What do you use BB nibs for?

[dumdummuoi]

I've been reading on some other threads here that people actually use BB/BBB nibs for their "everyday writing"... I typically use a Western F or finer, and Western Ms are my absolute upper limit. So I'm really curious: how big does your writing have to be for BB/BBB nibs, and what kind of writing to you do with them?

 

Most of my writing is done on college ruled (7-8mm) or even graph grids (5mm) where I use every line, often including mathematical notation with superscripts and subscripts, and anything more than a Western F results in an illegible blob of color. I could see using broad nibs for things like greeting cards and such, where broad strokes would look pretty and you don't have to fit in a whole lot of text, but beyond that I can't quite imagine...

 

Edited for silly grammatical error x_X

Edited December 4, 2008 by dumdummuoi

[I am not a number]

I use BB/BBB for signatures but wide B, Music or stubs for writing normal text. I also use smaller nibs for annotations.

[WillSW]

They use them to shout to all others how incredibly LARGE they are.

HELLO! I AM IMPORTANT! THIS IS MY BBBBBBB, AND I HAVE 12 MORE AT HOME!

 

I imagine it also shows off the ink rather well.

[dumdummuoi]

They use them to shout to all others how incredibly LARGE they are.

 

Your large-font exclamation brings to mind those obnoxious bumber stickers whose pen version would probably read something like: "My other pen is a MontBlanc"

[OldGriz]

Painting the side of your house.... :roflmho:

 

No way I could use one for anything else... my signature below is written with a fine nibbed Vacumatic...

[stevlight]

I draw with mine. Of course it was touched by the genius of Richard Binder and is flippable to a fine AND when held at a slightly more upright angle it is a Medium/broad!! So I get fine, medium and BBB out of one pen. I originally got it to just fill in large black areas on my smaller drawings but it is soo versatile I have not used any other pen to draw with since i got it a month ago!!!!

[offbase]

Lawn darts.

[RevAaron]

I don't see much use to ball B/BB/3B nibs. At that point, I'd just a Sharpie. All of my BB nibs are on vintage pens, which is to say that they're all stubs, and make great pens for writing a note to someone, especially when you're using a nice shading ink. When I sell or trade a pen, I usually use a BB nib for the note I'll pop in. For ink sampling. Don't use them for much else, which is why I don't have but a couple.

 

Don't use them for signatures- I prefer a flexy pen for that, for some reason.

[RevAaron]

Lawn darts.

 

How come?

 

XXXFs are much better for that.

[FrankB]

BB is the largest nib point I can use. I use them for addressing envelopes and writing messages in (holiday or birthday)cards. I use them sometimes for signatures. I just like writing with them, and I have written an occasional letter with one, usually for older relatives who have trouble seeing.

[Strang]

Signing baseballs!

[Ghost Plane]

I write exclusively with Bs, stubs, and a few BBs I've been lucky enough to aquire. I write a LOT. For my own consumption on regular cheap notebooks bought at Target. I write fast and it takes a lot of ink to keep up with my hand. I don't particularly care if anyone else can read it or not. I'm interested in what works for me and my handwriting.

 

Using an M or smaller feels like trying to write with a dental pick and looks like a drunk spider has flailled across the page.

[zenshrink]

Everything.

[simonrob]

I've been reading on some other threads here that people actually use BB/BBB nibs for their "everyday writing"... I typically use a Western F or finer, and Western Ms are my absolute upper limit. So I'm really curious: how big does your writing have to be for BB/BBB nibs, and what kind of writing to you do with them?

 

It depends what you mean by BB etc. Vintage German pens with B/BB etc. nibs were stubs (often flexible), so that although they can make fairly wide lines, they also make fine lines. As a result, what you write will be a mix of fine and wide (which lines are which depends how you hold the pen in relation to the paper and your arm, etc.). Aside from being very attractive (or so some of us think), this avoids the thick blobby lines made by broad round-tipped pens - the results look crisp, precise and articulate. A vintage German BB nib is probably not wider than a Lamy or Stipula 1.1 italic, so you don't need to have especially big handwriting to make it work (though since size is relative, that doesn't really say much...). I don't like using broad or wider round-tipped pens, which make my handwriting look slovenly even when I write bigger letters than usual.

 

Simon

 

[Anne-Sophie]

I have been thinking of using a BB or even a BBB nib for titles, headers and the like.

 

I used to be a M nib user, no question asked.

 

Then I got those cute Bexleys in both M and B nib. I tried the B nib for an header and it glided and made my huge handwriting look better.

See it is all Howard, owner of Bexley, fault!

 

I now use my Bold Safari and Vista, along with my Bexleys, for everyday note taking.

 

My M nibbed Phileas feels like a fine and just not right.

 

To give you an idea of the scale of my handwriting, I can only write one long word and 3 to 4 small ones on a 5x8 pad.

 

For regular note taking, I use letter size pads or (my favorite) printer paper with my own custom wide ruled or oversized ruled Seyes lines.

 

 

My really big handwriting was formed when I started using a fountain pen.

In the really early grades we were forced to use those horrible yellow stick bic.

Even then, my hands were hurting, trying to fit letters in the small space provided by Seyes' ruling first line.

 

The gliding sensation of the fountain pens on smooth paper relaxed my grip and also gave me the freedom to take notes all day long.

 

I grew up with Parker Jotters users with extremely small handwriting and was made fun of all the time because of my big handwriting.

Even a teacher, using an outline I made with a notebook oriented portrait style (due to the cheap paper the outline was written with colored pencils in really big letters) showed it to the class and had a laugh at my expense. I told him that the prep work for an essay was homework. He also told us that we had the freedom to write the outlines anyway we wanted to, so I did.

 

 

 

Now I enjoy my handwriting and my bold nibs and look forward to buy my first BB and BBB nibs as soon as I find a way to do so.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Anne-Sophie

[Newtown]

They use them to shout to all others how incredibly LARGE they are.

 

Your large-font exclamation brings to mind those obnoxious bumber stickers whose pen version would probably read something like: "My other pen is a MontBlanc"

I could imagine a bumper stick that says:

 

"My other pen is a Mont Blanc, a Parker, a Waterman, a Lamy......."

Edited December 5, 2008 by Newtown

[Coyotebd]

I'd love to see some examples

[gyasko]

B is my favourite width. There are a couple reasons for this. First, what i write with B nibs is much easier to read. I write letters, notes, and compose with B width nibs. They are also smoother and give more shading. I even write Japanese with them. (Just write bigger, people!) What's not to like?

[penmanila]

i use a BB for signatures. the only problem is, the ink takes longer to dry!

[RevAaron]

gyasko: I'm inclined to disagree, actually- I get better shading in finer nibs than with big ball broad nibs, at least in modern pens with plastic feeds. Omas pens, and others with ebonite feeds, seem to give good shading at any size, but my experience with the wider plastic-feed-fed pens has been more like using a marker. With a stub or flex I can get some interesting shading, even with a plastic feed. My experience, at least.