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Pilot Petit 1 Mini Fountain Pen – Blue Black Review

Pen & Pencil Reviews Pilot Pens — 26 January 2009
Pilot Petit 1 Mini Fountain Pen – Blue Black Review
Woody shows off the Pilot Petit 1 Fountain Pen with Blue Black Ink

Woody shows off the Pilot Petit 1 Fountain Pen with Blue Black Ink

The incredibly nice folks from JetPens.com were kind enough to send me the Pilot Petit 1 Mini Fountain Pen with Blue Black ink so I could test it out and do a review on it.  I’ve seen this pen around on various websites, and always thought it looked pretty interesting, so I was excited to get the chance to test it out.  I was also intrigued by the whole combo blue black ink since I have never tried any of these types of multi colored inks before.

These pens come in a variety of colors (JetPens has 15 different colors) and can be had for $4.50 which is not bad at all for an inexpensive fountain pen.  JetPens also offers refills for this pen that come in capsules containing 3 individual refills for $2.00 each.  These pens are also offered in a 12 color set ($54) or 6 color set ($27) on the JetPens site. 

I really like the design of this pen because it is so sleek and compact, although in all honesty I did have some initial hesitation because I thought it might actually be a little bit too small to comfortably write with.  Once I actually had the pen in my hand, I could instantly tell that the size, although compact, would still be comfortable for writing with.  Depending on how you like to hold your pen, I would say for someone with an average size hand like myself, writing with the cap either posted or not posted is a comfortable experience.  With the cap posted on the top, the pen rests comfortably against the back of your hand.  If you decide to write with the cap not posted on the top of the pen, the smooth rounded end of the pen nestles snugly in the meaty section of my hand between my thumb and my forefinger.  Between the capped and uncapped method of writing, I think this pen can work out pretty comfortable for any writer, unless you have particularly large hands.

pilot-petit-1-fountain-pen-with-cap-posted

Pilot Petit 1 Fountain Pen with Cap Posted

With the Blue Black ink in this pen, it might be a bit difficult to really distinguish the difference between it, and black ink.  I think that in the picture below you can see the difference though, if you click on the image for the larger version.  It is funny how an ink that is so close to being black or blue, but is neither can be so unique.  With my initial first stroke of this pen, I had a hard time distinguishing it from being much different than any black ink that I used, however when I put some black ink right next to it the difference was clear.  I feel that the ink has a very distinguished look to it, which is very nice in setting it apart from your standard blue or black.  In addition to just looking really nice, the ink in this pen seems to also flow smoothly and dry almost instantly.  The fine sized nib on this pen does display a width that I would expect, and it has a very slight toothy feel, so it isn’t perfectly smooth when writing, but I don’t find it to be a negative at all.  Overall I think this pen is a great writer and if you are looking for a very inexpensive fountain pen, this is a great option.

pilot-petit-1-fountain-pen-writing-sample

I know I have mentioned this in my past few posts, and I’ll repeat it again with this post….this pen is going to end up being part of a give away that I will be doing shortly.  I always enjoy other sites that do give aways, but I have been looking to add my own special twist on this, and I expect that within the next week or so I will be ready to roll out my idea which I hope everyone will have fun with.  I look forward to seeing everyone back here for my next review and eventually for my first give away, in the mean time please feel free to sign up for my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter.  I’ve had some trouble with the RSS feed over the past week or so, and you might need to resubscribe if you had subscribed in the past.

One final thanks to JetPens.com for providing the pen for this review.

© 2009 – 2012, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

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  • http://unpostednrepose.blogspot.com/ nrepose

    One of my favorites. Just an all around great everyday fountain pen. Nr

  • http://www.goodpens.blogspot.com Seth

    I gave this pen a not so great review not that long ago. Since then, I bought another and have had a much better experience. It’s growing on me, I think I just had a bad one. Nice review!

  • http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/ Speedmaster

    Those are definitely cool pens. I like mine. One strange thing though. I left it in my breifcase, snuggly capped and nib up with about 1/2 a cartridge of ink in it. I didn’t use it for 4-5 weeks. When I looked at it again the cartridge was dry, I guess the ink evaporated? Odd.

  • http://www.notebookstories.com Notebook Stories

    I don’t use fountain pens (though this one looks tempting!), but I’m becoming a big fan of blue-black ink in my Uniball Signo RT 0.38…

  • http://www.mindmostpeculiar.blogspot.com Nosferatuia

    Thanks for this review! I also like to have a few blue-black pens around, they help when you are filling out documents so that everything doesn’t completely blend together. I have found that it makes checking over things a bit easier. I like my Petit1, but I only use it on smooth paper and not too often. For the price and look of the pens and refills its work a try :) .

  • Inturgridtle

    I have always loved Pilot fountain pens. The Japanese really know how to make great pens with great value!

  • Al

    The one thing I have to say about the Pilot Petit1 is that it writes better than any $5 dollar pen has any right to. Every one I tried wrote pretty well without any break-in or adjustment. The Pelican I normally use wrote like a nail at first until I wrote with it a lot and adjusted the ink flow and alignment. Now it writes pretty well but I still may send it off to Richard Binder to see if he can improve it.

    I really don’t care for cartridge fountain pens because they just don’t hold enough ink and it greatly limits your selection of inks. One of the joys of fountain pens is all of the neat inks that are available.

    While with the cap on the back the Petit is a good size pen it is just too light and unbalanced. If it had a bit more heft and a higher center of gravity it would feel much better.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Al – You are right, the Petit does write really well for a $5 pen. Ive used some much more expensive fountain pens that were either not as good, or just as good. I’ve always wanted to send one of my nibs to him to get worked on, but Ive never been willing to give one up for as long as it takes to get it done. :)

    Totally with you on the converter vs. cartridge too, I always go with the converter if I have the chance.

  • http://www.unpostednrepose.blogspot.com Nrepose

    You can refill the Petit cartridge and, from what I hear, it works just fine. I haven’t tried it yet. I love the Petit. Nr

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Nrepose – I need to get my act together and try refilling a cartridge, I’ve never done it before.

  • http://www.unpostednrepose.blogspot.com Nrepose

    Here is a good little tutorial that I found over at EDCforums. Give it a try. Nr

  • Benjamin Chin

    I bought just one piece to try out.

    The nib is pelleted at the tip and the writing experience is smooth. Nib is sensitive to provide good ink flow.

    My pen comes with a fine point and I noticed that it is wider than the fine point of my Lamy AL-Star fountain pen. I expect Japanese nibs to be one size smaller than European nibs, but this Pilot Petit1 nib proves otherwise.

    The original Pilot ink that comes with the pen is smooth flowing but exhibits feathering and a high tendency to bleed through writing paper.

    The Pilot ink disappoints me. Any ink that needs good quality paper to perform only presents itself as a restriction to me as I cannot always dictate the quality of paper accessible to me.

    I bought six additional cartridges (thus seven cartridges in total) and flushed all those ink away. Instead, I bought a bottle of Platinum ink and an injection syringe to fill those emptied cartridges with better performing Platinum ink.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @Benjamin Chin – Such a good point about the ink and paper quality. Not very handy as an every day pen if it doesnt work on most if not all paper. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!

  • http://leewm.freeshell.org/penstuff weemeng

    Something interesting to note is that the Pilot Petit1 nib is exactly the same as the nib found in Pilot Varsity pens. So if u accidentally damage your Pilot Petit1 nib, instead of throwing the pen away, get a replacement nib from a cheaper Pilot Varsity pen. Just pull and slide off the nib from the feed.

  • http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

    @weemeng – Thats interesting, thanks for sharing…I never even thought to compare the nibs on these two.