Pilot Justus - Quick review

[tragique]

I purchased this pen a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it greatly since. This isn't going to be a formal review, but just a quick review f its main features and why I like it. I can already tell you it has quickly become one of my favorite pens, so I'm not going to rate how much I like it or give it a score. Sadly, it wasn't purchased new, so I have no box or papers, and the pen does have some scratches on the section. Otherwise, it seems to be in excellent condition (for its age). I'm going to separate the review in a few parts:


The body: The ridged body looks and feels great. I also like the rounded top and the classic black and gold color combination. The plastic of the pen feels solid and sturdy. It doesn't feel light and cheap like many plastic/resin pens do. It's a light pen, but has some heft to it.


The cap: More ridges, another rounded top. The clip feels very tight, it can be a bit hard to clip it on because of that. Despite that, it looks very attractive and is split in the middle. Another point is this is a snap-on cap. I prefer threads myself, but the mechanism on this seems very secure and durable, so I'm not afraid of it getting loose over time.


The insides: As usual on Pilot pens, this accepts either their proprietary cartridges or converters. I've managed to fit a CON-20 and CON-50, but the CON-70 is just too big for the barrel to screw back on with it. I currently use a CON-50 in it and even with its small ink capacity it lasts quite a while, so long as I don't constantly flex the nib out.


The section: This pen has a very long section, thanks to the housing mechanism for the tension adjuster. I find it very comfortable and since this pen has no threads, I can hold it even more far up while writing.


The nib: Definitely the star of this pen. The tension adjuster might be seen as a gimmick to some, but I find it very useful and while the visual effect it has on writing is not overly dramatic, you can really feel the difference when writing: the nib goes from very soft to feeling pretty hard (not a nail, still a bit on the springy side). This nib can definitely be called semi-flex, unlike Pilot's more modern nibs. It will flex out to 1.1-1.2mm with a bit of pressure (much less than on a Pilot Falcon for example). Another great thing about this nib is it will never railroad, thanks to the adjuster acting as an overfeed. I can write as fast as I want while flexing it out and it always keeps up. This, paired with the nib's great snap back and responsiveness would make this a great nib to draw with.


I found the datecode "H281" on the nib, which means it was manufactured at the Hiratsuka factory, on february 1981.


Size wise, this pen is about as big as my Pilot Metal Falcon. Even the nib is of similar size, it seems to be around a #5 modern pilot nib.


Here is an album with all the pictures I took of this pen, as to not clutter this review: http://imgur.com/a/eGDNi


To show off what the nib can do, I did a quick writing sample (with Noodler's BSAR), it will illustrate what I mean better (S:Softest setting, H:Hardest setting):

[sanjay13leo]

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