Pilot Custom Heritage 912: Pen Review

Heard mixed stuff on the 70 and 50...

Can it be eye droppered?

its safe to do so... and i have a con70 in my Justus and its fine, i just dont think it plays nice here. I think there is a newer version or a higher end version out there as i have seen some like this with a metal collar, and some with black collars in the high end namiki pens (1k-15k in prices)

James, could you compare the nib characteristics between stock and the Nibmeister work? Specifically, but not limited to, smoothness of the nib when not flexing, flow, and if you have any hard starts or railroading on a consistent basis while writing either flexing or not?

I'm really interested in this nib, but it seems like a love hate thing from the reviews I'm reading.

The issues I have seen stem from my con70 in this pen, it would form a huge air bubble at its base, I took the con70 out (although the con70 work in my Justus extremely nicely) and put a con20 in and problem solved for me. as for what I did to it, well I had Mike needlepoint the thing so it would be like a dip pen, unless you write so light that smoothness is no longer a factor it will be extremely scratchy, and you may damage it, these nibs are extremely soft, I cant describe how soft they are to you really as I have nothing to compare it to, I wouldnt think about the needlepoint for a while to you get used to it, and I would get some dip pen stuff to maybe practice with if you seriously are considering it.

I did the needlepoint because the finer the line you start with the less flex you actually need for dramatic line variation, plus you can flourish back through letters with the hairlines.

If your still thinking the 823, I have no idea how the flow will effect the pen, Id imagine it would run just fine without hard starts or to much of a flow issue, if you flex long enough you can drain the feed, for me right now I can flex and drag a straight flexed line the length of an entire page before that happens, while writing as you switch between flex and unflex, I no longer have issues until the converter begins to drain, the nib work I had done had nothing to do with this though, I fixed my flow issues a long time before I had the work done. Most with reviews have no idea whats going on and are trying a lot of silly things to "fix" the issue. one day while writing I didnt have the pen body on and when the issue starting showing up I had a look, and all of a sudden the air bubble flowed to the top of converter,.. it was sitting between the feed and the ink reservoir so it blocked the flow, then it started writing again till the bubble built again,... I swapped converters, and voila no more problems

I don't think I would go with anything other than the stock nib. I was thinking about a good all around for both writing normal and maybe some flexing every now and then. How does the normal writing compare with your 92 ( stock nib in both )?

I would most likely use it without flexing more than flexing.

i can say you need to focus when writing with it, going all out is not something you want to do with this nib, really it's tough to say how someone else will like it as it's so different. i know Andy prefers his namiki falcon over the FA nib, but that may be just because of flow issues he was having. why not look into a soft fine rather then the FA won't flex as much but it will flex, and would be a much better daily driver. Something to consider at least

Nice comments and suggestions there!