Which Japanese Pen Is The Best Value?

[ink-syringe]

Pilot Custom 74 and Platinum 3776 Century are incredible values

 

 

 

That is my answer right there. Exactly.

 

That is the sweet spot for bang for buck. Below that is much much room for improvement, above that point the curve tightens and you are paying exponentially more for less and less return.

 

You get the most for your money (imo) with these 2 offerings. 2 genuinely great pens under $100 and they get you most of the way there.

[Algester]

if we disregard the maki-e, urushi offerings most Japanese pens seem to fall under bang for your buck category but YMMV

[columela]

Sailor 1911 Standard , what a nib for 84 US dollars

[deacondavid]

1 - Pilot Custom 823 - without a doubt the sweetest stock nib I have encountered.

 

1A - Pilot Vanishing Point - the most convenient pen to use. I have four of them (counting a Decimo), so they must be a good value!

 

honorable mention - Platinum Century 3776 - also an excellent deal.

[rutherfordr]

These are my three desert island pens:

 

Pilot Custom 74

Pilot Custom Heritage 91

Pilot Custom 823

 

...and if I had to pick just one, it would be the Pilot Custom 823. It does everything right.

[ink-syringe]

So people are now just shouting out their favorite pens?

I thought this thread was "Which Japanese Pen Is The Best Value?"

I didn't name my favorite pen because I did not think it was as good value as the C74 or the 3776. I personally think the 823 is a great pen, but it is really not the best return for the $ compared to a CH91, or a C74 or even a CH912? You pay a LOT more and get the same size section, slightly larger nib but no nib options like on the 912 and you do get the vac filler but really a 823 is a lot more money than a 912. If it is possible to quantify what you get in return I think most objective measures (impossible I know) would indicate that you get more bang for buck with the 91, 92, 912, 74 and you are paying (comparatively) a premium for a slightly larger nib and a funky filling system. It is a value compared to a Visconti Power Filler, yes, but not compared to other Japanese offerings. Vanishing point?

I know value is subjective but "Best nib" and "desert Island" isn't the same as "best return for your money"

But I guess these things always devolve into folks shouting out their favorites no matter what the question is. & I suppose they can always justify it by saying, "this was the cheapest thing that fit all my requirements" but I think we all know what this thread is supposed to be about. Best bang for buck, generally.

[Pendel]

What is the value of the pen that one does not enjoy using?

 

The whole concept of the "best value" is suspect, unless one specifies to whom and gives a precise enough framework for evaluation and comparison.

 

Do you treat pens as mere tools or as aesthetic objects, or both?

 

Try asking for the best value in a shirt or in an oil painting. You are sure to get some more fun answers.

 

:-)

[Margana]

Since I paid a mere $45 for my NOS Pilot 'Isaac Newton', it would have to be my "best value for money" Japanese pen. However, the Platinum Century medium would top my list for currently available models.

[tinta]

I've received excellent value from all my Sailor 1911 Standards.

For me at least, these pens are comfortable, reliable & most importantly, affordable.

[ink-syringe]

No one is asking anyone to name a pen they don't enjoy. bah.

 

What is the value of the pen that one does not enjoy using?

 

The whole concept of the "best value" is suspect, unless one specifies to whom and gives a precise enough framework for evaluation and comparison.

 

 

It isn't suspect. It is slippery, it problematic but not really suspect and we all, i bet, generally have a good feel for what that means.

 

You may like your limited edition MB pen. You might like your C74. But you like the spendy MB pen more. But then look at the price difference. If you don't intuitively quantify your enjoyment of the pen as equal to that price difference then, no, it maybe be a better pen, you might like it more, but it probably wasn't your best VALUE.

 

Yes you could say well I use my MB every single day and never use my C74 so that actually means the C47 is in this particular case a bad value but we are asking for GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF GENERAL BANG FOR BUCK VALUE for a general user base, not obscure, unusual case examples (where you say, hate Japanese pens).

 

Don't overthink it. We all know what value is. When we get a good return for our money. Which Japanese pens give you the most for your money? Not that hard. A C74 with a soft nib and a con70 gives you a robust workhorse pen which is a decent size and ink capacity with a nice springy gold nib for $80. It is 87.192010% of the way there to a MB 146 or an M800 and 628% more killer than a Pilot Varsity. That is one possible view of value.

 

 

 

When you spend over a $100, get no finish choices, plastic feed and steel nib in only F, M, B you might say that is not a great value and generally lots of folks would agree. If you say, well the Platinum 14 standard gives you a springy 14k nib on a $50 pen. etc.

 

Really we all know, intuitively, when we got something that was worth well what we payed for it compared to other similar object we have bought.

[parnesh]

These are my three desert island pens:

 

Pilot Custom 74

Pilot Custom Heritage 91

Pilot Custom 823

 

...and if I had to pick just one, it would be the Pilot Custom 823. It does everything right.

 

+1.

 

Personally the best value would have to be the C74/CH91 just because you can get the Con-70 for them and they tick all other boxes pretty well. A very close second and maybe a better pen is the Platinum C3667, let down only by the small converter.

 

If money was a little less of an issue, Pilot C742/CH912 are very hard to beat.

[Algester]

as I would like to think about the flagship models from the big 3 is beyond bang for your buck namely the Izumo, 845 and KoP as I said beyond the Urushi, and Maki-e offerings if were going down to just "if it writes" any company I would say is good

if were going to disregard the likes of Ohashido, Hakase and Nakaya

boil it down to pure performance you have a lot of options

let's think about it

a Preppy for 2-3 USD

a Vpen for almost the same price

Platinum Reverie almost 1 USD

they all write and work as intended and with some TLC could out live you by a margin this is disregarding the bells and whistles that each company does to their pens

like Platinum Slip and Seal tech, but I don't know about Sailor and Pilot all I know Pilot has a reasonably priced retractable pen and a large converter, Sailor has a ton of exclusives

can these be beaten by other companies that have found their niche like German, Italian, French brands that I do not know... besides China... which seems to be an exemption to the rule due to how inexpensive all of their pens are unless China's big brands decide to push up the ante and decide they will cater the 100USD price mark

Edited February 2, 2016 by Algester

[jar]

 

+1.

 

Personally the best value would have to be the C74/CH91 just because you can get the Con-70 for them and they tick all other boxes pretty well. A very close second and maybe a better pen is the Platinum C3667, let down only by the small converter.

 

If money was a little less of an issue, Pilot C742/CH912 are very hard to beat.

Of course, you can also use the International Standard cartridges and converters with the Platinum #3776 pens.

[Dronak]

Which Japanese pen in your collection was the best value for money? Regardless of what you spent, the pen should be one you know was worth it and would purchase again without hesitation.

 

Based on that last part, probably the Pilot Plumix. It was inexpensive, writes nicely, and the italic nib adds some flair to my writing without any real additional effort on my part. Since I like how it writes and it's not expensive, I'd certainly be willing to buy it again.

 

Based more on the first part, I might pick the Pilot Justus 95. Its ability to adjust the nib tension from harder to softer creates different results on paper depending on the hard/soft setting, and it's fairly easy to get at least two different results by using full hard and full soft settings. Given that, it can be viewed as multiple pens in one, helping to justify its price (which is more than I typically spend on fountain pens) and adding value above that of a typical pen without such controllable variability.

[katanankes]

The answer is obvious, this new Nakaya pen:

 

http://nakaya.org/en/review.aspx?id=416&type=body

 

I wonder why it is not being talked about more often.

[tinta]

 

 

http://nakaya.org/en/review.aspx?id=416&type=body

 

I wonder why it is not being talked about more often.

The price, perhaps?

[Aysedasi]

The price, perhaps?

 

Yep. I struggle with the idea of buying a pen costing as much as I'm likely to pay for my next car.........

[vnnil]

I forgot to mention the Pilot Celemo (or Ceremo, ~35 USD), which is the cheapest 14k nib I know of.

I have had 3 of those (gave them as gifts), and all were wonderful. The nib is very similar, in terms of symmetry, to the VP one; sizes are M or F.

The pen might be too light for some, but its perfectly reliable.

[Pensei]

While acknowledging the point made above that "best value" does not preclude a fairly pricey pen, I think we must at least give a hat tip to the Pilot Petit1. For me, this pen almost defines the word "value" by doing well everything a pen is supposed to do, at such a low price. The nib and feed represent design genius, in that they not only perform reliably, but actually offer a very enjoyable writing feel, and produce a stylish line. And they are in their humble way stylish. Truly remarkable. I bought a set of seven, reducing the price to less than $3 each, and use them to test new inks.

[rohit1974]

Platinum Century 3776

Pilot Custom 74

Pilot Custom Heritage 91

 

I think they are best bang for the buck