PILOT Custom 74 Fountain Pen, Blue Barrel, Medium Nib (60696)

This is a phenomenal pen. Its pricey, but its totally worth it. Here is a tally of my experience with it.Out of the box, the pen was about average. The upstrokes did not really exist. I was writing on cheap Walmart paper, and it felt slightly scratchy. I was really just comparing this to a $15 Pilot Metropolitan, which seemed to write better. I was infact contemplating returning it. I started reading tips and tricks on FPN, and one of the posts suggested a small "break in" period, and to regulate more ink flow by slightly pressing on the nib 15 secs at a time for a few times. I did this thrice: press down on the nib gently by keeping it static for about 15 seconds apiece.Lo and behold, the pen started loosening up. No matter what I wrote on: cheap Walmart paper, Rhodia, or high-end copy paper (HP 32 lb or Hammermill), it worked. And worked better than anything I have owned before! This pen glides on paper like butter on a hot skillet. Its just incredibly difficult to describe how smooth a pen is using words, but I hope you get the picture.This is not a flex nib. However, since the nib is made out of 14k Gold, it is nevertheless springy. I am able to achieve some line width variation which I find as a huge added bonus. Pen comes with a con-70 converter, which holds a ton of ink. The pen is a demonstrator, so you get to see how much ink is left at all times, which is quite handy.The pen is not heavy or cumbersome by any means. I have written with this pen for more than 2 hours, and I barely felt a thing. And finally, the appearance. I admire that Pilot rolls out pens that are never flashy, and never attract undue attention to them. They just perform like champions without any of the "its made out of gold so lets make this look flashy and gaudy". No one has ever complimented me on this pen for its looks, but they almost always compliment my writing when they look at my notes. I like that a lot. Its subtle, understated, and performs like a champ.The only other pen I would rather buy compared to this one is the Pilot Metal Falcon. I purchased both custom 74 and Falcon, but I think I'll keep the Falcon (which is priced at $240). But if you cannot stretch your budget, and are on the fence about this one, I would heartily recommend it to you! Happy writing!

This is my favorite pen, and I'm glad I bought it! And this price it ain't cheap! But nothing worth having is cheap!And you get a lot of value for the money!This pen lays down some ink, a beautiful, thick line of ink! If there's a fire in my house and I get to grab one item, I'm reaching automatically for my Pilot 74!

A great pen. My first gold nib, and it writes wonderfully. The nib has more feedback than other gold nib pens, but it isn't scratchy. The fune nib is really fine and works on cheap paper.The only drawback is that ink seeps into the nib feed casing, which cannot be cleaned. A small annoyance, but it sure would be nice to be able to clean that between ink changes.

I am so disappointed in this pen. I decided to purchase a nice, high quality pen that comes with a super high price tag. This is by far the worst fountain pen I have ever owned. It’s super pretty, but it DOES NOT WRITE. It worked just fine for about 3 days before it started skipping and then just not working at all. I tried replacing the ink cartridge (even though it wasn’t empty), flushing and cleaning it and still nothing. My cheap $10 fountain pen works better than this one! Not happy!

This is perhaps my favourite fountain pen to date. The weight is perfect, and the nib is fantastic. The body length is perfect for writing without have to post the cap. Oh, what a nib!! I highly recommend getting this one if you like a fine nib. It provides me just enough feedback to bring out the best in my writing. It also flexes enough that the line variations appear very nicely in your writing and I don't do calligraphy. There are some fountain pens that have nibs so stiff that it may as well be that you get a regular pen. However, this one introduces you nicely to what using a fountain pen is really about.

I would love to give this pen a 5 star rating but this is the second Pilot pen with a number 5 nib that wrote horribly dry on certain strokes.I can afford to adjust the nib myself to make it wetter but if I couldn’t then I would send this back. Often times on Amazon you’ll find Pilot pens that are imported from Japan. You can tell by the lower price. I think this Custom 74 was a Japanese import and not one meant for sale in the US. My theory is that the Japanese ones are tuned to be dryer than those made to be sold in the US. This is because this Custom 74 and a Custom Heritage 92 I got both had dry nib issues.The resin used isn’t the same quality as the Custom 823 but it’s still very nice and feels like something that’s high end but still made to be an EDC pen. Definitely durable and good looking. The clip is super sturdy and easily carried in a shirt pocket or even clipped to your jeans pocket.I love the Custom 74. I love the design and the con-70 converter. I would be using this as my EDC pen if it weren’t for the dry nib. Once I fix it though I’ll be carrying this everywhere. The Pilot 5 nibs are my favorite and the best when they are tuned properly. I actually took the fine nib off a real Custom 74 and transplanted it onto a Conid Bulkfiller Slimline and wanted to use the nib off this one to use in the real C74.The smoke barrel is very attractive. The Con-70 inside gives the clear pen a good look and holds more ink than most converters and is easier to completely fill that any plunger/twist style converter I’ve ever used.The nib is very smooth this time I got a medium (fines are my favorite) and it writes like my Lamy 2000 fine.The girth of the pen is perfect for average or even small hands and the length is similar to what you’d get with a Lamy Safari. The pen is easily used posted or unposted.I really love the Custom 74 and want to use it as my EDC pen for a while but until i know the nib is. Writing consistently I can’t and for that I’m giving a pen that should deserve five stars, three.You should definitely get this pen but make sure it writes well for you and return it right away if it doesn’t write how it should out of the box and get one that does because when you get a good one you’ll fall in love with it.