PILOT Kakuno Fountain Pen, Clear Barrel, Medium Nib (10822)

I have a number of fountain pens (8? 9?), though no really expensive ones. That's because I decided not to mess with what's working. The Kakuno is more comfortable to use than any other pen, and the EF nib is REALLY fine (Japanese nibs are finer, I guess). I had carpal tunnel surgery and have some arthritis in my hands and need an ergonomic pen. Used to use a Dr. Grip ballpoint for the same reason. I like the clear Demonstrator Kakuno because I can fill the pens with different inks and see which is which at a glance. Easy to use, easy to clean, don't dry up if the lid is off for a few minutes, and LIGHT, which I need.I also prefer plastic to metal pens, I've found. The metal is too cold and often heavy. So, yeah, nobody will gasp in astonishment at my fabulous $10 fountain pen, but hey--it writes great and feels great and I can tell what ink is in it. What's not to like?

Do I love pocket pens? Absolutely. I have no idea why I waited this long to grab one of these. It’s a wonderful writer and the extra fine nib is a joy to write with! I love the clear design and I paired it with the con 70 instead of the terrible con 40 converter making it a breeze to fill. It’s a nice light weight pen and very comfortable to write with in the go! It’s small enough to fit in my purse and I’ve since purchased in a few different colors. This is now one of my top recommendations for a into fountain pen.

Kaküno Demonstrator pen, Medium NIB.The pen arrived in a large cardboard display box instead of the typical loosely packed small air-bubble envelope. I had no idea what it could possibly be. The box looked as if the inner box slides out. It does not. The box has a magnetically hinged flap. Inside the gold embossed "goldspot" gift box were 5 Iroshizuku ink sample vials, the Kaküno pen in a foam cutout, a Pilot Black ink long cartridge, a Pilot CON-40 ink Converter, an instruction leaflet. I was pleasantly surprised, bordering on shock; Christmas arrived early this year.This is my second Kaküno fountain pen, so I am intimately familiar with it. My first was a dry writer that needed extensive tuning. Knowing what it had taken to get that pen to write wet, I threw all caution to the wind, and without first flushing the pen out as I would normally do, I syringe filled a spare Pilot cartridge with Robert Oster Aqua ink, waited a minute to let the ink saturate the Feed Follower fins, and put the pen to paper.It wrote perfectly right out of the box - it layed down a nicely defined Fine saturated dark line; the NIB had minimal feedback (the was no dragginess), was not scratchy, did not have "catchy" spots that would malform characters or cause lettering to bunch up. It wrote as well as my tuned Kaküno, meaning perfectly. There were no hard starts, no false starts, no skipping, no blobbing; dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s were perfect. The Kaküno is not a "Juicey" pen, though; it is moderately wet, bordering on the dry side, so moderate flow and wet bottled inks are suggested.A Japanese "Medium" NIB is about the same width as an European, or Western, "Fine".The pen is ergonomic, has no sharp edges. The Section has slight sloping facets that provide a natural fingertip hold; the barrel stepdown is not obtrusive, not objectionable, not irritating; the Section grip is over an inch long. The plastic is very high quality, it doesn't feel cheap, as if it could crack by just looking at it. The pen does not dry out in under 60 seconds when left laying on the desk uncapped, in fact it doesn't dry out even after 4 minutes. Excellent! Exceptional! You will not need to get into the habit of continually capping and uncapping the pen to prevent the pen from drying out. The air holes in the cap help to minimize NIB creep by minimizing the air vacuum that would suck ink onto the NIB as the pen is uncapped. Don't fill in the 3 cap holes. The NIB unit can be rotated to fine tune one's hold - very important for left handed writers, especially "lefties" that crane their hand at awkward angles to write "from above".If you are in the habit of storing your pens NIB pointing up, the two barrel end holes will need to be filled in to prevent the NIB from drying out overnight. A new user should not attempt doing so (and neither should they worry about it) as it will be beyond their expertise to do so without damaging the barrel. Do NOT store the pen NIB down as the ink WILL drain into the cap and make a big mess. Horizontal storing is suggested; buy a nice fountain pen case, or just use a rectangular eye glass case layered with soft cotton or foam. When picked up from horizontal storage the pen will write perfectly with the very first stroke.There is no metal clip to prevent the pen from rolling, but neither is there the irritating metal clanking sound a Lamy metal clip makes, for example. The hexagonal facets on the cap and barrel will prevent most rolling, the small Cap stub should bring it to a full stop. Capped, the centre of balance is exactly where the cap meets the barrel; uncapped, the centre of balance is exactly at the half way mark of the pen. The pen is neither too light nor too heavy. The cap weighs 4 grams, the body weighs 7 grams, slightly more when inked. Posting the cap is possible and is suggested; the cap edge isn't sharp and not likely to irritate the web of the hand; no pressure is needed to keep the cap firmly in place.A syringe refillable Pilot long ink cartridge holds ~0.9ml, Pilot Namiki IC100 cartridges hold ~0.8ml, the Con-70 holds ~1.0ml, the Pilot Petite short cartridge holds ~0.6ml, the supplied CON-40 converter holds ~0.4ml. The Cursive Italic NIB from the Pilot Plumix can be transplanted into the Kakuno, and while listed as being 1.0mm it is closer to an European Medium, ~0.7mm. To take full advantage of the 5 goldspot supplied ink vials you will need to get into syringe refilling, although I suppose you could dip the supplied converter into the ink vial to fill up, but you will need to be extremely careful when doing so. Always put a dab of Silicone GREASE on plastic threads to prevent cracking whenever you re-ink the pen.This an EXCEPTIONAL starting pen. I prefer it to my TWSBI Eco, Wingsung 698, Lamy Vista, Jinhao 992, and Jinhao X450. The Kaküno is the pen I most reach for, the one that is always "at the ready" on my desktop. Thank you, GoldSpot - you "hit it out of the Park." And thank you Amazon.The package arrived in perfect condition and in a timely manner. Merchant rating: 5 stars; great service.

Great pen especially when combined with a con70 converter. I purchased the extra fine which I found too fine and scratchy for my daily writing but is superb for detailed sketching and fine linework. The octagonal grip is ergonomic and comfortable, and the pen feels balanced both uncapped and capped. The pen has a small plastic protrusion on the cap to prevent rolling - I wish it had a pocket clip, but for the price point I can't really complain.

I did a pretty good amount research I believe and decided to buy this as my entry into fountain pens. It was recommended to me by multiple "pen enthusiasts" (which still sounds weird to say to me, but I'm a mechanical keyboard fan so I'm not allowed to judge). This pen is only $9 on sale and uses essentially the same exact nib as some of Pilot's more expensive pens, they're completely interchangeable. It writes smooth and legible even on the below mid paper I have available (I'm not recommending using this on bad paper though. I was just too lazy to add a good notebook to cart with it). It's a cartridge pen, which means it's easy for a newcomer to get running, but for like $6 you can upgrade it with a Pilot converter like the CON 40 to take bottled ink. For $15 that's a nice Pilot fountain pen with converter, basically a plastic Metro with an extra $10-15 either to save or buy the good paper I didn't get.

It's a nice size and writes well, no issues with it really. I use it in eyedropper configuration, and it has no ink burping at all, still writes kind of dry to medium. However, there are some holes in the bottom that need to be filled with apoxy to configure it that way. It comes with one plastic ink cartridge, but has no converter otherwise. The smiley face is also a cute touch.

I have several mid-level fountain pens, but these are always the ones I reach for. For as inexpensive as they are, they are absolutely wonderful pens. I primarily use the Extra Fine, which makes an even finer line than a western Extra Fine. The Kakunos <EF> are fantastic for those who write small or who use smaller papers. I think I have about 10 of these just to keep various inks in. I love them! They write so well.

Works great, love the clear body so I can get a sense of what ink I have (I have a few of these now). I'm usually a fine or extra fine nib person, so this is considerably thicker line. The upside is you can write really fast because it dumps ink on the page.Easy to hold. Lightweight. Cap feels secure and sends to make a good seal. Will be be my go to for value fountain pens from here on out.