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Pilot Vanishing Point Stub

Little nib, big results!

Vanishing Point StubThe Pilot Vanishing Point has been around a while – it was first released in Japan back in the early 60’s. In 1973 Pilot changed the name from “Capless” to “Vanishing Point”. Recently Pilot released a stub nib to their line of pens and I picked one up from Goulet Pens in the matte black finish.

The mechanism used to hide the nib is pretty complicated but very cool and very reliable with 50+ years of proof that the thing is well made. Essentially there is a small door that closes when you retract the nib, much like you would a ball point pen. Vanishing Point StubThis ensures your nib does not dry out when not in use. The pen unscrews in the middle with the mechanism and clip on one end and the push button on the other.  Inside the pen is a single unit combining the nib assembly, feed, and CON-50 piston filler system. As you can see in the pictures the design of the VP places the nib at the clip end of the pen so that in pocket it faces up not down (similar to how it would be carried if it had a cap). This means when you grip the pen your fingers have the clip to deal with. When holding the pen your index finger will rest against the clip – something I thought would be annoying but it turns out that it actually gives you a nice grip on the pen. The matte finish is another bonus, providing excellent grip. The clip is strong but easy to lift and tapers at the top to contour even better to your fingers while writing.

Vanishing Point StubSo how does it write? The 18k gold nib (finished in matching black on the stub) is very smooth and for such a physically small nib and feed it does a great job of keeping up with the stub, delivering constant ink flow even at a brisk pace. There is a little feedback but nothing to worry about for a stub nib – I actually like just a little feedback anyway and this is perfect. The stub is 1mm wide and creates a little line variation but it’s nothing to go crazy over as you can see below in the writing sample. The only downside to this nib is that if you write with a very shallow pen angle the nib may skip from time to time. Part of the problem is that in order to retract the nib and feed into the pen they had to make them small and as a result the feed does not keep a lot of ink near the tip. If you hold it at a shallow angle the feed seems to struggle to keep up. This was not an issue for me as I tend to grip with the pen at a normal to steep angle.

Presentation was in the glass top clam shell case with the faux-leather exterior. The pen tray lifts to reveal the paperwork and Con-50 convertor. The pen is available in a ton of other colors and in nib sizes from EF to B plus the new stub. For the current list of colors and a look at the 2015 Special Edition ” Twilight” head over to Goulet Pens.

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