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Pilot Custom 74 Nib - Medium Is Too Broad


sctortplace

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New to fountain pens here. Recently bought a Medoum nib Pilot Custom 74, and find it just lays down too broad a line of ink for me.

Need to swap out my Med nib for a a Fine, I guess, since Pilot does not sell these nibs.

How should I go about finding a way of doing this? I'm a new member, so can't yet post in classifieds.

Help - please.

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My advice is: keep it!

 

You'll eventually fall in love with broader nibs.

In the meantime, buy a twsbi eco or pilot metropolitan with a fine or extra fine nib and wait for your mind to beg you to go back to the broad side.

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I've been using fountain pens for about 17 years, and I am going finer and finer if anything... the fascination that people seems to have with broad nibs, which are very impractical and makes everyone's penmanship look sloppy and huge to my eyes, is for me utterly incomprehensible.

So everyone's experience is different.

I don't think you could find a spare Pilot gold nib for an affordable price (meaning significantly less than a new pen), you may be better off just buying another pen with a finer nib. All pilot #5 nibs (Custom 91 and 92 for example) should be interchangeable, but the steel nibs unfortunately are different and would not fit.

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Well, hmmm. Thanks for your view on this! I'm not so sure about becoming a broad nib fellow, but I suppose "all will be revealed on the fullness of time." 😉

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As opposed to buying a Fine nib, my hope was to find another Custom 74 owner with a Fine nib who is looking for a Medium and then swap. Unlikely? I have no clue.

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sctortplace, don't give in to the fine-nib haters - the only wrong nib size is the one you don't like. :)

 

Sorry, I don't know how to help you in your quest for a finer nib for this pen. Just wanted you to know you're not alone in fine-nib world. :D Hopefully soon you'll have enough posts to be able to do a classified ad. You might also ask in the Pilot sub-forum, in case someone reads that forum but not this one. I assume you've checked eBay to see if maybe someone's selling just the nibs? (I've never heard of that, but who knows.)

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Well, hmmm. Thanks for your view on this! I'm not so sure about becoming a broad nib fellow, but I suppose "all will be revealed on the fullness of time." 😉

Take it from someone who still loves F and EF nibs, when I got back into the hobby I had *no* interest in broader nibs - but have come to really appreciate them for the way they showcase the different inks in my collection. Not to mention the fact that they force me to write larger and legibly (for other readers). Finer nibs are still more practical for me, though, for my own note taking and day to day use. Not everyone makes that transition in tastes, though - and it's a bummer to have an expensive, attractive pen in your collection that you don't enjoy using. Don't know what to advise I'm the meantime though - if you sell and replace it and lose money in the transaction, will you be kicking yourself down the track? Or will you look back on it as a great decision? I know I've put a few pens aside as "sorry I bought that", only to find a new appreciation for them subsequently.

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I have found that gold Pilot M nibs are more western sized and wet. I expect you can bring the nib down a size by switching to a ink that is more dry then what you were using. I agree with you in thinking they are a bit much but I grew into mine and like the M's I have now. My 74 and VP M nibs put down a 0.6mm line but its really wet. If you go to a FM nib its more of a western F. This only applies to Gold Pilot M's. If you have a Pilot steel nib M its going to be much finer.

 

You can send the pen for a nib reduction or have its flow changed or like others have said sell or trade the pen.

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I had this exact issue with a Pilot Custom 74 Medium. Granted, I came to actually appreciate it.

 

But it was that experience that opened my eyes to the practicality of buying Pilot pens direct from Japan (via Ebay, Amazon). The custom 74 can be had for around $75 and there are more nibs to choose from. Like the Soft-Fine for example.

 

So you can buy a new pen, swap the nibs and then perhaps sell the one you don't want eventually or keep it as a spare, etc.

 

Good luck & have fun exploring ...!

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My Custom 74 writes wet and fairly broad for a medium. I would recommend just keeping the nib. I think you'll eventually come to appreciate the rich line it lays down. When I was new to fountain pens, I wanted really fine nibs because it was more like the line I got with ball points and gel pens. Now I prefer the broader lines that I get from medium fountain pen nibs.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet, 1.5.167-168

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Japanese medium is western fine.

So don't waste any money on western pens. Pilot is skinnier than Sailor so don't buy Sailor.

 

Japanese nibs are designed to print short stroke tiny Japanese script. It wasn't until the '90's that Japanese pens became anything but nitch....and up to then none worried about Japanese nibs being miss marked a full size.

Thinking ahead and not being hostage to over paid western bank managers, gave a very good nib on a cheap beginners pen. Japanese companies think 50 years in advance, in their banks do too. None of the top managers make a fortune.

The top 26 managers of Toyota make a grand total of $26 million.

Japanese pen companies want to be there in 50 years. Western pen company managers need only be there long enough for the manager to find a job that pays more.

Sheaffer died.

China's coming, who's next?

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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I bought my Custom 74 with an M nib a little over 1½ years ago. I don't like the nib any more now than I did when I bought it. I don't have cancer or the hantavirus, so I'm not going anywhere too soon. There's still time. I'm not going to change, but I expect that nib to see the light and become an F sooner or later.

I love the smell of fountain pen ink in the morning.

 

 

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I have a Pilot Custom 74 Medium, as well, and find that with some inks, on some papers, it writes a fatter line than I like. However, I don't want to change it as it is the smoothest nib in my collection.

 

There are ways to make it write a finer line --

 

  • Choose a less saturated ink (Sheaffer Skrip, Pelikan 4001 or Edelstein, Sailor Jentle, Noodler's Black). These inks all have less surfactant than other inks (like the rest of the Noodler's inks, Private Reserve or Diamine) and so spread sideways in the paper less, giving you a narrower line.
  • Use a hard, smooth paper (Kokuyo Campus, Maruman, Muji, Daiso, Rhodia, Clairefontaine, bamboo paper, ) as these all restrict ink spreading sideways
  • Carefully buff the sides of the nib with a well-worn nail buffing pad. This will make the sides smoother and shinier and ink won't stick, making the pen write a finer line without actually changing the shape of the nib.

If all else fails, buy a handful of cheap Jinhao pens and teach yourself how to shape a nib to be narrower. I use a very fine cosmetic shaping stone to remove the metal from the nib, then a series of micromesh pad to make it smooth. Once you are confident, you can tackle your Pilot nib.

fpn_1412827311__pg_d_104def64.gif




“Them as can do has to do for them as can’t.


And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”


Granny Aching

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Japanese medium is western fine.

So don't waste any money on western pens. Pilot is skinnier than Sailor so don't buy Sailor.

 

 

 

In my experience Plot gold M nibs do not follow that rule. Pilot steel M nibs do. My three Pilot pens with Gold M's all write to western medium widths. My Pilot steel M nib does writes like a F. My Pilot with a gold MF nib also writes like a western F.

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Japanese medium is western fine.

 

I don't really agree with this. From what I can see, Western and Japanese nib widths are pretty much the same for medium and broader.

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I don't really agree with this. From what I can see, Western and Japanese nib widths are pretty much the same for medium and broader.

 

Depends which nibs you're talking about: the steel nibs on the Pilot Metropolitan / Prera etc really *do* run finer - the M is like a Western F. When it comes to the Pilot Vanishing Point (gold) nibs, there seems to be a big jump between the F and the M.

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Depends which nibs you're talking about: the steel nibs on the Pilot Metropolitan / Prera etc really *do* run finer - the M is like a Western F. When it comes to the Pilot Vanishing Point (gold) nibs, there seems to be a big jump between the F and the M.

That could be because in between F and M there's FM.

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That could be because in between F and M there's FM.

+1. My FM writes closer to a European fine. I don't think they sell FM at US authorized retailers, but if you wanted FM you might be able to get an FM off Amazon from a Japanese seller.

 

My experience has been that Japanese Japanese Fine is more like European Extra Fine, if not more narrow, and that the Japanese mediums and larger are more like their European counterparts.

Edited by Mister5

Inked: Aurora Optima EF (Pelikan Tanzanite); Franklin Christoph Pocket 20 Needlepoint (Sailor Kiwa Guro); Sheaffers PFM I Reporter/Fine (Diamine Oxblood); Franklin Christoph 02 Medium Stub (Aurora Black); Platinum Plaisir Gunmetal EF (Platinum Brown); Platinum Preppy M (Platinum Blue-Black). Leaded: Palomino Blackwing 602; Lamy Scribble 0.7 (Pentel Ain Stein 2B); Uni Kuru Toga Roulette 0.5 (Uni Kuru Toga HB); Parker 51 Plum 0.9 (Pilot Neox HB)

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I'm glad for more detail on width of Japanese nibs........various charts and informed opinions kept stating Japanese was narrower by up to a width.........nothing was said about gold being fatter.

A good poster said Parker and Sheaffer were not much fatter.

 

Pelikan now is.....much fatter than the pre'98 time. Back then before Japanese pens made the charts, it was Conway Stewart very, very wide, Parker then Sheaffer, Pelikan, the very own 800 size and the thin Waterman set. (There were two Waterman sets.) The oddest thing, Pelikan EF was then the narrowest of all EF's listed. 800=400/200 in EF also.

 

The Pelikan 200 nibs EF was then the norm in Pelikan for EF.

 

So what is the thought Pelikan 200 EF vs Japanese EF???

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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