Pilot Custom Heritage 912: Pen Review

[syngent]

The Pilot Custom Heritage 912
Pen Review Part 1: The Pen



Length (capped) - 5.53
Length (Body) - 4.93
Weight (Capped) - 24.3 g
Weight (Uncapped) - 15.3


The 912 is mid-pack of Pilot's regular issue high end pens. The line up for their pens is as follows:
The CH92 - a piston filler with f, fm, m, b #5 nib 14k options
the CH91/74 Converter pens with ef, f, sf, fm, sfm, m, sm, b, bb (S =soft, 9 series has flat ends, 7 has bullet) # 5 14k nibs
the CH912/742 converter pens with all the above as well as C, MS, PO, FA, WA, SU #10 14k nibs
the CH743 Converter with all except the MS nib in a 14k #15 nib
the CH823 (Piston vac filler) with only f, m, b 14k #15 nibs
and the CH845 same as above with the addition of the BB nib in a 18k two tone #15 nib
here is the nibs options chart Pilot has


A lot of my information comes from this blog post here which does a wonderful job showing you all the differences and options available for these pens, someone spent a great deal of time putting it all together and did a wonderful job so I thought I would share with you guys



As you move up the chain, the cap bands get thicker and from the 92 series up a second thinner band is added, and from the 91/74 up the caps engraving goes all the way through the band to show the black pen colour through, with the exception of the 742 which seems to have the indented engraving like the lower pens. The rhodium trim pens also use the saber style clip, where the gold trimmed pens use Pilots tapered ball end style clip



The pens also get longer as you move up the chain, you can see here how both the cap, and body are slightly longer then that of my Pilot CH92. The 92 comes in many demo coloured bodies, the 823 has a brown and smoke demo body and the 91 has options as well in solid colours, as far as I know all the higher models come in black the 92/91/912 have rhodium trim, the rest in gold.



All models except for the 92 (Piston filler), and the 823 (Plunger vac filler) can take both the con50 and con70 filler, the 912 does come with the con70 as you can see here next to a standard piston converter the con70 is both wider and has a longer fill portion to the filler. IIRC the con70 is one of the if not the largest ink capacity of any converter available. More on the converter later as well as writing with this pen and my nib option in the later sections though


The reason I went with the 912, The pen has a lot of nib options available to it and they can be found for purchase on their own. Pilot pens are easy to swap nibs with making it a fun pen to kick around as I can add nibs later one. The size for me is about perfect, and it has a well balanced price as well. They can be found only from Japanese dealers as the North American and European dealers don't export them from Japan, but there are more then a few guys on eBay who are available to you.

Next up part 2, I'll go through the converter as we have not seen much of the Con 70 around here and it is certainly worth a look to you. In part 3 ill show you the Nib of this pen, as I have the #10 FA nib in this guy and it does deserve some attention all to itself.​

 

[syngent]

Heres a break down of The 912

From the Top moving left to right

Ink Tube - Plunger and Button - Metal trim (Threads onto Ink Tube to hold Plunger)
Cap - Body
Nib - Feed - Grip Section

​

 

[jiminyshiznit]

Beautiful pen, James.. the fact that it doesn't have gold trim makes it even more appealing to me. Can you order it with the FA nib, or do you have to purchase that separately?

 

[syngent]

The 912/742 Pens by pilot can be purchased with any of the #10 nibs Jiminy, those are the only two pens you can do that with in the CH line up. which is odd as im sure the section and feed are the same in each # nib sizes so im sure you could fit a #15 FA nib into an 823 even though you cant order it with one... but Id be guessing there

 

[syngent]

Part 2: The Converter


As you can see from the above picture in Part one, the converter is quite large for this type of filler. It's capacity is maybe a little more then 1ml. although it does hold a lot of ink it does have some draw backs. The button is stiff, at least new it is stiff, very stiff its actually hard to grip the ink tube and press the button down without having the whole pen slide through your finger. in fact its almost impossible to take a video filling the pen on a cell phone,... normally filling takes about 4 pushes to get it full, I did make a video and you can see i had some issues,... the R&K bottle level is lower and trying to balance between keeping the nib off the bottom and the feed submerged was a little difficult but you can at least kind of see the operation.

The converter works by pushing air out the little metal tube at the bottom, then when the piston rises at the tup the ink tubes vacuum will draw in ink. im not sure if when the converter gets full this happens, but ink seems to get in the upper area behind the piston through the tube (To grandmothers house we go)



Fortunately its an easy clean, I pressed my syringe needle up against the needle opening at the bottom (Opposite the button) and flushed water up and in that way and it cleaned it out rather quick. The converter is easy to disassemble as you just unthread the metal collar, I've seen references it it not wanting to budge but a little bit under a hair dryer can help, with mine though I got it off first try without having to heat and the converter was a simple clean from there using the syringe. A regular twist converter is much easier to wield, but the amount of ink the falcon can go through is astounding and the extra ink capacity is far nicer to have on board with me, specially since its not really all the inconvenient just more so then a regular converter, and im guessing the spring that makes the button so stiff will soften a bit with use.​

 

[celestino]

James, wow, some great information, here! Thanks for posting.

 

[syngent]

Part 3: The Nib



First lets get some things straight about the (FA) nib, there are not one, not two, but three falcon nibs, so lets get them all sorted out. The fountain pen called the Falcon, has the namiki falcon nib that comes in ef, f,m,b, soft nibs and have a very unique look (Seen above)

but thats not what I have here, what I have is the Custom heritage Pilot FA nib in #10 size (The third falcon nib is a CH nib in a number 15 size). There is a difference in both performance as well as well as look, Ive read the differences but have never used the namiki falcon pen so I wont talk about that here



This nib doesnt have the odd step up tube design that the falcon pen has, this on uses side cutouts and makes for a very soft writing nib.


Getting flex out of the pen takes almost no effort, it is very soft. The line will for from a fine to slightly larger then bold, but comfortably it will go to bold without pushing it to hard (Which is always recommended not to push a nib to much). it gives a nice look that im still getting used to, and makes for the most unique writing experience of all my pens.



as you can see here the nib is very responsive, If you dont know what these dashes mean let me see if I can explain it to you. when using a flex pen its not just how a pen flexes, but also how it snaps back into place, by drawing a line and flexing out and back in you can see how responsive the nib is, how quickly it can keep up, how much effort it takes to do so, and whether the snap back is gradual or instant. here the nib is a nice mix between instant with a hint of gradual, it makes for a very easy to control nib, with a great look.

but it too is not without its issues, for the most part with a full converter everything goes okay, the more you write with it though railroading and stalled starts do begin, but you can press on the converters button a bit to reprime the feed and away you go again... its not perfect but it better then anything ive had before... and the best I will ever have without attending a pen show and looking at a lot of vintage pens to find what would work for me

if I had to go back and buy it again you better bet I would in a heart beat, as there are modifications you can do to crank the feed to keep up with the pen, part of which isnt a feed issue as much as an air intake issue, but im going to leave all that alone for now. Also Nibs.com and their spencerian upgrad are based on the Namiki nib, so he would have to have a look at this pen to se if it could be done still and how well it would work

for the time being Im more then happy to have this just the way it is,.... and look down the road later to do what I want then​

 

[syngent]

Unfortunately the paper I had the R&K on absorbed the ink and made a mess of it, so I lost some line definition but for the most part you can see what's going on above. And if I've somehow left anything out about this pen leaving room for any questions by all means ask away and Ill answer... thats about as complete profile Ive built for any pen, well other then a video writing sample lol, but I need another set of hands to do that on and my legs don't bend that much lol.. some other time perhaps though

 

[rickcharles606]

Well crap, now I wish I hadn't come into this thread, lol. Man James, I really like the look of that pen and the nib, not to mention the way it performs. One question, how does the nib compare to dip nibs? Is this Falcon nib as responsive as a dip nib? What about sharpness on the upstroke, is there a lot of paper stabbing or does the rhodium tipping material prevent this?

 

[rider4life]

Wow James. That's a very cool writing nib. It helps that you've got awesome penmanship! Thanks for the review. I think I have a new pen to add to my "Next Pen" list.

Cheers,

M.

 

[syngent]

Well crap, now I wish I hadn't come into this thread, lol. Man James, I really like the look of that pen and the nib, not to mention the way it performs. One question, how does the nib compare to dip nibs? Is this Falcon nib as responsive as a dip nib? What about sharpness on the upstroke, is there a lot of paper stabbing or does the rhodium tipping material prevent this?

Dips start ***'er and can flex broader with more control, I can modify this to have it reground to a *** and more flex but the latter weakens the tines and you need to be more carefull

One of the flexy vintage pens out there can be modified to get close to a dip... but no nib iv seen has the snap back they do. This nib is tipped so it can do an upstroke smoother then a dip, but you really have to practice hard to keep zero pressure and lock your wrist to get a dip to work right

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

James, you still need to try a vintage Waterman or Aiken

Nice pen with a great nib you have there! I may have to do some digging...

 

[jzuzphreek]

That Noodles must have a thing for Japanese pens... and R&K Alt Goldgrun.

 

[syngent]

So I took this


And tried this



I knocled out the air tube, but now it drops to much ink down like loosing a drop from a dip pen, hope to lord inky i can put it back in

 

[andrew98]

I had the exact same issue with the FA nib/feed on the Custom 742 I had.

I hope you're enjoying the new pen, James! It looks lovely.

-Andy

 

[syngent]

It is a bit of a pain sometimes.. printing it does not like... the stops and starts it has ots issues with, regular cursive is fine and a few issues with trying flexing on certain paper but it still feeds better then a dip... but it still doesn't have the *** of a dip, I may have it re ground yet though

 

[andrew98]

It is a bit of a pain sometimes.. printing it does not like... the stops and starts it has ots issues with, regular cursive is fine and a few issues with trying flexing on certain paper but it still feeds better then a dip... but it still doesn't have the *** of a dip, I may have it re ground yet though

I'm sure someone could fix the flow issues. The 742 had trouble with flow when printing, as well. I don't get quite the same sort of line variation with the Falcon, and it requires more pressure to use it. It flows better/more consistently, though. It would be amazing with a little more flex and a grind down to XF.

As it is now, though, it'll take me a while to get used to it. Also, I hear these nibs develop more flex as they're used. Sort of a break in period.

-Andy

 

[syngent]

You have the SF ?

 

[andrew98]

You have the SF ?

Yep. Still, there's nothing like those FA nibs. I just wish mine had worked better. Oddly, I don't mind the CON-50. I think it works great, and the volume of ink is fine with me. The CON-70 is impressive, though. Huge capacity for a converter.

-Andy

 

[Jut]

So I took this
View attachment 369718

And tried this

View attachment 369719

I knocled out the air tube, but now it drops to much ink down like loosing a drop from a dip pen, hope to lord inky i can put it back in

I'm afraid to ask...but i will. i take it you are trying to increase the flow?