The Pilot Petit 1 is a tiny little fountain pen that come in a variety of bright colours. There’s a Petit 2, which is a fibre-tipped pen, and a Petit 3, a brush pen.
Price: $3.80
Nib options: fine
Barrel options: plastic in black, green, blue-black, pink, orange, blue, light blue, red
Filling system: proprietary cartridge
Size: 10.8cm capped, 13.2cm posted, 9.4cm uncapped
Weight: 11g
The translucent barrel looks pretty and Pilot have mercifully avoided the temptation so many companies seem to have to plaster a cheap pen with writing.
The plastic clip isn’t going to take much abuse. The cap pushes on to post and close. This is how a pocket pen should be. The cap closes securely enough that it’s not going to come off unless you want it to (although, yes, it’s not as safe as a screw-on cap) and you don’t have the hassle of having to unscrew and/or screw on the cap when all you want to do is take a quick note.
You will definitely want to post the Petit because it’s very small in any language. Even posted, it’s a short pen that won’t lend itself to particularly long writing sessions. That’s not its purpose though and the softer-plastic grip and reasonable diameter makes it comfortable enough for note taking.
The steel nib is great. It’s fairly smooth: not the smoothest nib ever but at this price point it’s pretty amazing, really. Ink flow is good.
The Pilot Petit is available in eight different colours and it comes with ink to match. The cartridges are specific to the pen. They’re reasonably priced and could be syringe-filled if you were so inclined. I’ve tried the orange and green inks and they’re nice colours but a little washed out.
This is an amazing little pen. It’s great for the pocket, it writes well and it looks pretty. It’s a shame it isn’t available in the UK.
Pros
Decent nib
Good size for the pocket
Looks pretty
Fantastic value
Cons
Fragile clip
Ink colour could be stronger
Not available in the UK
You can find some more reviews of the Pilot Petit on Pennaquod.
What makes this pen the most amazing of all is that you can leave it inked up but idle for months and months, and when you pick it up again, it writes immediately without so much as a stutter. For a couple bucks, I think that’s amazing.
Tina
One of my first fountain pens (along with Platinum Preppy). Lovely, lovely, writes fairly easily. Easy to find in major bookstores/stationery supply stops in our country. One thing that I do not like is that it’s as if it’s not a fine. Nib is very wet, almost like a medium I guess? It produces lines thicker than a medium Platinum Preppy. If there is any way I can reduce the ink flow for even just a little bit, that would be perfect. Otherwise, I do not use it on cheap paper provided in our office.