rOtring 600 vs Pilot Custom 74

Get a Rotring 600 and you can use Uni Jetstream ink refills. Brass body on the Rotring and excellent ink if you like EF / F / write small

Which brings me to my only complaint. I’m writing with my Custom74 about as much as my Twsbi and am filling my Custom74 more frequently. The Twsbi has a noticeably bigger ink capacity. Would I buy the Custom74 again? Hmmmm, not sure

IMO the Rotring is too expensive at that price point. You can get a Rotring 600 for $30, which is practically the same pen without the retractable tip. I prefer to find pens with the LEAST amount of moving parts so there's a decreased risk of mechanical failure.

I would not have purchased this if the price wasn't so good. It happened to be much lower than the normal 160 that most places (including Amazon) sell it for. If you p[lay with the color / nib options while browsing, certain colors / nibs will be lower in price on occasion. Saw this one dropped for purple with medium nib (under 130) and added it to the cart right away

I have average size hands (maybe a tad larger than average) for a guy and this pen feels tiny. So tiny it hurts my hand to write with for a while. Also, as others have stated, it clicks everytime you lift and place down because the cartridges do not have a good fit inside the pen. The actuall metal body build quality is very nice, but I will not be using it as it is uncomfortable to write with

i love the feel of the nib and overall way that it writes unfortunately the 'custom series' clear acrylic pens have a design flaw ; the clear acrylic resin body of the pen develops hairline fractures/cracks (usually around the ends/edges where the pen threads with the nib and where it threads with the cap) most likely due to the expansion and shrinkage of that portion of the pen during opening and closing during ink loading and during the capping of the pen. the pen requires a metal finish in these areas for the problem to be resolved . i hope Pilot looks into this matter cos i love the rest of the pen and how it writes. overall i love most pilot products

It lacks heft, the clicking mechanism is spongy, overall it just isn’t the same. Do yourself a favour, scour eBay for an original, they were just better.

The nib is beautiful, the pen writes smooth, but the weight is not to my pleasing. I do realize I bought a clear, plastic pen, but the least pilot could do is make the plastic thicker and increase the heft.

I’ve owned a few of these over the years and they are straight to the point, (no pun intended) sturdy, reliable, comfortable and look sharp, not bulky at all, physically the same size as a disposable Bic pen. For the price, if you use a ballpoint pen for work regularly, this is probably the last pen you need to buy (as a normal not-flashy person)

I always like building things that are quality but leave somewhere to go afterwards. Getting a Custom 74 with a Con 70 for the added ink capacity may not be as sexy as a Visconti but it will give you an amazing writing experience that might put the whole idea of a grail into better focus.