The difference between a stub nib and a calligraphy nib?

[EMM]

My friend shown me his stub nib and I noticed it looks just like any other calligraphy nib.

 

Are the names for these pens ambiguous or do they have variable performance?

 

[jar]

Yes, the names can be ambiguous and often misapplied. Historically a stub or signature nib was pretty much just that. It was a flat ended broad nib designed to make pretty signatures.

[Yuki Onitsura]

They are often misapplied, but from what I've read elsewhere on FPN, a stub nib is pretty much an italic nib that doesn't give quite as crisp a line but is thus smoother. If I'm wrong, someone feel free to correct me.

 

Yuki

[Chthulhu]

http://www.nibs.com/FAQDifferenceBetweenNibsAnswer.htm :-)

[Tsujigiri]

They are often misapplied, but from what I've read elsewhere on FPN, a stub nib is pretty much an italic nib that doesn't give quite as crisp a line but is thus smoother. If I'm wrong, someone feel free to correct me.

 

Yuki

 

Yep, that's my understanding as well. Of course, for ideal calligraphy, you want the crispest edges you can get, so any fountain pen isn't ideal. A dip pen works the best for that; I personally use the Speedball C-series ones.

[PAKMAN]

Stubs can give line variation but not as much as italic nibs. The stub is broad but has rounded corners. The Italic nib has a sharper corners and the Crisp Italic has an even sharper corners. All can be used for producing Calligraphy.

[encephalartos]

Stubs can give line variation but not as much as italic nibs. The stub is broad but has rounded corners. The Italic nib has a sharper corners and the Crisp Italic has an even sharper corners. All can be used for producing Calligraphy.

 

In most of this thread, it sounds to me like "calligraphy" is being used as a synonym for

italic. Italic is only one kind of calligraphy, so there are other nibs, including extremely narrow

flex nibs that are needed to do other styles of calligraphy, such as Spencerian. Some of these

special nibs and pens are more likely to be dip nibs, not fountain pens.

 

One of the purposes of the stub nib is for making large, bold signatures. The rounded corners

allow signing faster than when using a very sharp-cornered italic nib.

[Gran]

<a href="http://www.nibs.com/FAQDifferenceBetweenNibsAnswer.htm" target="_blank">http://www.nibs.com/FAQDifferenceBetweenNibsAnswer.htm</a> :-)

 

Thank you for the link at nibs.com. I've wondered about those differences myself.

 

Edited to add: All right, so the quotes don't work right yet. Here's the link again:

 

http://www.nibs.com/FAQDifferenceBetweenNibsAnswer.htm

Edited September 13, 2009 by Gran

[FrankB]

Encephalartos' comment is accurate. "Calligraphy" as an art can utilize a wide variety of nibs, and even different mediums like brushes, bamboo styluses, etc. For future searches and questions, it will likely be more productive to use the term "italic," unless you do indeed need information on calligraphy.

 

Personally, I use both stub and italic nibs for daily writing, including signatures. Although factory stub nibs are often based on that company's B nib, stubs can be ground in F, M, B and even BB widths. Even with minimal line variation, a stub nib can be very pleasantly smooth on paper and produce more stable letters than a regular ball nib. For greater line variation, an italic nib is more to the point.

Edited September 13, 2009 by FrankB

[Silvermink]

There's no such thing as a "calligraphy nib", really - just varying sharpnesses of italics as others have mentioned, stub being the smoothest of those.