Welcome To The Broad Side...

[zaddick]

 

Welcome to the Dark Side… er, I mean Broad Side!

 

I am starting this thread as a place for lovers of very broad nibs, stubs, italics, etc. to share their love of writing with broad nibs. There is a place in the world for those who write with mediums and even those who love those needles they market as UEF on Japanese pens, but here I want to focus on nibs that can put down thick lines. Think BB, 1.1 MM, stubs, CI, OBB or wider and you are on the right track.

 

Share pictures of your nibs (the closer up the better) and writing samples if possible. Share your thoughts on why you love the nib (or don’t) and what makes it special. Do you like the way it makes dull ink look beautiful? Do you like taking up half a page to write a sentence? Do you use it as a highlighter? Do you have too much ink and your nib uses it up? Do you just think, why the heck not? Tell me and add to the show and tell extravaganza.

 

[zaddick]

I'll add to this thread as I get to use my various pens, but today I will kick things off with a Sailor King Eagle nib on a King of Pen. This nib is essentially the ultimate architect nib with the ability to lay down very wide horizontal lines. Teh cool feature is the ability to give line width variation based on writing angle. You can also write with the reverse side of the nib for the finest line.

 

 

Sorry for the low light shot from last night.

 

Why do I like the nib? Well, it is fun to play with and varying angles is something I do on occasion anyway. This rewards my fidgety behavior by giving me the feeling of different nibs in one pen. Plus the thing is just lovely to look at. It feels like excessive luxury to have three nibs stacked on top of each other. It is so excessive it could have been designed in the USA at a monster truck rally! (You can almost hear the chanting and motors revving.)

 

OK, on to the pictures.

 

 

 

[zaddick]

One of my absolute favorite nib/pen combos is an early 1970s Montblanc 149 with a 3B nib. I was lucky enough to find one not too long ago that still has the sticker on the pen indicating BBB! They stopped making these triple-B wide nibs in the mid 1970s (to the best of my knowledge), although they still make the very lovely O3B nib width.

 

 

 

 

 

Why do I like this nib? It is smooth and the feed is able to keep up in almost all situations. The MB #9 nib is a classic design and one of my personal favorites due to the size and decoration. Of course its rarity makes me covet it a little more than my equally fun to use 1960s BB pens, but at the end of the day it is a good writer and really brings out some nice shading in light ink colors.

[zaddick]

This next pen is smaller than I like, though not really a small pen. It was part of a limited 3 pen set OMAS tossed out the door with one gasp as they slid into bankrupcy. I personally like ot onagine Indiana Jones sliding under a closing stone door with this pen as he escapes the closing OMAS factory in Italy. I am sure the reality was much less romantic.

 

The pen is an old style Paragon in the smoke Grey celluloid - nice but nothing to get my heart racing. What really did it was the nib. The first, and only time, Omas offered a factory BBB nib. I was able to pry just this pen withthe 3B nib out of the set and here is the important part of the pen...

 

 

The blue lines you can see in the photo are from my MB 149 3B shown above.

 

 

 

 

So why do I like this nib? Probably mostly because it is unique in the history of OMAS and so few are out there. It lays down a nice juicy line which allows me to empty the pen fairly quickly and change inks. (a positive for me). The amount of tipping is ridiculous so i may one day have the nib stubbed even more or maybe ground to an architect. It is just hard to modify such an unusual nib from OMAS as they are not making more.

Edited July 10, 2017 by zaddick

[zaddick]

Sometimes nibs are not born broad. Instead someone comes along and says, "Let there be line width!" and lo, a new creation is born. Often times, Greg Minuskin is playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein and reworking perfectly nice nibs with monster bits of tipping. (I once asked and he can go up to 1.80 MM max on an MB #9.) This beast lives on a rather user grade Parker Duofold in black (in a former life) hard rubber. I picked up the pen used and was told the tipping was 1.7MM, which seems about right from the writing samples.

 

 

 

I like this pen because it reminds me that sometimes ugly just feels so good. You don't have to have a pretty pen or spend a lot of money to make something ridiculously fun to use.

Edited July 10, 2017 by zaddick

[ac12]

I use a Lamy 1.1 for doing Christmas cards.

I get the effect of a flex nib without the hassles of a flex nib.

[Ghost Plane]

I have now died and gone to heaven. With raisin oatmeal. *munches contemplatively*

[BillH]

 

Top to bottom, Pelikan Blue Black, Pelikan Brilliant Brown, Montblanc Shakespeare Velvet Red

[zaddick]

This pen was my first step into OMAS. I sort of lucked into this amazing nib. The pen is an OMAS 360 in Burkina celluloid (you love it or hate it) with a fantastic BB with a CI grind from Mottishaw. What a sweet writier and it really brings out the the shading in some lighter inks like Iro Yu-ykae.

 

 

 

 

This pen lead me on a chase for other OMAS. Too bad it all started after the company had shuttered its doors! I really like the way the Mottishaw grinds his CI. It is one of my favorite nibs.

Edited July 10, 2017 by zaddick

[zaddick]

BillH - thanks for the lovely Pelikan photos. I need to go dig up some of my Pelikan nibs now.

[zaddick]

Here is a family shot of some of my M800 obliques (except the 14C OM). I am only allowing the OB in the photo because i got a CI grind on it so now it write a bit broader then the factory OBB. (Plus i already had the picture in my archives!)

 

 

Of thes three the OB CI and the O3B are my favorites. Both give me good diagonal line variation and with excellent flow. Below is an old writing sample of the OB CI and OBB.

 

[BillH]

BillH - thanks for the lovely Pelikan photos. I need to go dig up some of my Pelikan nibs now.

 

 

You're most welcome. I'll see what else is hiding back there, but I wanted to start with Pelikans and a new-to-me MB146. More to come...

[zaddick]

Here is a pen I am using today - the MB Silver Barley LeGrand. The pen has a nice subtle chevron-like pattern that is subtle. I am not a big fan of the little diamond in the clip, but the mother of pearl snowcap makes up for it a few times over. Besides, I can ultimately swap the clip if I really want. As noted in the MB forum, I had bought one of these pens a few years ago and ended up trading it to another member. That same member had the pen listed for sale recently and I asked if it was my old pen that had a B nib. Turns out it was a completely different pen and this one had a much nicer BB nib. Well, time to get reacquainted with an old friend.

 

 

 

 

I like this nib because it is broad, smoth, wet and a little springy. More importantly it helped me rediscover a pen I had liked in the past but was not an ideal fit with a plain B.

[zaddick]

This is a custom pen from Brad Torelli. It is an hommage to the MB 139. Brad uses vintage nibs (and sometimes clips and pistons), but the rest of this pen was made by him. The pen is celluloid and is a plunger filler with an ink window.

 

The nib on this pen is either an OBB or O3B. I go back and forth as to the width. This is part of the fun/frustration with MB pens - they don't mark the nibs anywhere. I'll compare it to the modern O3B I am waiting for back from a nib swap and then I can make a better judgement call. For now l'll be conservative and say OBB.

 

 

 

 

As I noted before, I love the MB #9 nib. This feed/nib combo lays down a nice line although there are the occasional hard starts. I find the patina this nib has accumulated a very appropriate match for the color palatte of the pen. I collect as much of Brad's work as I can afford and it is even better when it comes with such a fun and bold nib.

[zaddick]

Here is another of Brad Torelli's pens that I was lucky to find, though my bank account was not happy about it. It is a pen he made in the 1980s from Italian Lucite and has a custom feed of the same material. This pen was made before he got a "friendly visit" from some folks at MB about not using their trademarked logo. These pens are hard to find now, but if you have one and want to sell it send me a note!

 

The nib is a flexy 14C from the early 149s (1950s to 1960s or so). Some are not all that flexible, and this is not a wet noodle, but for a BB nib if has pretty decent tine spread which I hardly need to use. Being a typical MB BB, it is already good at giving line variation just from the shape of the tipping.

 

 

 

 

This is probably one of those "cold, dead hands" pens for me. It's likely to go to one of my little ones unless the wife sells it for casino money. OK, one more shot showing the shimmer...

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by zaddick

[zaddick]

Here is a custom Paul Rossi pen with silver overlay. It is No 1 of an unspecified edition, so lets say 10 tops. The pen is shaped like an old Pelikan 101N so I call this the Rossikan 800N. The great thing about the pen is that is is short when capped, but still suitable for use unposted. True to pelikan form it is a piston filler and it uses stock M800 nib units which makes my life a lot better. The pen is shown with a BB nib.

 

 

 

I don't have a writing sample handy, but it writes just like any other M800 BB nib - stiff and not too wet.

 

Pelikan M800 nibs are reliable and easy to swap which is why I have so many more of the nibs than the pens. I am a little sad they discontinued all the wider sizes recenlty. Boo Pelikan. I guess it just makes the hunt for the older nibs a little more interesting.

[zaddick]

Continuing down the slippery OMAS slope lead me to find this beauty - a Magnum 360 with a hard to source OBB. The pen is really oversized and the OBB nib means I need to pay a little more attention to hand positioning.

 

 

 

I like this nib/feed combo for the wetness and smooth flow. I do with the nib and feed were on a 360 with a more exotic material like celluloid or Ti, but if I have to live with cotton resin at least it is the biggest size pen. Overcompensation!

[zaddick]

I do not have this nib, but this is one I will spend a long time looking for...

 

 

It is a vintage MB calligraphy nib. (picture snipped from the interwebs) Hopefully one day...

[Dickkooty2]

zaddick ... What a great addition to FPN! And what a show case and nib-to-paper exhibition with which to start off this blog!

[zaddick]

This is a Montblanc Bohele XL. The pen only came in plain platinum trim and when it was in the stores for a few years in the early 2000s the retial price was higher than a 149! Besides having a nifty retractable mechanism, the Bohene has a #6 18K nib that is much larger than the other Boheme nibs. I was able to track one down with a BB nib.

 

 

 

I really like the softnes of the nib. It is very different than my other 146 based pens with a BB nib. It is more brushlike I would say. I don't use it as much as i might because it is a darn pain in the rear to clean out. It does see use though because it is a good reason to use up some old MB carts I have laying about.