Given that I'm hearing about the VP nibs rising in price in the new year, my naughty mind went to work. It's saying:

Should I get a Fermo w/ F Nib or Custom 742 w /Falcon Nib

*sigh* I already do have a Décimo w/ F Nib and I know the Fermo w/ F nib will write the same although the barrel is different and it's heavier which does mean a different writing feel. On the other hand, I don't have a Custom 742 w/ flexible nib, but I do have a Namiki Falcon w/ F nib which I love. I like both my Décimo and Namiki Falcon.

If you were me, which would you pick?
• Fermo w/ F nib
• Custom 742 w/ Falcon nib
Note: they are essentially the same price

Get the Custom 742. It will give you a different experience. I have a Namiki Falcon, VP and a Custom 823 and want a Custom 742/3 with Falcon nib.

Your "situation" is that you have the pens you mentioned, right?

Don't make a decision now. Enjoy the pens you have. It's only October (as of tomorrow). Maybe you'll want something completely different....

I have the Fermo as part of my collection of Capless/VPs.
Also I can swap out the Rhodium tipped nibs for use in older VP that has chrome furniture/clips.

That said, I've been advising my friends who took a fancy to the retracting mechanism aginst the model.

The turning knob on top added considerable weight to the top of the pen, upsetting the balance. Unless you have a death grip or a heavy wrist, the pen actually has a tendancy to rear its point upwards when you pause (when your grip fingers are relaxed). You should try this pen before you buy, and don't try it standing at the sales counter, you need to sit down in a more likely writing position, since the angle of the arm-wrist changed, the feel of balance also changes.

The biggest draw for me was the retracting, which allows me a one hand operation, specially when I have books, files in the other or sudenly have the need to jot something down. Also I don't have to worry about the nib airdrying between writing , as in a meeting or class. The process of having to untwist/pull off a cap at such situations are tedious at best, and then....where the heck are you going to park that cap temporarily?
In this respect, the Fermo requires a 360° twist to extract, a 2 hand operation (The knob is spring loaded though, so the retracting can be one handed). I did try, just once, to extracting by using my fingers, twisting the knob onehanded, and promptly dropped the pen, on my cat.

The construction of the Capless/VP have steadily evoled over the years, the current VP/Decimo/Fermo actually have a O ring at the barrel joint for better evapoartion prevention. The regular VP's clip can now be remove from the Cap, or the nose cone twisted/turn to orient the nib either slightly left or right to mimic oblique because of the placement of your fingers.

However, for the reasons above, I would advise against the Fermo.
My regular VP, ugly as it is, actually got the most usage because I really didn't care for it and didn't mind if it was lost at work or scratched, even with clip removed.

Your experience may vary of course.

037, thanks for the reply. This is helpful. The primary reason I'd get the Fermo, if I did, would be aesthetics. I think of the three contemporary available model, the Fermo is the most beautiful. The Décimo is more beautiful than the VP although it doesn't have the removable clip or twisting clip.

Hm...more info to think about!

BTW..I noticed your Chines/Kanji characters by your info section.

I have the 742 and 743, both with the FA nib. In my experience with this nib, it is the closet thing that would mimic a traditional brush stroke of a oriental ink brush, except in the horizontal strokes. Even this can be partially mimiced by holding your pen at a 30° oblique left. The spreading of the tines as pressure is applied in the direction of travel approximated that of a traditional brush in terms of line variations.
The older flex nibs, back in the days of the "wet noodle" era simply isn't as good as this, because of the ink flow control. Also the tines always spring back to normal, and never gave me the 'cross the legs' problem, even using it to write Kanji and English character calligraphically. Previous to the FAs, my only satisfaction in this regard was a Osmiroid with a Copperplate nib, an inexpensive pen ($15).

My vote goes to the 742 FA.

Oh, this is helpful to know. Old flex nibs gave you the "cross the legs" problem? Ah...didn't know that! Very interesting.

I have decimos, fermos and regular capless and use the regular ones much more than the fermo. The Fermo is a great pen and looks the best (IMHO) but it doesnt' have the convenience of the click that other people have mentioned.

I would, however, get a FA nib 743 and not the 742. Check out the reviews for these pens here on FPN and you'll find that the 742 doesn't spring back as well as the 743 in so much as some have had to send theirs for repair after over flexing the nib. The 743 doesn't suffer from this nearly as much. The problem though it that the 743 is much more expensive than the 742 or Fermo...

Also, I would expect that the capless price increase may have something to do with the exchange rate so I wouldn't be surprised if all Japanese pens increase in price. This will not impact the 743/742 as they are not available in the US and maybe not on the Fermo as it's also not sold here... but it will impact on the other pilots that are sold in the US. The US has by far the cheapest prices for capless pens so this is probably a correction to put us back in line with the rest of the world...

Notice the Decimo has the same design at the nose. On the regular VP the nose cone can be removed and then the clip pulled out. And if you choose to leave the clip in, then the nose cone itself can be turned slightly, turning the nose cone/clip either to the left or right slightly, thereby changing the orientation of the nib in relation to the position of the clip. Unless the Decimo is glued in, there's no reason why that procedure cannot be performed on it.
I like the position of the Decimo clip as it is, and therefore have not tried to take the clip out as I had the regular VP.
btw, once the regular VP's clip is removed, it resembles a big fat cigar, or a corndog, and it rolls all over the desk like some drunken sausage, and feels totally 'unsafe' in my hand.

How do you remove the nose? I'm curious. In any case, the clip does not bother me one bit but I'd still like to know how to remove the clip.

The nose is NOT held in by tabs, anchoring points, latches or guide rails. It was sweated in at assembly. It is also independant of the shaft assembly housing the nib.
I used a section puller ( rubberized spark plug wrench ), heated the nose cone evenly, stuck a fingercot cut at the tip on the cone to protect it and used the puller to twist & turn and just pulled it out with some strength. (Info garnered from Mr Binder)
I only have the luxury of a frame warmer (the type optical shops used to bend eyeglass frames) to evenly applied heat on the entire surface of the cone. I decided using a hairdryer would loose too much heat, and it would not be even, probably going to take longer time, but it can be done too.
Once the nose cone comes off, 2 little clips inside held the Clip's 'legs' in place and can be removed with a plier.
Beware though - in the reverse process, aligning the trapdoor to the shape of the opening is important. Too much turn on the nose cone would obstruct the nib and trapdoor movement.

Ah okay. To me then that isn't a truely "removeable" nose cone then I mean, if I need to use major instruments other than my own hands and fingers, then I won't bother with it. I thought it was going to be something like a twist and pull action and then it's off.

Thanks for replying, everyone!

Having just received my Fermo I thought I had better read the above posts!
I would agree about the additional weight of the twist mechanism upsetting the balance,somewhat.
However,it's relatively quite heavy (35grms compared to my Pel M800 at 30grms) but less bulky. It thus feels,
to me,that it possesses greater 'density' ......... The phrase 'of solid construction' springs to mind or ,even, 'over engineered'.
Good ink flow and fine enough (for me) with a Medium nib.
Must write some more with it!

You know what, I ended up getting a Fermo (F nib) and Pilot 742 (Falcon nib) ;-) I like the Fermo and don't think the additional weight of the twist mechanism bothers at all. To me, the Fermo is the most beautiful for all the contemporary VPs.

Obviously late to the party, but my Fermo F point arrived a couple of days ago. I love it. It's an awesome pen. I would say that the twisting mech. at the top doesnt unbalance the pen in my opinion. Just the opposite I feel the pen is quite well balanced and feels very well constructed.

Slightly OT, but what's the difference between the 742 and 743? Is it the filling mechanism? Thanks.
~Gary

743 is a bigger pen. It also has a bigger nib. I realised I mis-titled this thread. At that time I was looking at the 742 and Fermo.