Several months ago I noticed on Instagram that FLEXIBLE NIB FACTORY LLC is working on a custom feed for a Pilot FA nib for CH912 series of pens. I am (or rather I was, as you will find) a somewhat sad owner of one of these FA nibs – I experienced all the skipping, railroading and hard-start issues that many other have been mentioning too.
FLEXIBLE NIB FACTORY makes custom feeds for CH912 in two options, with 2 or 3 slits respectively. As I understand it, the 2 SLITS version is supposed to give a standard flow to the nib, and 3 SLITS version should be a wetter one. I ordered both, because I knew that if I only got one, I would constantly keep wondering if I chose the right one for me. So I saved on postage and invested in both 🙂
The feeds arrived yesterday, right in the middle of some serious deadline chasing, so I cannot dedicate all of my attention to them. But I managed to organize at least an initial testing and recorded my impressions about it. In fact, just for one of them for now, a 2 SLITS one, but these testing will surely continue as time allows. I do not know the people from Flexible Nib Factory nor this was sponsored in any way – these are just subjective opinions of a single customer.
I will not go into describing Pilot Custom Heritage 912 pen; I guess if you have searched for a review about a custom-made feed, you know your way around fountain pens 🙂 Those who might need some information, can check reviews from HAND OVER THAT PEN or THE PEN HABIT or FIGBOOT ON PENS for detailed musings, or the various threads on FPN about “starving feed issue” for FA nib.
I repeat that it is the FA nib, and feed(s) for it that we are discussing here – otherwise, the CH912 is a gorgeous pen, one that is of ideal size, weight, balance and posting length for me, and one that with other nibs is working perfectly well. I have another one with SFM nib that I use regularly and enjoy a lot.
So, back to the issue. Before installing a new feed, I made a quick video of the original Pilot feed in action, to show the problems before comparing it with a custom one:
That was pretty self explanatory 🙂 Now I pulled out the nib and feed – these are friction fit and came out without a problem:
But I will mention that I do have some experience in tinkering with fountain pens that I gained practicing on cheaper pens firstly… So I advise you to inform yourself about replacing nibs and feeds, and try it several times on some not-so-dear-and-expensive pens to gain a bit of knowledge and confidence. It is not a rocket science, but if you choose to do it, you will be doing it on your own and of your own responsibility.
So here is a two-part video of 2 SLITS FEED in action – the first part filmed immediately after installing, and the other one some twenty minutes later, to give the feed some time to saturate:
And by that time I was sufficiently impressed so I wanted to see it in real action immediately:
All in all, these first impressions are really favorable. I feel I regained the pen again, better that it ever was in the first place.
After filming I checked again and it is indeed the 2 SLITS FEED I installed, the one that is meant for relatively standard flow and casual writing. So it is only fair to say that I might have been pushing it a bit too far, wanting it to provide the flow for even the strongest flexing. But still it performed remarkably well, so much better than the original Pilot feed. I think that it is really the 3 SLITS FEED that is meant to serve that purpose of extreme flexing and the next round of testing will examine just that.
So far it looks that people at FLEXIBLE NIB FACTORY put some real mojo in these babies. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!
