Which Could Be My Next Pen?

[AMlines]

There you go. I've resized the inline images so that, on the display of my 13-inch MacBook Pro, it is exactly the same size as the original artefact. You can click on the images to bring up the (cropped) original scans if the size is too small on your display, and/or you want to take a closer look.

 

The three filled in squares on each line, with numbers next to each one, are my "best effort" at drawing distinct parallel lines within a 5mm square, as a gauge of how fine and how soft a nib is. (I don't always succeed in keeping adjacent lines from touching each other.) Generally there's an error of ±1; you can look more closely at each set of lines, and judge for yourself on which side I erred, by how much space there is between two lines and/or whether the lines end up touching each other. The second set of vertical lines (i.e. in the last filled square) on each line represents my attempt at leaving the broadest and wettest lines with the nib, by increasing downward pressure and/or slowing down my stroke speed.

 

Each of the rows prefixed by either "02" or "03" were done using a different nib; that's how many Plaisir and Preppy pens I have. (Actually, I have two more than that.) I have marked with asterisks the nibs in Preppy pens that are being used as "eye-dropper" pens, if that matters. As you can see, depending on the ink, and perhaps variation in the physical dimensions and geometry of the tipping material on the nib itself, different Plaisir F nibs can write quite differently in terms of line width and wetness.

Wow, this is great! Many thanks for all the effort you put in :-) And it does look really nice, too.

 

You're right and there is quite a lot of variation with the same nib but different ink combinations.

 

From the second comparison you've put up, I notice interestingly, that there really isn't such a big difference between the Plaisir F and the Pelikan F.

When I read from -

Pastoralis officii nostri...

it's clear that this Pelikan F = Japanese EF seems exaggerated.

 

I now have more confidence getting a Pelikan F.

 

Thanks again!

[A Smug Dill]

You're right and there is quite a lot of variation with the same nib but different ink combinations.

 

From the second comparison you've put up, I notice interestingly, that there really isn't such a big difference between the Plaisir F and the Pelikan F.

Not having a go at you, but I just don't understand why some people (i) want to generalise across all Japanese pens/nibs and all European nibs, as if each brand and each model isn't worthy of separate research in the name of due diligence, and (ii) don't want to hear that the Platinum Preppy/Plaisir or Sailor HiAce Neo (read: cheapest models offered at prices of disposable pens) aren't representative of their respective brands' pens, much less all Japanese fountain pens. Even if we don't want to go right to gold nibs as if they were the only ones worth discussing, get a stainless steel Sailor nib with the 1911 imprint (such as on the Procolor 500 line of pens) or Platinum nib with the #3776 imprint, and then we can talk about what Japanese fountain pen nibs are like.

 

 

The (German) Schmidt steel F nibs on the (Chinese brand) Moonman M-series pens will leave finer and more precise lines than Plaisir '03' nibs, in my experience, and as you have seen I have quite a few of each. ("Chinese" F nibs tend not to be nearly as fine as "Japanese" F nibs, on the whole.) I don't know where the steel F nibs on the Monteverde Monza pens are made, but they are also very fine and crisp, and Monteverde is nominally an American brand. The F nibs on the Platinum Preppy, Plaisir and even Balance pens just don't compare well in that regard.

[AMlines]

Not having a go at you, but I just don't understand why some people (i) want to generalise across all Japanese pens/nibs and all European nibs, as if each brand and each model isn't worthy of separate research in the name of due diligence, and (ii) don't want to hear that the Platinum Preppy/Plaisir or Sailor HiAce Neo (read: cheapest models offered at prices of disposable pens) aren't representative of their respective brands' pens, much less all Japanese fountain pens. Even if we don't want to go right to gold nibs as if they were the only ones worth discussing, get a stainless steel Sailor nib with the 1911 imprint (such as on the Procolor 500 line of pens) or Platinum nib with the #3776 imprint, and then we can talk about what Japanese fountain pen nibs are like.

 

The (German) Schmidt steel F nibs on the (Chinese brand) Moonman M-series pens will leave finer and more precise lines than Plaisir '03' nibs, in my experience, and as you have seen I have quite a few of each. ("Chinese" F nibs tend not to be nearly as fine as "Japanese" F nibs, on the whole.) I don't know where the steel F nibs on the Monteverde Monza pens are made, but they are also very fine and crisp, and Monteverde is nominally an American brand. The F nibs on the Platinum Preppy, Plaisir and even Balance pens just don't compare well in that regard.

 

Indeed, you're right again. The fine lines look really nice. And yes, thanks to you responses to my posts, I have got interested in Sailor. Once I settle down with the M205 I'll check out a Sailor F too