Encore

Pen review: Pilot Custom 74 with music nib.

Living in Tokyo, running into a music nib is very easy. Pilot’s overwhelming presence in department stores and stationery shops is often shown with a tray with eleven Custom 74 pens on it—each of them with a different nib. And the last one on the right hand side is the music nib. So, there is no need to ask anybody for an inkwell and a piece of paper. The pen is inked and the paper is right there.

Some weeks ago, I wrote a chronicle ("Ongaku") on music nibs, and I used a Platinum 3776 and a Pilot Custom 742 as the testing subjects. The later has the size 10 Pilot nib. The ubiquitous Custom 74 has the smaller size 5 nibs. Then, is there any difference between them? That is the point of this review.


1. Appearance and design. (7.25/10)
The Custom 74 is, once again, a black torpedo à la Mont Blanc. It is slightly shorter than the 742 model and looks less balanced in its proportions. Material-wise, this one is made with the same plastic —or is it a precious resin?— as its bigger relative.



2. Construction and quality. (9.0/10)
Solid. Good quality. No flaws.


3. Weight and dimensions. (7.75/10)
It is a well balanced pen when unposted. Being this pen shorter than the 742, this pen feels closer in the hand to the nicer balance of the Platinum.

Dimensions:
Diameter: 13 mm.
Length capped: 143 mm.
Length uncapped: 125 mm.
Length posted: 160 mm.
Weight: 22 g.


4. Nib and performance. (7.75/10)
The nib is a 14 karat gold one with two slits. The feed is conventional with only one ink groove. There are occasional loses in the ink flow.


This nib—with the testing ink, Sailor Red Brown—shows some feedback, without becoming uncomfortable.

This is, in fact, a very interesting point. At the shops where I tested this pen so many times, this nib felt quite smooth. The ink in its cartridges —at the shop— was almost invariably Pilot Black. But for the purpose of this reviews I wanted to use a non biased ink; not Pilot, not Platinum—a Sailor ink. We certainly know that no pen works well with absolutely every ink, nor any ink works well in every single pen out there.

Parallel

This is one of these chronicles I hesitate to publish, so advertisement-like it might look. Especially as there is hardly any competition in the market for this product. But here I go...

An italic nib –we all know— is a nib whose line is thin on the horizontal strokes and broad on the vertical ones. And its edges are sharp, the theory goes, to ensure clear and well-defined lines.

Currently not many companies market italic nibs. Most of those sell calligraphy sets composed by several italic nibs of different widths. In a more expensive range, Pelikan has recently released a Souverän M800 with a 1.5 mm italic nib marked as IB.

Handwritten sample with one of the Parallel Pens. I used a standard ink —Waterman's Florida Blue— instead of the dedicated Parallel-Pen ink.

Pilot offers the models Plumix –in the American market— and Pluminix –in Europe— with medium italic nibs of about 1 mm wide. But those are not sold in Japan. The closest to an italic are a stub and a three-tine music nibs in some of the Pilot Custom models. These two nibs have their edges polished and are fairly smooth in their writing.


The alternative, for italic writing, Pilot offers is the Parallel Pen. Apparently, these pens are very different to a fountain pen. Instead of a cylindrical or conical nib with a slit, the writing element in a Parallel Pen is composed by two thin plates that drive the ink to the lower flat end. The feeding system, however, is the same for a fountain pen and a parallel pen. And both use water-based ink.

Side and front views of the Parallel Pen nib.

Parallel Pens come in four sizes –1.5, 2.4, 3.8, and 6.0 mm. All of them are smooth and wet writers. The creative possibilities, endless. Especially for those touched with any artistic ability, which is not my case. These pens, however, can hardly become daily writers.

All four Parallel Pens. On the picture, only the red ink is specific for these pens. Yellow and green are Sailor's, and blue is Waterman's. Note how the pen with yellow ink became contaminated with red ink simply by writing on top of the later.

Pilot claims that the ink they provide is specific for these pens. They offer a selection of twelve colors in standard Pilot ink cartridges. All of them, they say, mixable. But despite these warnings, I have tried other inks –Waterman and Sailor in particular— in these pens with very good results. Now, intermixing them might be an issue. We know by now, though, that all Sailor inks –save the obvious exceptions of the pigmented black Kiwa Guro and blue-black Sei Boku— could be mixed.


Each of the pens comes in a plastic box that includes two cartridges –black and red—, a Pilot converter, and a cleaning sheet. The instructions say that the converter is only for cleaning purposes… Well, they do try to sell their overpriced cartridges. But at the same time, cartridges provide too little ink for these ink guzzlers. Then, a look at the barrel shows it is made entirely in plastic and the pen could easily be transformed into an eyedropper.

(Pilot Murex – Pilot Black)

Bruno Taut
(Chuo, Tokyo, September 11, 2010)
[labels: Pilot, plumín, papelería, caligrafía]

Egg

Review of the Tombow Zoom 828 (1989).

Some days ago I spoke about a jumbo pen presumably made by Platinum/Nakaya. As I already explained, jumbo pens were oversize in their girth and somehow short in their length. Although their golden age were the thirties and forties, they have been on production –sometimes as souvenirs— until recently. Such was the case, for instance, of the Platinum Glamour from the 1980s.

Another example could be the pen under analysis today—the Tombow Zoom 828, also known as “the egg”. Tomow realeased writing tools with this shape in 1987, but the fountain pen had to wait until 1989. The original price was JPY 3500.


Tombow is a company very fond of new designs and of rethinking the form and use of writing utensils. Thus, very thin, or very short, or very thick pens could be found in its catalog. In this task, Tombow has collaborated with a number of designers well beyond the Japanese borders.

1. Appearance and design. (8.0/10)
This pen is a short and fat version of the stereotypical Montblanc torpedo. Its shape and size are unusual and many express their skepticism at its functionality. But that is the topic of another section of this review.

Suffice to say now that this design is an additional twist to a very traditional idea of a fountain pen.


2. Construction and quality. (7.5/10)
Some people might call this a “precious resin”, but at the end, it is plastic. This one in particular seems quite resistant to scratches. The golden coatings on clip and nib are disappearing. This pen, I must say, endured constant and heavy use during my college years.

So, I give it a 7.5 because it was not an expensive pen and it still works perfectly after years of heavy use—albeit cosmetically is quite worn.



3. Weight and dimensions. (7.5/10)
This is the key point of this pen.

Diameter: 23 mm
Length capped: 110 mm
Length uncapped: 98 mm
Length posted: 135 mm
Weight: 32 g

Figure wise, this is a heavy pen. But being so short, the center of gravity is well between the grabbing fingers. Therefore, the balance of this pen is very good. The overall comfort, though, could be much better had the pen been longer or the posting system more secure. The grip, given its girth, is very comfortable.


4. Nib and writing performance. (8.0/10)
This is a steel nib, gold coated. A very smooth and rigid fine point. It is on the dry side, but nothing uncomfortable. Very constant and reliable flow.



5. Filling system. Maintenance. (8.0/10)
This pen uses international short cartridges. Some small aerometric converter might fit in, but I have not found it.

The barrel has a lot of empty space inside, and the short cartridge looks a bit ridiculous when attached to the pen. So, given this conditions, this pen could be a very good candidate for an eyedropper. The only problem is a metallic piece in the area of the nipple that could be corroded by the ink.

Maintenance is easy, as is the case with most cartridge/converter pens.



6. Cost and value. (8.5/10)
Not an expensive pen originally, and a good reliable writer make a good value. Nowadays, it has the additional element of the originality.


7. Conclusion. (47.5/60=79/100)
Original pen. Good and reliable writer. Correct, even if boring, nib.

(Tombow Zoom 828 – Waterman Havana)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, September 10, 2010)
[labels: Tombow]

Verdict

Some weeks ago I published a Chronicle entitled Champion on which I spoke about flexible nibs on Japanese pens. My conclusion was that the Pilot’s Falcon nib in size 10 was significantly more flexible than the rest. And I bought it.


But as some other have reported (I, II), this pen has some serious problems. The nib is certainly impressive—flexible and smooth. But its feed is not up to the challenge. The feed is simply unable to supply all the ink the nib demands.

So, I took it to the Wagner Pen Clinic. I asked several attendees what they thought about this pen. At the end, they concluded that the problem laid mainly on the way the nib flexes—it does so very suddenly breaking the ink drop in the process.


So, before taking any drastic decision by hand of nibmeister Mr. Yamada –his works are impressive as well as radical—, I decided to see what Pilot’s technical service had to say. Therefore, to the Pilot Pen Station I went. In there, in Kyobashi area, Pilot has its technical service.

I had the opportunity to talk to a technician and to a salesman. I explained my problem, and I showed how often my pen ran out of ink to them. Their explanation was very frustrating.


They claimed that this pen was not thought to be pressed down against the paper. Actually, the technician pointed out that I pressed the nib too much against the paper. “Well, I said, I bought this pen for its capability to flex and to change the line width”. “You should write with very little pressure”, they replied… But this does not make much sense—to write lightly, Pilot has a number of nibs that create no problem at all. They handed some of them for me to try —fine, soft fine, soft fine medium nibs—, and sure they are reliable and nice to use, but they provide barely any line variation. So, what is the real point of a falcon nib if not to flex it?

In my opinion, Pilot has failed terribly with this nib, and they know it. However, they do not accept it publicly. Their last suggestion was to attend a Pilot pen clinic at some department store and see what they have to say. Puzzled I am: if the pen was right, why would they suggest to attend a workshop to fix the unbroken pen? But this is Japan and this might be their way to subtly acknowledge their mistake.

Very short-sighted this is on their side. Pilot has a big number of pens and the company takes its pride –fountain pen wise— in the large variety of nibs. Mistakes are always possible and, even, unavoidable. But not supporting their products and their customers is very bad for their reputation.

I will attend some of those events and will report on them. But so far, the verdict on Pilot regarding this falcon nib is not satisfactory.

(Pilot Custom 742 with FA nib, holding my breath to write – Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Budo)

Bruno Taut
Inagi, September 1, 2010
[labels: Pilot, plumín]

Post data: The results of attending the above-mentioned Pilot Pen Clinic can be seen on this chronicle: Inadequate (September 21, 2010).

Jumbo

During the thirties, Japanese pen companies produced the so called Jumbo pens. These pens were aimed at senior customers who had problems with the grip of standard pens. So, they were, they are, very thick pens with regular nibs.

The diameter of the pen is about 3.5 cm. The length, 13.5 cm.

The production of these pens continued even after the War, although by that time, they were sold mainly as souvenirs.

On this pic, the security valve is open, allowing the ink to reach the section and nib.

The pen I am showing now has no brand indication save the inscription on the nib—a Platinum-Nakaya in 14 K gold, semi-flexible. The feed is smooth underneath, indicating that it is probably a pre-war pen. The body is made in ebonite. It is, as many a Japanese pen from that time, an eyedropper filler with a security valve. The ink deposit –I am tempted of calling it a tank— holds about 15 ml of ink. Enough to write for months.

14 KARAT GOLD. PLATINUM -4- NAKAYA PEN.

Clip and cap ring have lost all its luster, and the barrel is discolored, probably due to direct sunlight exposure. However, the main problem was the broken feed. Among other issues, it made the nib-feed set to be loosely attached to the section.

Smooth underneath—most likely, a pre-war pen.

These thick pens are very comfortable in the hand. The grip is relaxed on the fingers. This one in particular is well balanced both posted and unposted—the extra 15 grams of ink make the center of gravity to be relatively low.

The broken feed.

I liked this pen a lot. But the broken feed pushed me to return it.

(Sailor Profit 14 in burgundy – Noodler’s Old Dutch Sepia)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, September 4, 2010)
[labels: Platinum, Japón]

Realo

Japanese pens are well renown by the quality of their nibs, and quite rightly so although with some exceptions I will speak about in a near future. However, it seems that this devotion for the nibs –some say— has the price of not paying much attention to the filling systems.

Most Japanese pens use the very convenient and simple system of the cartridge and converter. But for many stylophiles, this system is simply not good enough. This system, they argue, eliminates the ritual of filling the pen with ink; something that some enthusiasts consider a very important element in the pleasure of using a fountain pen.

Limited edition of the first Realo. On the cap, the number of the pen, the 424 over a total of 500, can be seen.

Sailor’s market strategy includes the Realo model—a piston filler based on the Profit and Professional Gear models. However, the first Realo was a limited edition of 500 units based on their biggest pen—the King of Pen. It commemorated the 95th anniversary of the company in 2006.

The ring with the inscription on the 95th anniversary of Sailor.

Only afterwards, upon seeing the success of the self-filling system, Sailor created the more affordable Realo we now see in the catalog and in the shops. But the differences between these two pens are… a bit sad. If only, because the original King of Pen Realo is very difficult to find nowadays.

A comparison between the current Realo and the original limited edition. Note the differences in the ink windows—those in the original Realo are similar to the Montblanc 149 windows. The difference in the nib size is remarkable.

I had the chance to take these pictures on the last Wagner Pen Clinic. My thanks to Mr. Noguchi.

(Pilot Custom 74 with music nib – Sailor Red Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, September 2, 2010)
[labels: Sailor, evento, Japón]

Counterfeit

The debate is always open: how far can anyone go in copying things? Where do we set the line between inspiration and counterfeiting? Is it honest to buy a counterfeited good?

My previous chronicle spoke about the Platinum Knock 18, the capless pen manufactured by Platinum in 1965. As I said, Pilot’s threats of legal actions made Platinum to discontinue this model.

Is this a counterfeit? Platinum's Knock 18 (1965).

But, was Pilot the inventor of this push-pull system? Pilot certainly filed some patents in the US for a “Retractable Nib Fountain Pen” in 1964 and in later years.

The "Retractable Nib Fountain Pen" patent by Pilot in 1964 (published in 1966).

However, about twenty years before, some Grover C. Smith had already patented a similar invention:

A capless-like patent from 1944, published in 1946.

So, can we say Pilot was completely original in its creation? No, definitely not. Was Pilot the most successful? Yes, certainly.

I do not have the answers to the questions I asked in the beginning of this text. But by now I know that there are very few original ideas in the world of fountain pens. Accepting some copies as legitimate but not others is at anybody’s discretion.

Montblanc and non Montblanc torpedo pens.

Would we like to see copies of the Pilot Capless in the market? Do we enjoy torpedo-like pens not made by Montblanc? And what about Chinese-made copies of well-known pens?

A China-made Montblanc. Does anybody ever think this is a real Montblanc?

We should not forget that plagiarism is accepted when it becomes assassination.

With thanks to Grafopasión forum member Estilográficas.

(Platinum 3776 music nib – Sailor Red Brown)

Bruno Taut
Inagi, September 2, 2010
[labels: Pilot, Platinum, Montblanc, fora]