Pilot Custom 742 Fa

[theblackpen]

heh. MINE keeps up.

Is that bulb filler made out of a standard Pilot cartridge?

[watch_art]

Yep. Regular old Pilot cart.

And yeah, I think the big deal about the con-70 is it's capacity. Mine seems to suck up more air bubbles than ink. I've had three. All about the same. I'm sure it's user error, but I still don't like em.

 

 

 

[Bruno Taut]

@ Iosepus - like your blog, must say I visited it on several occasions, keep up with the nice work! Regarding your pics, I can post some of mine where it does not produce the same problems. Are you sure it may not be the speed of writing, or the way you hold it or similar?

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

I am fairly sure the skipping in my 742 Falcon is not due to the speed of writing or other issues. Actually, my 743 Falcon does not show any of these problems. My problems are even tougher, as way too often, the pen does not start promptly. Interestingly enough, if writing with the nib upside-down, it always writes at once.

 

On the other hand, when discussing these issues with Pilot representatives --as I described on my blog-- their only concern was that I was pressing too much. But, come on, this is a flexible nib! To write lightly, you have plenty of Pilot nibs performing even better.

 

Cheers,

 

Iosepus

[Lloyd]

My 3 con-70 converters have no problem getting fully filled. The wire in them aids in breaking the ink's cohesive forces, too. So, it holds more than the others and it has a better flow.

 

losepus: you may want to send it to a nibmeister (Mike-it-Work is my choice but there are others, too).

[fifthblackbird]

I recently got one of these, and it's skipping _horribly_ with no attempt to flex the nib at all.

 

Typically, I can write about a paragraph (sometimes more), then it starts to skip.

 

It feels like a feed problem of some kind. If I just get a ruler out and start drawing lines at a light pressure, I get skips.

 

Does anyone else have experience of this sort of thing, or have I just got a bad one?

 

Here's an example: Ruled Lines - that's @ 600 dpi

 

I love the pen.... when it deigns to write.

Whoa -- it looks to me like you got a bad pen. My 742 definitely does not skip with any ink if no pressure is applied; the fact that yours does is troubling! I hope you can exchange it - the pen is a real pleasure to use.

 

I'm shy about physically modifying the pen, so the "normal" feed issue with flexy writing limits my choice of inks. So far, I've found the Sailor Nano inks work best (no skipping with normal flexy writing - consider the brief Blue-Black samples in this thread).

[laser8]

http://a.imageshack.us/img217/3764/img00111201009091414.jpg

[drgoretex]

Very interesting to see the variety of responses here. Wonder how much is technique, and how much is related to the specific ink, and how much is differences in the pens themselves...

[Cyclopentadiene]

Thanks for this review. Refreshing to have a review that isn't a polar 0/10 or 10/10. I hope to be buying a 742 FA in the near future, along with some Private Reserve Tanzanite help the feed keep up.