The Pilot Plumix is definitely a beginner level fountain pen, but with that said it still delivers a nice and unique experience for the cost. Personally I'm not a huge fan of how it looks, but when it comes to the writing experience I was very impressed, so lets take a closer look.
The Pilot Plumix as shown above has some pretty unique design elements to it, which at first kind of bothered me. The torpedo-like and very short cap, the swirly markings on the extremely tapered body, and the super glossy and clear grip section all kind of jumped out at me as being a bit gaudy at best. I thought it kind of looked like one of those fancy glass dip pens, but all cheesed up and not as elegant looking. This version being reviewed is the black body, but keep in mind there are available in black, light blue, and purple body colors, all with black or blue ink.
After taking a look at the nib of the Pilot Plumix, I saw that the tip was flat rather than rounded, leading me to believe that it would provide a more italic style type of writing that you see with calligraphy pens and nibs. As I said before, the cap is kind of visually unappealing, however having those two little fins that protrude from it certainly make it really easy to remove and replace by giving you a great grip on it. Also the cap does post nicely on the super slender back of the pen body.
The real surprise with the Pilot Plumix came when I actually slipped the cartridge in and put pen to paper. I was correct in my assumption that its flat nib would provide for a more unique style of writing as you can see if you click on the writing sample above for a closer look. Even my typical handwriting style that mirrors that of a 6 yr old (that might offend some 6 yr olds, sorry) looked so much more elegant. The flat tip allows for much more character with each long stroke being wider and bolder than each lateral stroke, which was thinner and more delicate. The combination of the wider and thinner lines definitely gave my handwriting a more elegant look and it even got my mind off what I consider to be some pretty awful aesthetics for the design of this pen. Beyond the improved look of the output, the pen also wrote very smoothly with no skipping, and the ink itself did not bleed or feather in my trusty Black n Red notebook.
I think my next step with this pen might be to try and refill the cartridge with some other ink like Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses which has some great shading to it that will probably look great when used with this nib…I just have to figure out if it can be hacked and syringe filled like some other disposable cartridges can be. If you want to upgrade the look and style of your handwriting without actually changing how you write, the Pilot Plumix is a great option to take a look at.
