Waski_the_Squirrel
January 17th, 2014, 09:36 PM
I drooled over this pen for a long time and was torn for a few months between buying this one or a Delta Fusion 82. In time, my interest in Physics won, and right before Christmas, I purchased a Pilot Justus. It arrived the week following Christmas. One of my frustrations during this time was that I just couldn't find much information about the pen. So, I offer this as my small contribution. Some of you who visit another fountain pen board may know that I posted a review there as well.
This review is fresh and based on several weeks of use. I did choose to keep the same pictures. (So far too lazy to do anything other than use the iPad to take pictures.) By the way: I'm not a pen reviewer and there will be no video. I just thought I'd share a pen I like.
So here is the pen with some other new friends. (The Pilot is the middle one.)
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/waski_the_squirrel/IMG_0294_zps65b7afde.jpg (http://s750.photobucket.com/user/waski_the_squirrel/media/IMG_0294_zps65b7afde.jpg.html)
And here is a writing sample. It got wrinkled and dripped on before I got around to photographing it.
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/waski_the_squirrel/music309_zps36390dac.jpg (http://s750.photobucket.com/user/waski_the_squirrel/media/music309_zps36390dac.jpg.html)
Appearance
This pen is a plain, understated black pen. I chose the barley finish and I think this is more interesting and easier to hold than the lined finish. The gold trim is nice. At first glance, the nib doesn't look like anything special: it's plain and the tension bar does not really stand out unless one looks closely. I like this. I've always liked Noodler's pens in part because they're plain.
The pen feels solid. Some pens feel cheap. This one makes a nice solid sound when I cap it. The parts don't "mush" together, they fit perfectly. These are all subjective things that one might not notice right away, but they add to the experience. The pen also feels very good in my hand posted or unposted.
Filling
I wish that this pen had a built in filling mechanism. The converter has made me shy away from Pilot pens for a while. That said, the converter is nice and seems to hold more ink than other converters I've used. It's not an objective measure, but I fill the two pens in the photograph more often than the Pilot, and I write a lot more with the Pilot. I'm sure someone out there has measured ink capacity.
The converter is also a little different. It's not a twist-filler. It's a push-button mechanism that fills the pen with 5-6 presses. I kind of like it, but it also makes me think that the top of the pen could be a push-button and I would then have a built-in mechanism. Nevertheless, for a converter, it's nice.
For those who are Sailor ink fans: I have been inking it with Sailor Epinard. I'm unofficially boycotting the company for various reasons, but I don't mind using ink I already own. It's a beautiful ink and it shows shading very well. However, I have trouble getting a full fill with this bottle. I press the button on the converter a few times and then the pen is sucking air. I cap the bottle, invert, and do a few more presses. I might even repeat. This is a limitation of the Sailor bottle design, but I did think it worth mentioning.
Writing
When I wrote my original review on the other forum and make the above scan, I liked the flex in this pen. Now, several weeks later (and 6 or 7 fills), I have some new experience. It flexes. Really. It does not flex as much as a Noodler's pen, but it has really nice flex.
This brings up the key feature of this pen. It can be adjusted between "soft" and "hard". This is more than a gimmick. I was scared that it would be a gimmick and I would regret falling for it. (Admittedly, the other pen I was considering, the Delta Fusion, also has a gimmick in its fusion nib, so maybe I wanted a gimmick pen.) I am happy with this. There is still flex at the hard setting, but my writing sample shows that it is not as much as at soft. However, it feels good to write at soft, though I've found I prefer doing any kind of math at the hard setting.
Overall, the adjustment changes the amount of flex. More than that, it changes the feel of the writing.
Conclusion
No pen is worth this much money, and I didn't pay full price for this one. However, like my Pilot Custom 823, this is a great pen. I love it. In fact, it competes with the 823 for the title of favorite pen. I think the two can co-exist because I want to keep my favorite ink (Noodler's Black) in the 823. Since the Justus flexes more, I want to keep an ink in it that takes advantage of the flexing.
Pilot makes wonderful, understated pens. The Justus is attractive and writes very nicely. For the last few weeks it has been my daily writer. I would heartily recommend this pen to anyone looking at this price range.
This review is fresh and based on several weeks of use. I did choose to keep the same pictures. (So far too lazy to do anything other than use the iPad to take pictures.) By the way: I'm not a pen reviewer and there will be no video. I just thought I'd share a pen I like.
So here is the pen with some other new friends. (The Pilot is the middle one.)
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/waski_the_squirrel/IMG_0294_zps65b7afde.jpg (http://s750.photobucket.com/user/waski_the_squirrel/media/IMG_0294_zps65b7afde.jpg.html)
And here is a writing sample. It got wrinkled and dripped on before I got around to photographing it.
http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx142/waski_the_squirrel/music309_zps36390dac.jpg (http://s750.photobucket.com/user/waski_the_squirrel/media/music309_zps36390dac.jpg.html)
Appearance
This pen is a plain, understated black pen. I chose the barley finish and I think this is more interesting and easier to hold than the lined finish. The gold trim is nice. At first glance, the nib doesn't look like anything special: it's plain and the tension bar does not really stand out unless one looks closely. I like this. I've always liked Noodler's pens in part because they're plain.
The pen feels solid. Some pens feel cheap. This one makes a nice solid sound when I cap it. The parts don't "mush" together, they fit perfectly. These are all subjective things that one might not notice right away, but they add to the experience. The pen also feels very good in my hand posted or unposted.
Filling
I wish that this pen had a built in filling mechanism. The converter has made me shy away from Pilot pens for a while. That said, the converter is nice and seems to hold more ink than other converters I've used. It's not an objective measure, but I fill the two pens in the photograph more often than the Pilot, and I write a lot more with the Pilot. I'm sure someone out there has measured ink capacity.
The converter is also a little different. It's not a twist-filler. It's a push-button mechanism that fills the pen with 5-6 presses. I kind of like it, but it also makes me think that the top of the pen could be a push-button and I would then have a built-in mechanism. Nevertheless, for a converter, it's nice.
For those who are Sailor ink fans: I have been inking it with Sailor Epinard. I'm unofficially boycotting the company for various reasons, but I don't mind using ink I already own. It's a beautiful ink and it shows shading very well. However, I have trouble getting a full fill with this bottle. I press the button on the converter a few times and then the pen is sucking air. I cap the bottle, invert, and do a few more presses. I might even repeat. This is a limitation of the Sailor bottle design, but I did think it worth mentioning.
Writing
When I wrote my original review on the other forum and make the above scan, I liked the flex in this pen. Now, several weeks later (and 6 or 7 fills), I have some new experience. It flexes. Really. It does not flex as much as a Noodler's pen, but it has really nice flex.
This brings up the key feature of this pen. It can be adjusted between "soft" and "hard". This is more than a gimmick. I was scared that it would be a gimmick and I would regret falling for it. (Admittedly, the other pen I was considering, the Delta Fusion, also has a gimmick in its fusion nib, so maybe I wanted a gimmick pen.) I am happy with this. There is still flex at the hard setting, but my writing sample shows that it is not as much as at soft. However, it feels good to write at soft, though I've found I prefer doing any kind of math at the hard setting.
Overall, the adjustment changes the amount of flex. More than that, it changes the feel of the writing.
Conclusion
No pen is worth this much money, and I didn't pay full price for this one. However, like my Pilot Custom 823, this is a great pen. I love it. In fact, it competes with the 823 for the title of favorite pen. I think the two can co-exist because I want to keep my favorite ink (Noodler's Black) in the 823. Since the Justus flexes more, I want to keep an ink in it that takes advantage of the flexing.
Pilot makes wonderful, understated pens. The Justus is attractive and writes very nicely. For the last few weeks it has been my daily writer. I would heartily recommend this pen to anyone looking at this price range.