Greetings. I have tried a couple of Waterman nibs lately, and I am impressed with their smooth, "certain" design and feel. Right now, I am enjoying the Phileas M nib for personal writing, but need a finer line for editing-style work. Do any folks out there have experience with these nibs? If so, are both/either reasonably wet/smooth? Do you have an example you could please post? Any other thoughts on these two nibs?

Thanks to all for your time and consideration...

I have found that getting them is the problem...
I had to regrind mine.
If you have a source, please share.
Good luck.
-jon

The Phileas I have with a Fine nib I got from eBay, for $16.00 including shipping. If you do an eBay search on Phileas, you should get several hits, and can just sort through til you find the Fines. AFIK Waterman never made an EF for the Phileas. Regrinding is probably the only way to get an Asian Fine type nib on a Phileas, although I am satisfied with the factory F nib on mine.

Donnie

"Pen Seller from France" (I have no affiliation with the co.) on EBAY carries F and XF nibs -- either with the pen or on their own, with section. It appears that the cash difference is so minimal it would probably be worth it to buy the whole pen.

Just my view, though.

Best.

Yeah, I've seen that seller too. Doesn't seem worth the trouble/expense of
having 'em shipped from France.

Any other views?

I bought an EF Phileas nib from "Pen Seller From France" because I found that the F nib was just a little too broad for my taste (I have EF Pelikans, 45s, and a Charleston as well).

Because I already had the Phileas body, I didn't bother with the entire pen. I probably would the next time.

The nib is very nice. It draws a line thicker than a Pilot 78G fine, but a touch thinner than a Pelikan EF. Very smooth and, I would say, medium wet.

Delivery time from France was eight days and everything was well-packed.

Hope this helps.

Mike B

Curse you, Us4 and MikeB! I was perfectly happy with the pens I have, really was! Then you go talking about EF Phileas nibs. How dare you! Now I have nib envy again! Woe is me if SWMBO finds out I want another Phileas.

Donnie

I'd like to add that Phileas nibs vary somewhat even within a labeled size. I have 2 NOS Phileases, both bought from Swisher within a few months of each other ca. 2004 and both ostensibly F nibs. The nib on the red pen seems consistently to write finer than the nib on the green/teal pen, which is a near-medium.

I think the Waterman inks may also have slightly different spreading properties among the different colors, adding yet another source of variation. South Sea Blue writes finer than Florida Blue, and both write finer than Black and Purple, IMHO; YMMV.

Had I encountered this thread a few years ago I would have immediately scoured the Net for a Phileas EF. But by now my EF niche is already well filled by Pilot 78G and various Heroes, and Galileo MS Brown keeps a Hero's native line weight even on the blotterlike printer paper my office uses.