Newcomer Looking For Nib Advice

[encreNouvelle]

Good Evening,

 

I have recently become enthralled with the world of fountain pens and fine writing instruments, what a fantastic hobby! As a newbie, who is not well-versed or knowledgeable about fountain pens I was hoping to get a few suggestions about pen selection.

 

I recently purchased a Cross Classic Century fountain, I am enjoying it very much, after getting some experience with my pen I find myself wanting more. Specifically, I am wanting to experiment around with different nib shapes, I find that my Cross' round point nib is nice for everyday writing, but I would like to find a pen with a nib that will allow me to do very thin and very wide strokes, like what you would see in calligraphy. I would like to use the pen in everyday usage, so a big fancy calligraphy pen is not desirable (for now), from looking around it seems that I want an italic or oblique nib that is on the flexible side - the kind of nib that would produce very nice copperplate. I'm not sure if all of that makes any sense, my goal is to find a pen that will allow me to develop a more elegant writing style.

 

If anybody has any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive pen, and perhaps any words of wisdom, I would be greatly appreciative.

 

Merci d'avance!

 

 

[ac12]

General advice seems to be to do italic before going into flex.

It is a LOT easier to get nice line variation with an italic nib than a flex nib.

And good flex nibs are EXPENSIVE!!!!

 

I suggest a Lamy Safari or Joy with any one or all of the following Lamy italic nibs; 1.1, 1.5 and 1.9.

 

At a later point, use a dip pen with a flex nib.

But again, good flex nibs will be EXPENSIVE.

 

The Noodlers pens seem to be the cheapest entry into flex, but they are not beginner pens. While some are great out of the box, some of them require significant "tinkering" to get working decently. And they will not get you the wider flex of true flex nibs, but it will get you started.

Edited January 22, 2014 by ac12

[encreNouvelle]

Thank you very much for your reply, ac12! I will look into those pens, thanks again!

 

[Gloucesterman]

Also consider the Pilot 78G "broad/stub" nib. It produces line very similar to italic. Check out jstationery.com as he has them available at $10.50 and the Pilot Parallel Calligraphy pens at $8.25. He restocks pretty quickly when he runs out and offers

 

Free Shipping (in the U.S.) on orders over $20.00. I have bought stuff from him been very happy.

 

Also, check out xfountainpens.com for the "plastic" Nemosine pens. They are offered with a .6 & .8mm italic nib as well as everything from XF-.6/.8mm at no additional charge. Purchases over $15.00 here are shipped free also. A much wider selection of pens & inks here, but the 78G Pilot has a special place on my larder of pens.

 

BTW, no affiliation, simply a happy customer.

 

Enjoy FPN and a wonderful hobby.

[encreNouvelle]

Thanks!

[Chi Town]

Take a look at RichardsPens.com for all the different nibs and what they do? Look at "Nibs 1, The basics", Then go to "Beyond the Basic's"

 

This should help guide you as to what you will want in the way of a nib, then you can go shopping for one........

[Drone]

Oh my, lots of options...

 

1. Edison Pen

I recommend that if you spend money on a pen, buy quality that you intend to keep in your collection. (If you don't want to spend much money, then I'll give you more options below).

 

Go over to Goulet Pens (no affiliation) and have a look a the Edison Pens they carry. These are beautiful hand made pens that come with lots of nib options.

Goulet sells interchangeable nib units for the Edison pens including 1.1mm and 1.4mm stub/italic nibs. If you end up not liking the stub/italic nib, you can always swap the nib unit for something else. The Edison steel nib units only cost around twenty USD each. I am partial to the Edison Herald pen, simply because I like larger pens. Use the "Pen Plaza" feature on the Goulet site to compare the pen sizes side by side. Then there's the "Nib Nook" feature on the Goulet site that allows you to compare how different nibs write.

If you're going to go with a stub/italic instead of flex, I don't recommend going above 1.1mm in width, especially if you expect to use the pen for everyday writing.

Less expensive options...

 

2. Lamy Safari/Vista

You can't beat the Lamy Safari or Lamy Vista with a stub nib - provided your nib is of decent quality out of the box. Lamy nib quality, unfortunately, can be hit and miss though. My personal experience has been most of the time the nibs are OK, but I have had a couple of Lamy nibs that were pretty bad, and I had to fix them myself. If you're new to fountain pens, fixing/smoothing a nib may not be where you want to go at this point.

 

I prefer the clear Lamy Vista to the Safari. When you by a Safari or Vista, remember to pick up a type Z24 converter with the pen at the same time (that's if the pen doesn't come with the converter already of-course, they usually don't). The Z24 converter is the one with the red knob, not black. Some Lamy distributors sell the Safari/Vista nib units separately (again, look at Goulet Pens). So, like the Edison pens you can swap your nib with something else.

 

3. TWSBI 580 or VAC 700

 

Well... How about a TWSBI 580 with a 1.1mm stub nib? The 580 is a nice pen, won't break your bank, plus you'll get some exposure to a piston filling system too. The bad thing about the TWSBI 580 (especially with the stub nib) is that they're often out of stock. An alternative is the TWSBI VAC 700 vacuum filler. The VAC 700 is a little more expensive than the TWSBI 580, and a bit bigger too. Like the Edison and Lamy pens mentioned previously, you can buy separate nib units for the TWSBI pens. But often, they're hard to find.

 

Keep in-mind is that some say the TWSBI quality varies a bit. Sometimes the nibs and/or feeds aren't adjusted properly in the factory. I've heard of flow problems and/or scratchy nibs out of the box. I haven't experienced this personally. But then again, TWSBI's customer service seems to have a good reputation. One more thing to keep in mind regarding the VAC 700 is that because the vacuum system has a lock-down to prevent leaks, you have to unscrew the filler to write with the pen for extended periods. Some find this a little annoying.

 

4. Cheap Calligraphy Set

Another option might be to visit your local stationary shop (or look online). You may find they carry a cheap "calligraphy set" with a fountain pen and a collection of stub nibs varying in size from narrow to rather wide. These calligraphy sets are fun to play with, but aren't serious pens for daily writing. Often the nibs are rather scratchy. The nibs are simply stamped metal without any attention paid to polishing.

 

5. Sheaffer's Viewpoint Calligraphy Pen (a.k.a. No Nonsense Pen?)

 

Do a search online for Sheaffer Calligraphy Pen. Sheaffer makes an inexpensive calligraphy fountain pen with a bunch of nib sizes. This is a cartridge filler plastic pen that's pretty inexpensive. The Sheaffer's calligraphy pens (sometimes called "Viewpoint" pens) come individually for less than $10 USD or in sets of various sizes with interchangeable nibs. These calligraphy pens and sets are of higher quality than the very cheap sets you often find at your local stationary store, but I wouldn't call them daily writer quality. Sheaffer used to sell plastic pens like these for daily use, they called them No Nonsense pens. Which pretty much sums them up.

 

6. Pilot 78G B-Nib

As mentioned by another poster in this thread, the Pilot 78G with the B nib (really a stub) is a nice little pen with a decent stub nib. This is a cheap plastic pen, but one nice thing about it (in addition to the stub nib) is the screw on cap. I have some 78G pens. One thing to keep in mind with the 78G is that the squeeze converter that comes with the pen (it also should come with one cartridge as well) is inkophilic and may cause flow problems. The first thing I did was pull the converter. Now I syringe fill the cartridges. Unfortunately, 78G's are hard to find these days. Try at the link below, sometimes they carry the 78G pens for $7.45 USD each. I have purchased from them before and never had a problem. Update - I just checked their site before posting and they have a few 78G's with B nibs up for sale. (Oops, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that.)

http://www.stationeryart.com/

Stationeryart (sic) ships from Hong Kong. If you ask them, for a dollar or two more they'll ship by registered post with a tracking number. Pick up some extra Pilot cartridges for your 78G. Pilot cartridges are proprietary. By the way, the Pilot "Mixable Colour" inks work in the 78G too, even though the box says to use the cartridges in the Pilot Parallel Pen only. Just ignore that, I've done long-term tests of the Mixable Colour inks in the 78G with no issues at all.

 

7. Noodler's Ahab or Konrad with a Goulet #6 Stub/Italic Replacement Nib

 

What came to my mind at first was a Noodler's Ahab or Konrad. The Noodler's pens come with a semi-flex nib. If you buy your Noodler's pen from Goulet Pens, at the same time buy one of the Goulet 1.1mm #6 stub nibs. The Goulet #6 nibs fit perfectly in the Ahab and Konrad pens. So now you have two nib options, semi-flex or 1.1mm stub; and both at a pretty low price!

But then I remembered your Noodler's pen will probably not work well out of the box. And as a newcomer to fountain pens, hacking the feed may not be what you're looking for at this stage. Add to that the fact that you can't buy spare parts for the Noodler's pens. So maybe my Noodler's pen idea wasn't so great after all. If I were you, I would ignore it.

 

8. Conclusion

 

Personally, I would go with an Edison pen. Next in-line would be a TWSBI 580 or VAC 700 closely followed by a Lamy Vista. The rest of the options are really at the low end of the quality scale - take your pick, none of them will break the bank.

 

One final thing. If you're concerned about nib/pen quality, buy from a seller that will test the pen for you before they ship. I live in Indonesia, so shipping a pen back and forth if there's a problem is not an option, so I always ask to test the pen before shipping.

 

That's my set of recommendations. Welcome to the world of fountain pens. Lock up your wallet ;-)

 

David in Jakarta

Edited January 22, 2014 by Drone

[Bo Bo Olson]

Cheapest is a Ahab which has a very hard for flex....semi-flex pressure to use.

 

How ever it can have Angle Wings ground into it if you have a Dremil or know some one that does.

There is a big thread on that over in one of the Pen review sub sections. Go read how it's done. It is not difficult...well too difficult.

 

Regular flex, Semi-flex, and 'flexi'/maxi-semi-flex....(neither is a "Flex" pen at all), spread their tines 3 X a light down stroke only. Each requires 1/2 less pressure than the one before to do so.

 

Flexible pens (Flex pens) spread their tines 4-5-6 or even 7 X a light down stroke.

You have Easy Full Flex with half the pressure of a 'flexi'.

Wet Noodles/Super-flex half of that.

Weak Kneed Wet Noodles even less.

 

Easy Full Flex is a vary nice flexible nib, that is not too flexible for a beginner.

Your Ahab can be modified to that flex and then becomes a Real Flex Pen.

 

My Ahab sat in a box until that modification was done to it . It is now in rotation all the time.

 

[WirsPlm]

I would like to find a pen with a nib that will allow me to do very thin and very wide strokes, like what you would see in calligraphy. I would like to use the pen in everyday usage, so a big fancy calligraphy pen is not desirable (for now), from looking around it seems that I want an italic or oblique nib that is on the flexible side - the kind of nib that would produce very nice copperplate. I'm not sure if all of that makes any sense, my goal is to find a pen that will allow me to develop a more elegant writing style.

 

Since you're in the US, there are many good and cheap Sheaffer calligraphy pens available on eBay. Don't get the current production Viewpoint ones with the open area in the barrel (those are pretty terrible), get the older kind with solid or translucent bodies. There are full sets available for less than $15 shipped with multiple nib sizes, and the pens are quite nice to write with for the price (I like them better than the 78G .

 

Flex nibs are difficult to get along with and require special writing and often need to be tweaked personally to get the best results or are very expensive (or both, sadly), so maybe hold off on those for a bit and do more research to get an idea of the work involved. There is a non-FP option for flex, you would get flexible dip nibs and a dip pen holder, that's a fairly low cost option but it's also completely different from fountain pens.

[rtruslow]

I agree with much of the advice here. Go with a broad stub nib for practice and having fun. A stub is easier to write cursive with (cursive italic) than a true italic nib with has sharper corner edges so is easier for a beginner. Save your flexible nib exploration until you have some more experience.

 

A Pilot 78g Broad stub would be an inexpensive way to begin with a pretty smooth nib on delivery. I just got one for $10.49 delivered from Hong Kong. It is a reliable, inexpensive pen. However it is difficult to wait 2 weeks for delivery at that price and the pen is a little too light weight for my taste. Other than that I am happy with my purchase and am glad to have received it.

[RudyR]

You can get a Pilot Plumix with a medium Italic nib 1.0mm for 10.00 USD retail. You can also get them online. They seem to be well received and I will get one locally to trial on my own. The great thing about this nib is that you can swap it out with several other Pilot models if you decide to pursue more expensive options.

 

A very popular modification is to buy a Pilot Prera (wonderful pen on its own) and swap the nib out. Videos are online to show how this is done via Goulet Pen Company (the hybid is referred to as a Plumera).

 

Happy writing

[Aurko]

If you're looking for some very interesting line variation, and have a good deal of money to spare, you may want to check out some of the Sailor specialty nibs. However, since they tend to be extraordinarily expensive, I wouldn't recommend them, especially for a beginner. Still, they are very interesting to say the least. One of their most expensive nibs is the King Eagle Nib, if I recall, and it's very interesting. All of the specialty nibs give line variation to simulate brushes, and they are very precise. The line variation depends on the angle the pen is held to the paper and is quite unlike anything found on Western pens. A relatively cheap option similar in theory to the specialty nibs is the Sailor Fude de Mannen. Once again this probably isn't what you're looking for but I found it to be very interesting.

 

Of course, there are the pens that everyone here has recommended thus far, the TWSBI and the Safari with calligraphy nibs, but I would suggest looking into vintage flex nibs. Some of them can be found for relatively cheap and if you look on ebay often you can find flex nibs for under 100. Also keep an eye out for Peyton Street Pens. They have some pens with flex nibs for as little as 70-80 dollars sometimes, and they are guaranteed to work. I have no affiliation, I'm just a very satisfied customer.

 

I hope this was helpful.

[encreNouvelle]

Wow, thank you all very much for your thoughtful replies!