PILOT Namiki Falcon Collection Fountain Pen, Black Barrel with Rhodium Accents, Soft Medium Nib (60742)

I’ve been a fountain pen collector for a few years, I say that purely to indicate that I have a reasonable ‘context’ for reviewing Pilot Namiki Falcon.What attracted me to the pen was it’s gorgeous looks and my extremely high regard for the Pilot brand through my collection of mainly Pilot Custom 74s as well as a Vanishing Point.The reason for my lowish star review is that the “resin” meaning “plastic”, in my opinion, is just too darn light for this pen. I admit that this is a personal preference thing, but even the Pilot Custom 74 feels heavier, and that fraction of difference - makes all the difference for moi.Don’t misunderstand me, this nib IS one for the ages. The pen itself remains a looker. A stunner.But without that heft, it misses out on being a classic in the way the Pilot 823 or Lamy 2000 is.For this reason I doubled down and bought the Metal version of this same pen.It costs more, but I reach for it regularly, relegating this particular pen to being the “nib holder” for that one inevitable terrible day when I drop THAT pen on its nib, and need a spare.This is an awfully expensive pen to become a nib holder!Thus it receives only 3 stars from me. I would urge readers to either buy “down” to the supurb Custom 74, or reach higher for the Pilot Namiki Falcon METAL (say THAT quickly three times!)...

Don't get me wrong, this is a nice pen but it's just not as nice as everyone says it is. If you're a beginner just getting into fountain pens then you will probably love this pen. For those of us who have some experience and a decent sized collection, this feels like nothing special.I think this pen is fine for beginners who are willing to spend a little more money on a pen. It's a simple cartridge converter pen with a gold nib. It's a consistent writer and over time you can learn to use the soft nib to get line variation. I highly recommend you feel this pen in person before buying. This is not one of those pens where the picture is enough to get a feel for what to expect when you hold the pen.The body is made of resin (plastic) which is very well polished and looks nice but makes the pen so light it feels like a toy. That's not necessarily a bad thing as I have plenty of light resin pens that I absolutely adore because of their shape or nib or other feature. I have a lot of plain flat topped pens and I like them but this is the first time a Pilot didn't impress me.The pen is thin like many of their pens. It comes with a CON-40 which is my second favorite converter of theirs. The clip is more plain than other Pilot clips and the cap band isn't the most striking.The nib is what's totally overhyped on this pen. This is not a flex or even semi-flex nib. I would call it soft. It's much softer than a Custom 823 nib. It bounces and will flex with pressure applied but it's not the sort of flex that most people rant about. It takes a lot of practice and a slow, steady hand to get line variation out of this pen. It's a great candidate for line variation if that's what you're looking for but don't expect to be doing a ton of calligraphy with this pen. The nib is very fine and it's a wet writer. I like to push the nib to see the tines spread but so far I haven't had any real practical application for this.I like this pen as a daily carry. I could write with it on a daily basis and see myself drawing with it as well. It wants to be a premium pen but I see myself treating it like a knockaround pen with a specialized nib after a while.This is not a bad pen but something about the way it feels in my hand just isn't right and the flex capabilities are totally exaggerated. I know I sound like I'm hating on this pen but I'm not. I guess what I'm saying is that you should lower your expectations for what this pen offers. It is a great, smooth daily writer but it's not the holy grail of flex. Not even close.I would recommend this pen to anyone who wants to try a soft nib and have a Falcon in their collection. It's just one of those pens everyone should eventually get if their into fountain pens. I wouldn't recommend it as your first pen or your one daily carry pen unless you've tried it out in a store first and truly like how it writes and feels. If you want a flex nib, look for the Custom Heritage 912 with the FA nib (which is different than the Falcon nib). I hear it's more flexy and I'm waiting for one to come in the mail today.

I love it.I usually practice calligraphy with a dip pen and antique nibs and this is a perfect addition to be able to write on the go.I can carry it with me wherever I go.Perfect for me.

The resin Falcon is elegant if conservatively styled. Mine is the gold rather than Rhodium trim - I like my gold to look like gold, and the gold version was $130 rather than $144. Be aware that if you order through a company shipping out of Japan rather than Amazon Prime, you are going to get a big bump for shipping (or wait rather a long time). The pen comes with the Con-50 converter - the metal version fits the larger Con-70, this does not. You can refill a cartridge, or use the slightly larger but opaque Con-20, but the Con-50 seems to work well and you can see the amount of ink remaining.Used with a light hand, the fine nib gets lines of equal weight to the Prera or Metropolitan fine. It can vary out to a broad, maybe a double broad width - I am being conservative in pushing the line width for the moment. It take a conscious effort to flex the pen - it is much easier to flex than an unmodified Noodler's Ahab, but no where near what a dip pen or vintage flex pen can achieve. At it's flexiest, this is a semi-flex pen at the most. Consider the Pilot 742/743/912 FA pen if you want more and easier flex (but more troublesome railroading issues). It is a little more flexible than the Pilot 74/91 soft fine nibs. Railroading was rare for me with Iroshizuku inks, a little more noticable at times with De Atramentis Document Inks. Simply slowing down invariably solved such issues.The resin Falcon is an extremely light pen, to the point that some people equate light must equal cheap. It's not. It's well made. The cap screws on and off smoothly, with about 1.25 turns needed (a little more than a Twsbi Mini). The pen is long enough to be used comfortably in my medium male glove-size hands, but I prefer the extra weight of it being posted, which it does very securely. This does move the balance back towards the end a bit, but nothing that I find distracting.Smoothness. Reasonably smooth - most Pilot nibs are - but it does transmit paper surface texture more readily than the Pilot steel nibs I have used.Bottom Line: It's a pricey pen. If you want a hint of line variation but want to save some money, consider the Pilot 74 or Pilot 91 soft nibs, or the Platinum 3776 soft fine. If you want some flair to your writing, but have never worked with flexible nibs before (I've used very flexible dip nibs for decades) consider a "stub" nib, such as the medium "calligraphy" nib on the Pilot Prera. They are easier to get the hang of, and a whole lot cheaper. If you are an artist, nothing beats flex, but just scale back your expectations to the actual flex this offers, rather than what you may see from highly modified Falcons. The EF will have slightly more dramatic variation, at the cost of a slightly scratchier nib. My advice would be not to let that deter you if you want the finer line - for general sketching, I find the Fine of adequate fineness and easy to use. As to Resin vs. Metal: that's a whole lot of money just to get a brass barrel and a Con-70. Unless you find it on deep discount (it does show up intermittently on Amazon at under $180 Prime delivered rather than the usual $240), can't abide lightweight pens, or you simply need an extremely rugged barrel, my advice would be to save a whole lot of money and get the resin version.

A very handsome Pilot writing instrument. Slim with a screw cap. The nib is 14k gold fine and on the soft side giving a nice script particularly for writing Korean and Urdu.I use Iroshizuku inks in the pen which has a Pilot short piston converter or can be used with Pilot Fountain Pen Cartridges.

This pen was delivered from the USA in very good time. However, from various pen sites on You Tube and elsewhere I was led to believe it to be more flexy than it has proved to be. Hence 4 stars not 5.

Beautiful writer and comfortable to hold

Great price

Importante decir que escribo éste review como un novato ya que ésta pluma fuente PILOT FALCON es la primer pluma que compro después de revisar muchas opiniones en You tube de diferentes plumas en su rango de precio. Me encantó, es muy ligera y el color negro/rhodio la hace tan hermosa y elegante como lo esperaba.Viene en su caja original con un manual, un cartucho de tinta negra y convertidor para poder llenarla y utilizarla con tinta de botellita. Si hay algo que no me gusta es que la siento frágil en mis manos acostumbradas al metal de herramientas pero considerando su precio pues es un artículo que debe cuidarse y no dejarse en cualquier parte.Estoy aprendiendo a escribir en cursiva viendo videos de ejercicios de INTI OLMAN BAQUERO en You tube, mi tipo de punta es fina y estoy usando tinta negra Waterman ya que la tinta PILOT se me hizo cara al menos para empezar a aprender a usarla. Hasta el momento me ha encantado escribir con ésta pluma, los trazos son finos y la tinta fluye bien a mi parecer.