Pilot 742 Custom Customised!

[adi2009_0812]

****OPTIONAL READING*******

 

About 12 weeks ago, I got the TWSBI diamond pen. Although I loved the pen, I didn't quite like the nib. It was extremely smooth but somehow lacked the character of a sailor nib. So, I went online and bought a old cheap vintage Wyvern nib. As the feed is quite narrow for the TWSBI, this no.2 wyvern nib fitted perfectly and wrote very very smoothly. It was a soft nib. And I loved it- i loved writing, sketching and just doodling around with it.

 

I looked around on FPN for the next two days and read all about soft,hard as a nail, flex, semi flex, vintage flex, vintage waterman flex, my flex is better than your flex etc. etc...types of nibs.

 

Modern pen that came up quite a bit during this reading was the Pilot 742 custom with the "FA" or Falcon nib as well as the Namiki Falcon Pen. The Pilot Falcon pen was described as a soft pen whereas the FA nib as flex. Thinking more of something must be good, I ordered the 742 custom. And then I dreamt... about how soft it would be. In my head the nib was a perfect middle ground between a brush and a pencil. Something that would glide, shade but also wield under pressure. Where it would take 10 pencil strokes to darken, this would be just a tiny bit of pressure from my wrist.... This would be my journal pen, my office pen, the "look what I have" pen, the "ha ha I am not one of those suckers in the office with a Mont Blanc 145 Chopin pen". And then I waited. A week later the parcel came. I could hardly wait to go home and open the pen...and fill it up with the Noodler's Brahmin Black LE ink from the Boston pen show...

 

Phewww... finally. Pen opened, wrappings chucked, the pen's belly full of my favourite ink.

 

And then I tried to write. It was...ahh..ahh..oh comeon... ahh hold on a sec-- why was it skipping? The irst etter didn' write. So I washed it with plain cold water. Surely, it would write now. Hmm...aybe ot. Quick search on the internet came up with a lot of information. "The feed doesn't keep up".. What? what do you mean the feed doesn't keep up..it's not running a marathon. All it has to do is pass the ink to the tip. It's a pretty easy job.

 

You have to write slowly with the nib if you want to utilise the flex. OK. fine. Calm Down. The world is not coming to an end. So I tried to write slowly. But..But... as the tinies spread like a model's legs on a FHM cover..the pen would put down parallel lines on paper Not a thick wholesome line like the bosoms on the FHM calendar. Ok Try again. Take the nib off the paper. Wait for a sec. Try again. Aha. Works now... it is..it was. WTH. Again. Are you Kdin me?

 

This went on for a week. It was the same at work. I kept staring at the old fart sitting opposite me with his Mont Blanc chopin. The two tone nib gleaming under the sunlight streaking in from the window as he kept babbling about the paper going to the board while gulping on his third coffee of the morning. The white star on the cap started looking like a evil clown laughing at me..I tried to write a line with my pen. No good. He smirked, and carried on babbling. Now holding his pen in his hand which was resting his jaw as he spoke. It was almost as if to say --- give up. You know you want one. Stop trying to be different like those Indie Movies. You like Star Wars. Not Trainspotting. You wants the white star, you needs the white staar. STOOOOOPPP!!

 

OK. I went home determined that day. I looked up on the web. A lot of names of doctors came up. John Mottishaw. Mike Masuyama. Richard Binder. I asked Mike for council as he had worked at sailor. If anyone has read my reviews before, I love Sailor. So he was my natural choice. I told him what I wanted - and he told me exactly how he can do that, how long it will take to do that and how much he will charge. I loved it. He gave advice only as much was needed and as much as I asked. He wasn't preaching me. Great!

 

*******END OF OPTIONAL READING******* ^{(Well the whole thing is optional, you don't have to read any of it)}

What I ended up with is sort of like my wet dream (pen wise). a flex nib with a fine point, flow tested and adjusted, with a sailor emperor tab on top to keep it going and going and going...much like a duracell battery (reputedly).

 

So Here is my review:-

 

Great. Fantastic. Love it. The nib is what I love about it. With the gentlest of strokes, or turning the nib sideways.. i can draw a very dry hairline.... Sort of thing you would use to shade hair. Turning it around and pressing on the nib..I can have a river flowing through the nib (not too wet) but very broad. Thing river nearing a delta.

 

I could babble on..but the sketch and the writings should give a better idea than me rambling.

 

On a side note- the size and girth of the pen is great for me. Roughly the same size as a TWSBI diamond but the grip is slightly thicker. The pen has a great feel to it. The convertor reminds me of button filling. In a word...Lovvvvveee itt!!!

 

If people have qus- i will answer-- this could be like a Q&A Review!!! Rather than giving arbitary points out of 10.

 

And no-- i will not answer questions on "First Impressions". I think you can get the idea by now.

[shl]

great review. This seems to be a very nice solution to the feed starvation problem. I have two FA nibs and I have experienced the same problem but switching to cartridges cured it for me.

 

It would be cool if Pilot could adopt something like this for their FA nibs as ink flow seems to be a common problem with these nibs.

 

Just wondering, does the tab interfere with the flexibility of the nib at all?

Edited August 4, 2011 by shl

[adi2009_0812]

HI SHL. The tab does interfere with the flex. But in a way that I like it. For normal writing, (taking notes in the office etc.) there is lesser line variation. This is because if I remember correctly, the tinies used to spread till upto the breather hole. Now with the tab welded, the flex till the point where the tab meets the nib.

 

So, in essence there is lesser flex. However, when you try and write with it to Doodle and create line variations i.e. write slowly, the nib flexes as much to create the same line variation without breaking out the ink flow. Ofcourse if you tried to draw a whole line on a A4 paper, I imagine the line would break at some point. But doodling, I haven't had any problems it.

 

Happy days!

[htran18]

I really like your review, made me laugh :ltcapd: I'm glad it worked out for you. I've been thinking of getting a 912 but I hate tinkering with nibs or sending them off, so I'm hoping the FA on the 912 isn't like that.

[adi2009_0812]

Hi. I would be surprised if the FA nib was great straight out of the box. People tend to get over it first, and then get around it. Like SHL has said, cartridges might work out.

 

However, if you have never used flex before, like I didn't- I would recommend you get a soft nib- A Namiki Falcon (or hell even a vanishing point) has some softness.

 

They are a pain to work with unless you know exactly what you are doing. I don't. Yet.

[Lloyd]

Mike turned my too-broad for me and railroading 743 FA into a very smooth XXXF semi-flex that never suffers ink starvation.

[watch_art]

I had a 742 FA for a while - and I spent a lot of time fooling with the feed and eventually found that knocking out the center tube of the feed worked best for me.

 

I made a lot of videos of it to show it's wet flow.

 

These videos are long --- and probably boring... but here ya go...

one

 

 

 

[dannyt.33]

Wow, what a nib!

[adi2009_0812]

@ watch_art- I have seen those videos and I thought about doing that. Somehow playing with the feed of a 200 dollar pen... I just couldnt! But good on you. I have seen a few other of your videos..they are great. Keep em up.