Pilot Fountain Pen Custom Heritage 912, Black Body, FA-Nib (FKVH-2MR-B-FA)

I bought this pen with a PO (posting, EEF) nib for editing on cheap copy paper. Ink flow is excellent. I've tested it on several kinds of paper with Pilot Namiki red ink. Even on my cheapest, non-fountain pen-friendly paper, there is no feathering, ghosting or bleed-through. It is a light pen, but has a nice weight. Very comfortable writer. Works perfectly for my needs. Very highly recommended!

So I draw Manga and do Urban sketching. I wanted a pen that would do all in one. Thin and thick lines, instead of a bunch off fine liners . I heard about this pen and saw it on here. The first problem I ran into was there was two listed on Amazon. One for $ 224.00 and one for $ 184.00 no matter how many times I read descriptions I couldn’t tell a difference. I even called Amazon ( USA ) support lol and asked them to see if there was a difference, they saw nothing. So I’m not a idiot I ordered cheaper one. Btw which is no longer listed on Amazon. Oh the only difference Amazon saw was cheaper one was a Japanese seller who had their inventory with Amazon so it was still prime and no month long wait to get it. So I always do huge research on major purchases and this time I made the mistake of only reading Amazon reviews, and not my usual YouTube plus online reviews. They were completely mixed from exceptional to total garbage. After I received it I went to YouTube and my heart hit the floor. Almost every review said great writer horrible for drawing, complete railroading due to bad feed design. Plus it’s extremely picky on ink and people said to use only Pilot iroshizuku ink which btw i did get from Amazon. For my work I only use De Atramentis document ink. I reached out to the experts at Goulet pens about my concerns. Brian the owner replied to me stating that the pilot ink would be better but may work with document ink. Also mentioned the drawing problems due to feed and told me about a aftermarket feed which I had seen for 30 dollars. But after a huge investment why should I have to change feed and also void any kinda warranty on pen. So the pen sat on my desk for weeks, with me not knowing what to do. I finally called Amazon with two days left in return window and started the return process. Also giving me 14 additional days to think about it. Well tomorrow is last day to drop it off at UPS store, and this morning I was thinking I should at least try it. Even if it’s garbage I can still return it. I love Amazon, not always the cheapest but get your items in either one or two days and return policy is outstanding.Well I’m so mad at myself for waiting. I filled with document ink, mainly because I tried the Take-Sumi in another pen and felt it looked more gray than black. I’ve never ever written with a smoother pen in my life. I was writing on Deleter Manga paper. Then the big question , the flex of the Fa nib. Let me just say as fast as I could draw something it kept up perfectly. Absolutely no railroading and went from a hairline to about a 1/8” thick with extremely very little pressure. This is the best pen I’ve ever owned. Now I’m not sure I just got a good one and got lucky or what. Secondly I did flush it out with some spring water, maybe that helped. I’ve never flushed any new fountain pens before but one artist on YouTube recommended flushing this one. Thirdly I think I found difference between two listed on Amazon. 90 percent of YouTube reviews stated the middle ring says Pilot Custom Heritage Japan with stars around it. Mine only says Pilot Custom Heritage Japan, no stars. I don’t know if it means mine is older or newer.In conclusion all I can say is this pen is yes extremely expensive for me anyway but if your looking for a pen to draw with getting hairlines and broad lines and a feel that is so smooth this is your pen. Again I’ve never felt something so smooth. It makes me wanna just throw away all my fine liners. I hope if you purchase you’d have same results I did and hopefully I didn’t just get a good one.

Simply amazing - as good as I could have hoped for - makes copperplate calligraphy a breeze!! Best pen I own.

I bought the PCH 912 in February 2018, barely three months after contracting the notorious, wallet-draining fons calamum virum, (fountain pen virus). I didn’t know what this FA flex nib did that was so special, but I had to have it and would figure it out later. At first, I had no idea how to write with it and it got little use until six months ago, when I started to play around with a dip pen and a Zebra G nib, gained an understanding of flex, line-width variation, etc., after which I pulled out the 912 and “learned” how to use it. Simultaneously, I was studying and practicing Spencerian cursive and when I used this pen to write that script, I understood the advantages of a flex nib and its pleasing effect on cursive letterforms. Recently, I returned to the Amazon listing and re-read the reviews, many of which focused on ink flow issues, and I began to reflect on my experience with this pen, forming these thoughts and conclusions.You will probably laugh but when I cleaned and refilled the pen with ink six months ago, I used a press-plate converter, my logic being that I just wanted to try that particular ink but didn’t want to fill up a whole CON-70 just to test the ink, which was Noodlers Heart of Darkness. Whether it was the ink or the converter, I experienced no flow issues with the pen, and being so inexperienced, I can tell you that I am lucky I didn’t spring the nib as hard as I was pressing down to make some major thick lines, the point being that the flow and volume of ink required to write like that was quite high but the feed kept up.You will note that some other reviewers commented that the only ink that seemed to work well with the pen was either H. of D. or any of the Iroshizuku inks, of which I have ten or twelve, so I chose one and put it to the test, using the press-plate filled with Amo-Iro, a nice, shading Sky Blue color. The pen wrote flawlessly, no skips, no railroading, even writing very fast. Next, I put the same Amo-Iro in a CON-70 and that resulted in some thin flow and slight railroading in the first few lines, but then it cleared up and the ink flowed freely. The CON-70 page is posted with my review and contains some additional thoughts.Before trying the Amo-Iro, I had filled a CON-70 with Noodlers Black Swan in Australian Roses and here I had major flow issues, skipping and lots of railroading; I had to constantly juice the converter to restore the ink flow. Still, I managed to eek out four pages of musings by writing very slowly, which does have its advantages, as you can read in the posted JPEGs.The flow issue appears to be dependent on the ink, the type of converter, how fast you write and how hard and thick are your pen strokes. There is no question this nib can make your writings look very good, but it comes at the expense of time, attention to nib angle, proper posture, seating and writing position. This is a pen for writing keepsake forever letters, not jotting down notes on a Target notepad mounted on a clipboard cradled in your arm. That’s what Lamys and Metropolitans are for. Find the right pen/ink/converter combo where flow is not an issue and I think you’ll be as pleased as I am about how much better and distinctive your script will appear when written with the 912 FA nib. With practice, superb penmanship is within reach using this unique writing tool.