PILOT Kakuno Fountain Pen, Clear Barrel, Medium Nib (10822)

It's a nice size and writes well, no issues with it really. I use it in eyedropper configuration, and it has no ink burping at all, still writes kind of dry to medium. However, there are some holes in the bottom that need to be filled with apoxy to configure it that way. It comes with one plastic ink cartridge, but has no converter otherwise. The smiley face is also a cute touch.

Works great, love the clear body so I can get a sense of what ink I have (I have a few of these now). I'm usually a fine or extra fine nib person, so this is considerably thicker line. The upside is you can write really fast because it dumps ink on the page.Easy to hold. Lightweight. Cap feels secure and sends to make a good seal. Will be be my go to for value fountain pens from here on out.

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.

Great pen especially when combined with a con70 converter. I purchased the extra fine which I found too fine and scratchy for my daily writing but is superb for detailed sketching and fine linework. The octagonal grip is ergonomic and comfortable, and the pen feels balanced both uncapped and capped. The pen has a small plastic protrusion on the cap to prevent rolling - I wish it had a pocket clip, but for the price point I can't really complain.

Do I love pocket pens? Absolutely. I have no idea why I waited this long to grab one of these. It’s a wonderful writer and the extra fine nib is a joy to write with! I love the clear design and I paired it with the con 70 instead of the terrible con 40 converter making it a breeze to fill. It’s a nice light weight pen and very comfortable to write with in the go! It’s small enough to fit in my purse and I’ve since purchased in a few different colors. This is now one of my top recommendations for a into fountain pen.

This pen is great! Phenomenal. The extra fine nib that I ordered is indeed, EXTRA fine!! I love the feel of the pen and just great it glides. It writes well, doesn’t clog or leak. It’s a really high quality pen!The design of the pen is also very fun and friendly. The nib smiles right at you and encourages a smile every time. I got the clear version, mostly because I get a kick out of being able to see the ink inside the barrel. It’s all around very fun! I want to order more if only to have a few different color options. It doesn’t have a clip but does have sturdy, flat sides that (mostly) prevent it from falling off the edge.The main highlight of this pen, aside from the design and performance, is the price! I often want to take my fountain pens around but don’t want anything to happen to them because of the price. This one is very affordable so I feel a bit better about taking it with me. A real piece of luxury at a great price!

This fountain pen is wonderful. This pen writes so smoothly, without skipping. The nib is a good quality metal. The ink cartridge has a really nice snug fit to it as well. The pen has a good feel to it in your hand while you are writing. I would highly recommend this pen to anyone who loves writing. And can’t wait to get more from this brand.

I’ve been a fountain pen person for most of my life, on a quest for just the right one that combines a fine enough point for my very small handwriting without a great deal of drag or the tendency to rip the surface of the paper.This one is the closest ever! It shouldn’t have surprised me since I’ve been a fan of Pilot pens for a long time. It is very inexpensive but delivers a good, quality product. I highly recommend.Two small drawbacks…keep the pen capped when not in active use. Probably because of the superfine tip, the ink flow can dry up easily. I would have also liked to have a clip on the cap. But both of these are very minor considerations.It came with a cartridge of Pilot ink, which I found to be remarkably crisp, with minimal feathering on porous paper. I’ll be exploring it more, for sure!