PILOT Fountain Pen Custom Heritage 92, Transparent Blue Body, F-Nib (FKVH-15SRS-TL-F)

This is my second Pilot Custom Heritage 92. The first one was translucent black with medium nib, and this one is translucent blue with fine nib. Both pens have exceeded expectations and have been stellar performers.Nib was smooth and tines aligned out of the box, no adjustments or tuning necessary. Slight sensation of feedback or toothiness, but no roughness or scratchiness.Inkflow is good, slightly "wet"... Just the way I like it.The piston filling mechanism is flawless. Knob turns smoothly and easily. Full fills (95%+) every time.Ergonomics are superior. Pen balances perfectly with cap posted, but feels a little light and numb unposted. Threads are unobtrusive and do not negatively impact any grip I've tried. 20 gram weight is perfect for long writing sessions without inducing fatigue.Translucent body allows for easily checking ink levels without having to disassemble the pen. Rhodium trim looks good to me, better than the gold trim on the Pilot 823 Amber or Pilot Custom 74. The sword-shaped clip is also an improvement over the traditional "ball" clips on those other pens. The smoky finials and grip section are good compliments to the blue cap and barrel.In my opinion, this is the best pen at this price point on the market in terms of quality, features and functionality. This pen writes every bit as well as the Pelikan M400s/600s/800s I've used, at a fraction of the price. The only thing this pen does not have is a "status price tag". If you need a pen to inspire "pen envy" in others, go for the Namiki Emperor, MB, Pelikan or Visconti. If you need the quintessential "workhorse" pen, look no further. The Custom Heritage 92 is what you have been looking for.

At first, I thought the Pilot Custom Heritage was only so-so. I had just gotten a Platinum 3776 Century as an early birthday gift from my husband, and this sort of paled in comparison. Now that I've used the Custom Heritage, I like it as much as I do the Platinum. They're both fine nibs, but they have slightly different feels to them. The Platinum is a little on the stiffer, scratchier side. This one feels like...I'm not sure what it feels like. It's not quite buttery, because it has just a bit of feedback to it, but it's not scratchy. I guess soft would describe it well, since it's definitely not as stiff as the Platinum. I can get some serious flex going with this one, although I don't use that very often.I've already cleaned it out once and it was easier than expected. Pull the water in, and then push it out again--the Pilot goes all the way to the bottom of the barrel. None of that going only so far that some piston fillers do. Everything gets out of the barrel. The nib feed takes a while longer to clear, but it eventually does. I let it soak overnight, and that seemed to take any dried up bits with it. Normally, I wouldn't have those with a pen that I've had less than a month, but I was using J Herbin Bleu Ocean in it for the maiden voyage. You just know some of that gunked up the works, but this pen was flawlessly clean in the morning, not even a sparkle left behind. I've since replaced the Bleu Ocean with Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, and, as expected, it's like this pen was made to have that ink in it.The Custom Heritage came out of the box working exactly like I wanted it to, so I haven't needed to disassemble it. The piston filler works very well, although it seems to be a little longer than necessary. I may look at shortening it up to get more ink up the barrel, but I may not. I'd rather save that for a time when I'm not so busy. Regardless, this pen will get more use than the Platinum simply because it is a piston filler. That means I won't need to fill it as often, I can trust it more to have ink when I need it, and the translucence is just strong enough to make seeing my ink supply a breeze. The Platinum is gorgeous to look at, but it's not translucent enough to be sure of the ink supply without taking the pen apart.The looks of this pen are a little on the pedestrian side compared to the Platinum, but I can live with that to have a piston filler with a smooth fine nib.

The Custom Heritage 92 can be a difficult pen to purchase in a retail pen store because Pilot only offers a clear body in the US and the list price for US stores is almost double the price that Japanese stores are able to sell it for. As a result, many retail pen stores here don't even stock it (I asked my local pen store before ordering from Amazon).So, why would you want this pen?1) This is the only piston-filler pen in Pilot's current line-up. It holds a lot of ink and it is both cheaper and easier to use than the vacuum-filling mechanism found in the Custom 823 (though the 823 is an awesome pen).2) The blue material is beautiful.3) For me, this pen just feels good in the hand - it's a good size and weight.4) For my money, Pilot's nibs are the best in the industry.Are there any downsides? A couple:1) Sadly, Pilot only offers a limited selection of their sixteen different nibs with the Custom Heritage 92. It would be great to be able to get an Extra-Fine nib on this pen. It would be awesome to be able to get some of the more exotic nibs (Posting, Waverly, Falcon). Again, the nibs that are offered are excellent - I just wish that Pilot would allow a wider range of their nib line on this particular pen.2) If you've not used a piston-filler pen before, you might find it a bit intimidating to use one for the first time. You will need a bottle of ink to use the pen, which is not included.All in all, the Custom Heritage 92 is a great fountain pen. I'm very happy to have been able to add one to my collection in the gorgeous blue material.

Good fountain pen that's a vacuum filler, holds a lot of ink and is easy to fill. This Fine nib writes well, a little on the wet side. Seller shipped fast and packaging was perfect. Would recommend this pen and this seller if you're looking for a great, gold nib Japanese pen.

The fine wrote wider than my pilot metropolitan medium. It was scratchy as well. I was so disappointed. I will just stick to the $15 metropolitan pens and the twsbi echo in fine. They write better and are much cheaper