My wife and I got into fountain pens recently. We're starting with the Pilot Metropolitan, since it seems like a quality pen that's not too expensive. We both like it (she's settled on a medium nib, I prefer the fine). If we get hooked we'll look at something fancier, though we're pretty happy with the pen already.
Started with the metropolitan myself, and it's definitely a good pen. I do want to add though that over time and after a few drops the snap-on cap of my pen fit less snug, and eventually the pen started dropping out of the cap and into my shirt when I had it clipped to my collar. So once that cap gets loose maybe be careful about what shirts you wear it on. That said, even after lawn-darting into the carpet nib first, my metro still writes great and I keep it around as a non-clip pen.
I think the Pilot Metropolitan caps are hit or miss. I have the fountain pen and rollerball versions and the rollerball cap was /much/ tighter so when I was using my metropolitan I used the tighter cap.
I think Pilot sells Metropolitan so cheaply on purpose, to get people into the hobby. It's still under $30 on Amazon and is a very high quality. I got one more pen (Chinese clone of Parker 51, The Original Parker) and pretty much stopped there. Some collectors have like dozens of them and dozens of different types of ink too, it's... not healthy. There's definitely some nostalgic value in writing with fountain pens but don't go overboard.
I don't think $30 is overly cheap for something like that.
There are plenty of pens available for less in countries where children are required to use them at school, starting at around $10 in the UK. Triple the price for a metal barrel, case, perhaps better manufacture etc? OK.
I mean you can certainly get a Chinese-made Parker clone for under $1 on AliExpress and it might even work fine (I have and it does). But this is Pilot, 100+ yo Japanese company making collector's pens with some high-end models going for $1000+. For them to have even under-$100 model is pretty unusual.
I do not have Lama Safari, I'm sure it's a nice pen but Pilot Metropolitan certainly feels much more expensive and a "grown-up" pen rather than just a writing implement.
ps I did not know students in the UK still are required to use fountain pens, my sincere condolences. I think teaching handwriting is important but fountain pens seem like a step too far.
Pilot MR is the metropolitan which accepts international standard cartridges instead of Pilot’s own ones. 1/2/3 is the color code or style if my memory serves right.
I EDC one, with Waterman serenity blue long cartridges. It’s a great match.
Metropolitan is a great pen with a great nib, but nothing beats a Lamy in the long run for me.
