Pilot Custom 74 Fountain Pens Reviews

Great pen, love the merlot color! It writes very smoothly! Pen chalet ships fast and has great customer service!

Great Pens....I really like the converter in this model...it just seems to fill nicely and works like a champ! The reason I Love Pilot Pens is for their Nibs, and this is another pen to prove it. This guy goes into my Pilot "Custom" Collection.

Great pen! Mine is orange with a fine (F) nib. The fit and finish is outstanding. I realize that aesthetics are a personal matter but in my opinion, the smoke and chrome accents really make this pen pop! I've written with it posted and unposted and it's a little top/back heavy when posted, but not to the point of interfering with my writing. I'm a huge fan of Japanese nibs, and this one doesn't disappoint! Very smooth writer. All in all, a very cool pen. Highly recommend!

This is not a cheap pen, but it is more than worth the price you pay. The pen writes beautifully, laying down a delightfully wet line. The nib glides smoothly across the paper. The converter takes some getting used to, but it works well and holds a large amount of ink! I eagerly recommend this pen to anyone who's looking for a nice gold nib!

I purchased the 74 because a friend of mine would not stop telling me how excellent of a writer it was. My daily writer was a VP prior to obtaining the 74. I adore my VP but my custom 74 is right on par with it. The nib is smooth; and for a lefty underwriter the custom 74 is more comfortable for extended writing sessions. The converter is a little unique and interesting to fill. I’ve been eye dropper filling it for a while now due to the odd shape some of the ink bottles come in. Either way, the capacity is plenty and with a medium nib the pen puts a beautiful line which is consistent and bold.

I like writing checks with a fountain pen, but recently my financial institutions have started coating the checks with some sort of sizing that results in major feathering. I assume it has some anti-forgery purpose. Even a fine point (Visconti) resulted in blobbing bad enough zeroes and eights were similar. This pen with an EF nib really is EF. Works great on the checks, also other places I need to write small. The cost is that it doesn't write as smoothly as the Visconti, a little scratchy. I wouldn't use it for a long handwritten letter unless the paper called for it. It feels light unless posted, but it's important not to have a heavy hand. And it took three tries to fill the piston converter in a way that didn't leak afterward, probably my bad.

Looks beautiful. Web picture doesn't do the blue color justice.

I have to rate this pen as a "perfect." Pilot make such great pens, and the Custom 74 is no exception. I purchased the violet, and filled it with J. Herbin Violet, and it's a great match. The fine gold nib delivers the line width I like best (Japanese fine, not too wet), and it's a smooth ride with very little feedback (at least in a Leuchtturm 1917 journal). I don't seat the cap when I write, so it's a good weight in my hand — not heavy, easy to control, and the length comfortably fits my slightly larger than average woman's hand. The ink doesn't seem to dry out when capped. I liked my Custom 74 medium, but this fine is everything I could ask for in a fountain pen.

Beautiful purple body, great converter, but the broad nib is still not suiting me after a few months of use. It doesn't seem to write evenly or consistently and I've had to try a few gentle things but I'm not a big meister! After some gentle pressure on downstrokes and some figure eights on brown paper it seems a little better but has not become a favorite writer. In its defense it does write very well on regular paper, but seems to do less well in very smooth paper (Tomoe River paper for example).

As great as usual! Great nib, great finishing. The color is subtle!

First, the price was excellent. The pen comes with a CON-70 converter that holds plenty of ink. I have the medium nib and it glides on paper, no hard starts. The style is great and it is a wonderful first gold nib pen.