Pilots from India

by Hari Balakrishna

Recently, I got a chance to acquire some Indian made steel nibbed Pilots. They are shown in the following pictures.

Three different models are distinguishable, however the model names/numbers are not marked on the pens. The clips on all pens are spring loaded.

The first two from the left seem to be identical to pens available with gold nibs, differing only in the color of the plating on the caps. The gold nibbed pens have a pink/rose gold finish whereas these caps have a yellow gold color.

The third pen is slightly smaller in size (nib as well as body). The pens 4-6 are the all-plastic models with an open type #2 nib. I also found two Indian Pilot ballpoints whose refills were unavailable with the shopkeeper, it seems they take a proprietary size of refills and are no longer available here.

The plastic pens are slightly less than 5 inches capped. The 6th pen from left is actually a nice shade of green which has come out as blue in the photos.



The pens uncapped. The 3rd pen from left is a pen I had bought 11 years earlier. It was old stock even then and I insisted on buying that pen even when the salesman told me that they were very old stock for display only.



Nibs at a glance.


The same feed removed from pen. Notice the absence of any fins, nevertheless, the pen writes like a champ.


Nib closeup of pen-7:



Nibs of pens 1 and 5 from the above nibs at a glance picture.

Same nib removed from pen. The engraving looks to be done with a scribe-like tool?

Despite being humble steel nibbed cousins, these pens perform well. I have inked up the all plastic black pen with the plain feed and the pen is an amazing writer with a nice XF line. No tweaking was required, in fact I did not even flush it. The best part is that the screw capped pens require only 1 1/2 turns for the cap to fit/remove fully.
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1950s Pilot, contributed by Bradley Harris. Note the design being similar to Pilots made in Japan in the late 1930s through 1950s. No ring on the barrel and cap jewels! Impression on barrel reads, Pilot Pilot Pen Co India LTD Made in India. This is an eyedropper without shut-off plunger.







Pilots from Korea

This Pilot Custom is of interest. Made by Pilot in Korea for Korean government to distribute as gifts to dignitaries and for meritorious service to Korea. Of interest is the 14K solid gold band.



The following pictures were submitted by Nikolaos of FPN. He reports the pen to slightly shorter than the same Japanese model of the Silvern with dragon design. Note the 14K nib marked, MADE IN KOREA.

RYOJUSEN

 

霊鷲山