My First Pen And Opinions About F/ef Nibs

August 31, 2015

Greetings

A few months ago I came on these forums asking questions about a good first pen. Well I ended up buying a Lamy Al-Star in Copper Orange that was a EF nib, followed by a Monteverde Impressa F Nib. The reason for the second purchase was just because writing notes with only one colour was very limiting...

I feel like its time to upgrade (after I accidently stepped on and broke my Lamy...). I am looking for a very smooth EF nib. The Lamy Al Star EF was a decent size, but I am looking for the same or thinner!

I came across the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 F and it looks nice. Any opinions on this nib and its smoothness or other recommendations for fine nibs for around the $100 +$15 mark that are very smooth.

Thank you very much for your time

August 31, 2015

Fine lines and $100 is firmly Japanese territory - Pilot (there are a few models) / Platinum (3776) / Sailor (Pro Gear Slim / 1911) - all come with 14K nibs that write a fine line consistently. Look for pens directly out of Japan to save on the crazy north american markup. With a lot of the Pilot pens they use the same family of nibs, so a F in a 92 and a 91 model are the same thing and you are basically looking at different finishes. All the best!

August 31, 2015

Seconded on Pilot. Anything above the level of a disposable is going to be very smooth and they really mean it when they say "fine".

Platinum is known for nibs that are intentionally not quite as smooth, but both Preppys I've got were really smooth out of the box.

I wish I knew more about Sailor.

August 31, 2015

edebil - Sailor's F nib (I have the 21K in my 1911L) is very smooth but extremely firm - it is actually marked H-F on the side and they weren't kidding - hard and fine - it is an excellent nib for writing footnotes in tiny print but isn't bad for regular cursive too (I prefer wider nibs for daily writing). You are right that the Platinum has some kind of feedback - it's not a bad thing and on something like Clairefontaine gives me an indicator that I am not all over the paper.