planner. I currently use a Platinum 3776 EF but it’s a bit ostentatious and exxy for an everyday carry in my line of work.
I think the Penmanship has been discontinued from sale, but I did find a listing on AliExpress which is closer to the original price. I’ve ordered a couple and I’ll report back how they are.
Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/9p6px5/guess_i_just_write_way_too_small_for_fountain_pens/
AliExpress listing
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-Students-Luxury-Penmanship-Fountain-Pen-Sac-Japan-Pilot-Calligraphy-Pen-Ergo-Grip-Extra-Fine-NibClear/32863223416.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000014.1.25cd5dfaJS55DW&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.13338.106568.000000000000000&scm_id=1007.13338.106568.000000000000000&scm-url=1007.13338.106568.000000000000000&pvid=61aabfb0-8c94-48cd-aa75-d37f134be911 )
That Aliexpress option looks legit, I am sure you will enjoy it- remember if you don’t like the style of the pen but love the nib, you can put the nib inside the Twsbi Eco. Something worth considering!
A friend of mine gave me this pen as an introduction to fountain pens, and I love it! He gave it to me with a converter so I can use many different inks. I’m having feed issues so I was wondering what feed you use for your J. Herbin ink? Your ink seems to take up a lot more space in the pen, which I would love so I don’t have to fill it so often. Thanks!
If I understand your question, you don’t have any feed or nib issues but rather you want more ink capacity? I use exactly the same feed, I do however, not use a converter but rather just fill the whole barrel using a syringe. If leaking becomes an issue then add a bit of silicon grease around the threads and that will stop any leaking.
Let me know if that answers your question or if I interpreted it badly. 😉
Yes, that’s what I was curious about! Thank-you.
I owned this pen and I really wanted to love it, but it just won’t behave. It won’t write from day to day without me forcing ink into the feed. It is dry and skippy. I did put the nib into a metro – and that was fine. Well, it was extra fine, if you are in a punny mood. I guess my pen is a dud.
I own 4 of them and they all perform admirably. I did cannibalize one of them to use the nib in my Twsbi Eco, such a nice quasi-needlepoint. Did you have to modify the nib at all to get it on the metro?
No, I did not need to modify the nib in any way for it to fit in a Pilot Metropolitan. It is the standard nib for all the less expensive Pilot pens. The Wing Sung 698 also uses the same – and I put the Penmanship nib into my 698 last night. It works fine – but the 698 nib is good enough on its own. It should be the same for the Kakuno, Prera, and Plumix. (Sorry about all the horrid typos in my last post).
Very interesting, might pick up a Kakuno or Prera (the ivory looks nice) now! Thanks for letting me know & no worries about the typos- i’ll edit them out for you right now.
Thank you for an interesting and honest review.
I might even go further in both praise and criticism: I do love the nib, but for me the pen is about the nib and the nib only. I find the ergo grip section unusable, as it makes it impossible to hold the pen as I would like to. The pen body itself is “ugly as sin”, it does not do anything for me. As you said, it merely functions as a nibholder, but it works well.
I bought my Penmanships (I have 3) just for the nibs, put them + the feeds into Pilot Preras and am happily writing away since. I love all of my three ultra-extra-fine EF nibs, these are amazing and for me perform better than their equivalents from Sailor or Platinum, all that for a ridiculous price of under 10€ (2016, bought via Ama*on and shipped directly from Japan to Germany).
As you said, everyone interested in a Japanese EF shoulf at least try these, I clearly recommend them.
Glad to hear I am not alone in this! Did you have to modify the nib before putting them in the Prera’s?
The Prera, Metropolitan, Plumix, Penmanship and Kaküno share the exact same nibs and feeds, the only differences being the respecive nib widths that they are sold with — which I do not understand, but hey, as long as you can swap a Calligraphy EF / F / M / B-nib from a 10€/$ Plumix into a Kaküno or a Prera or vice versa, I do not care. These nibs even fit onto the Pilot MR, you would just have to change (or better: leave) the feed, as these take standard international cartridges.
Happy nib changing, y’all! 😉
Interesting, I didn’t know that! That certainly opens up some options. Guess I see a Kakuno and perhaps a Prera in my future.
Thanks for sharing Julie- much appreciated!