Pilot Iro-Utsushi Dip Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, Root Rot, is now available for pre-order!)

One of the things we love about fountain pens is that they can hold a wee tank full of our favorite ink and continuously feed it to a smooth nib. Dip pens give a similar nib experience, but without the ink tank hooked up to it. Instead, you dip the nib into a bottle of ink before writing on the page. It sounds inconvenient--having to stop writing all the time to re-dip! And with some dip nibs, it can be an issue. Leave it to Pilot to make one that just rocks.

The Pilot Iro-Utsushi is a simple design. It's a hollow, lightweight plastic body with a plain metal nib at the end. That's it, that's the pen! Uncomplicated. No feed, no moving parts, just a writey stick. The body comes in several color options, this one is a smokey, clear grey. The body tapers steeply toward the end, and it has a fairly plain grip section. There are a few textured lines along the length of the grip to help with slipping, but they're so smooth I'm not sure they do much. The pen is so light, though, that it doesn't need a fancy grip section. Balance and control aren't issues.

The nib can be either fine or medium. The one I tested is a fine nib. If you've written with a Pilot Metropolitan pen, the writing experience is similar. Which is to say, it's good. The nib is smooth and has perfect ink control. It's not too wet, but never feels dry. It isn't flexible at all, but it creates a nice, consistent line.

The most noticeable feature of this dip pen is that it writes for aaaaages on a single dip. I got 70 words on a single dip--about a third of a page. Two dips per page? That's hardly an interruption at all. And I could scribble vigorously across more than an entire line of a page before a single dip ran out. Despite holding a useful amount of ink, the nib never dripped. There was no mess, no fuss--just a pleasant writing experience.

The only issue I had with the pen at all is that I wish it had a roll stop of some kind. Because it has no real cap, just a rubber sleeve covering the nib, it tends to roll around whenever it is set down. Other than that, this is a great dip pen. It is currently priced at $11, which is a little higher than I thought it would be. The Pilot Varsity is only $3.20, and it has ink in it! It's a fair price compared to fancier dip pens, though, and it would be perfect for ink testing. Or just writing anything--the dipping is rare enough that it doesn't slow things down. It feels old-timey. Like I'm writing some kind of love letter or a constitution, not a grocery list. I dig it.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Dippity doo dah, dippity yay - A Dip Nib Comparison

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

….my oh my, what a wonderful day! Sorry, not sorry, for the ear worm but I decided to play with some dip nibs cuz it’s swatch time in December, AKA Inkvent! Even if you aren’t joining in Diamine’s Green Edition Inkvent for 2022, chances are good that you still want to swatch your inks at some point, right? So I thought it would be fun to do a little dip pen showdown - are you ready? Let’s go!

Methodology

Ok, this isn’t rocket science but I wanted to make sure the different dip nibs were on the same playing field, so here are the ground rules.

1. Ink - I used Waterman Serenity Blue as a baseline for the swatches/writing samples. This is most nib grinders’ preferred ink of choice as it has consistent flow, does not stain and is good for vintage pens. I also picked a shimmer ink to see if it behaved differently. I capped and shook the vial between each test.
2. Paper - I used a combination of a 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook, a 80 gsm Rhodia graph pad, and the standard sized Col-O-Ring cards made from 160gsm paper.
3. Cleaning - Since I have used some of these for a long time and others I just got last week, some have been cleaned many times and some have not. I will make a note of which ones were cleaned prior to usage and which ones needed extra cleaning, if any. I will just use tap water to rinse between uses.
4. Writing - Aside from the name of the dip nib, I tried to write the same text on the different papers so you can see how much writing I could get out of one dip. The exceptions are the Sailor Hocoro Fine Dip Nib and Kakimori Pen Nib where I wrote the first line without first cleaning the nib and then I did a quick water rinse/dry before rewriting the line again.
5. Swatches - I made a broad line swatch for some but not all of the nibs. The finer dip nibs/ones without feeds aren’t really designed for depositing large amounts of ink.

Short Drillog holder with 0.5 nib, Long Drillog holder with 1.2 nib, Glass Dip Pen, Brass Kakimori nib in a Tachikawa T36 holder, Stainless Steel Kakimori nib in an Aluminum Kakimori holder, Kakimori Pen Nib in a Speedball Marbled holder, Sailor Hocoro Fine and Fude Dip Pens.

Not all of these holders have caps, though you can get a Tachikawa holder with a cap which is handy for travel. Also, the length of the Kakimori is, of course, dependent on whatever holder you buy.

Dip Nibs/Pens

1. Drillog Dip Pens/Nibs - The nibs and holders were sent to Brad for review by Drillog. They currently cost 16,280 Yen (currently ~$120) for the nibs - the holders are sold separately starting at 14,080 Yen (~$103).
2. Glass Dip Pen - I purchased mine on eBay years ago (so the brand/name/price might be different) but you can still find them on eBay, like this one
3. Kakimori Brass Dip Nib - I bought this from Yoseka - it is currently $54.50.
4. Kakimori Stainless Steel Dip Nib - I bought mine new from someone on Instagram, but you can get the Kakimori Steel dip nib from Yoseka for $54.50 and the holder for $72.00. These Kakimori nibs are more widely available now than a few months ago.
5. Kakimori Pen Nib - The Pen Nib for $28 as well as the Tachikawa Nib Holder were sent to Brad from St Louis Art Supply.
6. Sailor Hocoro Fine Dip Nib (without feed) - I bought the Sailor Hocoro Fine in Grey from Stilo e Stile for 12.30 EU (~$13), but it also comes in white. The feeds were out of stock but are now back in stock here for an additional 2.05EU (~$2.15).
7. Sailor Hocoro Fude Dip Nib (with feed) - I bought the Sailor Hocoro Fude in White from Stilo e Stile for 13.11EU (~14), but it also comes in grey. The feed was already part of the pen.

The Drillog 0.5 (left) and 1.2 (right) nibs - I am referring to the 0.5 as “Fine”.

Drillog Fine writing sample - It writes similar to a Japanese Medium Fine or a Western Fine.

Drillog 1.2 writing sample - This didn’t write as much like a stub as I expected. Not surprising that the bigger tip means you don’t get as many words per dip.

Considering how expensive the Drillog nibs are, as well as their nibs being proprietary to their holders (though a couple of makers have figured out how to make their own Drillog holders), I was surprised at how poorly they performed. I had tried them a few times when I got them from Brad a few months ago and I couldn’t get them to write, so I set them aside for future testing. I was actually shocked that both of them wrote immediately with Waterman Serenity Blue but the Fine 0.5 did not want to write with the Robert Oster shimmer (the first line at the very top of the shimmer test page) until I dipped it again and the 1.2 was quite the gusher as well. The Fine also felt very scratchy. Writing on the Col-O-Ring was quite unpleasant as nib would catch on the subtle texture of the card. The Drillog Fine was probably my least favorite of them all and the 1.2 was kind of fun but a bit too wet/broad for me to use for swatching/writing samples. Lastly, because I hold my pens close to the nib and have a steep writing angle, I did not love how long the nibs were, as well as how far back I had to hold the pen due to the taper on the barrel. This is obviously a personal bias, but is something to keep in mind.

Glass dip pen writing sample - You can see when I rotated the nib to get more ink to the tip.

I have had mixed success with glass dip nibs over the years with some writing well, like this one, and others giving me inconsistent lines or having sweet spots that would only write if I rotated it just so. The other thing about glass dip nibs is that they are, well, made of glass, which makes them more fragile than all the other nibs that I tested which are metal. But they have traditionally been fairly inexpensive (though you can also get fancy glass dip pens from Japan for several hundred dollars) and I particularly like that this one has a cap, which can be screwed to post - I keep mine in my pen accessories case which I pack in my suitcase.

Kakimori Brass writing sample - Compare the line width to its Stainless Steel sibling below.

I was able to get significantly more writing with the Steel Kakimori because it didn’t make thicker/wetter lines like the Brass one.

My first experience with the Kakimori dip nib was with the brass one, since the steel one was sold out. I had a heck of a time getting it to write at all, and despite washing it several times with soap and water and a gentle toothbrush, it would either not write, or would blob ink. I even asked several folks to see if this was normal, but most of the others had the steel one. I was almost ready to call it quits but decided to just keep trying and then out of the blue it started working. I had been using that for swatching/writing samples for several months. When a steel one came up for sale on Instagram, I pounced on it and this one wrote right out of the box with no fuss. The Brass one seems to have much more flow and gives me a much broader line than the Steel one. I have been using the Kakimori Steel dip nib ever since I got it a couple months ago. I like that they can be used at a shallower angle to provide nice wide lines, which I use in one of my ink swatch journals.

Wider lines of ink are easily made with either of the Kakimori dip nibs.

Like the Brass and Steel dip nibs, the Kakimori Pen Nib can also be fitted into any nib holder that has a ferrule. The Pen Nib has a nice fine line but because it does not have a feed or reservoir or channels to hold ink, it isn’t meant for a lot of writing between dips. Still, if I didn’t have a need for making wide lines in my ink journal, I could see using this for the writing sample part of ink swatching.

I mistakenly wrote “Fountain Nib” instead of “Pen Nib” because it looks like a fountain pen nib.

The Sailor Hocoro Dip Pen in Fine had an even fewer number of words it could write before running out. I first tried writing without cleaning the nib and then again after a water rinse and wipe. The lack of feed or channels makes it difficult to hold much ink. The Fude, on the other hand, wrote quite nicely and for a decent amount of lines. This is because there is an included feed which holds a bit more ink. I suspect the Fine will be much better when I am able to order the feed.

Not a lot of words with the Sailor Hocoro Fine nib - but this could be good for swatching where you are writing a few words.

No feed means nothing to hold onto the ink means fewer words.

Sailor Hocoro Fude writing sample.

You can get more words on the page even with the added line width due to the presence of a feed.

A few things I really like about the Hocoro Dip Pens: (1) they come in different sizes - Fine, Fude, 1.0 and 2.0 stubs, (2) there is no cap to lose because the nibs can be stored in the pen barrel so they don’t get damaged and (3) there is a flat bevel on the barrel so that it doesn’t roll around - I literally had to corral all the other dip pens on the table because they kept threatening to jump ship. And they are reasonably priced too.

Left shows the nib inserted into the barrel for storage. The grip section and nib unit are beveled so there is only one way to install or put away the nib. Right shows the other end of the barrel, which is also beveled.

Lastly, I thought I’d try something that wasn’t a tried and true ink like Waterman Serenity Blue so I picked a shimmer ink from my shimmer samples bag. I knew that Robert Oster Glistening Orange Rumble had a fair amount of shimmer, so I wanted to see if the shimmer (1) would cause any flow issues and (2) if you could see the shimmer on the page or if would it get stuck in the channels or immediately get dumped onto the first few characters.

You can see the difference in line widths and as a result the difference in color/saturation.

Angled so you can see some of the shimmer - All but the glass dip pen deposited the shimmer without any issues. The glass dip pen had very little shimmer and a couple of skips.

All of the nibs cleaned out pretty easily - I blasted a syringeful of water after using Waterman and also rinsed in the sink after using the RO shimmer ink. The glass dip nib took a little more effort than the others but it wasn’t too bad.

So what’s the TLDR version of all this?

1. Drillog is way too expensive for what it is, and it didn’t behave well enough even if it was a fraction of the price.
2. My favorite is probably the Kakimori Stainless Steel nib because it has a Medium line and can also deposit a wider line for swatches. I had a lot of trouble with the Brass and even now it’s too wet/thick for my preference. This could be fun if I did art.
3. The Sailor Hocoro Fude Nib is my second favorite as it has a little bit of line variation and can write a decent number of words due to the feed. Can’t wait to try the Hocoro Fine with a feed.
4. The others are fine (Get it? “Fine”? I’ll see myself out, lol) - they behave alright. It comes down to personal preference and budget.
5. Dip pens with caps are extra cool.

Anyway, now that I’ve done this research, I’m going to use Kakimori Stainless Steel dip nib and the Sailor Hocoro Fude nib for my Diamine Inkvent swatching and see which one will be crowned the winner! Happy dipping to all, and to all a good write!

Happy Inkvent!

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Dip Nib Primer

(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.)

I have friends that will go on endlessly about the quality of vinyl records. They lambast me for using a streaming service as my main mode for music. Records are slightly inconvenient, they are large and delicate, but they like the ritual. I tend to lean on the convenience factor and they lean on the quality angle, but in the end we agree, music is good.

I like to think of dip nibs vs. fountain pens the same way. Yes, there is a large difference, but what it boils down to is convenience and variety.

Dip nibs are traditionally more flexible, cheaper, come in a wider variety of styles and you can change ink dip to dip if you feel like it (with a quick dip in water and a wipe with a paper towel, of course). The flip side is that you don't have to break out an inkwell and a handful of paper towels every time you use a fountain pen. Yes, they are similar, but they are also two very different beasts.

A Quick Intro:

Let’s start with the holder. In case you are totally new to the concept, this is the part you hold. They are the handles that you stick the nib in, some are made for only one type of nib and others fit a wide variety of them. You could really use a stick from the yard with a slit cut into it if you wanted to, but let’s take some convenience where we can. I am using the Tachikawa nib holder, which is built to accommodate several different types of nibs by having several different sized plastic circular recesses in its tip. Plus, the Tachikawa has a cap that can fit over the nib, which is nice! You push the non-pen tip of the nib into the tip and it grips it (tight enough not to drop it but loose enough to pull it free). When first buying equipment, make sure your holder works with your nib. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails like getting incompatible equipment.

Next up is to choose your nibs. These are the metal parts you dip in ink. Nibs come from the incredibly fine and stiff, to the very flexible and inky. Some come with "reservoirs" to help hold more ink per dip, some are cylindrical, some are spoon shaped, some are flat and some are unconventionally shaped. The good news is they are all pretty cheap (a bunch of nibs are sold in packs for 3 for $4, so go crazy and pick a variety). Read reviews and see what people say, but it is going to come down to personal preference. Your first nib might be too stiff and eat paper like a shredder or it might be too sharp to draw against the grain without snagging. Pitfalls are many, but don't despair! It is worth it once you find that perfect fit.

My current favorite is the Brause Blue Pumpkin Nib. It hits the sweet spot for me: Good line variation, not too rough against the grain, can do fine hatching and can drop a nice thick line. It doesn't hold a ton of ink, but you can get a reservoir for it.

Now time for ink. For you fountain pen ink fanatics, this will be a lot of fun. The doors are blown open and you can try any sort of ink you like. That dreaded India Ink that would clog your priceless pen into a worthless stick in less than an hour? Yup, pick up a bottle. This is a safe space. I tend to prefer the India Inks with shellac because they dry quicker, have virtually no bleed and are waterproof (if you are going to ink wash over them). The things that would make a terrible fountain pen ink are what make it perfect when using a dip nib. I like brands that have a dropper built into the lid and a large enough opening to see my nib when dipping. Most are made of glass, so treat them with kindness and respect. Lots of colors are available but I would start with a simple black.

Lastly, paper. I lean towards a higher weight paper with a bit of tooth. Bristol Vellum is my favorite but any 80 lb weight sheet is going to be fine. Nibs can be much more finicky about grabbing paper, and if you are starting with standard cheap copy paper you are going to be eating through the sheet and digging fibers out of your nibs with inky fingertips. If you plan on ink washing, go for a heavier stock, even the highest paper weights want to buckle a bit when water is applied. You can get a board and tape the sides down with some painters or masking tape, but I would recommend just trying out some basic nib strokes before we go whole hog into a wash. (See illustration.)

Down To Business:

Hooray! Time to draw (or write)! Grab a bunch of paper towels, your ink, nib, holder and paper. Dip your nib in the ink and make a few simple lines, pulling the pen towards you, testing the tines. Do a few swirls and dip the nip in the ink differently each time you dip. Dip a just a bit and see how fine you can write. Dunk the whole nib in and see how much you can write with a full load of ink. Now press your luck till you make a few mistakes, better to know how far you can push each nib until it dumps too much ink. Switch nibs a few times. Make a mess.

Take a moment and enjoy the ritual of it. Ink is, by its un-erasable nature, unforgiving. It is also its own best teacher; it will punish your mistakes. If you are an artist struggling to hold a solid line or going for a less sketchy look, ink is going to force you into working more methodically with carefully laid lines. I usually ink over a loose pencil sketch and if you are drawing I would recommend the same.

I feel like I should say that I am not a dip pen aficionado, nor a world renowned artist. So please grant me a grain of salt when reading some tips and tricks I have discovered over the years when inking with nibs, and please comment with tips of your own:

• Give yourself plenty of room and place things accordingly, make sure your inkwell is close enough to dip but out of the way when drawing.
• If you are right handed, start at the top left corner of the page and work diagonally down to the lower right, lefties, start at the upper right and work to the lower left. This keeps you from placing your hand over the fresh ink.
• Don't be afraid to break the above rule and rotate the page. Nibs work best when drawing towards yourself and while they will still work when going left to right or away from you, you won't get the flex or variation you are using the nib for. Even worse, a nib tine might snag the paper, ripping it or unloading all of the ink in one spot. So spin the page when needed, just watch out for wet ink.
• When laying down ink I tend to make longer, smoother strokes with the bare minimum lines. It leaves a cleaner impression on the finished art.
• Let the ink dry before you go back to add details, even a stray pinkie finger can wreak untold havoc with not-quite-dry ink.
• If your nib dumps too much ink in one spot and leaves a tiny pooled up line, rip a piece of paper towel and gentle touch the tip of the towel to the ink. It will suck up much of the excess and possibly save a drawing.
• Dip early, dip often. Don't overload the nib and beware the dry line. You can keep an eye on the vent hole, once you see the ink thin or disappear in the vent hole, you had best finish your line or lift from the page early.
• Paper towels are your best friends, seriously. Keep at least two around, grab the roll if you are clumsy. (I grab the roll.)
• Keep a shot glass of water so when you are finished inking, or when you switch nibs, you can drop them in it to rinse. Or you can drip a few drops of ink in the water to use as a wash.
• Wet your nibs down in water to clean the ink off of them when done. Dry your nibs before you store them, they are not immune to rust.
• Find an old jewelry case, altoids tin or other small container to keep your nibs. They are mindblowingly easy to lose.

If you are interested in Dip Nips I would highly recommend you check out this handy guide from JetPens. It features a nib holder chart and does a basic overview of nibs.

Final Points:

Dip pens biggest down fall is one of the things I like most about them. They are unruly, inconvenient and impractical for travel. It forces you to stop doing everything else, focus on one thing and lower the volume on life. Sit and listen to nothing but the near silent "skrit" of nib on the paper as it tells the outside world the secrets of the inside of your mind. I won't argue that a supremely well-made fountain pen can do what a decent nib can do (usually better), but I am going to bet that it will cost you more. You will always win convenience with a fountain pen, but lose a touch of ritual. In the end, I think, putting ink to paper is good, don't you agree?

(Disclaimer: Some, not all, of the products were provided for me free of cost but I am not otherwise being compensated for this review. The opinions contained are my own.)