Pilot Parallel Pens

For this project, I used a Pilot Parallel Pen, 2.4mm nib size and green cartridges.  There are an assortment of cartridges in the pack and it makes for great color choices.  You can create a gradient of colors by touching one nib with another one of a different color and this will create a gradual change of color as you write, which make some beautiful effects.

Calligraphy Is Fun

Parallel Pen Nib Sizes

The Pilot Parallel pen comes in four nib sizes, which are 0.5mm, 2.4mm, 3.8mm and the broadest being 6.0mm. The colors available are black, blue, green, red, yellow and purple. The great thing about these pens is that you can create very fine lines by holding the pen sideways so the nib is vertical.

The Pilot Parallel pens nibs are sharper than conventional fountain pens.  The nibs consists of two parallel plates, which help to hold the ink and they also have sharp corners so the writing appears cleaner, sharper and crisp, and the writing more impressive.  The parallel plate is a unique design, and you can achieve sharper, smoother and neater calligraphy handwriting, better than conventional calligraphy pens.  The ink flow is excellent and you can pick the pen up again after months of not being used, and the ink will flow easily as if it were only used yesterday.  There is a converter in the pack, which is used to clean and flush the pen out after use or for ink refill.  The pack has a shim, which is used to clean the nib between the plates.

Paper For Pilot Parallel Pens

The paper I used was A4 sized sketch paper, which was of a high quality 130gsm white cartridge paper.   However, I found that the paper could not cope with the amount of ink used on the paper.  The ink started to soak in the ink and started to bleed and became feathery.  This was rather disappointing but I do like the colors.  For this project, I also used a fine nibbed conventional fountain pen and deep red ink.

I was excited with the new pens, but it is important to be mindful of the quality of paper used.  If feel that hot pressed paper of a higher quality is better for these pens because of the amount of ink that comes out of the nibs.  These pens can use a lot of ink, so it may be a cheaper alternative to keep the ink cartridges and refill them with good quality ink, but be careful when choosing ink as some may clog the pen.