Italic Nibs... any ideas?

[Bryant]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a pen that I could buy with an italic nib? I have never used one and am very interested in it. I would look to spend no more than $100, but would like it to have a gold nib.

Any believers in pens with italic nibs? And if so, why do you like them?

 

Cheers!

Bryant

[BillTheEditor]

Pendemonium (www.pendemonium.com) offers a lot of italic and stub nibbed pens, at a range of prices under $100. You can also buy Sheaffer calligraphy sets at Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, and many other office supply and art supply stores.

[Bryant]

Pendemonium (www.pendemonium.com) offers a lot of italic and stub nibbed pens, at a range of prices under $100. You can also buy Sheaffer calligraphy sets at Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, and many other office supply and art supply stores.

Thanks Bill,

Bryant

[Sheila]

Another recommendation for Pendemonium. They always have a large selection of pens with italic nibs, in all price ranges, but especially low-priced ones. You're sure to find something suitable there... and their nib work is fantastic! I have several custom italic nibs from them and they're my favorites. Good luck!

[jonro]

Just curious. Do you use italic nibs for all types of writing, or do you reserve them for specific applications?

 

Another recommendation for Pendemonium. They always have a large selection of pens with italic nibs, in all price ranges, but especially low-priced ones. You're sure to find something suitable there... and their nib work is fantastic! I have several custom italic nibs from them and they're my favorites. Good luck!

 

[sexauerw]

Just curious. Do you use italic nibs for all types of writing, or do you reserve them for specific applications?

 

You'll get a lot of different answers to that question. For myself, I do prefer italics for almost everything. Actually, my favorite nibs are left-footed oblique cursive italics. I really like the look of a big bold nib like a 1.5mm or so, but it's not really appropriate in most situations. So I usually end up using something about .7mm in width. It just adds a crispness and character to my handwriting that gets noticed and commented on, people think I'm "doing calligraphy" when I'm really just printing italic in my normal handwriting style.

[Sheila]

Just curious. Do you use italic nibs for all types of writing, or do you reserve them for specific applications?

 

I just use them for everyday writing, as I don't do calligraphy. A good cursive italic is easy to use and gives your writing just a bit of extra flair. My preference is a "fine" cursive italic of about 0.7mm in width. I don't like wide nibs in any form, though, since I don't write with large letters.

 

You can also get pre-ground nib units for a few pens, such as the Namiki VP and Pelikan M200. If you already have those pens, it would be cheaper to just buy the nib unit to see if you like the experience. These are sold by both Pendemonium and Richard Binder, maybe others as well.

 

[FrankB]

I have been into italic nibs for a number of years and I love them. I think they are fun to use, and the product on paper is wonderful. The italic nibs allow me to write as if I actually had good handwriting, and I love that feeling.

I have gone overboard with Duofold and Stipula italics. But there are several brands that have good italic nibs that costfar less than these higher end pens.

 

For someone trying out an italic nib for the first time, I think something like a Lamy Safari with an italic nib would be nice. Swisherpens.com has them available. I also like Pelikan "Script" and Rotring "Art Pens." All these pens are reasonably priced, and they are god enough to give you a nice idea of what italic nibs are about. - Personally, I have not had good luck with recent model Sheaffer calligraphy pens.

 

In all these pens, I find a 1.1mm nib does a really good job as an everyday writer. Larger nibs seem better suited for artistic presentations, which I also do regularly. But the 1.1mm nibs are useful even for businesss writing. And they surely make letters and journalling more fun and very legible.

 

Good luck.

 

[HDoug]

If you have a Pelikan or VP, you can get an italic (stub, cursive, or crisp) from Richard Binder (click here for "Specialty Nibs" page). I have four .5mm cursive italics from him, both for Pelikan and VP and I use them every day. They take a little more focus to use, and sometimes I get lazy and celebrate a "round nib week," but italics can be used every day.

 

Doug

[OldGriz]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a pen that I could buy with an italic nib? I have never used one and am very interested in it. I would look to spend no more than $100, but would like it to have a gold nib.

Any believers in pens with italic nibs? And if so, why do you like them?

 

Cheers!

Bryant

 

You can get a Pelikan 200 with a custom Binder italic nib for $90.00 from Richard Binder

You won't do wrong buying from Richard and you can be sure the pen will write perfectly.

You can an italic nib in sizes .7, .9 or 1.1 mm

If you feel that the crisp italic might be a bit much for you, you can opt for a cursive italic that is a bit smoother to work with.

At this price the nib will not be gold, but for IMO I don't think you will feel the difference.

Edited May 30, 2007 by OldGriz

[london]

I'd agree with Tom and Frank's suggestions....

 

Either a Pelikan from Richard Binder.

 

Or

 

A Lamy with a 1.1mm italic. Either the Safari or the Studio.

 

When I wanted to try an italic, I went with the Lamy Safari. Not too much of an investment, and easily available. Not gold, but like Tom says, you probably won't notice the difference.

 

The nicest I have tried though is a Parker 51 with an original stub. And, you could actually look to some vintage offerings too.

 

I got one just to add a little more easy character to some of my writing. Next you'll be wanting to try some flex, if you haven't already.

 

Have you had a look at this thread for writing samples? Handwriting competition

 

- Mark

 

 

[WillAdams]

I got a Sheaffer Agio w/ custom ground 0.8mm crisp italic nib from Pendemonium and have been very pleased with it. Not gold though, but there are models w/ gold plating.

 

I use an italic nib because it makes my writing more readable and makes it easier to write --- I don't use non-italic nibs except for drawing / sketching or under duress.

 

William

 

[kissing]

The Italic pens listed in pendemonium are pretty darn good, and quite inexpensive

I have a 0.8mm cursive italic on a Parker Frontier from pendemonium - Love it !

[eytim]

Just curious. Do you use italic nibs for all types of writing, or do you reserve them for specific applications?

 

I just use them for everyday writing, as I don't do calligraphy. A good cursive italic is easy to use and gives your writing just a bit of extra flair. My preference is a "fine" cursive italic of about 0.7mm in width. I don't like wide nibs in any form, though, since I don't write with large letters.

 

You can also get pre-ground nib units for a few pens, such as the Namiki VP and Pelikan M200. If you already have those pens, it would be cheaper to just buy the nib unit to see if you like the experience. These are sold by both Pendemonium and Richard Binder, maybe others as well.

 

Can you explain the difference between a cursive italic nib and an italic nib?

 

Thanks

[Sheila]

Can you explain the difference between a cursive italic nib and an italic nib?

 

Thanks

 

 

A regular "crisp" italic has sharp edges and takes more practice to use. A "cursive" italic simply has the edges rounded just a bit to make it easier to write. You still get good line variation, but they're easier to use.

[jonro]

Would it be fair to say that a .6-.7 mm cursive italic is better for script and that wider cursive italics are better suited to printing?

[HDoug]

Would it be fair to say that a .6-.7 mm cursive italic is better for script and that wider cursive italics are better suited to printing?

 

I don't think so. It depends on the size of your handwriting. The classic italic "formula" is that a minuscule body be 5 widths high. That's not absolute and it depends on the structure of your handwriting, personal preference, etc. but it's a good starting point to calculate the best width.

 

Doug

 

[ChristineR]

Different scripts call for different widths. Copperplate scripts are usually done with a finer nib. For everyday writing with an italic script the 1 to 5 rule makes sense. You can print or do cursive with a Getty-Dubay style italic and the letter forms are almost identical. Scripts like that evolved with quill pens; for a Copperplate script you need a nib that can't be made from a quill.

 

Also the 1 to 5 rule appears to be based on a crisp italic; for a stub type nib you might want to go smaller.

[DrPJM1]

I actually prefer 1.1 to 1.5mm italics, anything smaller does not show much with my handwriting.

That's why recommend the Lamy Safari with 3 different italic nib widths that you interchange easily.

[lefty928]

Whoa, I was wondering where my post was and then realized someone else had asked about italic nibs very very recently and that this is a different thread! You might want to check it out for more opinions. Chiming in with the consensus, I'd recommend a Lamy 1.1 mm italic (if you already have a Safari or Vista, just the italic nib is about $12-$13) or some of Pendemonium's custom cursive italics. They are very reasonably priced and a new crop went up on the site recently, so there are some reliable models to choose from. I love my left-footed oblique cursive italics (note my moniker ) from Pendemonium.

 

Haven't tried block printing (vs. true standard italic) with mine, and only recently dredged up my remnants of Palmer style cursive to try out with them (again, vs. using my low x-height heavily modified cursive italic handwriting): The nib made my degraded Palmer look quite pretty!

 

Not sure you can get a gold nib in that price range -- I never checked out the VP custom nib option, which might be the nearest thing if you really want a gold nib, but why not do a low-cost, low-risk experiment with one of the options above first? I also have an inexpensive Sheaffer calligraphy pen (a Viewpoint or, I guess it's called a "Classic" now, not one of those strange new plume-shaped ones -- sorry to read that they don't work as well) that's (bleep) for real calligraphy but smooth and reliable as a correspondence pen. It's not very crisp, which is probably why it's so smooth! It's about 1 mm.

 

edited to add this PS: Last winter, I saw the Sheaffer calligraphy pen in the "classic' (as in "Coke Classic," for those who remember) Viewpoint version for under $10 at Barnes & Noble and the multi-nib set for not all that much more. So you wouldn't even have to go to an OfficeMax. But note that somewhere here didn't have luck with the pen recently and mine is old.

Edited May 31, 2007 by lefty928