random babbles: Plumix Review

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Plumix Review

I was lamenting that other people were finding Pilot Plumix's at Target for discount on twitter one day and how it was not fair because I was unable to find a fountain pen yet alone a plumix at any sort of Target store. And lo and behold, I got a DM that asked me if I really wanted one and that someone would pick one up for me. I jumped at the chance--Thanks! As you can see below, it came in a nicely bubble packed envelope with a nice little note.

I immediately wanted to take it out and write with it but promised myself that I wouldn't take it out until I got pictures -- and that once it came out of the package and I was ready to use it, I would do an impromptu review of it while i was experimenting with it.

I was talking to a couple of friends on twitter and discovered that this was a italic stub nib, not quite what I expected but hey, I don't have very many stub nibs so sure why not? After about 5 mins of trying to get the nib to draw up ink, i put the pen aside (after all I was at work attempting to get work done..) I'll leave it for another time i thought-- and then promptly forgot about it for a day. But once i got the ink to write it worked just fine for me, though I know Shangching had issues with the Pilot ink cartridge that is enclosed with the package. She switched out the ink with a J. Herbin ink and suddenly the pen was once again usable.

The plumix pen comes in 3 different colors:

clear
light blue
purple

My twitter friend sent me the purple one. I like the blue one too but I'll probably buy that next go around. The pen is towed as a beginners fountain pen and can be found relatively cheap (as you can see below by Jetpens and Goulet Pens' pricing). If you are use to heavy fountain pens, then this is not the pen for you. The pen is made of plastic and thus rather light and has an ergo grip. The grip is definitely not squishy but made of hard plastic. There are indents where I suppose one should put fingers for the ergo grip to function as Pilot intended. I love the ergo grip, but that is also where instinctively I would place my fingers, however I'm not sure everyone feels the same way. The plastic of the pen is very smooth, other than the ridge-like section at the back of the pen. The cap is a screw on cap -- dont make the mistake I did by attempting to pry off the cap oops! I assumed the thread i saw was for me to unscrew the nib unit from the pen. Well once I figured out that to uncap the pen I needed to unscrew it all was well.

The plumix writes wet, but that may just be because its a broader tip than what I am use to. I am not quite use to the italic nib, but it is a remarkable change from what I am use to writing with, in a good way. I notice that when i write the letters/numbers that are circular (like 0's, 8's) they have a nice shape to them -- product of the italic nib, I'm sure. Since I dont have any writing samples, currently, I'll make sure I update this or do another post with my writing. For some reason, I think my writing looks nicer with the italic nib rather than a regular nib.. maybe its all in my mind?

To date, i believe, this is the first fountain pen i go to on a regular basis for random scribbles throughout my day. For some reason for the past week, i gravitate towards this cheap (comparatively in price) italic nibbed pen for everyday use at work.