Namiki Falcon Vs New Pilot Falcon (Elabo)

[max dog]

I got a Namiki Falcon with an SF nib about 4 years ago. My first foray into a soft/semi flex nib. At the time I heard it was one of the few available modern pens with anything resembling flex. My experience with it was very disappointing.

 

The SF nib was very scratchy making normal writing just unpleasant. The nib was like a needle point. It flexed nicely under pressure giving more line variation than any other modern pen I had, but normal writing was not really practical, at least for me.

 

The other issue I had with it, that ultimately led me to get rid of it, was the intermittent ink flow with that horrible CON50 excuse of a converter. The ink flow would interrupt in the middle of writing even when not flexing the nib. The ink would collect in the converter at the opposite end of the nib and I would have to shake it to get the ink down to the nib. What a horrible design I thought!

 

A pelican M250 with a modified semi-flex nib replaced the Falcon, and later I got a vintage Waterman 52 flex pen. But I wanted something modern that could offer reliable semi-flex, but also could be used practically for everyday writing. After seeing some good reviews of the new Pilot Falcon on youtube (Goulet Pens, FPN Geeks etc), I decided to give the Falcon another try. It is a Pilot resin Falcon (Elabo). The first thing I noticed was that CON 50 converter had an agitator inside. On the downside the already smallish ink capacity of the CON50 is further reduced with the agitator, but at least it eliminates the air pocket causing the ink flow interruption in the converter. The SF nib is also much smoother than what I remember with the Namiki Falcon SF. I don't know if it was just my pen that had an exceptionally scratchy nib or not, but maybe others can share their experience with the old Namiki SF nib vs the new Pilot SF Falcon nib. Was the Namiki Soft Fine more like todays Pilot Soft Extra Fine Falcon nib I wonder?

 

So I am glad Pilot addressed some of the short falls of the Namiki Falcon in their latest Pilot Falcon. It writes nicely now and the ink flow under flex keeps up pretty good. As long as you don't over do the flex beyond 3X line width variation, you shouldn't encounter railroading issues. It's a nice balance between moderate semi-flex and smooth normal writing.

 

This is the Falcon I was looking for 4 years ago. Thanks Pilot!

[KBeezie]

From what I understand the older "Namiki" branded ones are the same as the new resin on, the main difference is the trim/plating. Also the Pilot Falcon isn't exactly new been around since... late 2012?

 

The SF on my Falcon was not extremely scratchy, it wasn't extremely smooth either, it was smooth but with a light hand, a heavier one gives a little more feedback. I just didn't care for how it was sensitive to even lighter touches giving variations in normal usage as it imitated the look of a small asian brush pen. It also had some minor annoyances with certain inks, such as not quite catching onto the paper and I'd have to run back up and re-start the stroke only to have it just pool down to the bottom of the stroke instead of making a line. In regards to your older Namiki Falcon, I'm assuming you already checked for alignment and such.

 

In regards to the converter capacity, you can just use a Pilot cartridge if you want the 0.9ml or so of ink (though technically you get the same with the converter when you take into account the saturation of the feed when filling, versus just syringe filling a cartridge without pre-saturating the feed). It's about 0.6ml with the agitation cylinder, and 0.7ml without. Not unlike a lot of of standard international converters.

 

If I were to get a Falcon again, I'd probably opt to go for the Soft Extra-Fine the second time around, but for the purpose of flex I prefer the vintage golder nibs even though I'm not all that proficient in handling flex writing. For just softness, I find that 1970 Pilot Elite with the 18K Soft Fine does better, especially when using a feathertouch hand, doesn't spread as much as the falcon but for practical purposes I like it better.

 

I also noticed with the Falcon that if you write it at a normal writing angle (around 30 to 45 degrees off the paper as opposed to 60 to 90), the feed prohibits you from overflexing the nib as it makes contact with the paper surface before you get it down that far.

 

You ever thought bout having your Namiki Falcon sent out for modification/tuning?

Edited December 1, 2014 by KBeezie

[Gloucesterman]

Had a <SF> Burgundy Namiki Falcon for many years. Nice and smooth right out of the box. Nice flex as well. I wasn't into heavy line variation so this particular pen gave very good service.

 

You might want to check on the Goulet Pens blog as Brian did a capacity comparison of all three Namiki/Pilot converters and a proprietary Pilot cartridge on video. It was pretty interesting. BTW, I was under the impression that the "new" metal Falcons came with the Con-70 converter.Is that not the case?

[KBeezie]

Had a <SF> Burgundy Namiki Falcon for many years. Nice and smooth right out of the box. Nice flex as well. I wasn't into heavy line variation so this particular pen gave very good service.

 

You might want to check on the Goulet Pens blog as Brian did a capacity comparison of all three Namiki/Pilot converters and a proprietary Pilot cartridge on video. It was pretty interesting. BTW, I was under the impression that the "new" metal Falcons came with the Con-70 converter.Is that not the case?

The metal ones come with a con-70, the op didn't get a "new" metal one he got a "new" resin one (the "new" is in reference of going from "Namiki" to "Pilot" Falcon).

[max dog]

I didn't realize the change from Namiki to Pilot Falcon happened back in 2012. The Falcon fell off my radar after my initial experience and I don't have that pen anymore. It's refreshing to hear the Pilot Falcon's are good out of the box without needing a lot of tweaking like you hear about with other modern semi-flex pens like Noodlers, Stipula etc.

[Exlaminis]

I haven't tried the Namiki Falcon but it seems to be mostly identical to the Pilot-rebranded Falcon that replaced it. I've tried a few of the new Falcons and found their nibs to be slightly different; the first one was defective and wasn't seated properly on the feed so I sent it back for a replacement, the second worked pretty well, but was a bit scratchy and the third was the smoothest (possibly because it was the wettest). All the pens had not been tuned and had been bought new. Take from that what you will.

Also, I was under the impression that only the Metal Falcon is called the Elabo.

[KBeezie]

Also, I was under the impression that only the Metal Falcon is called the Elabo.

Elabo (or Erabo depending on some sellers) is just the name for the Falcon in Japan, much like how Vanishing point is called Capless there. It's not specific to the resin or metal version.

[Algester]

Actually there is elabo metal or elabo resin in japan i jusT with the added kanji

エラボー　樹脂軸 (Erabo Jyushijiku) do correct my kanji *as close to engrish as I can get

Is the elabo resin the metal just stands as elabo

But to me the erabo is a bit expensive compared to the custom 74 and heritage 91 which also has semi-flex nib selection but not as extreme as the erabo selection such as the SEF

Edited December 1, 2014 by Algester

[Exlaminis]

So the naming is the other way round? Didn't know that since I don't bother checking the Japanese names, but that's pretty interesting.

[Algester]

This is useful knowledge if you wish to buy pens in Japan since you cant say if they are aware how their pens are called in other countries

Also according to the japanese website the erabo wont come with a converter as far as I know the only pens that come with a converter are the 20K yen mark namely the custom 742 and heritage 912 it's a bit different in the case of the US however

Edited December 1, 2014 by Algester

[jmccarty3]

I recently bought a SEF Elabo (resin) and was very unhappy with the scratchy nib on it. Ended up selling it to an employee who wanted it.

[max dog]

With the soft extra-fine, it appears the trade off for a little more flex is going to be a scratchier nib. I think the customized spencerian ground nibs will also be a lot scratchier than stock. If you want the Falcon to be smooth enough as a normal writer when not flexing, than the SF or SM is the way to go.

[konradwhite]

@max dog

Did U wrote about Falcon metal (version II) or resin Falcon?