#3 for me

BuJo is what you make of it. Just the pretty artsy stuff on YouTube and reddit is more eye catching and brings in the views. There’s plenty of us who use it for what it was originally designed as: a highly customizable no frills organization and productivity system combined with notetaking capabilities.

My suggestion is to do a week or two with the original instructions. At the end of that period, reflect on what you liked, didn’t like, what changes you might want to try for the next 1-2 weeks, and whether you hated it so much you’re quitting. I normally use an extremely stripped down system that focuses on the day to day in my personal life since I have a hybrid system tied into Obsidian and TickTick. I realized with a few days of starting my job that I needed something more structured and capable of longer term work since I no longer had access to those programs. It took some experimenting, but I ended up going back to dedicating full pages to projects, using weekly spreads to organize at work, putting more effort into keeping my index updated, and added sticky note tabs to all the important pages I regularly jump to, like projects, today, this week, and so forth.

Hope that gives you some inspiration!

I tried the analog only method. I lasted 3 weeks. As much as I would prefer to do things only the analog way for its benefits, my brain just isn’t wired to work that way.

I use a combination of both for work. For meetings, I take notes on my computer. After, I’ll sit down after, identify anything of actual value, reorganize as needed, and write things down into my work bullet journal. I find the process helps me identify my priorities, break tasks down to smaller steps, and plan out what needs to be done and when.

For to do lists, jotting notes while I’m working, or anything else that isn’t under a time crunch, I’ll use the pen to put it straight into the bullet journal.

In terms of note taking systems, I found a simplified Bullet Journal system works best for me since it’s extremely flexible. I just dropped things that I don’t need (like monthly spreads) and added bits that I do need (extra icons for organization). I use an even more simplified version in my personal life. If you haven’t given that a go, I highly recommend looking into it and see if it might work for you.

As people have already said, yes that is a Metro. The converter is supposed to be opaque, and you will need to guestimate. It’s not just guesstimating how much ink you have left, it’s also guesstimating if you have filled the pen to the maximum possible. The ink does not get sucked up into the pen as quickly as a piston mechanism, and it’s impossible to see if you have a max fill. A couple of tips since this is your first squeeze converter. I usually squeeze the air completely out before I dunk it into the ink to remove the potential of a few drops of ink popping out of the bottle (especially for Noodler’s and the bottles filled to the absolute max policy). I also leave it in an extra second or two after it seems fully puffed up just to make sure the maximum amount of ink is sucked up. Luckily, this is all much easier with the Metropolitan’s cheaper squeeze filler design. The “premium” one that came with my Cavalier was encased in a metal tube. The squeeze bar was manipulated using a “button” located near the top which made it very difficult to fully compress the sac and see if the sac was completely puffed up. Terrible design.

I don’t know about content from recent years, especially from YouTube. For older content, there were a lot less choice for ink brands back in the early 2010s when 54th first came out. The tone was a little more pro-Noodler’s back then to my admittedly poor recollection. I reckon people put up with more due to the smaller market. Don’t get me wrong, Noodler’s was still controversial especially at Fountain Pen Network for the ink properties. Those were the days Noodler’s got the reputation for melting sacs and Lamy Safari feeds. If you want a blast from the past, find Nathan’s lengthy rant defending BSB. Noodler’s was also one of the few (if not the only one) making highly saturated inks. It would be a long time before Nathan would be called out for his other issues. I think people didn’t complain nearly as hard about the inconsistencies between batches and definitely not about that other problem. We are absolutely spoiled for choice these days.

How the ink is still a best of video these days? Beats me. I’m honestly shocked to hear this, but usually I avoid best of videos. I really only watch reviews of specific products I’m interested in these days.

Inconsistencies is one way to put it gently. I had one bottle that was a mid to dark teal and another that was closer to the standard blue black.

Honestly, I think it is probably a dud. I have yet to see “imitation” Pilot Metros on AliExpress like I see with the Lamy Safari. Duds happen. I wouldn’t sweat it as long as you get your refund.

Wow, never thought of custom boxes for ink bottles. Now that I’ve seen one, that seems like such a cool way to store and stack ink. Amazing work!

Sounds like a dud. What surprises me was that reseating the nib made the pen work for a while, and then the pen stopped working suddenly.

A few troubleshooting questions: Have you tried a different ink? How about a different cartridge?

put a sheet of paper/napkin/tissue on the top of the slit. Are you getting any ink? Or is it dry? If it’s wet, it might be something preventing the ink getting to the tip of the nib In this case, I usually try a different ink or gently adjust the tines in the case the tines are too far apart. If it’s dry, I reckon it’s more to do with how the nib is sitting on the feed. The best you probably can do is try to reseat the nib/feed.

This one will be messy. With the pen stored nib down with in the cartridge, wait like 20 minutes. Now pop off the nib and dab at the feed with paper/napkin/tissue. Is the feed saturated with ink? If it’s saturated, once again it’s probably something to do with how the nib is sitting on the feed. Reseat it and hope for the best. If it’s dry, I really don’t know what to suggest besides binning the pen. A Metro isn’t worth enough money to buy a Kakuno just to transfer the feed over.

That’s great to hear! I guess I have a new pen to recommend to people who are a bit rougher on their pens now.

As a follow up to warped, do you have the old cartridge and a blunt syringe? I can’t tell if you tested with an unused or refilled cartridge. I will run with the assumption you only tested with an unused one. You can test if this is an ink compability or an evaporation issue by filling the old cartridge with the Quink. No need to fill it completely and waste ink. 1/4 should be enough to tell. Use the pen as you did with the converter and see if you have the same evaporation issues. If it’s also evaporating, it is either a cap seal issue or a pen and ink combo. I second Warped’s recommendation to try the ever reliable Waterman Serenity Blue (the “standard” blue shade") ink. That will give you a good idea if your pen has an evaporation issue (still drying out quickly) or a pen/ink combo issue. If there is no evaporation (no dry out and ink isn’t getting darker), then you can start branching out to different inks to figure out what works with the pen. If you do not have any issue with the refilled with Quink cartridge, then I think that might suggest a converter related issue. The agitator might help. A new converter might help too. This scenario is a bit harder to diagnose to be honest.

If I was a gambler, I would bet it’s either an evaporation or pen/ink combo issue.

I give this pen a hearty +1. I have owned, sold, and given away a lot of 30$USD and below pens in the last decade. The 601 and Lamy Safari (and technically a brass Kaweco Sport if that counts) are the only pens in this budget I have kept. The 601 is my off the beaten path recommendation beside the usual suspects of beginner pens. The pen’s capacity in a very pleasant body is the big selling point for me. The filling system is neat, and the use of a O-ring type piston (is that the technical term?) like the one found in a piston filler over the latex used in the original 601 model is an excellent upgrade in my opinion. For people who throw around their pens, the plastic isn’t the toughest thing in the world, but I think your metal version solves that problem.

The hooded nib is great for slowing dry out too!

My question to you is how the balance on the metal version, especially when posted? The plastic grip worries me a little.