Pilot Custom 74

I’ll knock Pilot too for a change. The Custom 74 looks too awfully cheap to have the price tag it has.

Your budget is way high for a good starter pen :-) lucky him. For that budget a Sailor pro gear slim, Platinum 3776, pilot custom 74 and several good pens could be his options. Depends a lot on writing style, size of the hand and other preferences. Honestly, if he has not written with fountain pens extensively yet, I would start with a Pilot Metropolitan.

It’s still not my favorite nib, but it’s getting better with age. Least buyer’s remorse..... probably my Franklin Christoph Model 20P, maybe my Parker 51 Vac, or most recently my Pilot Custom 74 SF. Each of these pens feels like a screaming deal for the quality they offer.

I got me a Pilot Custom 74 in EF from Pensachi for Christmas, and it's driving me NUTS. I want to love it, but on upstrokes and rightstrokes it is very scratchy, dry, and has a certain "drag" to it, which makes for a very unpleasant writing experience. The nibs seem to be aligned properly, and I have already consorted to flushing with warm water, flossing with brass shims, and Richard Binder's techinque for increasing flow. All for naught - whatever small improvement there had been seemed to be undone again within minutes after the adjustment.