I have small handwriting. While I like my new Danitrio $27 pen, the medium nib is a bit too broad for my tastes. Earlier tonight I discovered that if I write with this pen upside down that it will lay down a much finer line. I'm worried though that this might damage the pen. Am I being paranoid and should I just write with it, or should I continue writing with this pen the proper way?

Writing upside down as you described is actually quite a common practice among fountain pen users, I think. There have been numerous topics in the past about this.

I think the advice from the experts was that it's totally ok - but try not to use it like that too much (?) [please correct me if I'm incorrect].

In fact, some nibs are actually designed to write both the upside and down side.

Check the nib -- if there is a "ball" of tipping material on top, it was designed to work this way. May be a bit scratchy, but I've been doing it for decades, even with Sheaffer school pens.

Of the pens I have, ALL the Sheaffers have a dual nib except my NoNonsense Italic, NONE of the Esterbrook renew points do, the Parker 21s do, the Parker 45 x nib doesn't, the M nib does. One Parker 21 nib has a distinct downward bend (design or dropped? It seems to write OK), and there is no way to use it upsidedown unless I bend the nib back out straight.

The Sheaffer Triumph and inlaid points have that little upsweep at the end -- this was advertized to allow upsidedown writing, so I'm sure it's OK on those.

All the Wearevers I have do, but the ones with hoods probably cannot be used upsidedown due to the hood.

Use light pressure only, or you can squeeze off the ink supply!

Peter

99% of Parker "51"s will do this trick, I find it great if I need to make a small fine note on something.

I have a Sonnet, Cross and a few others that perform the trick to. The caveat is that it needs a plain simple nib, the left foot italic I have would be a disaster.

Jim

But surely there is the bare ability to do this, no doubt shared by many pens, and the ability to do this over the long haul, which would be predicated on the existence of an iridium coating on the top of the nib as well as the bottom.

Attention nibmeisters!

How many pens have the iridium extend onto the top surface? All the ones that have a visible bulge, even slight, on the top surface?

And if it doesn't, how long will it take to wear out your nib writing upside down if that is your normal mode of writing with the pen?

As a corollary, I assume that the size of the tip makes a difference - would not a needle point show much hihger wear with identical mileage than a broad tip?

Make sure to use no pressure, as the nib will have no flex in this direction and may hurt the feed if you jam the pen down onto the paper. But it's safe to do, bearing in mind Fred's advice.

I have a Parker Duofold aerometric c1952 with a medium Newhaven nib. When it arrived from its previous owner (an Ebay win) I was very disappointed with its scratchiness and could hardly bare to write with it. I could see that there was no tipping material on the underside at all, but a noticeable lump of it on the upper tip, so I turned it over and suddenly I had the most beautiful pen I'd ever owned! A scratchy medium line was now a butter-smooth fine.

I enquired about the re-tipping of nibs, or a replacement for it, but decided that while I've got such a lovely smooth upside-down writer there's little point (no pun intended!).
Also, the nib is a right oblique ( \ ), but upside-down I have left oblique ( / ), which suits the way I hold my pen with a slight turn anticlockwise toward myself.

Needless to say, I was quite chuffed with myself and this pen remains - possibly - my favourite.


(Edited: missed the e out of noticeable!)