Pilot Custom Legance

[d3cadent]

I have been eyeing this pen for months. Let me say it publicly: I did not need this pen. I just wanted it.
For some, this may be a boring pen: technically it's not much more than a Pilot Custom Heritage 91. A rhodium-plated #5 14k F nib, with cartridge/converter filling.
However, red is absolutely my thing, and there aren't that many pens available that look this good and do not cost a fortune. Aurora has resembling offerings, but even the cheapest Optimas cost almost three times as much as the Legance.



The colour is lovely. In reality it's a little less purplish than on the picture. The resin looks really cool, and the material has quite some depth to it. Trim is rhodium plated. I know some people look at silver-coloured metal parts as temporal craze, gold being the 'ethernal standard' - but to me gold's just too much, a kind of bragging. Rhodium is more down-to-earth and modest, or at least that's how I feel. Well, of course, while feeling modest, I am concentrating hard not to think about this modest pen's price tag anyway
The nib is really smooth. My everyday pen for quite some time was a Sailor Pro Gear Slim. That pen is also smooth, but the Legance feels much smoother. If someone prefers either of the two, the other pen may not feel quite as familiar. For me, the Sailor won for quite some time, until I found the right ink for the Legance - but that's for later.

There are some things that I don't like with this pen, though.

I do not understand why the section is made of black and not the same red resin. Okay, black may be more dramatically in contrast with the rhodium-plated nib, but altogether I'd be happier if it was made of the same material as the rest of the pen. I really like this material. BTW, the pen's actually available in blue, black and brown colours too - but I'm not interested in those, sorry.

Then there is the threads for the cap. I do not own a Custom Heritage 91, so I cannot check if that one has the same issue, but... the cap and section threads can 'clash'. When being screwed back to the pen, there's some chance that the section's and the cap's threads would not meet perfectly, but block each other for a brief moment. It's not very serious, as the problem goes away by the slightest adjustment of the cap, and will screw on perfectly. But every once in a while it happens - and that annoys me to some extent. I never had the same issue with my Sailor Pro Gear.

The last issue I had with the pen is, the soft nature of the nib. Normally, I like rigid nibs more. That's why I checked Pilot's nib offerings before buying. Pilot offers normal nibs as well as ones that are specifically designated as Soft - like Soft Fine, Soft Medium, etc. Well, the nib in this pen is not one of those soft ones. In fact, the Legance pens are only available with either the normal Fine or Medium nibs, the Soft nibs are not an option. However, this nib is definitely softer than a Sailor Pro Gear nib.

Well, the good thing is, eventually, I got used to it - in fact it grew on me. I got to like the colour variations this softer nib allows. Currently, I am using it with Diamine ASA Blue* (btw, does anyone have any idea on what 'ASA' in the name means??), which produces very nice shading variations. I also used it with a Pilot Blue cartridge, and that one worked fine also - it's just that ASA Blue is a lot more interesting in colour, at least for me. As the line is quite thin, it's somewhat tricky to find a really suitable ink for it. Saturated and wet inks look too dark, which I am not very fond of. Drier inks are too pale, you get the point. So finding the right ink was part of the success of this pen for me. The original cartridge made a good job too - just the ink's colour was a bit boring for me. ASA Blue is just the right compromise. Saturated enough, wet enough, yet offers nice colour variations, and does not look too saturated (blackish). Overall, I learned to appreciate the strengths of this pen, while admiring its looks. I still feel annoyed every once in a while when the cap threads lock, but when I'm writing with it, I forget about that millisecond I consider this to be one of my top three pens, and my Sailor really has a hard time keeping up in usage time.

*Picture is taken not with ASA Blue.

[EHV]

Thanks for your review. It is appreciated.

I think that the Japanese to English translation of the word "Asa" is "morning". Pilot Iroshizuku has an ink called Asa Gao, which translates to Morning Glory from what I understand. It too is a deep blue ink. I think that Pilot or another Japanese manufacturer has a limited edition, blue pen model called Asa as well.
There is also Asa denim clothing to be had. :-) And note an Indian pen manufacturer named ASA ...and ASA is also used for acetylsalicylic acid, which is a medical abbreviation for Aspirin because that's what aspirin is made of......but I digress... :-)

I'm pretty sure that Asa refers to the type of the blue color in the case of the ink.

Enjoy your pen and perhaps update your review after you've enjoyed it long term.

[RocketRyan]

Didn't even know that model existed. Lovely pen congratulations.

[d3cadent]

Yeah, I only noticed it while crawling on Pilot's japanese site. I really like japanese pens, but visually there aren't that many interesting options, so this one caught my eye immediately.
Its features are equivalent to a Custom Heritage 91, while the material adds to its price so it costs about the same as a CH 912.
Thanks for your kind words.