PILOT "Elite 95s / Black [nib : Fine]

S.L. United States

Sophisticated, elegant writing instrument.

This is a very, very nice pen made even nicer by the fact that the price is about half what you'd pay for it in a shop. This comes from Japan, which is why it's cheaper than you can get it in the US. I'm not going to go into all of the reasons for that but this is what you'd pay for it if you were standing in a shop in Japan spending US Dollars that had been exchanged for local currency. This isn't coming directly from Pilot, at least mine didn't. It comes from a pen shop in Japan. IF you had bought this pen in a shop in the US, it would say "E" on the pen cap rather than "Elite". They can't market this pen in the US under the name "Elite" because some other pen company already has that name trademarked for a different pen. Buying this pen from a shop in Japan has its hazards. You have to assume they'll stand behind the pen because you can't really do anything about it if they don't. If you need to ship it back for warranty service you have to go through the shop in Japan as they're the retailer. Things like that which would not be an issue if you bought it from a reputable dealer in the US. There's a little bit of a gamble involved by buying an expensive pen from a vendor outside of the country in which you live. (Some fountain pen enthusiasts wouldn't consider this an "expensive pen" but I'm not rich so the price difference was the deal maker for me, you may not see things the same way.) If any of that is a problem for you, and if that problem and risk isn't fully offset by the price difference, then you should buy from an American shop like "gouletpens dot com" because they will do the full range of customer service for you without hesitation. On to the pen itself ... The pen I got I ordered with a fine nib and the pen is the black version with gold trim. I like the black and gold because I'm a guy and black and gold pens do not look out of place in a flannel shirt or a dress shirt pocket. To my eye they look tasteful and not a bit effeminate. If you're a gal or that "other kind of guy" you might like the one other color this pen is offered in better but everything else I have to say about the pen will be the same. To each his, or her, own. I do not own any pens but fountain pens because fountain pens add a dimension to writing that I cannot get from a ballpoint or gel pen. I didn't want to go with the extra fine because that's almost as sharp as a pin point. A nib that fine tends to be a little scratchy simply because it is so sharp, though some of that can be smoothed a little with a lubricating ink. An extra fine nib also requires a light hand and my personal writing style would never be considered "light handed". I normally prefer a medium nib because to me that size nib makes it obvious that it was a fountain pen that laid the ink. I chose not to go with a medium nib and got this pen in a fine nib because a fine nib doesn't lay down so much ink and is thus more "friendly" to those cheaper papers which a wet medium nib would cause ink to soak through, feather and over-penetrate. I feel I made the right choice and my reasoning being that this pen is specifically a pocket pen, a pen meant to be carried in a pocket all day. Which means that while I can choose the quality of paper I want to write on at my desk, I wanted a pen that would behave well on whatever paper presented itself during the course of a day and that is not always under my control. This issue with ink performance on paper can also be controlled to a degree by the ink that's loaded into the pen. For instance, the R&K Salix and Scabiosa iron galls are very well behaved on almost any paper but I wanted to be able to use other inks also. As of this moment I have this pen inked up with Pilot Shin Kai, which is a nice dark blue that's almost black. No matter which ink you choose the fine nib tends to behave better than medium or broad because it's simply not laying down as much ink. Even more so for the extra fine nib though that nib is too sharp for my preferences. Bear in mind that if you're used to a European nib, those grinds are larger than Japanese nibs, so a European fine would be closer to a Japanese medium, a European extra fine closer to a Japanese fine, etc. For me with this pen, fine seemed to be the optimum choice. This pen performs completely up to my expectations for a Pilot gold nib pen. The nib writes smooth with just the barest hint of feedback which is probably due to my 'heavy hand' style of writing, meaning I push the pen down harder on the paper than most fountain pen writers would. I said "smooth" not "slick", the pen is very easy to control and does not go skating off where it should not. For a fine nib this is as near perfect as it gets, at least for me. The pen is very short when uncapped so I always post it when I'm using it. This is an intentional design, the pen is also very short when capped but is full length like any other pen when posted. If you have small hands you might be able to write without posting the cap but I don't have hands that small and it comes to the web of my thumb and forefinger when not posted. That doesn't feel natural to me so I always post the cap. Because of the compact capped length of this pen it fits very well in almost any pocket. I have carried the pen in a T-shirt pocket and those are very shallow as a rule. It fits just fine even so. The real test for a guy is if the pen stays in your pocket when you're in a vehicle with a seat belt shoulder strap crossing your chest at your pocket(s). That strap on my torso tends to push things out of my pockets, depending on which pocket and whether I'm driving or a passenger. I have lost pens because of this with me not realizing the pen had exited my pocket. This pen is no problem in that regard. The long cap and short body of this pen presents a unique appearance. I have a few other black pens with gold trim that I carry around in a pen case on occasion and because of the distinctive aspect of this pen it is always easy to pick out from the others. A caution about posting this cap. There are metal flat springs inside the cap that hold it securely to the pen barrel, so when you post it push the cap straight on where you want it to sit, don't twist it around the pen barrel. Those springs ride on the pen barrel and if your pen has any dirt or abrasive material (like skin oil holding dust and dirt), you could theoretically scratch the pen barrel. I haven't had any problem with this so far, I'm simply making an observation from what I can see of the construction of the pen. Those flat springs, being metal, are much less prone to the fatigue and failure you would experience with plastic components on a cheaper pen so they're actually a plus when it comes to the quality of the construction of this writing instrument. This pen does not come with an ink converter. You have only two options when it comes to converters. You can use either the Pilot Con-20 or the Pilot Con-40. The Con-20 is an "aero" type aspirator, you squeeze it to expel air and draw in ink. This is not one of my favorite styles of converters and a reason I had not yet bought this pen is because I didn't want to use that converter. The Con-40 is a newer release in the US that just became available earlier this year. Or that was the first time I heard about them I guess I should say. The Con-40 is a traditional plunger mechanism that is raised and lowered by twisting the stem on the end of the converter. So of course I opted for the Con-40 and it arrived well before the pen. The Con-40 fits perfectly and I have had no problems using it. Either way, you're not going to be able to see how much ink is left in the pen because the bladder on a Con-20 is opaque and the ink chamber on a Con-40 is obscured by the pen section because it seats very deeply in the grip portion of the pen. I pull off the Con-40 to check how much ink I have and usually by the time I think of doing that it needs to be filled before being returned to use. The only way to see the ink remaining in this pen without any disassembly is to use a cartridge and remember Pilot uses a proprietary cartridge so you have to buy Pilot brand cartridges. You CAN use an empty cartridge as an ink converter, it's not hard to fill a cartridge that's been emptied. You can use a syringe if you have one or you can simply submerge the hole in the end of the cartridge in ink and squeeze the air out, then release the squeeze to pull in ink. Eventually the cartridge walls will fail and the hole becomes too large from doing this but a cartridge can be used this way for quite a long time. I do not like cartridges and do not use them if it can be avoided because for me one of the advantages of a fountain pen is ink selection. The selection of inks available in cartridges is very limited. The Pilot Con-50 and Con-70 converters will not work in this pen at all. The metal band on the Con-50 prevents the converter from seating and the Con-70 is simply too big and too long. You must choose either cartridges, the Con-20 or the Con-40. The Con-40 is relatively new and I suspect that Pilot developed and distributed it so that a screw converter was available for this pen. I could be wrong about that, if so no big deal. The fit and finish on the pen is perfect, which is what you would have every right to expect of a pen in this price range. The clip is rigid but spring loaded and pivots where it joins the pen cap. It has a very firm spring and a very firm grip on whatever it is clipped to. This allows the pen to be clipped to materials with varying thickness like different cloth a pocket might be made from, a pouch or pocket in a briefcase, a clipboard, etc. Because of this design the clip will hold the pen firmly without being bent up to the limit of its travel and on almost anything you'd want to clip an expensive pen to. This pen is extremely light weight. Though some may consider that a quality issue it most certainly does NOT reflect poorly on the quality of this pen. You can buy a $3 Jinhao pen that weighs a lot and those are usable but not high quality pens. So the gross weight of a pen is not an indication of the quality of the pen. Being heavy can be a detriment to a fine pen because if you should drop it a light pen hits the floor with much less energy and is therefor much less likely to suffer damage, which I suspect is something many people do not consider when they think weight is somehow a sign of quality. If one of those cheap Jinhaos rolls off your desk and strikes a hard floor with its nib there's going to be damage. If a light pen does the same it has a much better chance of surviving the mishap unscathed. This pen weighs vaguely in the same neighborhood as a Platinum #3776 Century I own though it is much more compact than the Platinum pen. I didn't weigh them, I just held one in each hand, they're close enough that it's hard to feel a difference. The nibs on both pens are 14 carat gold and as pens go they are of similar quality. The Platinum Century is more of a traditional design but also a very high quality pen that I like a lot. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this Pilot Elite in any way regarding quality. It is an extremely high quality pen. The way the nib is mounted to the section is fairly unique. I do not recall ever seeing a pen designed this way. The nib almost looks like a manicured fingernail the way it is set into the section (the part of the pen you grip). It sits in there in an extremely stable manner. I have not tried to remove the nib, it is not interchangeable with any other nib on the market and I don't believe I would try to remove it except at dire need for cleaning. The way it is mounted it does not look like it is meant to be removable. You might want to bear this in mind regarding pen cleaning. I usually completely disassemble standard pens for cleaning but I would be very hesitant to tear this pen all the way down. Which means you're not going to be able to disassemble it down to component parts for a rigorous, thorough cleaning. That being said, the design of the nib and section is a major factor in the appearance and esthetic appeal of this pen and of its superb writing characteristics. It looks very elegant and refined. That feature makes it look like the high-tech, high quality writing instrument that it is. It''s "something different" that stands out in the world of fountain pens. I am very, very pleased with this pen and can find no serious fault in it whatsoever. It is a fine, attractive, sophisticated looking writing instrument that any fountain pen aficionado will appreciate. I carry and use it on a regular basis. It is designed to be carried and used and is a very nice addition to my collection of fountain pens. The price here on Amazon (and the availability of the Con-40 ink converter) was what cinched my decision to buy one of these pens as I had been looking at them for quite a while. I just didn't have the $130 - $140 to spare on this pen, but nearly half that I had no problem paying and gladly added this pen to my stable of fountain pens. This is a truly great pen and if you really know your fountain pens you're going to like this one a lot.

Greg United States

It's the e95 with an "elite" signature on it.

This is an outstanding pen. I had the e95 version of this pen in burgundy. Cost around 150 i think. Returned it and ordered this model in burgundy and it's the same exact pen. The "e95" version is just marketed to the u.s. so it's more expensive. The medium nib is super smooth and very wet so you go through ink quickly. Also, it Doesnt make for the cleanest look. I ordered the black version with the fine nib and after its quick break in period, it's exponentially better. If you like your print a bit more bold, the medium nib works well, for those that like a more refined look to their writing, the fine nib i believe works great. The pen in general is smooth all around. From writing to posting to holding. It's just smooth.

Yun Yan United States

Excellent fountain pen

Nib writes smooth but not slippery. F-nib is precise. Not too thin. Not too wide. Just right. The nib is not in the soft side. To me it is an excellent fountain pen for daily writing for note taking and journaling. It is great for alphabets and characters writing. It comes as a gift box as other reviewers described. To me, I believe it is authentic product from Japan. The pen body prints “Elite” instead of a single letter “E”. The two specific Asian characters blow the Amazon barcode mean “new product”. To clarify, the first specific character is Japanese (which happens to be Traditional Chinese) and is not Simplified Chinese. So don’t get confused with the same authentic pen that Pilot officially manufactured in China.

Thomas L. United States

Pilot Elite 95s, Black, Fine nib.

I received an Amazon gift card for Christmas and decided to purchase this pen. I use it mostly for journaling and keeping track of appointments in my Travelers notebook. It has a nice comfortable feel in the hand, and the nib is smooth with a slight amount of feedback. The Con -40 converter, included, gives me about 6 -7 pages of writing in a B5 notebook. If you’re looking at this pen and reading reviews, you know you want it. I did this too and am happy I bought it.