Kakuno Fountain Pen Family Series Kakuno Baby Yellow F Nib

The kakuno Family Series takes Pilot's best-known beginner fountain pen and gives each color a character of its own: the smiling face engraved on the nib — built from the heart-shaped breather hole and the slit — is drawn here as a baby face with a pacifier, the Baby of the family, on a clear yellow barrel. Five characters make up the set: Papa in blue, Mama in red, Boy in green, Girl in pink and Baby in yellow, and the clear resin lets you watch the ink level and the feed at work. The section is triangular, so thumb, index and middle finger settle into the correct grip on their own, the faceted cap and barrel keep the pen from rolling off a sloped desk, and the special-alloy nib is stamped with kakuno's trademark smiling face so you can see at a glance which side is up. The pen is 131mm long, about 16mm at its widest and roughly 11g, so it stays light in a child's or an adult's hand. This one is the fine (F) nib, the everyday width for notebooks, diaries and daily journaling. It runs on Pilot IRF-5S cartridges and also accepts a CON-40 converter for bottled ink. Made in Japan by Pilot Corporation.

1. Unscrew the barrel, push a Pilot IRF-5S cartridge firmly onto the metal nipple until it seats and the seal breaks, then screw the barrel back on.
2. To fill from a bottle instead, fit a Pilot CON-40 converter, submerge the whole nib and grip in ink, and twist or press to draw ink up.
3. Hold the pen so the smiling face on the nib points up, and write with almost no pressure — the ink flows on its own.
4. Cap the pen after every session and store it nib up so ink does not dry in the feed.
5. When changing ink colors, flush the nib and feed in cool water until it runs clear, then let the parts dry fully before refilling.