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The Obsession With Fine Nibs


Victoria O.

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for myself it is the need to put down a drier line because I am lefty. To me just looks neater.

God is my Strength.

Brad http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/7260/postminipo0.pnghttp://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8703/letterminizk9.png

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i prefer fines because i write in small cursive all the time, so a broader nib would make my writing impossible to read. but if my hanwriting were a bit bigger, i would prefer m nibs for their smoothness and rich coloured lines.

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I too prefer a fine nib, as my handwriting is small. I do agree that medium or broad nibs tend to be smoother than fine nibs, but would make my handwriting illegible.

John

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Sometimes you need a fine nib. My Pilot Namiki Falcon SF is a joy to use especially when I am practising my Palmer Method writing.

 

I find Western medium or Broad round nibs really uninspiring.

 

I like a variation in line width from cross to down stroke. I am really enjoying the Richard Binder Pelikan 0.7mm CI I received yesterday. I have a 0.9mm version waiting for a pen rotation.

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I enjoy the vintage look of fountain pen writing, and it seems to me that most vintage nibs are fine. Or am I mistaken, and are there more medium and wide nibbed pens than I realize?

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I think the reason why I use a fine nib already got covered. As a student that writes mostly on college rule paper (or in other situations when I effectively have to write smaller), a medium nib just won't do. The smaller you write, the thinner the line you need to prevent your letters from becoming unreadable blobs (such as once you have fractions in fractions with exponents and don't want to take like 4 lines). Mathematical formulae are probably my biggest reason.

Pelikan m200 F nib - Noodler's Midway Blue

TWSBI Diamond 530 EF nib - Noodler's X-Feather

Pilot Decimo F nib - Noodler's North African Violet

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At work I use a Lamy EF. This is useful for detailed maths or graphs and the reduced ink flow means that the ink supply lasts for ages and doesn't bleed through the paper as much. The nib is a bit scratchy though and not particularly inspiring to write with.

 

At home I use F or M nibs as I prefer the slightly smoother writing and the joy of seeing the wetter ink. I think a good F nib is about my sweet-spot as it writes smoothly but still with some feedback and the page isn't covered in ink.

 

I find that although my handwriting isn't that small, the style means that if I use a nib that is too wide the whole page becomes visually overloaded with ink. It's another reason why I tend to prefer blues to blacks.

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I love my sheaffer balance with its wonderful ef lifetime nib, a pleasure to write with. very smooth and very responsive

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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I think of fine nibs as the default, the norm. Fine nibs are sort of like vanilla ice cream. You go to the store and look in the ice cream freezer and what do you think you'll see most of? Yep, vanilla. It's not because people have an "obsession" with vanilla; it's not because they find this a very exciting flavor. It's because vanilla is what everyone's familiar with, and it's inoffensive to everyone.

I'm not quite sure about that :unsure: - Isn't medium supposed to be the norm? Look at all the shops and they store lots of mediums in comparision to fine nibs.

 

Having said that. . . Human beings are highly adaptable and can get used to anything. If you get used to a M nib, then a F will look too thin. If you get used to a EF, then a F will look too fat. For a little while. Until you get used to it.

:clap1: Agreed.

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For me, I have a personal vendetta against M nibs haha. They're too bland, banal, trite, or what have you. For me, it's because they're in the middle of the spectrum, there's nothing interesting about being in the middle. That said, I do love broad lines and the exaggeration of ink you get with them. That's personally what puts me in the flexible camp. I can have my ultra thin hairline, and my zaftig broad line. Certainly costs a few bucks, but is far more than worth it.

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I like 'em for planners, and that sort of thing - the space tends to be limited in the formats I use, so a big line overwhelms them.

 

On A5 writing paper, I like an "M" - big enough to not look lost, small enough that a paragraph won't take the page over. On A4 paper, "B" or "M" will do - I like the way a "B" makes me focus on my handwriting, and keeping it neat though, so when time allows, that's my preferred option.

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My reasons for using fine and extra fine and ultra extra fine nibs are: I have to be able to write legibly on whatever my students use and they usually use something close to newsprint with lines; I am a left-handed over writer and anything broader than a fine is likely to get smudged; I can' t write all the Greek diacritics unless the nib is extra fine; and I like to get more than a few words on an A4 page. But when I am writing out certificates and awards I use my broadest italics. The one nib I don't use a lot is the common M.

Edited by Rose Nibs
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I'm not quite sure about that :unsure: - Isn't medium supposed to be the norm? Look at all the shops and they store lots of mediums in comparision to fine nibs.

 

Supposed by who? Which shops do you mean? Do they really know anything about fountain pens? Do most people buying the pens, even?

 

When I bought my first fountain pen, by mail order (from the Levenger catalog!), I didn't know anything about nib sizes. I ordred a M because, hey. . . "medium" sounds like a safe choice. When I got it, I was unhappy with the flabby line it made, in comparison with the ballpoints and rollerballs I'd been using all my life. My next fountain pen was a F.

 

Most ballpoints and rollerballs are roughly like EF or F nibs.

 

I've noticed something similar with vintage pens, I run into a lot of finer nibs. They were popular. I run into a lot of Fs, and a surprising number of EFs. Broad nibs are an oddity. So the popular nibs seem to have been EF, F and M. Nowadays if you get a choice, it's more likely to be F, M and B. The reasons for that shift might be interesting to speculate upon.

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When you say fine nibs immediately one brand comes to my mind. Sailor.

Having been (thus far) a student, I must say that the Pro Gears with their F

sized nibs, have been my best friends compared to anything and everything

I have ever tried and owned. My Lamy 2000, for one, did not satisfy me. It

all got smudgy and my handwriting seemed compressed. With a nice fine

line, there was much more I could write on my small planner and even on

lecture slide printouts. A medium Pilot is the largest I have so far, with

exception to the stub that was ground for me from a medium sized Lamy

steel nib by one of the local enthusiasts as an experiment.

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Broad nibs with a well-behaved ink are just as capable of neat, tight writing as XF's and F's. Herbin Perle Noir is such an ink. A YOL Grand in B with Perle Noir will write neater than a sloppy medium using a runny or feathery ink. You can also turn the nib upside down and get a finer line. And then you can turn the nib right-side up to splash bold, wet lines of ink, too!

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Broad nibs with a well-behaved ink are just as capable of neat, tight writing as XF's and F's.

This is certainly true, but that writing is likely to be a lot bigger.

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My handwriting used to be tiny, so everything thicker than F wouldn't work for a long time. Lately I've changed the way I write quite drastically and also its size has become more variable - not sure where I am going to end up yet. I have also begun to discover to world of broad, oblique, stub/italic etc. nib sizes and shapes and I wouldn't want to give that up again, so my small collection houses nibs of several sizes now. For me, variety is the key.

Read more about me, my pens, photography & so on my little blog

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I use broad nibs to mark the contents of moving boxes and to send packages by USPS. They have their uses.

 

Yep. Broad Nib, Noodlers Bullet Proof Black = Post Proof !!!

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I use broad nibs to mark the contents of moving boxes and to send packages by USPS. They have their uses.

 

Yep. Broad Nib, Noodlers Bullet Proof Black = Post Proof !!!

 

+1

Almost looks to me like a sharpie wrote it but without the feathering. Very easy to read and waterproof.

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