I am curious about the Cross Townsend's nib width relative to other Cross pens. I own one and it writes about the same line as my Hero 100. I've been reading around and this nib width is, dpending one where you read, a true fine or slightly finer. However, I've also read that Cross fines tend to be wider than other companies like Waterman and Pelikan. This is all subjective which makes it hard to figure out. I would like to know if the Cross townsend is the norm for Cross fines, or if it is a particularly fine writer for a Cross. If it is an average Cross, then this will open to me a lot of nice pens which I've been looking at but have been afraid to try because they were described as "a bit wide for a fine", whcih apparently Cross nibs are.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks,
James

I would say the Townsend nibs are average Cross. There are some Cross steel nibs, like the nibs on the Solo, which are made in Japan by Pilot, so those tend to run fine according to Japanese nib widths. However, the nibs on the upper-range models like the Townsend tend to have Western widths similar to Pelikan or Waterman.

I agree with Martius. In our experience selling Cross, the nib widths are similar to European brands, unlike Sheaffer, which tends to be narrower in the same grade, and Japanese pens are a full grade narrower than marked, compared to European nibs.

Cheers,

Jim Mamoulides
www.PenHero.com