Pilot Metro

Overview:
. The Pilot Metropolitan is an exemplary fountain pen that garners style, comfort and a smooth nib for a very inexpensive price. The pen features a steel nib, ranging from Japanese extra-fine to broad, that offers little flex. With a durable full-metal body, the Metropolitan maintains a sleek, yet durable design. Note that the pen only accepts the CON-20 and CON-50 converters, as the CON-70 is too long to fit within the barrel of the pen. The 'Metro' weights around 26 g overall and around 19 g uncapped. When writing, the pen posts at 153 mm and measures 144 mm when uncapped.

Value: [10/10.0]

At less than $15 USD on Amazon, the Metropolitan is an absolute steal. It writes amazingly, flows well, and is aesthetically beuatiful with its simplistic designs. 'Nuff said.

Comfort/Ease of Use: [7.0/10.0]

Despite the fact that the pen is well below the price of any other decent fountain pen without delving into the below-one-dollar cheap pens that break within a week, I still have to be very critical of its ease of use. My primary gripe is the extremely small capacity of both the converter and cartridges for the Metropolitan. Through my experience, I would recommend steering away from the included CON-20 and turning to either the refillable cartridges or the CON-50 converter. This is because the bladder-filler CON-20 has a tendency to stain on the inside if you use more saturated and water-resistant ink inside of it. I had Noodlers Apache Sunset within one of my CON-20s for a few weeks and after finally finishing it off, I completely flushed and cleaned it and filled it with Pilot Iroshizuku Momji (Pink/Red). The result was completely appalling; the result was a gross brownish orange/red. After that experience, I just began alternating between refillable cartridges and the CON-50 piston converter for my Metropolitans.
When it comes to writing comfort, the Metropolitan is up there as well. I enjoy writing unposted, but even when posted, the pen is still very well-balanced. Just one thing to note is that the pen doesn't do well with travel: on planes, the Metropolitan often spews out ink from its feed and during day to day movement, ink easily leaves the feed and falls into the cap. The black body of the grip section may make it difficult to detect whether or not ink has leaked, so just be wary.

Performance: [8.0/10.0]

The Metropolitan has one of the most consistently smooth nibs I've ever used. Compared to many pens that are considerably more expensive like the Mont Blanc 149 and 146, the Metro' can hold its own, but it's just not quite on their level. When going through my day, I often find myself reaching for my Metropolitans due to their consistent performance and write-anywhere accessibility. Regarding flow, the Metropolitan writes somewhat on the wet side, which may affect some users.
Unsurprisingly, the packaged steel nib offers little to no flex, which is a non-issue for me since the pen is designed for real-world use. The pen is constantly stellar. When using the same ink, I can go for about 6 months without having to do a full flush on the pen. As I mentioned before, the flow is wet, but very consistent; the Metropolitan can deal with almost any ink. It has handled any ink that I've thrown at it from very fluid inks, like Waterman's and Iroshizuku, to more viscous inks like that of Mont Blanc and Aurora.

Construction: [7.5/10.0]

The overall construction of Metropolitan is both beautiful and rugged. The brass body provides it with rigidity while the anodized paint job produces a sublime aesthetic. Through the past few years, I've had no noticeable dings or dents on the body of the pen, but I have noticed a few issues. The anodized paint job is able to be scratched off, especially towards the top and bottom of the pen, yielding a somewhat unappealing shiny golden brass color at the places where the paint is chipped off. I've considered using a sandblaster to sand off the entire paint job, but I have yet to reach that level of desperation. The body does dent here and there, but its not detectable and doesn't detract from the usage or aesthetic of the pen. One issue I have had with both of my Metropolitans has been the snap-on cap. Over time, the cap is gotten progressively looser, causing it to easily pop off within my pen case. The wear on the cap fit was likely amplified by my nervous habit of constantly popping it on and off, but I would've liked for the cap to be more resistant to general use. Overall, despite some build issues, it's a very robust product.

Overall Score: 8.0/10

Images

Credit: Goulet Pens