What percentage of your pens have non-standard nibs?

[ArPharazon]

Right now the only pens I have that still have (and will continue to have) standard nibs are my Parker 51 and a Sailor 1911 . . . I wouldn't change the 51, and I'm still not sure if I want to keep the 1911. The rest all have custom ground (by me) stub/cursive italic nibs. These are mostly in the 'originally Medium' category, or about 0.8mm . . . though I am now more into the 'originally Broad' or ~1.0mm width. I also have a few that are a bit wider.

 

I still have a few that are not yet ground (Krone Think in Mojito, and an Indian steel-capped Advocate), but that's only a matter of time.

 

The 1911 has a Japanese Medium nib, which I really find to be too thin or else I'd give it the treatment. I can't yet decide what to do with it. I wouldn't touch the 51 because of it's vintage nature. Plus, it's nice to have one XF in the box for those times when I need it.

 

BTW, in total I have about 25 pens . . .

[leprechaun]

5/22 which works out to 22.7%.

[BBailey]

By standard nibs I mean XF, F, M, B, BB

By non-standard nibs I mean stubs, italics, obliques, needle points, music, etc.

 

 

What percentage of your pens have non-standard nibs?

What are they?

95%. It would be 100%, but I'm not sure I'm keeping all of the pens, so I won't have them modified unless I decide to keep them!

[simonrob]

By standard nibs I mean XF, F, M, B, BB

By non-standard nibs I mean stubs, italics, obliques, needle points, music, etc.

 

 

What percentage of your pens have non-standard nibs?

What are they?

 

I don't know the percentage, but most of the nibs in my pens are flexible and/or oblique stub/cursive italic or straight stubs/cursive italic (my favorites are flexible oblique stub/cursive italic). If I buy a pen whose nib isn't in any of those categories, chances are I'll have it modified (unless it's vintage).

 

Simon

[PAKMAN]

Well let's see...

 

2.7 cursive italic Rotring Art Pen

2.3 cursive italic Reform Piston

1.9 cursive italic Reform Piston

1.1 Pelikan 250 Binder crisp italic

0.9 Pelikan 250 Binder ItaliFine

Stubbed Medium Reform

Stub Sheaffer Legacy

Stub Sheaffer Legacy II

Stub Sheaffer Balance

Pelikan 800 BB

Fine Flexible Parker Vacumatic

Med Flexible Pelikan 400

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Waterman 54

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Waterman #5

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Waterman #7

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Conlkin crescent filler

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Conlkin Endura

Wet Noodle Flex Vintage Wahl Eversharp Gold Seal

 

Thats 16 out of 104 with out of the ordinary nibs and the rest xf, f or m so about 15%

Edited August 9, 2008 by pakmanpony

[JDFlood]

About 6 out of 120... about 5% have been Binderized or Motti...ized. JD

[Shangas]

Interesting thread. I have 18 fountain pens.

 

Most of them are fines or mediums.

 

I have one medium-flex Parker '45' and one flex-Italic (I think) Waterman and one medium semi-flex lever-filler.

[georges zaslavsky]

I have one stub (1947 Parker French made filler) and two medium oblique nibs (1965MB 146 with full flexible medium oblique and 1966MB 149 with full flex medium oblique) . The rest of my 13 pens have either extrafine, fine, medium and medium broad nibs.

[JayLo]

About 10%

Which consist of custom stubs

Edited August 10, 2008 by JayLo

[Velma]

Probably about 50% of them, but 100% of the ones I'm using regularly. My goal is to make sure that all of the pens I use and keep are tweaked to my preferences, and then to give away or sell the rest.

[Blade Runner]

I have several 0.5 mm and 0.6 mm stubs which is less than 1%. The rest have standard round nibs ranging from XF to M.

I enjoy my stubs, but in the fine range, there isn't that much line variation, and they have more of an edgy feel compared to standard round nibs. Tried a couple italics, but they weren't as smooth as my stubs. Tried a few finer nibs than XF, but they don't glide on more heavily textured and sized cotton stationery (the kind I favor), so abandoned that idea. My least favorite nib so far is a highly flexible one. The variation in line width based on slight differences in nib pressure made writing a neat page when writing quickly a difficult exercise. So mostly standard round nibs for me.

[Doug Add]

I do not consider flex or semi-flex nibs non-standard, or my percentages would be higher.

 

Plotting the answer to this question over time would look something like a bell curve. When I began using fountain pens they were all standard nibs. Slowly I acquired stubs and italics to the point where they made up about 30% of my pens. I eventually traded or sold them all, and now I only have one: a Stipula Florentia that I had the medium nib made cursive italic at this year's Raleigh pen show.

 

So, my current answer is 6%.

[piembi]

I do not consider flex or semi-flex nibs non-standard, or my percentages would be higher.

 

Well, I did not look at my flex or semiflex nibs either. If I did so, my percentage were something between 70% - 80% because of my vintage German pens .....

[MYU]

Probably about 25%, and rising.