Review: @PilotPenUSA Knight Fountain Pen - Medium @PenChalet

The Pilot Knight fountain pen was sent over by Ron at the Pen Chalet. Thank you Ron! I pictured this pen being either shiny and white or matte black; either the knight in shining armor on a white horse thing, or a black knight on a black horse thing. With that in mind, the Knight showed up and this is what I have to work with! On to the show!

ABOUT

Body Material: Metal
Trim: Chrome
Length (capped): 5.36"
Length (uncapped nib-end): 4.58"
Length (posted): 5.66"
Barrel Diameter: 0.31" - 0.48"
Section Diameter: 0.33" - 0.38"
Nib material: Stainless steel
Weight: 34 g
Fill type: Cartridge/converter
Price: $48.00USD SALE $24.00USD
Where to buy: Pen Chalet

PACKAGING

I keep thinking the pen is $24.00USD and must keep reminding myself it's $48.00USD; it's just that Pen Chalet has a good deal on it right now. Either way, I was pretty surprised by the packaging. It's pretty nice and fairly luxurious for this price range. I think it looks much classier and nicer than the packaging I received with my Prera (which was more expensive as well).

The solid box is a faux navy leather. It opens like a clam and the top is lined with a soft satin fabric. The bottom tray holds the pen in the center with a pinched grip, and there are also two more slots to hold pens. Overall, it's a lot of box for a little bit of pen, but it protects the pen. Packaging rarely impresses me and while this isn't beautiful packaging, I think it's much nicer than typical Pilot packaging around this price range. As Pentorium notes - it is much better than the Lamy boxes!

APPEARANCE

The Knight reminds me of the Metropolitan with its metal body and sleek shape The body is matte silver, with blunt ends that taper slightly. The center where the cap threads on to the body is shiny chrome, which gives the pen a nice aesthetic balance.

It has more detail to it that makes it look fancier than the Metropolitan though, like around the clip's attachment to the cap, which is oblique. The clip is also shiny chrome. The section is black and offers nice contrast to all the bright metal.

Inside the barrel is an aerometric converter.

NIB & PERFORMANCE

The nib is a simple steel nib and has a good size for the pen's body. It is a Japanese medium so it writes quite fine. It says Pilot Super Quality Japan on it, and indicates the nib is a medium.

To review a pen, I ink it up immediately without doing anything to the nib. I approach it the way a very new user may: fountain pens should come from the manufacturer ready to go, in my opinion, in order to make them more user-friendly. In other words, I gave this a test run straight out of the box. The results were pretty poor and I was pretty disappointed, especially after my positive experience with the inexpensive Metropolitan.

The nib was very dry and I struggled to get it to write for the first page of the writing sample, going over lines and applying pressure to the nib to draw out ink. The nib definitely needed adjusting. Prior to adjustment, it was dry, scratchy, and wrote very inconsistently. After making the nib a little wetter, it wrote much better, with consistent ink flow, though still a little on the dry side for my tastes. It also felt less scratchy once the ink was flowing better.

IN HAND

Ignoring the nib's performance, I do really like the way the pen feels in hand. It's a solid, robust metal body, with good weight and balance when unposted. Posted, it feels top heavy for me and my hand wears out quickly. The metal, threads, and section are all smooth and it's very pleasant to write with. I really like it. It's just that darned first experience with the nib.

It's a good sized pen for all hands, and has good balance unposted for smaller hands, and can work posted for larger hands.

PROS & CONS

THE METROPOLITAN

The Knight resembles the Metropolitan, especially the silver one! The Knight appears a little more elegant, with the slightly thinner body, blunt ends, angled cap and more solid clip. The Metropolitan is more rounded and a little wider, a touch longer, with rounded ends and the clip looks and feels less elegant.

The Metropolitan weighs 26 g, compared to the Knight's 34, which is noticeable. For me, the Metropolitan works both posted and unposted, because it lacks the extra weight of the Knight.

OVERALL

The Metropolitan is available at Pen Chalet for only $15.00USD in a variety of finishes and in both fine and medium steel nibs. It's a great deal, especially if you prefer a lighter pen. The weight difference between the Metropolitan and the Knight is significant to me. I think the Knight looks more elegant but the Metropolitan feels more comfortable. Alternately, one could just buy both for the retail price of the Knight ($48.00USD) at Pen Chalet since the Knight is only $24.00USD at Pen Chalet right now.

The Knight is very nice: it really shines in being a solid, robust pen, especially for the price. It's attractive, elegant, and simple. It's also easy to tweak the nib should you get a dry one. Given that you can get it for half its retail price, I'd say give it a shot if it appeals to you!

I received this pen free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not compensated monetarily for my review. Everything you've read here is my own opinion. There are no affiliate links in this review.

And don't forget you can get 10% off at Pen Chalet until the end of the year on your purchases!