Inexpensive Broad Nib Pen?

[tvradio]

Thanks everyone. I'm not in any rush, but since I am going to my first pen show in Philly in a month I had the idea that if I could get something cheap and broad to play with now I'd have a better idea of what I liked by the time of the show.

 

At the pen club meeting this past Thursday I got to try so many different pens they all sort of blended together in my overwhelmed mind. But what struck me (aside from how much smoother nice pens were) was how much I liked the European M nibs despite my small handwriting. I'd tried a stub nib and it just didn't work for me, but I've just been wondering for the last couple of days how much wider a nib I could get along with.

 

Thanks @theLorekeeper, that's a very generous offer.

[Bluey]

Jinhao 159

[tvradio]

Depending on what you like you could get an inexpensive Chinese pen that uses a number 6 size nib and get a Goulet broad nib to put in it.

 

I recently got a Kaweco Perkeo in broad and am liking it quite a bit.

 

Nemosine makes the singularity line and the nibs on those are decent.

Interesting. Coming from a lifetime of cheap pens and then good gel pens, I was finding that smaller nibs felt more immediately comfortable, like those in the portable Kawecos, because I choke up on pens when I write and smaller nibs get me closer to the paper. Farther away, and my handwriting disintegrates.

 

I was watching another lefty do amazing italic writing and his hand was almost halfway up the pen - I could not figure out how he had such control with that grip.

[tvradio]

Jinhao 159

In Broad? I'm only seeing them in M, except for an Amazon listing that says Broad but whose reviews say it's M.

[Bluey]

In Broad? I'm only seeing them in M, except for an Amazon listing that says Broad but whose reviews say it's M.

Yes.

It's a very wet medium. So for all intents and purposes it's a Western broad

Edited December 18, 2017 by Bluey

[tvradio]

In that case.... It's $4.10 on Amazon. Hard to go wrong then for just playing around.

Edited December 18, 2017 by tvradio

[Arkanabar]

Okay, so you prefer a round, broad nib to a stub. No biggie. You do still have plenty of options.

First, there are a number of vendors selling #6 nibs in varying sizes, which can be easily installed in a number of pens. My knowledge of these is far from exhaustive, but I'll share it anyway.

Nib vendors: Knox, Jowo, Nemosine (available from Goulet and others; IIRC, Nemosine's own site was xfountainpens.com, now birminghampens.com), Fountain Pen Revolution (fprevolutionusa.com).

Pens with easily-swapped #6 nibs: Jinhao X750 (36g), X450 (42g), 159 (50g); Nemosine Singularity (17g), Fission (hefty); Noodler's Ahab, Konrad; FPR Darjeeling.

FPR offers XF, F, M, B, 1.0mm stub, and flex nibs on almost all of their pens except the Muft eyedropper (free with orders > $25 that include another pen), including the $9 Guru. They add $3 for B, stub, and flex.

Though there are several Indian eyedropper pens with easily swapped #6 nibs, I'm going to suggest you avoid eyedroppers in general. Due to the working of Charles' Law, anyone who takes a room-temperature ED in hand to write could see the warmth of their hand causing the air in the large ink chamber expand enough to force ink out of the nib. If you want to try eyedroppers, make sure you warm them up to body temperature while they are point-up, so that the expanding air is what gets forced out of the nib, instead of the ink. Breast pocket carry is ideal for this.

I used to choke up on my pens a lot, and it contributed to writer's cramp. Then I trained myself in arm writing. In arm writing, you do not use any of your muscles below the elbow to manipulate the pen. You teach yourself to write with your shoulder muscles. When teaching yourself to arm write (it took me a few months), start big, perhaps on a chalkboard or white board, and expect your writing to degrade a bit for a while. But now that I have, I can hold any pen in a nearly slack grip, a good ways back from the point (I hold a Parker "51" right on the clutch ring), and my writing is essentially indistinguishable from how it was before (i.e., bad).

Hmmm.... maybe it's time to look at a Lamy 2000 again.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Arkanabar

[Sailor Kenshin]

Yup. I like the Blue F Preppy I bought but I hate the ink color. I've got a M nib Preppy in black sitting in my JetPens shopping cart right now, though I'm worried I'd just be duplicating the line from the M Metropolitan I also have in my Amazon cart.

 

Perhaps instead of the M Preppy I should consider a $7.25 Plumix in Medium Italic?

1. The Medium Preppy will seem much more broad than the Met.

 

2. The Plumix, being an italic, may be tricky for a southpaw.

 

3. Nemosines are decent, lightweight pens.

 

---Signed,

(Southpaw overwriter owning all the above)

 

Good luck.

[gibbs]

I'm a big fan of the 45 and would recommend one of if you can get one the nib changes are a breeze if you don't like a broad and the nibs sell for decent price if clean

 

If you're after something more modern the Kaweco sports line is good although if you don't like the broad a new nib is nearly as much as replacing the pen or at least it was when I looked also I don't know if this is a common thing or just mine but they can be a pain to start at first.

 

TWSBI Eco would be my other choice I own a stub and a medium and they have both run with basically no issues plus the nibs are very easy to replace and are dirt cheap if you decided you didn't like the broad.

 

If it helps I am also left handed and cannot say I've had any issues with smudging even when using the stub

[tvradio]

Okay, so you prefer a round, broad nib to a stub. No biggie. You do still have plenty of options.

Great post. Thanks.

 

It's not that I prefer a broad nib - I don't know if I'll even like one long-term. (That's why I don't want to spend much $$ on one.) It's that at the pen club meet I went to I could barely write with one with my weirdo lefty hand hand placement - the result on paper was pathetic.

[tvradio]

1. The Medium Preppy will seem much more broad than the Met.

2. The Plumix, being an italic, may be tricky for a southpaw.

3. Nemosines are decent, lightweight pens.

 

---Signed,

(Southpaw overwriter owning all the above)

 

Good luck.

Thanks. I'm shelving the Plumix idea for now.

[tvradio]

If you're after something more modern the Kaweco sports line is good although if you don't like the broad a new nib is nearly as much as replacing the pen or at least it was when I looked also I don't know if this is a common thing or just mine but they can be a pain to start at first.

I do like the look of the Kaweco clear demonstrator, but I keep reading online from a small but clear minority of people who seem to have experienced quality-control issues with Kaweco's nibs, which is scaring me off a bit.

 

I'm okay with the chance of a messed-up nib in a $4 pen, but not a $25 pen that becomes a $35 one if I have to replace the nib.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Interesting. Coming from a lifetime of cheap pens and then good gel pens, I was finding that smaller nibs felt more immediately comfortable, like those in the portable Kawecos, because I choke up on pens when I write and smaller nibs get me closer to the paper. Farther away, and my handwriting disintegrates.

 

I was watching another lefty do amazing italic writing and his hand was almost halfway up the pen - I could not figure out how he had such control with that grip.

Practice.

 

The 159 is a huge, heavy pen. I've had one. For something equally wet and not quite so heavy there's the Jinhao 450 and 750 models. All made of metal, and I still have one or two.

 

I have a few wet-writing M 'UPS' (aka, Manufacturer Unknown) pens. Though they might be egregiously gaudy for you, they are lighter weight and do take standard international carts. Let me know if you're interested.

[gryphon1911]

I do like the look of the Kaweco clear demonstrator, but I keep reading online from a small but clear minority of people who seem to have experienced quality-control issues with Kaweco's nibs, which is scaring me off a bit.

 

I'm okay with the chance of a messed-up nib in a $4 pen, but not a $25 pen that becomes a $35 one if I have to replace the nib.

 

Just buy the Kaweco from a reputable dealer with a good return policy. If the nib is messed up, you just exchange it.

 

The other option is go and get the $4.10 chinese pen and get a GouletPens broad nib to switch out. I've done this with many Jinhao X450, X750 and 159's. The Jinhao nibs were decent, but the Goulet nibs were far better. I've tried quite a few nibs, from medium and broad to 1.1mm and 1.5mm stubs. All super smooth and needed no adjusting on my end.

 

You wouldn't happen to be in Ohio would you? If you are and in the Columbus, OH area, I can give you a Jinhao and a Goulet Nib to try for as long as you like.

Edited December 19, 2017 by gryphon1911

[tvradio]

 

Just buy the Kaweco from a reputable dealer with a good return policy. If the nib is messed up, you just exchange it.

 

The other option is go and get the $4.10 chinese pen and get a GouletPens broad nib to switch out. I've done this with many Jinhao X450, X750 and 159's. The Jinhao nibs were decent, but the Goulet nibs were far better. I've tried quite a few nibs, from medium and broad to 1.1mm and 1.5mm stubs. All super smooth and needed no adjusting on my end.

 

You wouldn't happen to be in Ohio would you? If you are and in the Columbus, OH area, I can give you a Jinhao and a Goulet Nib to try for as long as you like.

No, I'm a Noo Yawker. Thanks though.

 

As a real newbie to fountain pens I guess I just wanted a cheap, easy way to try new stuff, and having to deal with the possibility of returns or buying additional nibs seems just a bit more advanced (and work!) than I'm up to right now.

 

I just bought tickets (and bus tickets) to next month's Philly Pen Show, and the thought was to have enough of a hands-on with nib sizes so I could make an informed decision on a busy show floor if purchase decisions arose. Not really a lot of time between then and now though.

 

So far I've got all Japanese nib pens, from EF (Penmanship) to F (Preppy) to M (Varsity) and I've got a M Metropolitan on the way here right now. Maybe I'll just spend more time with what I've got now and if I want to go wider I'll think about just getting a better level of pen later that I can swap nibs on... Still thinking about it.

[aeba]

No, I'm a Noo Yawker. Thanks though.

 

As a real newbie to fountain pens I guess I just wanted a cheap, easy way to try new stuff, and having to deal with the possibility of returns or buying additional nibs seems just a bit more advanced (and work!) than I'm up to right now.

 

I just bought tickets (and bus tickets) to next month's Philly Pen Show, and the thought was to have enough of a hands-on with nib sizes so I could make an informed decision on a busy show floor if purchase decisions arose. Not really a lot of time between then and now though.

 

So far I've got all Japanese nib pens, from EF (Penmanship) to F (Preppy) to M (Varsity) and I've got a M Metropolitan on the way here right now. Maybe I'll just spend more time with what I've got now and if I want to go wider I'll think about just getting a better level of pen later that I can swap nibs on... Still thinking about it.

Good, good. Now you just need to get Platinum 3776 with broad, cosu and music nibs and your journey to the dar... broad side is (mostly) complete. *croaking laugh*

[tvradio]

Funny you should mention the 3776. I like the Preppy's Slip and Seal cap to keep the nib moist so I started looking around to see what other, better pens offered that kind of protection... and ran right into a pile of review-love for the 3776.

 

Generally I like either something EDC-friendly that can be knocked in my pocket and look good with wear signs and scratches (like the metal Kawecos), or has a streamlined, modern look (like the Pilot Myu/Murex or Lamy CL1), but here's the thing: I know that I'm burdened by a lifetime of using pencil-thin ballpoints and gel pens, and it's quite possible that fatter pens or bigger (or juicier) nibs will end up being appealing or even preferable, so I need to give myself time to explore the options and try writing with fatter pens, etc.

 

I just don't want to spend a small fortune while doing it....

[aeba]

Sure sure. No need to hurry. And preferences for what ever are fine too. I don't see it as a coincidence that Ohto bothered to do the "Pencil ball" ballpoint pen.

 

If you at some point go to the Kaweco route, I would give serious thought about going straight to the metal ones. But that is my preference.

[Inkyways]

I got two Nimosine ( Knox ) pens from birminghampens.com. They are nice pens and I bought a bunch of Knox nibs too. Some nibs are too smooth ( medium and a BB Knox No. 5 which I don't wan't to use) I prefer EF and F and even the Knox F seems to me like MF and they are too smooth.

[tvradio]

If you at some point go to the Kaweco route, I would give serious thought about going straight to the metal ones. But that is my preference.

Funny you should say that. I was looking at the current Massdrop for a brass Liliput for $65 (roughly double what I wanted to pay for my next pen... but it's metal... but so is my Metropolitan, lol).

 

But the model they're selling is not the wave brass I preferred, and I don't want to have to deal with nonsense if the nib causes problems (and there are a couple of long threads on this site along with people having issues with the wider Kaweco Bock nibs. And besides, I don't want to rush over saving a grand total of $13 on a pen.

 

No, I'm probably heading down the TWSBI road first, probably the $30 Eco, and then maybe I'll do a M/B/BB nib dance over time to see what ends up appealing to me.