PILOT Kakuno Fountain Pen, White/Turquoise Barrel, Fine Nib

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.

This pen is stunning. It’s cool looking AND it writes like a dream. I never thought I would be this fond of a 12 dollar plastic pen. It really is a dream come true. It’s not a Mont Blanc but it is perfect for what it is. I’m certain it’s the best plastic pen on the planet. My search has finally come to an end. My standards are HIGH. I purchased the fine tip nib and I am so glad I did. Great purchase. Great value.

I purchased this pen around a month or so ago. The extra fine nib writes smoothly without any issue, and the ink is fairly easy and simple to refill. I've used both cartridges and a converter and have found no issues so far. As of now, I'm currently using Pilot's con-70 converter alongside their blue black ink. The pen body is made of plastic and is relatively comfortable to hold in my hands. The only thing I have a complaint with is that if I decide to mindlessly leave the pen upside down and capped when no longer in use, the ink tends to leak into the cap. However, this is easily solved by just remembering to place it upright so no biggie. Additionally, some of the ink gets stuck in the grip section, but maybe some maintenance on the pen could clean a bit of it off. I'm actually surprised with how durable the pen could be. I accidentally left it in one of my pockets, so it was thrown into the washing machine. When I found it again after, I was lucky to find that there was no damage to the pen (aside from a bit of water getting stuck) and no ink had leaked into the clothes. This is excellent for its cheap price and I would 100% be willing to buy this fountain pen again if I need a replacement! It's honestly one of my favorites to write with as a beginner.

Originally this was going to be a 5 star review just off the fact that I LOVE the transparency aspect of the pen. However, after getting it setup it’s definitely just a 4 star rating in my books. It was slow to start. First attempt at trying to write with it left me ready to send it back for just not working, but after holding the nib downward for a LONG time finally got ink to flow to it. Other than that, the pen is great. It writes smooth, ink dries quickly and comes out without any issues. It’s light and feels nice in my hand when I write. Feels decently durable, but of course it is just made of plastic so I wouldn’t push it too far. Overall, I’m happy with what I paid for.

love love but also meh. Incredible value and beautiful stuff. but the nib is indeed very scratchy. It can really become difficult to use if you do not have the right paper. this nib really must have smooth paper and a very nicely flowing ink. then its an absolute joy. And i did put this extra fine nib in the pilot and thats a really fun experience and just a beautiful piece to carry around and use. but when you write on some paper with just barely too much tooth or its kind of old paper or its been shuffled around a whole lot, this nib struggles and becomes too annoying to use. For journaling, this nib is absolutely lovely. The pen itself - the clear barrel - its fine for what it is. it is exactly what you think it will be and it does that perfectly fine.

I love these pens -- this is my second. For an inexpensive starter fountain pen, these are great quality and write well. I use mine with the converter and pretty ink.

I love this pen. I’m here writing a review because I’m ordering a second pen. This pen brings so much joy in writing that I look forward to my daily journaling. If I am sitting and it’s near, my thoughts suddenly pouring out from my mind to this pen to paper. I feel this pen has helped my mental health greatly because my eagerness to use this perfect pen helps relieve my emotions, thoughts, and stress from building up inside. It’s one of the best instruments as a cursive writer to create art with letter and words.

For a affordable pen its works great, good ink flow. Feels ok in the hand. Very lite weight. Don't overlook this pen, Small enough to carry. Overall a good simple working pen .

I wanted to try an inexpensive Pilot fountain pen to see how I would like the nib. I ordered a pen with a Medium nib. In my experience, most Japanese Medium nibs produce a line width closer to a Western Medium than a Western Fine, and a Japanese Fine is more like a Western Extra Fine with a considerable difference between them. I was hoping for something like a Western Fine, and I was not disappointed. The Medium nib was exceptionally smooth and gave me the line width I was looking for. I ordered a second identical pen to see if my experience was a fluke. The second pen performed exactly the same way, so there seems to be consistency between nibs. Both pens wrote very well straight out of the package. The pens are very light, post well, don't dry out, and are easy to clean out when changing ink. The nib and feed can be removed easily for cleaning by pulling them straight out. The section has flat areas to encourage a three-finger grip, and I find it quite comfortable. The shape of the section makes you hold the pen a certain way, but the nib and feed can be rotated to any position, letting you position the nib perfectly for your writing style. These pens don't have a clip, so if you want to carry one in a shirt pocket, you might want to use a pen sleeve. The clear plastic body lets you check your ink level without removing the barrel. The plastic seems somewhat prone to scratching, but seems fairly durable. A pen sleeve will help keep the pen in good condition. The pen comes with a Pilot cartridge. Pilot sells cartridges in only a few colours, but you could add a Pilot CON-40 or CON-70 converter so you can use any other brand or colour of ink you choose. All in all, I think this a very good, reliable pen at a very reasonable price.

muito boa

The product itself is very good! I love Pilot Kokuno Fountain Pen. Ink glides smoothly. I gave only 3 stars, however, because the pen came to me already opened and ink cartridge already plugged-in the pen! did I buy a second-hand pen??? Quesrionable seller, in my opinion..

Speedy delivery . The pen is very reasonably priced and I am thrilled with how well it writes - I bought the extra fine and it is really smooth and fine, not scratchy. Very pleased with this purchase

El trazo fino está muy padre. Ligera y suave para escribir o dibujar. Me gustó mucho y más si está en ofertap, gracias. :)