VP Nib unit not fitting in both of my VPs.

[tandaina]

My head hurts.

[gwgtaylor]

My head hurts.

Had the same problem with one of mine recently and it was because the converter wasn't fully seated. Put the butt end of the converter on a flat surface and push down on the nib unit a bit to see if it goes in a little further. You'd probably want to make sure it's empty at this point too. :-)

[KBeezie]

My head hurts.

Had the same problem with one of mine recently and it was because the converter wasn't fully seated. Put the butt end of the converter on a flat surface and push down on the nib unit a bit to see if it goes in a little further. You'd probably want to make sure it's empty at this point too. :-)

:P And if the cartridge protector cap is in all the way? :P

I mean it *fits* it's just the newer unit puts the bottom of the feed ridiculously close to the edge of the opening of the flatter body opening.

[Jon Szanto]

People make life so complicated.

[velo]

People make life so complicated.

*checks Pilot VP....nup all good*

[dr.grace]

Maybe there's just something slightly askew with your newer nib unit?

[tandaina]

Arg. Now I'm having a slightly different problem to the one listed here?

I've got a DECIMO VP with an 18k nib. I bought a new 18k nib unit from Richard Binder that was marked to fit the Decimo. Mine doesn't scrape the opening, it doesn't fit the SPRING inside the pen, despite being exactly the same nib unit (an 18k M nib unit). They are the same size, they are bloody identical but the new one slides straight through the spring (I have no idea how, it's no smaller than the other unit) and boom out the door. I do not get it. Was getting all excited about Japanese pens, but maybe I should have stuck with Pelikan. :\

[jde]

Glad that tandaina got her VP unit working for her Decimo, even if it required a little ingenuity on her part. It’s my understanding, and limited experience, that the current VP nib units fit any VP or Decimo except for the older faceted VPs. Sadly, production problems can happen.

KBeezie, I too wonder, as someone else has, if your Blue VP was dropped by an earlier user. ’Tis a puzzlement, ay? Is the Blue pen an anomoly or production for that time? The barrels have had variations over time.

With your growing interest in Japanese fountain pens/nibs (yay!), here's some resources you may or may not already know:

Carmen Rivera’s VP Pen History.

Also Bruno Taut’s Crónicas Estilográficas blog provides a lot of detailed, and even technical, information about Japanese fountain pens. Here’s a few on Pilot capless pens.


There are definite differences, as you’ve found, between the 14K and the 18K nibs. The steel nibs are another variation. I’ve seen all three nib materials in hand, and the steel and 14K are thinner (with the steel thinnest) than the 18K. The 18K of course is what we get in the USA through Pilot's USA distribution system. The others available via eBay or from Japan directly.

Bruno even outlines some incompatibilities among gold tone, steel and rhodium nibs that make interchangeabiliy difficult or impossible.

Cheers, all!

[tandaina]

Thanks for linking here, my issue turned out to be unrelated!

[KBeezie]

PS: I no longer own either Vanishing points as they have both been traded away (but with their *compatible* nib unit).