Some of you may remember how disappointed I was in the Scheaffer Calligraphy pens. Well, I still liked the IDEA of having a Calligraphy pen so I decided to give the Pilot Parallel a shot, as I’ve been extremely happy with Pilot pens so far. I got the 1.5mm because I want to write with it still, not just do Calligraphy.
Here it is assembled out of the package. It comes with two ink cartridges, a squeeze converter for cleaning (though I’m sure it would work just fine), and a nib cleaner (Oh HEY I had no idea this was a thing and have just been using the edge of my paper for the same purpose. This is way better).
This pen is designed to sorta resemble a dip pen and has the paint brush-style taper body. I’m not a huge fan of the look, but it works just fine. It isn’t as awkward as you might fear for being so long.
It really is quite a long pen. It is completely convertible into an eyedropper pen, though I’m not sure I’d suggest it… simply because the barrel seems to untwist slightly when I untwist the cap and I think it might occasionally leak because of this even with silicone grease.
The Good
- 3 nib sizes
- writes nice and wet, great for calligraphy (but bad for cheap paper)
- nice smooth round grip
- is FUN to write with
The Bad
- Looooooooooong Pen is Long
- requires a proprietary cartridge and converter
- not really practical for everyday writing, but that’s not what it’s made for
Overall grade: A for Calligraphy Pen, B for occasional wanting to write all swoopy for no practical reason
MINERVA ZIMMERMAN 