I have an Orange Crush!
I came home last week to a package sent by a friend I had done some website design consulting for a few weeks back. Inside the note said “…I know you love your Pilot pens and I know you love orange so I figured this was a good choice.” Good choice? The Custom 74 inside was not only a good choice it was an amazing one – the pen is just incredible.
Packaging is nice with a glass top clam shell case showing off the beautiful orange and graphite pen. It comes with a Pilot CON-70 convertor so you can quickly load up your ink of choice and get writing – Pilot also includes a standard cartridge under the tray.. The clamshell has a slipcase to keep everything from getting banged up – overall a nice presentation.
The pen itself is a translucent orange resin with graphite endcap and grip section. Holding all this together are some nice silver accents – The cap ring is engraved with “Custom 74” and the clip with “Pilot”. Overall the pen has a nice minimal modern design in a beautiful combination of colors. The nib is 14k gold plated in Rhodium to match the rest of the silver accents on the pen. The flex in this gold nib creates a nice springy response that makes writing silky smooth. Ink flow is slightly on the wet side but only slightly – putting down enough ink with the fine nib to still see shading and sheen. The pen is a screw-cap design and posts nicely with a snug grip. The cap has an inner insert that seals the nib, keeping it from drying out. The pen is fairly light but well balanced and feels good both with and without the cap posted. My pen came with the fine <F> nib which is great as I am able to use it at the office on cheaper copier paper without having the ink feather at all.
I inked it up for the first run with Diamine Ancient Copper which is a nice match to the pen and a great ink in general. Even for a fine the pen has a little flex to it but nothing you would want to force too much. There was no skipping on my Rhodia pad and even at a brisk pace the feed was able to keep up. In reverse it writes like an EEF nib – hairline width is consistent and while I never write that way it does work just fine. Overall like mentioned above the nib is average to wet in inkflow and what I would expect from a fine width nib.
Looking to pick one up? Head over to the Goulet Pen Company where you can snag one in Orange, Blue, Smoke, Violet and Clear.
