Ages ago, I had a post about pens! (Hah. Post. Pens. Moving on.) I had two surprises from that, revolving around the Pilot pens - specifically, the Metropolitan and the Penmanship. One’s a fairly classic black, with pretty great weight to it, and the other is this odd clear plastic thing with grip-ridges and an odd cap.

They’re both pretty good pens, and especially at their prices, but I was always disappointed with how thick the Fine nib was in the Metropolitan. I like to put down a really, really thin line because my writing is cramped and my handwriting isn’t all that neat. Thin means I get to be a bit sloppy, so between the two pens, the Penmanship really won out.

That was pretty much the end of it until a week or two ago, when I started looking into nibs. Why couldn’t I put an EF into the Metro? Turns out, there was nothing but fear stopping me - and another Penmanship. I didn’t even bother searching, though knew that you could yank it out of a Penmanship and do a swap that way. Which, actually, is exactly what I did.

Here’s the shoot-the-Cacodemon-until-it-dies tip: wrap the nib and feed (the black thing with ridges) in tape to yank it out. I used packing tape, because the nib only extends about halfway down. Yep, just wrap that thing and give ‘er a tug. Be careful and gentle when unwrapping, repeat, then discover that the nibs just kinda fit into place. Sliding it back on was pretty straightforward too, and just took a little bit of force.

This is filed under “lol who cares” to just about everyone, but damn, I’m happy with this pen now. Dang, I never did end up doing that post about ink, did I? Spoiler alert: I put Montblanc Blue/Black ink in there. Puts down this really nice darkish-gray line. It was my go-to black before I got this other ink, but that’s for another post!