Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen (2-Pack) Discussions | Drop

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Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen (2-Pack)

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Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen (2-Pack)

May 28, 2015

I really like this drop, for me personally I get a really good price as compared to amazon or other online shops (especially as Pilots aren't available here at all in any shop in the city). Really am glad the CON-50 was added. But this will still ship with the CON-20 as well, won't it?

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GonzoTGreat

756

May 28, 2015

genkidamaThe aerometric converter included with the pen is part of the "pen package". The CON-50 is an extra "add-on". Also, just so you're not surprised when it arrives, there is a small difference between the CON-20 and the "generic" aerometric converter that is included. I might post a comparison pic later, but it's easy enough to Google images of the CON-20 and compare it with the converter on this drop's description page.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
Periodically edited. No affiliations.

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AlexGk

143

May 30, 2015

GonzoTGreatAs I've been too busy to be active on Massdrop lately, I'll make up for it with a small overview about the Pilot converters. I'll keep it short and simple, and this informations won't clearly be limited to the Pilot Metropolitan, but to any Pilot pen. My suggestion: copy this, print it, and put it in your pen corner, it will come in handy. That's what I did ;) No. 1 is a Pilot cartridge, for reference. It holds ~0.9mL of ink. It can be refilled, but you'll need a small eyedropper or a syringe to do it, and you'll have to take it off the pen. It can be easily washed with water and it dries pretty quickily, but you can still use a small cotton swab to make the process faster. No. 2 is a Pilot basic aerometric converter (a.k.a. the "cleaning converter", if you own a Pilot Parallel Pen and/or you watch Brian Goulet's videos on YouTube). It has more or less (maybe a little less) the same capacity of a cartridge, but you can't see the ink level through its body. It is almost as easy to clean as the cartridge, but it will dry a little more slowly. You can still use a cotton swab, but you should watch out not to stress the sac too much while doing it. It can be fully filled with 2~3 consecutive presses and releases. No. 3 is a Pilot CON-20 aerometric converter. It has the exact same capacity of the basic aerometric converter, so it holds about as much ink as a cartridge does, but it also doesn't allow the user to see the remaining ink level. The main difference, compared to the basic aerometric converter, is that in the CON-20 the element that presses the sac is fully encased in the body of the converter itself, increasing its overall strength. Pilot most likely designed this converter (and its predecessors) to be used with their top selling Vanishing Point / Capless, where the button that gets the nib out of the pen pushes directly on top of the converter. With this design, pressure applied on the button of a VP gets evenly distributed through the body of the converter and straight to the nib section, without feedbacks from the elasticity of the sac. It can be washed easily, with the same precautions used for the basic converter. Just one note: avoid turning the sac on itself, either while fixing the position of the pressing element or while drying it with a cotton swab, as, unlike in the basic converter, the sac might have issues coming back to its original position. It can be fully filled with 2~3 presses and releases too. No. 4 is the CON-50. It allows the user to see the ink level, but this comes at a price, as the capacity of a CON-50 is ~0.6mL, 30% less compared to a cartridge or a CON-20. You can remove the small agitator to get ~0.7mL (the agitator is hollow, hence the small increase in ink capacity), but you might get a little more issues of ink flow, due to the high adhesion of ink to acrylic surfaces. Cleaning this converter is fairly simple, but while the agitator won't cause much issues while washing the converter (just shake it while doing it), it will hinder the possibility of drying it completely with a cotton swab or such. Unlike the previous converter, the CON-50 can be disassembled for deep cleaning, but I can't recommend doing it too many times (I would never do it unless I had mechanical issues with it). It can be fully filled with a couple of up-down cycles, but it would still take longer than filling an aerometric converter. No. 5 is the CON-70. I personally love this one, as it has many good qualities and just a couple bad ones. It hold ~1.0mL of ink, maybe a little more. It allows to see the ink level through its transparent body. It has no ink flow issues, as the small rod that creates the vacuum when filling the converter acts as an agitator. It's easy to clean and wash, but drying it with a cotton swab is much more difficult due to the aforementioned rod. It can be disassembled (as for the CON-50, I don't recommend doing it) for thorough cleaning. Notice that a small amount of ink might end up stuck in the button section: the only way to remove it is pushing water through the small rod (as it is in fact a hollow tube), and than doing the same with air to dry it. Notice that this process would most likely require you to use a syringe. Filling the CON-70 is fast and easy, as long as you know how to do it. Put the nib in the ink bottle, than rapidly press the button of the CON-70 two or three times to fully fill it. Notice that if you press the button too slowly, or you try to fill the converter without attaching it to a nib section, you won't get any result, as a small ink conduct (as a fountain pen feed has) and fast pushing are both required to create the vacuum that causes the CON-70 to fill up. Now comes the downside: only a few Pilot pens, like the Custom 74 and the Heritage 91 (small off topic: I have a Heritage 91 with a Soft Fine nib, one hell of a spectacular pen) will fit it, and the Metropolitan is not among them. I hope I've cleared all your doubts about Pilot converters guys, I've tinkered for so long with them that not sharing my experience seemed a crime :) By the way, the photo I used is a screenshot from Brian Goulet's video about Pilot converters, you should watch it if you have any more doubts. Video link:

genkidama

May 31, 2015

AlexGkThanks for your sharing! It helped me a lot, although I watched the Goulet video about the different converters and how to properly fill a CON-70. I'm really psyched about getting these pens and hope I'll be as fascinated as other ppl like Brian Goulet or from another forum I'm at. This is a really good overview, I tagged the video of Goulet for later purposes if in need :)

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