I just purchased my first VP (a chrome, I like it), and I started looking at nibs over at Richard's website. Does anyone have any experience with the xxf nibs, or the crisp italics?

I went to the pen store looking for xf Japanese nibbed pens (for writing Kanji), and ended up buying a VP with a fine, knowing that I can buy nibs from Richard. I'm just wondering at the smoothness of the xxf, and the warning on his site about the crisp italic. Comments?

I have a VP with a F nib. I find it to be the same width as my Sailor XF. I also have a Pelikan M2xx nib with a Binder XXF grind.

My Binderized XXF is slightly finer than the F VP and the XF Sailor.

I cannot help you with the crispy question.

The crisp italic is indeed a sharp-edged nib, and takes some work to adjust to it. His xxf, xxxf, and xxxxf pens are absolute delights to write with. I have a light touch (so light that I can't really use flex nibs at all) and I adore the xxxf nibs.

I tried one of Richard's crisp italics recently at the Philadelphia Pen Show. I agree with Velma's comment that it truly has a sharp edge. I am unaccustomed to writing with this type of nib, so the outside corners of the nib got caught on the paper almost immediately. I couldn't even finish the word I was writing. I think that's why he cautions that they're not suited for everyday use. But, if you're accustomed to using crisp italic nibs everyday, the warning probably does not apply to you! I'm sure I could learn to use the crisp italic, but I know I would have to start very slowly with it. I have also tried Richard's cursive italics, and I find them much easier to use for my usual writing pace.

Your handwriting may be smaller than mine, but to me regular VP F is fine enough to write in Japanese. Actually really really fine nibs seem accentuate faults of my handwriting.


The right hand side page was written in VP F.

I tend to write very small ... I realized that I was writing smaller than my pen point could handle when I wrote "anatatachi", and the non-radical part of "-tachi" was just a blob. It probably doesn't help that I use non-ruled paper, so there are no guidelines for size ... the longer I write, the smaller my handwriting gets

Thanks for the comments, everyone ... I think I'm probably going to avoid getting a crisp itallic. I just don't have very much experience with them, so it doesn't make sense to get one that might be a bit more advanced than I can use. The XXF, however, is looking pretty good ... I'll be putting in an order on Monday for one of those