I've always enjoyed writing with an italic nib, and until recently all my experience has been with the Sheaffer calligraphy pens acquired as a young teen. I've had a good experience with a Binder cursive italic, which led me to thinking "now it's time to try a stub", so I sent my Pelikan 400 medium nib to Sean Gosse for regrinding.

It came earlier this week, and I'm loving it. All the line variation of a cursive italic, but smooth and fast, so I have less likelihood of "catching an edge" when I'm writing really quickly. The ink flow is just right - for some reason I can't use my cursive italic in a moleskine, but the stub works great. It might be that my writing style tends to accidentally dig the corners of the CI into the paper and causes bleeding. Anyway, I love this stub. I'm using it for grocery lists, even
Thanks Sean!

Writing sample below, clickable to the Flickr page in case anyone wants to see all sizes.


I also realized I don't really know how to spell or write "syzygy". But I can spell "egypt".

(As a side note, Sean also did a great job regrinding a fat fine for me, but it doesn't make for quite as exciting a writing sample)

Did you write "minivan" to test the nib? That may be a first!

I'm just glad you could tell it said "minivan"!

Yes, all words with m, n, v, and r combinations are challenging for me

All kidding aside, it looks like Sean did a great job with that nib - I may just have a job for him . . .

Egypt is one of my favorite words to write!

Mike

My favorite word is "ALFA ROMEO"-just felt like sharing .

SMG does a great job

Nice work, Sean! Looks like you've got a real winner there!

Hi,

Looks like a great job on that nib, I wonder if one would make my writing look that good. Nice to see samples rather than just I got a great nib which writes great.

Might now be tempted to consider a stub of some description.

Andy

Very nice.

yep - I want one one aswell now

especially after reading posts in the 'Penmanship' section...... I feel like I'm back at school with all this handwriting practise

I do feel though its difficult to tell how the italic script is coming along without an italic nib

where do we get customs in the uk and how much are they likely to cost??

Oooh, another nib grinder to add to my stub/italic collection. I've already got Binder and Mottishaw, so I need to branch out. What a golden age of fountain pens we live in!

Best,
Summer

Oooooh, the handwriting is so pretty. The nib is nice too, congrats

Wow, thank you for the kind words. I just ran across this thread while perusing FPN and did not know that limesally was posting it. I have to say that I am very impressed with her penmanship, you should see the paper when I am done testing a nib.

I have been keeping the nib grinding on the down low, as I wanted to ease into this phase of my restoration business. Now, though with some happy clients I guess that I should add that as a service on my website.

I am so glad that you are happy with the nib. It was a pleasure doing business with you, and I hope that you enjoy the pen for many years to come.

Cheers,
Sean

You guys should see how Sean makes an Arabic/Hebrew Italic nib-WOW

Ooh, lovely writing, and I'll bet the stub is a lot of fun to use! I'll definitely look into Sean's nib grinding services when he gets into it more - I like the idea of having a fellow Canadian doing work on my pens. Too bad we don't have anyone in Vancouver (that I know of) who can fulfill my stub/cursive italic needs!

Is it just me, or is there a pretty significant difference in the smoothness of a stub over a CI? I've had a Phileas (ground to a CI by a prominent online retailer) and a VP nib unit, (ground to CI by a premier nibmaster), but they weren't even in the same ballpark, smoothness-wise as my Danitrio Tac Carry II or Lamy Studio.

Generally speaking a stub would have a larger contact patch on the paper which would lead to a smoother feel. Cursive Italics are a cross between a stub, with the rounded corners, and a sharp italic, narrow cross section. Depending on how the CI was cut, and corners rounded, it can be made to feel as smooth as a stub in the right hands.

Smoothness is such a hard concept to define, what is smooth to one is harsh to another. My suggestion would be to send the CI back to whom ground it and have them smooth it for you. If that is not in the cards, then a nibmeister can tweak it a bit to make it more smooth.

Also, is the CI nib aligned, as this is one of the biggest affects on smoothness. If the nib is not aligned, it will catch on the higest corner and feel rough.

Cheers,
Sean

Oooh. I love it. Thank you for sharing!

Congrats on the Stub. Very nice writing samples... and I must add another thumbs up for SMG's work... he reground my vintage Aurora 88P to a super, super smooth CI that is just simply amazing.