Two months ago I bought another pen—my first new entry in over three years. Ah, that’s a good lad! Indeed. But I must confess. Forgive Me Father . I have sinned: I bought another one right after it. I just couldn’t help myself. But I swear, this time, it’ll be my last, for sure, I can almost guarantee it! Almost. Anyway, this time, we’re taking a look at the Pilot Custom 743 with the Falcon or FA nib. I am a big fan of Pilot’s golden nibs: they have never failed me and they’re smooth yet provide a rich writing experience. Yet this time, I was “chasing nibs, not pens”, so I planned on acquiring an FA nib. The unique draw (ha!) of such a nib is the fact that the tines can spread with a bit of applied pressure, thereby producing a great variety of line thicknesses. That sounds complicated, but seeing is believing, so let me just paste in my review written in my notebook to get you to run out and buy one for yourself. The Pilot Custom 743 <FA> nib; a review written in my notebook. Note the subtle but very present line variations in the title, the I love this one! on the lower left, and even in the text itself. In case my handwriting is too bad for you to read (it is, I know, sorry), let me spell that out for you: This is Pilot’s “modern flexible nib”; the or Falcon one; on the Custom 743 body—the #15 [nib] size. Their #10 is on the Custom Heritage 912 which I already own with a Waverly nib. The 743 is about as big as the 823 Vac Filler so also more pricey. The nib is the highlight here—slightly pointed downwards to produce a (very) fine line without pressure. But what happens then [with pressure]? This: a huge amount of line variation! (And railroading; depending on the speed of writing and the ink—this is Kaweco Turquoise. This pen is quite wet with ink like De Atramentis.) I love this one! More than enough “flex”, easy to pull off; but also: an excellent surprisingly smooth daily writer for such a fine point. There is noticeable feedback present but no scratchiness. Is it worth the price tag? That’s up to you, I guess… There are ways to alleviate the railroading issue by buying an ebonate 2-slit or 3-slit feed but I haven’t tried that yet. When I do try to write a bit of Copperplate(-esque), I have to slow down anyway, so the railroading only happens when quickly pulling the pen downwards, which I never do with such a big line as in the example above. The green “Verdigris” body is only available in The States. That sucks: my only option of buying a 743 here in Belgium was the boring black body for a painful €500. I initially wanted the 823 with an FA nib, but that’s even more difficult to get as only a select number of Japanese brick & mortar stores sell these. So I went with the import option through Goldspot Pens. Price: about €345. Shipping: €50. I did find a 10% coupon code that almost nullified the shipping cost, so I was quite happy. Until it arrived in Belgium and customs said “Hi. Uhm, what’s this? You gotta pay VAT here dude! Oh, and since I’m typing this, an additional fixed amount of “processing fee”. That’ll be… Let’s see… €108.” There goes my attempt to cheapen out. So I paid about €450 for an injection-moulded green resin pen that can’t be found elsewhere in Europe. That’s still €50 less than the boring black one. The nibs: Waverly on CH 912 (top), Falcon on Custom 743 (bottom). Note the tip bent slightly upwards and downwards. So what’s the difference between a Custom Heritage 912 and a Custom 743? They both use Pilot’s CON-70 converter which I’ll take any day over their crappy CON-40 in my Capless. As you can see in the photo above, they both have the exact same grip, but the 743 shows a bit more “class” by having more elaborate engravings (oh look, three stars) and a classic bulb on the end of the clip. The 743 is a tad longer due to the cigar shape. The biggest difference, however, is again the nib: the 743 houses Pilot’s bigger #15 nibs, and the CH 912 the (slightly) more modest #10. To be honest, I prefer the body of the CH 912. I would have bought a CH 912 with the FA nib if I didn’t already have one with a WA nib—the CH 912 is only available in… drumroll… black. Except for very very limited editions in Japan only that sell out in a few hours and come with a premium price tag. As I didn’t want two pens to look exactly the same, I went with the 743. I tested the #10 FA of a friend and didn’t feel a huge difference. They say that the #10 FA nib is softer so it’s easier to pull of nice flexy writings, but I didn’t feel that in practice. Since 2022, Pilot did “stiffen up” their #10 FA nib according to a few sources so take that with a grain of salt. The biggest drawing point of the #10 nib is the price: that same Goldspot will charge you €280 for the 912—about €65 less than the Custom 743. Pen prices are going crazy: when I got my WA one, I paid about €200. The caps: CH 912 (top), Custom 743 (bottom). In the end, is it worth it to buy Pilot’s FA nib? Absolutely: they’re beautiful writers, the flex part works well, and they’re surprisingly smooth for a downwards-facing pen point—much smoother than the Posting (PO) nib I tried, although of course that one writes even smaller/thinner. Is it worth it to spend half a fortune on these pens, though? I don’t know. Maybe? If you get a cheap body that can house JoWo/Bock #6 nibs, you can also go to fpnibs.com and buy a steel semi-flex nib that is supposed to pull of the same trick. I don’t have one so I can’t compare. But damn it, these Japanese folks know how to make a nice writing implement. (Even though my friends who are not into the pen world think this pen looks like cheap rubbish because of the resin and rather boring looks. Guess what friends, chase nibs, not pens!) Related topics: / fountain pens / By Wouter Groeneveld on 8 September 2026.  Reply via email.