Pen Review: Pilot Custom Heritage 92

[syngent]

The Pilot Custom Heritage 92
Asa Gao Blue Medium Nib


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Manufactured by Pilot/Namiki

Filling Mechanism: Piston Filler
Nib Material: Rhodium Plated 14k Gold Medium Nib
Cap type: Postable screw on

Weight: 20g Overall
body: 12g (Empty)
Cap: 8g

Length
Cap Closed: 5.35in
Posted: 5.95in
Body: 4.8in
Nib: 0.75in

Availability

The pen is widely available from many online retailers, although the authorized North American dealers tend to be quite a bit higher then the Japanese sellers on Ebay. A difference of $220.00 american dollars vs. $125.00 for BIN, and with patience it can be had for a bit less, Japan may seem far away, but I got my pen 2 days after it shipped. The distance means it has to go air so items tend to arrive fairly quickly.

Packaging


The outer box is nice for what it is, a light piece of cardboard in gray with a little Pilot stamp in the middle. Its understated and well thought out, and currently in the trash as I dont keep outer boxes anyway


The Inner box holding the pen is a plastic clamshell that looks nice with its curves and spaces, a lot of thought was put in by someone making this, Its on my tabe with my other pens as although its just plastic it looks nice enough to hold onto


The pen is revealed inside with a typical ribbon over cushion fashion, the inside lid has the pilot name on a gray back with a sheen to it

Its on of the nicer jobs I have seen, but still just a box the pen comes in. Thought I would share as I know the Goulets say their pens come in a faux leather box so its possible the North American markets get a different gift box then the Japanese sellers do

Pen Appearance


The pen is a dark blue demonstrator named after the dark blue Iroshizuku ink, Asa Gao. The dark blue helps for the rhodium plated trim absolutely shine as bright as it could. the clip is an update to the tapered one that ended in a ball pilot has been using for some time, it is meant to mimic a sabar sword and looks quite nice. The cap has a darkened inner shell that seals the nib when not in use, and also will hide ink droplets that may come of the nib when jostled. The derby is smoke coloured and clear and also looks smart upon the cap

The over all look of the pen is rather nice as nothing is overly done, and nothing is out of place. the colours are deep and rich and it looks to be a pen in a premium market.

Continued in nex post...


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[syngent]

View attachment 333431​

 

[syngent]

Filling Mechanism

The 92 is a piston filling mechanism, and offers a smooth and effortless fill. The knob turns with no loose feeling parts, and the piston moves along the body with little effort to the knob, To me the feeling in the pen feels nicer then that of my Pelikan M205. Pilot did a great job with the mechanics of the piston and I am quite pleased with it



Writing

The rhodium plated 14k gold nib is soft and offers quite the dynamic range with little effort to the user. The pen although a medium nib, can write very fine lines with no pressure all the way to a broad line with about the pressure used for a ball point pen. The variation is easy to control and makes for a nice looking page. I flushed the pen and ran some dish soap through it before filling with MonteVerde Turquoise and the pen lays down a great line when writing out, but it does write a bit dry, with bigger loops you may do with a signature the pen does skip out, and on cheaper paper its a lot worse. But the pen is far from unusable i've come to find a lot of the issues were my angle of rotation on the nib, which is not to forgiving in its angle, but even with proper technique it can still skip out on you.

The nib does write smoothly, though far from my smoothest nib, and does offer some feedback. Its pleasant to use but far from mind blowing as well. The nib does have a lot of tip material to it, and may need a bit of breaking in before it really begins to shine, so Ill have to re visit this part further down the line

So far i have had the above experience with Sailor Ultra Marine, as well as the MonteVerde Turquoise



You can see the skips, these happen at very fast speeds and at the same spot where i do release some pressure from the pen, but its not a problem with most of my other pens, the only other pen ive had do this is my parker 51, that said the two pens that have my handwriting shine moreso then any of my other nibs, are these two pens.​

 

[syngent]

M205 Comparison


The Pilot looks to be quite a bigger pen


But once the cap is removed the pens are almost the same length
Both look like nice pens and have a lot of similarities, but after that they offer very different experiences. The cap to the M205 is so light when posted it does not really effect the pens balance at all for me, which I like, the Pilot is not a heavy cap but you know its there. The piston filler on the Pilot moves with a lot less ease and to my hands has a more premium feel, but neither are known to be problematic and both work perfectly. The nib of the Pelikan threads in and out, which makes cleaning and flushing a dream, the Heritage looks to have threads but I have read its friction fit... Ill need to look into it more but im hoping the section threads out and the nib is friction to the section.

The pelikan although a soft steel nib that can be used as a slight flex nib does not offer the ease of variation that the soft gold nib Pilot does, but the pelikan does write better asit never skips or breaks its line, it is very forgiving with angle and pressure as well. Both can be had around the same price so what you wanted really would come down to personal preference.. I could take either or but im glad I have both


Final Thoughts

The Pilot Custom Heritage 92, Offers a great looking pen, with a great feel. The piston filler is a big plus over the 74 for me and it is flawless to use. More so then my Pelikan even. The nibs performance is a bit sub par but may sort itself out with some time used, if not a simple nib tune should work on it

The dynamic performance of the nib on the other hand is a huge surprise and a great treat to write with, if the flow issues sorts itself out then this will become one of my highest regarded nibs in my collection. Compared to my pelikan it takes a lot of the things I like, Improves on some of them, and has a different voice of its own to make it unique. Carrying both pens would offer me two very different writing experiences that Im happy to have

Im glad I picked the pen up, Im happy to use it, And it was a pleasure to put my first pen review together with this Pen

Feel free to ask any questions, Ill be happy to help out where i can​

 

[nemo]

Looks like a fantastic pen, James. Also I'd say a bargain for a gold nib piston filler. I sort of have doubts about the section threading out, it will be interesting to find out.

Hopefully it wears in and writes a bit wetter soon, you could be suffering with a little initial baby's bottom under the nib tip right now. It sure looks similar to the Pelikan in comparison -- CONGRATS on the purchase!

 

[syngent]

Looks like a fantastic pen, James. Also I'd say a bargain for a gold nib piston filler. I sort of have doubts about the section threading out, it will be interesting to find out.

Hopefully it wears in and writes a bit wetter soon, you could be suffering with a little initial baby's bottom under the nib tip right now. It sure looks similar to the Pelikan in comparison -- CONGRATS on the purchase!

Thanks Doug, under the loop, the tip material sure looks like that could be the issue, im not going to do anything to the nib for a few week and keep it in high rotation throughout that time see if i can not get it to write out great on its own. Im happy I got the pen, and more so that I snagged it at the bargain I got it at, even if it was by accident lol

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

Brown paper bag it!

Nice pen and nice to see one in use.

 

[redbike]

I have one of these in a demonstrator model purchased on the B/S/T forum here. The original owner purchased it from an eBay seller in Japan, so perhaps the same seller as the pen under review. I have not had the skipping problem noted in the review. I don't think my pen was tuned after its purchase; it wrote perfectly out of the box. It certainly sounds like the nib needs an adjustment to write properly. Tuning the nib is a small and very worthwhile investment in this pen, IMO. Good luck.

 

[mikeschu]

Nice review. I have a Custom Heritage 91 that I picked up from celestino and I'm looking forward to using it based on this review.

 

[syngent]

The Tip of mine is one big ball, odds are the nib will sort itself out with some use, so Ill put it to good use for a while,... if after a bit of time it doesnt then ill have to tune it a bit, but my issue is not unique to me and the threads I have found on it, and people who have owned one new I have spoken to have told me they had the same thing and the nib broke in nicely for them after a little time and became a great pen

 

[rockviper]

I offer my services to assist in helping to break the nib in

You seem to have a thing for translucent blue pens, no?

 

[syngent]

Well the orange one weny for to high... and there was three other blues up so it helped me snag a deal on it

 

[syngent]

Just an Update as this is a big one for me, with less effort then I took to unthread my Pelikan nib for the first time, I gave a little test tug on the nib unit of the Pilot
If you see the clear section at the top of the pen body where the nib goes in, Ink finds its way in there and that is a common area of staining as its hard to clean with the nib and feed in, which is no longer a problem here, as its completely accessible and easy to get to with a pipe cleaner


The nib section is held in by this collar

It really was effortless, I gave a small barely firm wiggle and it popped can came right out, it was so unexpected I almost dropped the nib down the sink
This means not only do I have quick access to the inner pen body for flushing as I do my pelikan (So i dont have to twist the piston constantly up and down to flush) saving me about 5 minutes time, but also unlike the Pelikan I have quick access to removing the nib from feed to clean its underside

Ive never tried to remove the Pelikan nib from feed so I dont know how easy that is

This is a very pleasing find tonight, and I would now recommend this pen over a modern M2XX anyday of the week. Cant speak to the M4XX or up pens as I dont own them, and I would take this over an older but not quite vintage 80's up M2XX as well

only my opinion, I wrote two letters tonight and the nib really begain to come into its own as well

This is a fantastic pen !

 

[syngent]

btw the nib being so easy to remove is also handy incase ink levels are getting low in a bottle, it means an easy syringe fill as well. Just a tip for Pelikan and other piston style fillers with removable feeds/nibs

 

[Dave258]

Very nice pen, congrats and thanks for the review!

 

[chumlee]

I have a Custom 74. The nib took me a little while to get used to but I love the pen now. Good luck with the pen, I like that blue color.

 

[syngent]

Its already heads and tails above the original post and a fantastic writer. .. I love this pen

 

[Snargle]

Damn you, James...now I've got to start saving up my pennies for one of these!

(Nice review, by the way!)

 

[syngent]

It is easily my best 100 dollar pen, by far

 

[cursethis]

Stop it. You guys are making me want to spend money on a modern pen.