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Anyone able to compare the CH 912 FA nib and the regular Pilot Falcon nib? I recently purchased the Falcon and now I'm having buyer's regret hearing that the FA nib on the Custom Heritage 912 and the Custom 742 are even better.

My initial thought was to buy the 743 or the 823 with the fa nib from Japan, but due to the pandemic, the shipping costs skyrocketed and I was forced to cancel my order. I found a seller on Amazon and wanted to get the forum's thoughts on whether the pen looks valid or not. The box arrived a little banged up, though the contents are intact. I have a cartridge, user guide, and warranty cards. However, in looking over the pen, I noticed that the feed is grey in color. Is this particular to the FA nib? I've looked online and feeds in the 743 appear to be black in color but I can't tell if the feed is different by nib (WA, PO, F, M, etc.). I can't tell if this nib is discolored (indicating prior use), fake, or true to form. Any help on establishing the validity (I've enclosed pics of the nib, pen, and accessories) of the purchase would be much appreciated.

Well, I did not know where to put it - nibs&tines, pen reviews or else So this seems a good forum. I pursue flex almost from the beginning of my fountain pen journey. I was fortunate enough not starting with modern flexes, but with a vintage one. I fancied a vintage pen, and bought one just because it was cheap, looked nice and I knew the brand. Parker Slimfold - in terms of size it was a disappointment (i didn check its size or asked the seller), - but the nib was fantastic. Right away i fell in love with "flex". Bought another vintage (Wyvern) - also great. Then started looking at moder ones - Conklin Omniflex, Ahab etc but nothing compared. Alter some time I learnt more, bought and used much more pens. Realised that flex is quite a wide idea. soft, semi, regular, wet noodle, modern, vintage. Waterman 52 flex vs vintage MB 146 flex vs flexible Pelikan nibs in 140, 400 etc. Soft nibs in M1000 vs japanise SF nibs. Pilot Custom 743 with FA nib is another part of this journey. I got to know and like Japanese nibs only recently. I knew about Pilot Falcon but did not like it, then "discovered" 912, 823, 742, 743 etc. And definitely wanted one with FA nib. So I ordered one. Pilot Custom 743 to be exact. In Europe they are not sold at all, so for the first time I took a risk and ordered from Japan. The price was incredible, good seller, but he sent it with the economy not expedited as I ordered, but any way 10 days later it was home I did not pay any duty or taxes (typically for import from Japan its est 28% total, but not this time - customs missed it?) . Pen is very nice, very well built but nothing especially interesting - just another cigar shaped, black rather large pen with gold trim. And 14k gold nib, in an unusual shape - with cutouts. It is not a vintage full flex but is much better in this area than any of modern so-called flex nibs I had a chance to try. I'm not a calligrapher, I'm still working on my handwriting. But I can appreciate a good nib. With a light touch, it puts a thin line, Japanese fine, and is smooth. but even slightly pressed it goes medium, broad and double broad quite easily, but at the same time, it becomes scratchy. I'm not sure it should work like that. The only problem I had was railroading then I flexed it too much or for too long, or was writing too fast. I investigated and wound aftermarket feed at flexiblenibs.com - 4 versions to be exact for my pen !!! Actually also for 823 and probably 845 pens too. Japanese ebonite, CNC cut, two colors (black and red) and two versions (2 slits, and 3 slits one for wet inks or not to aggressive flexing, the second one for dry inks and heavy pressing. I ordered both versions in black and several days later herre they are. Fixed the problem like a dream. The feeds are PERFECT. They are super high quality, shapes matches the original with 0,2mm precision. I really recomend one for any FA nib user on 743/823 (#15 nib) pen. Pictures and writing samples below. http://gakko.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MG_3583.jpghttp://gakko.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MG_3584.jpg http://gakko.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MG_3585.jpg http://gakko.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MG_3586.jpg http://gakko.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MG_3590.jpg

I have read that the Pilot 823 Demonstrator FA had a limited production and the Tokyo Pen Shop Quill places the pen as unavailable without a specific date of new inventory. Community, do you any news on its availability today?

I've seen this combination appear on so many people's wish-lists that I got tempted too! I found one retailer who would provide the FA nib fitted to a Custom 823; the interestingly-named Tokyo Pen Quill Shop, which is not strictly in Tokyo and doesn't actually sell quills, but they do seem to have a good relationship with Pilot. Communication was excellent and, barring some customs charges, delivery was fairly effortless too. The ink capacity is absolutely huge, the pen is nicely balanced, and it writes well - and I think will get better with further use, too. Somewhat to my surprise, the slightly larger #15 FA nib is rather stiffer than the #10 FA (which I have in a Custom 742 and Heritage 912), but it does still flex and it's a pleasure to use. There's a photo of the pen in action and some of my own scribbles at my review blog here.

Hi, I just bought a Pilot Custom 742 with a FA nib. It writes beautiful, with nice line variations at times, but most of the time it is a pita. No ink. I have read here that other users have had similar problems, causing everything from lost temper to domestic violence. I hope there are some adjustments that may be applied to mitigate the problem. Using the CON-70 converter that came with the pen was no good. I have ordered both Con-20 and -50 to see if they work better, other user experience suggest this. In the meantime I use a Pilot cartridge. As can be seen in the first picture below, the pen is capable of decent line variation, and provides enough ink to continue with the scribbling for a long time given the pen is not lifted. If lifted ever so slightly from the paper, the ink flow stops. Must "restart" the nib by sideways motions, or most often by writing "upside down". The "upside down" writing forces the tines together, enabling a sufficiently small channel for capillary forces to do its thing. Picture 2 shows the nib up close after flexing it a bit. There are two issues. 1. The tines will stay separated, they don't move all the way back to the starting point (some kind of mechanical hysteresis:) 2. The nib assembles a lot of ink on the upper surface during storage. After being capped for short or long time, the nib is always very "inky". I can usually correct the faulty ink flow by turning the pen and pressing the tip of the nib against the paper, forcing the tines together. But this does not seem like a sound procedure long term. Also this trick will only work intermittently, the ink flow will stop before long anyway. Anyone have a suggestion for what I can do to correct the problem? When working this pen definitely has the potential to be a new favourite:-) Picture 1. Pen able to deliver sufficient ink and nice line width variation, although intermittent Picture 2. Tines separated after the nib has been flexed. Thanks, T