I was recently gifted what I believe to be a Pilot Metropolitan Taupe Lizard (see photo)
Can anyone tell me if I’ve identified it correctly?
This is my first squeeze converter. Is it opaque? If so how do you guesstimate ink levels? All my other pens have piston converters with transparent reservoirs, so you can just look.
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.
You can try the squeeze converter, if you don’t like you can try the CON-40 converter. It’s the only other Pilot converter that can go in a Metro. But it’s not a really liked converter… I can’t really say because I never used mine yet, I just refill cartridges for my Pilot pens. Which is another option for you.
I agree that looks to be a Metropolitan. Great pens!
As @techwizrd said, you won’t be able to see the ink level. When your line starts get get darker, thinner, and the pen starts to skip, it’s time to refill. Or if the pen has been sitting for a while, maybe a quick cleaning.
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