As promised on these pages here at some point, I intended to give Japanese pens and stationery a little more room and attention, since my personal interest somehow has gone that route – which coincided with increasing review requests in that direction. With regard to Pilot as a pen manufacturer, I already had a good couple of pens under review – among them the Prera, the Custom 74, the Custom Heritage 92, and the Capless.
There are still more than enough Pilot pens left for me to inspect, but one particularly popular and interesting offer surely is the Falcon. Available as a resin and a metal version (I review the metal version here), the pen is of interest to many because of its supposed ‘flex’-writing abilities that can be observed in some quite spectacular YouTube-clips. If this is the exact reason why you want to get yourself a Falcon, please do allow me some words of caution: the writing in videos such as the one referenced above – which requires insane penmanship in the first place (!) – are not done with a stock Falcon, but with models where the nib has undergone some very specific nibmeister-modifications. And as opposed to the video above that specifically points that out in the video-description, not all short clips on Instagram and the like do the same, which may be misleading as to what a ‘stock-Falcon’ is able to do. Please do not expect that same amount of line-variation from a regularly purchased stock-Falcon – and please don’t get the pen if this is the sole reason for you getting it. The over 200€-writing instrument may otherwise well severely disappoint you. But: read on.
While the pen (in it’s unmodified version) won’t allow for the crazy flex that you see in such videos, the pen surely not for no reason specifically has e.g. “SF” stamped onto the nib: Soft Fine. The nib is super-bouncy, wonderfully soft, it does allow for some line variation as well (to be sure: yes, it is considerably more line variation than your ‘average gold nib’ will allow for) as well as for some other interesting creative uses (that I demonstrate in the video below) – and first and foremost is it a fantastic everyday writer. Now if these are reasons for which you are interested in the Falcon: please go ahead and get one!
The following video is, as always, preceded by some quick facts. Again, I hope the review is helpful and that you enjoy watching it!
Quick Facts
- Pilot Falcon
- Black lacquered brass-body, resin section
- Silver-colored accents and trims
- Cartridge/converter-filler (Pilot proprietary, ships with Con-70 converter)
- Available 14k gold-nib options: Soft Extra Fine (SEF), Soft Fine (SF), Soft Medium (SM) and Soft Broad (SB) – may be available in additional nib options from sellers in Japan
- Price: ca. 220 €, heavily depending on your location
Video Review
Picture Gallery
Click on the photos to enlarge.