With the latest passing of my birthday (and the less said about that, the better), came the arrival of the latest addition to my pen collection: A postwar masterpiece of design which has remained popular for over 50 years – the Pilot Vanishing Point.
Alternatively called the Pilot Capless, the Vanishing Point or “VP” was invented by the Pilot Pen Company in 1963. It’s the world’s only click-action retractable fountain pen!…which is why I wanted to add it to my collection – because it’s such a unique and different design.
The Vanishing Point works like any other retractable click-action pen. There’s a button at the back, which works on a catch-and-release principle, using ratchets and springs. Pressing the button down pushes the whole pen assembly out, and locks it in place. Pushing the button again releases it and the spring shoots the assembly back inside the pen-barrel – with a sliding door or shutter at the opening that closes upon retraction, to seal the pen and stop the ink from drying out on the nib.
Refilling the pen is as simple as unscrewing the pen in the middle of the barrel, pulling, or letting the pen-assembly slide or drop out, and then refilling it using its converter, like you would any other modern fountain pen. Once it’s filled, you dry off the excess ink, and re-insert it into the barrel.
Because the Vanishing Point is a fountain pen, however – you can’t just shove the assembly back into the barrel any old way – it has to (and can only) go in ONE way – which is the correct way. And that correct way is with the nib lining up with the pocket-clip at the pen’s base, before you drop it into the barrel again. If it doesn’t – then it’s very simple – the pen doesn’t work! The pen has to be assembled this way because fountain pen nibs only write when they’re in the correct orientation, and anything else would render the pen useless!
Now of course, you could just as easily move the pocket-clip to the back of the pen, near the click-button, like on every other click-action retractable pen – so why don’t they?
The reason is because of a simple quirk of fountain pens – that they should always be stored nib-upwards, when they’re placed in your pocket. This prevents jolting and leaks and ink-splashes. You couldn’t do this with a Vanishing-Point, if it had the clip near the click-button – hence the clip’s positioning near the nib. It keeps the nib up, and prevents ink from being spat out of the pen if it’s jolted or shaken around while it’s clipped inside a pocket.
Doesn’t this make the pen tricky to write with?
Honestly? No. The clip is minimalist and smooth, and doesn’t get in the way of your fingers, so it’s not an issue while writing.
So, apart from the upside-down clip and the nifty click-action retractable mechanism, what else does the pen come with?
Well – it also includes an 18kt gold nib!
A small nib, but 18kt, nonetheless, in the standard sizes of XF, F, M, and B. Vanishing Point nibs come in two varieties – the traditional yellow gold, and the less traditional, but still stylish rhodium-plated gold, which gives the nibs a glossy, silvery sheen, without sacrificing the quality, or prestige, of having a nib made of 75% gold!
Another nifty feature about the Pilot Vanishing Point is that the nibs can be removed and exchanged!…Or at least, the whole interior pen-mechanism can. So, if, for example, you wanted a Vanishing Point with a fine nib, and could only find Broads, you could easily buy a broad-nibbed VP, and then find somebody else with a fine-nibbed VP who wanted to swap out their nibs. All you’d have to do is unscrew both pens, swap the pen-assemblies around – and hey presto! A fine nib! It’s similar to the nib-swapping abilities of the Pelikan Souveran series, where the nib-units can just be unscrewed from the sections and swapped out between pens.
This ease of disassembly also makes the Vanishing Point extremely easy to clean – which is great, because not all pens are!
Pilot Vanishing Point – CONS
The Vanishing Point is about as different from a conventional fountain pen as you could get, and this does lead to a few things which may take some getting used to…
The first one is the pen’s ink-capacity. Its cartridges and converter, by necessity, have to be kept small, to give space for the retraction-mechanism to work inside the pen. Because of this, refilling the pen will have to be done more often.
The upside-down clip may be irritating to some people, because they may find it interrupts their natural grip on a pen. Be sure to try out a few Vanishing Points in person before you commit to buying one, to be absolutely sure that you’re comfortable holding it and writing with it for extended periods of time.
Pilot Vanishing Point – PROS
The pen is lightweight, comfortable, and smooth to hold.
It’s very easy to operate.
The click-action retractable mechanism is smooth and robust.
It’s extremely easy to clean.
It’s easy to swap out nib-units with other VP owners.
It comes in a WIDE variety of finishes, from elegant, futuristic, colourful or plain.
Being able to click the pen open and shut with literally a flick of the finger, without having to worry about what to do with the pen-cap (because it doesn’t exist!) makes the pen a great one for jotting down quick notes on the move.
Is the Vanishing Point worth Buying?
The Vanishing Point is not for everybody, but then, neither is any other pen. If you’re after a pen which is unique, futuristic, which stands out, and which will confound and surprise your non pen-collecting friends, then the Vanishing-Point will definitely turn heads. If you want a pen that’s different, unique, convenient and low-maintenance, the Vanishing Point may well be for you.
However, if you need a pen with a large ink capacity, which you can write with for hours and hours at a time, then you might be in strife. Not that this pen can’t do that, of course, but that you’ll need to carry extra ink with you, should you choose to do so.