If anyone reads this submission and wants to buy a Pilot Metropolitan, do note that Japanese pens like Pilot tend to be finer than their European counterparts. So a Pilot Medium nib is like a Fine nib in other brands. I've use both a Pilot medium and fine - both produce good output, but the fine nib will definitely feel scratchy compared to the medium.
The Pilot Metropolitan was my favorite for a number years - I liked it more than more expensive pens that I had bought. What finally dethroned it was PenBBS[0] 309[1]. Their nibs are fairly good, although I did eventually replace it with a Goulet nib[2]. On top of that, I smoothened the nib with a micromesh and it's super smooth!
She had stopped shipping to the US because of long shipping times due to COVID and too many customers complained - I don't see the notice on the page any more so she may have resumed shipping to the US. Do expect long shipping times, though.
For those looking to get into fountain pens: The choice of paper will matter as much as the pen! If your city has a Japanese store (e.g. Kinokuniya) you'll get a good selection of notebooks/paper there - fountain pens are quite commonly used in Japan, so their papers are designed to handle them well.
[1] Note that almost all the PenBBS pens use the same feed/nib, so the choice of model is mostly about the filling mechanism and external design. At the moment, it seems they don't have my particular 309 model, so you may want to try some other model.
Most are #6, I believe. Be careful when swapping - some of the pen's caps are not long enough to accommodate 3rd party #6 nibs. You have to Google to see if yours can.
The Pilot Metropolitan was my favorite for a number years - I liked it more than more expensive pens that I had bought. What finally dethroned it was PenBBS[0] 309[1]. Their nibs are fairly good, although I did eventually replace it with a Goulet nib[2]. On top of that, I smoothened the nib with a micromesh and it's super smooth!
She had stopped shipping to the US because of long shipping times due to COVID and too many customers complained - I don't see the notice on the page any more so she may have resumed shipping to the US. Do expect long shipping times, though.
For those looking to get into fountain pens: The choice of paper will matter as much as the pen! If your city has a Japanese store (e.g. Kinokuniya) you'll get a good selection of notebooks/paper there - fountain pens are quite commonly used in Japan, so their papers are designed to handle them well.
[0] https://www.etsy.com/shop/PENBBSOfficialStore?ref=simple-sho...
[1] Note that almost all the PenBBS pens use the same feed/nib, so the choice of model is mostly about the filling mechanism and external design. At the moment, it seems they don't have my particular 309 model, so you may want to try some other model.
[2] https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/goulet-nibs