Out For Justus: Pen Review

Pilot Justice



Pen Specs
Overall Weight: 27g
Body: 17g

Length capped: 5.8 inches
Body: 5.3 inches
Posted: 6.5 inches

Nib is 14k gold

Parts



The usual body kit is here, although you can see some things that set this pen apart. The pen has an elongated feed to make up for the longer grip section that houses the adjuster, and you can also see the gold adjuster in protruding from the feed itself.



As usual you will not have to worry about alignment with the feed. As with most of Pilots higher end pens the end of the nib is "pinched" that fits into a notch in the feed to make sure it seats itself correctly.



seated into the grip section, the most obvious difference here is the addition of the adjuster, which not only changes the pens tines from a soft to hard, but also collects ink and acts like a reservoir much like the sailor emperor nib does, this set up truly makes for a wet flowing nib that will not skip, or hasn't yet on me, and has yet to railroad once so far.



The caps pocket clip also has something different then I have seen on a Pilot before, and I had no idea that they had done this, it was a nice surprize and detail to the pen. You can see the gold has been etched to add a little detail to an otherwise bland area of the pen. I really like this touch.

Of course Im not even close to done




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This, is the stripped version, as the pen also comes in a beautiful barley version as well. I would have leaped all over the barley but it wasn't in stock when I bought this pen from Engeika (234.00 vs the 312.00 most NA dealers want). Well turns out this wasn't in stock either so I should have ordered the Barley version after all, because really, Im not a fan of the stripped, I would have prefered a solid polished body like my Custom Heritage 912.




the pen is longer then my CH92, its a little fater, and quite a bit longer do to the adjuster mechanism that is housed in the grip section. Its extremely well balanced and comfortable in my hands, and even posted (Which I almost never do) the pen writes beautifully, as well as holding the cap securely to the body when posted.




As with all the Pilot pens, the ring is engraved nicely, with Pilot Japan on one side, and Justus on the opposite. always a nice detail although I think the Custom Heritage markings on my 912 are nicer looking, this is a step up from my 92 for sure.


So How does it write ??? well give me a few to get that written up, thats almost a whole new thread in itself... but heres a writing sample I whipped up real quick for you to gander at while I get some first impressions of the nib.




So First lets get one thing out of the way, as a flex pen, well as of right now, it sucks (more on this at the end). The pen has two things against it for a proper flex pen. when in soft mode, the tines do flex much more easily, but unfortunately they also have the pen start with a thicker line so the difference isnt really great enough to be worth the effort, and when in hard mode, well it almost works other then a bit to much pressure problem two springs up. The pen writes wet, really nicely wet, not a problem when writing larger letters, but when writing at a normal spacing the nib will pull from the ink in the flexed out areas and carry it over to where you unflex, making the difference in line width, well not there not when doing cursive anyway,... if you lift the nib from the page and kind of start fresh for every letter it will work as it doesn't drag that extra ink out since you remove the nib from it by doing that. It takes writing space to eat up that extra ink and have the pen return itself to the fine lines, and thus, it doesnt work out to well on either hard or soft setting,... again at the moment.

So is this thing a Gimmick ?, not at all, I watched a few videos on the pen, and the people stated that there is no difference in the line looks just the feeling of the pen, but in both cases they had the mediums,... ao maybe that is the reason I see a difference. in my fine thread there is a difference between the H and S settings, even halfway through rotating those settings you can tell the difference. In the line width you will go from (An asian) fine (Maybe even EF) to a fat Medium, the lines also get wetter, some of this is do to the soft nib letting some of its pinch free even without the nib to page, and I think the "reservoir" effect of the adjuster changes how the pen flows between its positions as well.

The nib writes flawlessly no matter what position you have the adjuster in, Its incredible, I like it better then my 92, or my 912 FA nib, even for a fine, it is a fantastic no scratch nib, and I have yet to be able to make it skip. Its a big performer that hasn't let me down yet.

So what do I think so far. Well its kind of early, and Although I was a bit disappointed about the flex issues at first, getting into the pen I was very pleased with how it wrote, while taking nots on the phone I had it on the hard setting making for quick drying lines that I could write small. playing around I opened it up some to do some signatures and the wetter fatter lines does more to show off the inks colour I had in the pen (Sailor Jentle Sky High for the record). The pen is super comfortable, and well balances, has some great details to its look (But Im still mad I dont have the barley), and is a solid build quality from Pilot (At least in feeling, Ive only had the pen for a day).


So what about the "At least for now" stuff about the nib ?, well I want some work done to it, I want to needlepoint the heck out of the nib so even in the soft setting it is still a super dooper fine nib that I should be able to flex, but im not so sure about it yet, I may talk to John Mottishaw about it at the show to get his thoughts on the pen as he has these and has done work to them before. but its on my mind. Im happy about the pen, and glad to have it, though I am not sure going back I would spend the money again on it, although in its price range im not sure what else I would look at, I would save the pennies I think to go for,... well honestly, I dont know what else, so maybe I would end up with one of these. I do quite like it.... Just don't buy it if your looking for controlled flex​