I was fascinated by the retractable fountain pen concept for a while. Most of my nice pens have a pull apart or unscrew type of caps, which means I always worry about losing them. I found Pilot's Capless an amazing fountain pen to write and to carry without such worry.
I went to ITOYA to find the right color I want while I was in Japan, as expected, they gave me a very pleasant shopping experience. The one I chose was Black Carbonesque in the original Capless line. (In the states, Capless is called Vanishing Point) A thinner version is called Capless decimo while a newer twist-to-extract version is called Capless Fermo.
Pilot's Capless is the world's first retractable fountain pen debuted in 1964, the year of Tokyo Olympics. I love the fact that it is retractable yet it is a fountain pen which I can use to write beautiful strokes in typical occasions. The pen clip location also gives the pen a unique signature. I just hope they can improve the look of the upper part where you click.
My finger was stained when I tried to refill using Noodler's black ink at home. My son wondered why my finger stained blue but the ink was black. So I showed him how to find out the different pigments inside the ink by a piece of tissue paper. Probably blue ink molecules are lighter and smaller so they travel faster and further up on the tissue paper when soaked in water, they also go deeper into skin therefore the more distinct blue stain on my finger.
