Pilot Custome Heritage 92 - A Total Disappointment

[jar]

@pseudo88 if you go for a pelikan M200 or M205 you better try it out first, i ordered a M205 medium nib and it arrived with a fine nib stamped as medium...

 

Nibs are assigned based on a range, most often based on simple eyeballing versus a gauge and it is quite normal for there to be overlap at extremes; two nibs of exactly the same widths could be labeled as fine or medium. That too is quite normal. If it is stamped as medium, it is medium. If it writes like a fine it can still be a medium.

[Mech-for-i]

 

 

i got the pen with a medum nib. it doesn't really feel hard or firm (like the lamy 2000 nib) it's more like the lines are not consitent/vary in thickness, especially with strokes from right to left or from bottom right to top left...

if that's the case with most asian fountain pens, then i rather stay with european pens

but isn't TWSBI also asian? i have/had no problems with their nibs, in fact i think my 580's nib is one of the best steel nibs i own and better than the pilots gold nib.

 

OK if you are finding it not hard or firm, then its for the better, and indeed I would say its certainly not quite as firm as that in the L2K but then that's a hooded nib. Although my old 92 do not have an M nib but I do have one of similar in my Stellar 90 , and that one write pretty consistent, actually too consistent. The line it lay down is pretty much the same which ever direction so long I do not apply any force when writing and I usually do not ( since I am no calligrapher ). I had similar experience with contemporary Pilot nibs. Between the Japanese big 3, its the Sailor that usually give me this kind of ( unwanted ) line variation. The nib might require more scrutiny I would say. Actually most Asian nib ( OK Sailor aside ), other than flex , or specialist soft nibs tend to write pretty consistent. That's my own experience. But then I must again re-iterate I do not write in any calligraphy manner ; so I cannot speak for them regarding say usage on formal cursive or similar.

 

Another thing to check, how do you write, since Japanese nib in general had a grind a size smaller than European and also some of the tipping tend to be grounded to a less rounded manner it might just be the nib performing when pointed at certain angles. Since I do not have my Stella 90 around I cannot go off and check but you might want to check if twisting or just setting the pen at different angle would give different result; hope this helps, if not, might be its time to call customer service. In general I would not rate the 92 as the high end like the M800 but it should perform decent.

[MYU]

Quality Control is never 100% perfect. Don't judge an entire pen brand because of one faulty pen. That's just brazenly myopic. When you disassembled the pen, did you exude any strong force? You may have inadvertently caused the crack. But it is possible the cracked part may have had a flaw that was triggered by disassembly. That is not consistent with Pilot's reputation.

[senzen]

 

@pseudo88 if you go for a pelikan M200 or M205 you better try it out first, i ordered a M205 medium nib and it arrived with a fine nib stamped as medium...

 

Thanks but I got it on ebay, so who knows what I'll get... It's unlikely to write as thick as my m600's F nib; plus I think I've seen replacement m200 steel nibs for not that much ($30).

[Flounder]

I pretty much simply echo everything Jar has said. I've never grown attached to my CH92, but I've experienced no piston leak issues or cracks here. I will say that Pilot customer service were very good, they offered to replace the awful skipping broad nib even though it was not bought here in the UK (by the time I got the reply, I'd already reground the nib to my satisfaction).

 

It is a somewhat soft nib with lots of shading, but wierdly without the charm or character of any other soft nib I've used. I recall one online store having a caveat about the CH92 nib, something about it not being to universal taste.

 

edit - found it, it was Jetpens:

 

"In our experience, this pen requires moderate writing pressure for best performance. Users with a very light hand may experience skipping or inconsistent performance."

 

In my case, out of the box it was a soft nib with tines closed at light pressure, a big, sort of unground ball of overpolished tipping, and very prominent baby bottoming.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Flounder

[Driften]

I pretty much simply echo everything Jar has said. I've never grown attached to my CH92, but I've experienced no piston leak issues or cracks here. I will say that Pilot customer service were very good, they offered to replace the awful skipping broad nib even though it was not bought here in the UK (by the time I got the reply, I'd already reground the nib to my satisfaction).

 

It is a somewhat soft nib with lots of shading, but wierdly without the charm or character of any other soft nib I've used. I recall one online store having a caveat about the CH92 nib, something about it not being to universal taste.

 

edit - found it, it was Jetpens:

 

"In our experience, this pen requires moderate writing pressure for best performance. Users with a very light hand may experience skipping or inconsistent performance."

 

In my case, out of the box it was a soft nib with tines closed at light pressure, a big, sort of unground ball of overpolished tipping, and very prominent baby bottoming.

 

 

I have never had to use more then the lightest of pressure for my 92,91, or 74. They all use the same #5 pilot nib. I have a F, MF, and M version. The F was a bit dry, the MF was nice, and the M was really wet. None of the skip and they will all write with no pressure more then the weight of the pen its self.

[malte]

Quality Control is never 100% perfect. Don't judge an entire pen brand because of one faulty pen. That's just brazenly myopic. When you disassembled the pen, did you exude any strong force? You may have inadvertently caused the crack. But it is possible the cracked part may have had a flaw that was triggered by disassembly. That is not consistent with Pilot's reputation.

i mentioned a few times that it may be only this particular pen, please read through the thread before you judge

my title and choice of words may sound a bit harsh, but that's probably because i never had so much problems with any other pen (not even with the jinhao) or maybe i expected too much after all those good reviews...

i didn't completely dissasemble the pen, just unscrew the piston and removing it from the barrel and i did that very carefully. it's also not my first time doing this and i didn't force anything to come appart.

 

what Flounder posted from jetpens is pretty much what my pen does, it needs a bit of pressure to write consistent

 

and regarding my m205, it's just like Jar said, it's up to pelikan what they want to stamp their nibs with but i just mentioned it since my m205 puts down 1/2 the line thickness of all my other pens (all medium) only a 1/3 of the m800's line thickness.

well, it doesn't change the fact that the m200 is a great pen

[Venemo]

i'm in south africa and i had to import the pen (they're not selling it here) so i doubt that they will help me with the crack

 

Why wouldn't they help?

There have been several good examples of good support from reputable pen companies, so it is worth to try and ask for their help.

 

Thirdly, Pilot does not recommend disassembling their pens and sending it back to them for any problems. Your pen is in warranty, but warranty is void now since you disassembled it.

 

Even so, I would still recomment to try to contact their support.

Some companies (eg. TWSBI) are very helpful even if you voided your warranty (eg. several people who cleaned their Eco with acetone or alcohol got a replacement barrel).

[senzen]

 

Why wouldn't they help?

There have been several good examples of good support from reputable pen companies, so it is worth to try and ask for their help.

 

 

 

Might not have been purchased through their official distribution channels, if there are any where he is; few companies go all the way and offer service regardless of where you bought it, e.g. Apple does for laptops, other brands don't.

[Venemo]

 

Might not have been purchased through their official distribution channels, if there are any where he is; few companies go all the way and offer service regardless of where you bought it, e.g. Apple does for laptops, other brands don't.

 

TWSBI did not ask where I bought my Eco, when I wrote to them for help.

 

It never hurts to ask. Sending an email is free.

[Bounce792]

Pilot Japan (I cannot speak for its international branches) has not garnered a reputation for caring too much about warranty. If you have a Pilot pen that requires repair, they'll look at it. They may charge you something for it or decide that it's their fault and you deserve a new pen. Sometimes, Pilot Japan is the only place to go for repairing older Pilot models. I have seen several threads about people sending their pens to Pilot Japan for repair without any issues. As Venemo says, it's free to send an email and what's the worst they could say? "Sorry, we can't help you."

 

The best case, "Send us the pen, pay for shipping and we'll take a look" - a few weeks later, "Yes, this crack is a defect and we'll send you a new pen."

 

Also, TWSBI customer service was pretty bad for me. Bought a Vac 20a in a store in Singapore and found that one of the caps was stuck. Brought it back and the clerk in the store that it looked like the plastic had broken so I needed to contact TWSBI for a replacement as they had just sold out. Did that, sent the ink well to them and got a snarky e-mail back saying that it was misaligned because of user error and doesn't need replacing. Still doesn't work properly with my Vac Mini. So ... I'm not buying any TWSBI pens again.

[Gasquolet]

I pretty much simply echo everything Jar has said. I've never grown attached to my CH92, but I've experienced no piston leak issues or cracks here. I will say that Pilot customer service were very good, they offered to replace the awful skipping broad nib even though it was not bought here in the UK (by the time I got the reply, I'd already reground the nib to my satisfaction).

 

It is a somewhat soft nib with lots of shading, but wierdly without the charm or character of any other soft nib I've used. I recall one online store having a caveat about the CH92 nib, something about it not being to universal taste.

 

edit - found it, it was Jetpens:

 

"In our experience, this pen requires moderate writing pressure for best performance. Users with a very light hand may experience skipping or inconsistent performance."

 

In my case, out of the box it was a soft nib with tines closed at light pressure, a big, sort of unground ball of overpolished tipping, and very prominent baby bottoming.

 

Though I've not seen this referred to officially as above, I have found it once or twice myself, most notably with an Aurora that had no tine gap at the tip of the nib, though the grind was perfect. Cross strokes would, I believe, inconsistently open the tipping as the nib moved which resulted in a line that appeared to vary randomly between a fine and a hairline as the flow started and stopped. I also write with a very light hand.

 

I discovered the ink was in part to blame; changing from a MB to Aurora ink corrected the behaviour however I wanted more consistency so did a little work and very slightly eased the nib wings back an imperceptible amount. That has since corrected the flow with any ink, though not made it over wet.

The pen in question was not new so the usual caveats apply about modifying the nib on a new pen.

 

If you keep the pen, you may find this corrects itself as you 'break in' the nib. Also cleaning it again with a mild detergent solution or pen cleaner may help, never hurts to try that one again.

[storyteller]

I have two of these pens. Never had a problem with either. I am careful what inks I feed them on though.... but not more so than with any other of my pens, including the 'stupid expensive' ones.

 

Like all demonstrator pens, some inks can be a real pain (I.T.B.) to clean out and not all pens are easily dismantled for cleaning.

 

So if you like 'exotic' inks - you have a choice between:

 

1) Getting used to multicolored ink stained sections and caps in demonstrators (including MB and Pelikan). It can look cool and very 'professional'!

2) Choosing opaque versions.

3) Sticking to fountain pens that are meant to be taken apart regularly for cleaning.

 

The Pilot CH range is not meant to be taken apart regularly for cleaning IMO. I haven't had to do any piston maintenance on mine and they haven't cracked.

 

I also have a TWSBI that was never taken apart for cleaning either... it cracked anyway!

 

Japanese pens veer towards dryer and finer nibs. They are designed this way.

 

I agree with other posts - Pilot should help you get your pen working the way you want, irrespective of where you purchased it.

 

Oh and TWSBI replaced my barrel.....

[David R Munson]

Fountain pens are messy little things. They're portable ink vials with special ends that let ink out just so, and they're imperfect. Add to that the weirdness of human users and the mess gets multiplied. In real life, ink winds up in weird places and accumulates in spots where we would prefer it didn't.

My CH 92 been my go-to pen for two years solid now and I use it A LOT. Between teaching and writing, the pen is in my hand 6-12 hours a day. It gets refilled just about every day, which at this point means it's been refilled around seven hundred times since I bought it. It is not babied. Sometimes it gets dropped (cap on, thankfully).

 

I've got ink that's gotten in between the outer cap and the inner liner part, as well as some ink that's accumulated behind the plunger. The former part is just what happens because pens, again, are messy. The difference with a demonstrator is that you see the mess that's usually hidden. The latter part only began when I started using carbon black inks, the pigments of which cling to the barrel in ways that other inks tend not to. I can clean up both when I want to, but mostly don't bother because it's just going to get back like that in short order. If the ink flow starts to get funky, I take out the nib assembly and use an old electric toothbrush to power off the gunk off the feed.

It's unfortunate OP feels so disappointed with the pen. Yours may be one with legit problems, but I also get the feeling that you're expecting a demonstrator to remain perfect-looking, which is problematic if you actually use it.

Regarding the inconsistency, I've often found that brand-new pens don't write with a consistent line right out of the box, but behave much better after a few pages in a notebook. No idea why this is, but has happened with just about every pen I've bought.

 

This is what mine looks like currently. Last full disassembly and cleaning was in November. I say embrace the funk.

 

[minddance]

I once had a Pilot92, but only for a few days. It was a broad nib and it was the worst broad nib, second to Sailor, that I have had. The flow was terrible and couldn't wrote at all and when I applied some pressure, it intermittently laid ink onto paper WITH scratchiness due to inner tines scratching the paper. Then I tried to spread the tines abit to make the flow normal, unwittingly revealing more of that unpolished/unfinished inner tines. I micromeshed it but since it is a broad nib, I never quite got to round many facets. Then I totally gave up.

 

I do not pay to do the job a pen factory is supposed to do, or help them tie up loose ends. I paid to write, not to become some amatuer pen technician.

 

I returned that wr__tched pen for a refund. In my opinion, the Japanese make broad nibs in a most peculiar way (Sailor comes to mind immediately) that discourages writing. Platinum broad is an exception but nothing satisfying, and alot to write home about - for all the wrong reasons.

[Megaloblatta]

I have a CH 92 and prefer my Wing Sung 698 with gold nib (both are Fine) - better aesthetics and writing experience IMHO. Also the Wing Sung feels a bit less plasticy. The only thing I don't like about the 698 is that it can't really be posted - if you force the cap on to it this unbalances the pen - and it usually pops off...

Edited March 3, 2018 by Megaloblatta

[AmandaW]

I have a CH92 in smoke with a fine nib and love it. I don't know if it's my favorite pen because there are others that I value highly (including a Sailor, couple of 3776, a TWSBI 580 Rose and a metal Falcon), but it's in there with them. The nib is a little soft, always starts and for is a perfect fine,

 

I bought mine secondhand, maybe the first owner worked on it, I don't know.

 

It also holds onto it's ink - evaproation being the number one problem in my climate, and the number one unacceptable fault for me. It passes.

[IndigoBOB]

I finally sent my troublesome CH 92 broad to Mark Bacas to reach its full potential and ground down to a Japanese M.