I think this is now officially a Thing we are doing.

This is just an off-the-cuff phone picture on my desktop at work; you all aren’t getting my usual hyperartificial backgroundless studio object shots… yet.

I’ve been on a Parallel kick lately, in case you couldn’t tell from my last and so far only post here. And the other day I learned that in the years since I assembled my complete collection of Parallel sizes, Pilot came out with two more. So my collection has been rendered incomplete. Without my input. Obviously, this cannot stand.

So just yesterday my 3.0mm variant arrived in the mail (and the 4.5 is still on the way).

The two new sizes are intermediates that go in between existing ones. The size I use the most is the smallest 1.5mm which is closest to the usual italic nibs I prefer to write with and is probably the least obnoxious to use for the written word you’re going to hand to anyone else, or have to fit on a normal form or piece of paper.

The Parallels are excellent calligraphy tools but they’re not exactly general purpose writers. They produce extremely sharp, consistent, bold, and thick lines with a lot of ink output (so don’t use one on super absorbent paper unless you want your lettering to go all fuzzy) but you have to hold the nib very flat and accurately against the paper as there is no bevel or ball on the tip like a traditional fountain pen. You get used to it after a while.

The sizes are, in case anyone is curious:

• 1.5mm
• 2.4mm
• 3.0mm <- You Are Here (new)
• 3.8mm
• 4.5mm (new)
• 6.0mm

The 4.5mm to go in between the 3.8 and 6.0 fills a definite gap that used to be there and might have some purpose for people doing actual serious artwork with these things. The 3.0 I’m less sold on, since it’s not a big jump up or down from there to the previously existing widths, but the thing is white with a cupcake frosting pink cap and feed block which surely has to count for something.

So today I brought it to work and anyone who asks me to write anything down is going to get it back in ridiculous gothic blackletter. That’s a hardship they’re just going to have to endure, isn’t it.

On the off chance some turkey gives me a form with a carbon-not-carbon write through on it, I also have my Pilot Limited G2 in silver:

I’m not a fan of most ballpoints, but I’ll put up with a decent gel or rollerball. I’ll bet you didn’t know Pilot made a metal bodied variant of the ubiquitous G2. Well, they do. Here it is.