Hi All -

I've been reading lots of FP reviews lately and I've been struck by the lack of decent metaphors for nibs. Smooth nibs are always "buttery" and scratchy nibs are "toothy" or "like writing with a nail." I bet that with all of the talented writers here we could come up with some better descriptions.

How about a "Bill Clinton slippery nib" or "stiff and unyielding like Huckabee in a Unitarian church."

Cheers, and Happy Friday.

- Yumbo

One FPN member once said of a nib he was selling me, "For this much flex you'd normally have to go to Vegas."

How about, "That nib scratched like fingernails on a chalk board"?

Gary

I like the Vegas phrase. Here are a few of my own:

"This nib is cream. I'm almost afraid it'll slip right off the paper!" (Kind of like butter, but using a noun as a sort of adjective)

"The pen looks gorgeous, but its beauty isn't worth it. It has a cheap 200-grit nib." (Sandpaper)

Concerning ink flow: "The nib stutters quite a bit."

The metaphors are, admittedly, ad hoc. However, you haven't read enough of the posts to get the nuances.

"Buttery" usually means that the nib feels smooth traveling across the paper and that you can't even feel the paper's texture transmitted by the nib.

"Scratchy" is just scratchy and the sharp nib is cutting paper fibers and balling them up between the tines.

"Toothy" means that you can feel the nib rumble across the paper texture. So smooth paper will feel buttery and a brown bag will feel scratchy.

"like writing with a nail" means that the nib has no "give" when you write with it. This is related to "flex." "Flex" indicates how much the tines splay when you press on the nib. A nail has no flex. Writing with a nib that has a lot of flex is like writing with a little pogo stick in your hand: it bounces a lot as you write. A nail just feels dead.

Paddler

LOL. Writing with a pogo-stick. Never tried that.