When I spotted the Pilot Prera in its slimy-limey green plastic, I knew I had to buy one. And as someone with a huge preference towards fine, fine lines, I purchased the F nib. I wrote a review about how incredibly fine this pen is but after I wrote the review, I found that I had issues using the pen but couldn’t figure out why.
Over the past year I’ve pulled this pen out occasionally. I clean it, fill it with different inks and then test it on different papers hoping to find the magic combination. It wasn’t until I started thinking about the issues of left-handed writers for the Pen Addict Podcast that it dawned on me that I might be the problem.
In an effort to not dismiss the legendarily loved Prera as being a faulty pen, I purchased the exact same pen body with a medium nib to compare. These Prera nibs are the finest of the fine nibs so even the medium turned out to be not very broad but it also set me on the path to figure out why the F was giving me such pains.
The F is a razor fine point that can be flummoxed by dry inks, thready paper and wonky writing styles. I can’t even imagine how fine the EF would be.
When I finally tested to the two nibs side-by-sdie, I also figured out that my overwriting style was causing issues with the F nib as well. Pushing it on the paper was constricting the tines even more for even less ink flow. The M nib was able to withstand my normal over-writing hand position with no issues.
When I wrote with an underwriting position, I got a lot more ink flow out of both pens but the difference of line weight and ink density on the M nib was far less dramatic than the F nib. Clearly, the fineness of the Prera F is more pronounced than other pens, even other F nib pens from Pilot. Clearly, all nibs are not created equally, not even from the same manufacturer.
I am much happier with the results I am getting from the M nib Prera and it has restored my faith in Pilot. I think the line weight on the Prera M is finer than the Metropolitan but wider than the F nib on the Cocoon. Oh, pens! How you confound me!
Out of this experiment, I feel compelled to attempt to tune the nib on the Prera with the F nib since it is clearly unusable for me in its current state. Let the pen tweaking begin!
The Pilot Prera is available through Jet Pens in both the Fine and Medium nib for $49.50.
What do you mean by over and under writing?
Thanks!
Check out the discussion of left handed writing styles on the Pen Addict podcast fro last week. http://5by5.tv/penaddict/62
Great revisitation and review! My yellow Prera M quickly became, and remained, my favorite pen the day I got it. I got mine from JetPens since it was a tad cheaper, but nota bene! It does not ship with a converter included (which I think it does from Goulet); I had to get my converter later. I haven’t compared the cost, but maybe something to keep in mind if you’re on the bottled ink horse, or already buying stuff from one or the other source.