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.
Glad to hear you like yours! The price is definitely attractive for people. I know some people also don't like the idea of buying the Majohn VP clone. The plastic design is a plus over the VP. I feel less guilty about treating mines roughly because it's plastic.
Personally, I don't like mines. It's probably the least used FP in my collection. I'm not a fan of how long the knock is, but I can look past that. The actual issue is how quickly mines dries out, far from the promised 6 months. I notice quite a bit of darkening of the ink from evaporation within a few days of no use. The cartridge/converter dries out very quickly considering mine is an EF and my use rate. My VP evaporates much slower in comparison. The VP will last weeks longer at the same rate of use. I suspect the design flaw is that the flip hatch inside the pen does not have enough downward pressure to make a good, airtight seal against the silicone sleeve. I've had two so far with the exact same problem. I had the first one replaced since it completely jammed in the silicone sleeve after being used once. I used it once when I got mines, and it jammed immediately when I used it a second time two years later. The sticking point was the silicone sleeve that is supposed to keep the pen sealed. The second one came with a bottle of silicone grease/oil, so I guess that's how they solved that problem. If yours did not come with a bottle, it's just an eyedropper of silicone grease, similar to the viscosity of the TWSBI bottles. Platinum packs it with a few cotton tipped sticks.
My experience is not all bad though.
Platinum USA was great about replacing the pen though. It was long out of warranty, but they replaced it for free, no questions asked.
I will give my Curidas one thing, both EF nibs is/were incredibly smooth considering how fine it is. It's a Japanese EF, so a nib that fine will be scratchy, but wow. One of the smoothest I own at that small size. My EF 3776 is a bit scratchier in comparison.
It's not a pen I would recommend unless someone has a very specific set of needs and use case. If someone is a high volume user who wants a retractable beater pen and feels uncomfortable about using a clone, the Curidas is a no brainer. I can't emphasize enough how smooth that EF nib is for its fineness.
I hope you continue to like the pen.
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.
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.
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.
You might like Sailor Souten then as it is either the exact same formulation or very close to it. It's not discontinued like Sailor Jentle Sky High, but it's just a lot more expensive than the old Jentle bottles. Souten now comes in 20ml bottles. Seems like the larger bottles are discontinued. Good riddance. They are a pain to fill from if you have a larger nib
A titanium Kaweco Sport (not Majohn's take). It's a grail because it doesn't exist yet, but I'm not giving up hope.
Realistically speaking, a CAISO Conid Kingsize demonstrator and a Conid Regular R DCB DB FT TI model are the two grails.
My all time favourite is Sailor Jentle Sky High. I find it to be the perfect shade of blue. Kon-Peki and the ever controversial Baystate Blue are tied for second.
Unfortunately, my use case with the Curidas is 1 to 2 paragraphs most days with an EF nib that barely sips ink. While I use it enough for it to not clog, mines remains filled for long enough and uses little enough to really notice the evaporation issues. If I bought this pen again, I would definitely go for the medium or broad nib so I could cycle the ink quicker.