Does anyone collect pens with just one type of nib?

[Denny M]

Curious if anyone exclusively collects pens with just one type of nib eg fine nibs only or medium nibs only etc. So in other words all your pens have the same kind of nib.

 

Or does your collection have a heavy preference towards one kind of nib?

Edited February 4, 2010 by Denny M

[ExcaliburZ]

I have a preference for small nibs but each brand is different. My Cross ATX and Parker Urban are XF nibs, Lamy Vista is F and I have a Lamy Safari with a 1.5 calligraphy nib.

[HDoug]

Interesting question. I just noticed that most of my pens are fitted with .5mm cursive italics by Richard Binder. I seem to have settled on that as "my" nib. I also have a bunch of inexpensive Lamy AL-Star nibs that I ground myself. I tried to emulate Mr. Binder's work, but my method is more variable so I have a few stubs and at least one sharp italic, but all centering around .5mm.

 

Doug

[eilu]

All my pens that I've bought for myself are F nibs. I have three that aren't (M nib), but they were gifts. I prefer F nibs.

[Doug Add]

When I first started using fountain pens a little over 12 years ago I bought medium nibs. The fine nibs I tried did not suit my writing at all. I went through several stages of experimentation: broad nibs, flex nibs, stub/italic nibs.

 

Now all but a handful of my pens have fine nibs. This transformation came about as I moved more to vintage pens, which in my experience usually have fine nibs. The only non-fine nib pens I have are medium nibs that write on the fine side of medium (Namiki, Aurora).

[Ghost Plane]

Since my pens are all users, the nib sizes that suit me are B, BB, OBB, stub, and IB depending on the pen brand. I buy them to write with. The oooooooooooooo, pretty is what attracts me, but they must have my nib.

[sallywally]

+1 on that but with XF, XXF nibs .. and semiflex, stub, italic sometimes.

[reprieve]

Most of my pens have broad, BB, or broad italic nibs. I also regularly enjoy flexible nibs, especially vintage flex. I do use other nib sizes, although less frequently--for example, I find a use for fine or XF nibs occasionally, but, since I use them less often, I don't keep many of those around.

[flodoc]

I generally prefer fine nibs, but these can range from XF to M, depending on manufacturer. Over time I have come to like what I would characterize as F-M or Fine-Medium. Since nib grades are not standardized, it is hit or miss for me as I must buy pens online rather than in a brick and mortar store. I also have several Parker 75s with B, OB, OM, OF and IF nibs simply for the variety. I also have a couple of Duofold Internationals with italic nibs. I usually have to tinker with flow on medium nibs to keep the line from becoming too broad. My cursive loops are not expansive enough for me to be comfortable with anything broader than a medium.

[Edgar Allan Bo]

I allways thought I prefer OB/OBB/B/BB stubs but I'm still bying EF/F/M nibs... it depends on my mood what I'm using, for each type of nib I use a different handwriting style...

[rogerb]

Since my pens are all users, the nib sizes that suit me are B, BB, OBB, stub, and IB depending on the pen brand. I buy them to write with. The oooooooooooooo, pretty is what attracts me, but they must have my nib.

 

If it is not 'Classified', I'd be interested to know what you write, GP ....(clearly it is 'LOTS')? Do you have large handwriting?

 

I use different widths for different jobs....F/XF to get lots on postcards, and Broad Stubs when I have an expanse of nice A3, unlined, to fill with chat to my friends, F/Med/B Stub for note-taking. Obliques don't suit me.....I'd like to try BBs and larger some time ...have tried calligraphy nibs.

[Parkermaniac]

Almost all of my pens are mediums. I have tried many others and they don't do it for me like a medium nib does.

 

-Nate

[View from the Loft]

Two Parkers with medium italic nibs, one Lamy 1.5 italic, one Parker with broad italic (but it gives the same line width as the two mediums) and one Conway Stewart sold to me as an italic, but to me it's more like a stub (but I still like it).

 

Give me an italic any day, preferably on the crisp side of cursive.

[Pfhorrest]

Absolutely not, I like to collect a wide range of nibs.

[WillSW]

The finer the better for me, so all my users are EF, EEF, EEEF, BEEF, etc. I do like to have a stub around, and am interested in eventually getting a very fine stub from some nibmeister.

 

(Just kidding on the BEEF)

[mfrank]

I would say that my the vast majority of my recent acquisitions have fine (vintage or Asian) or extra-fine (modern Western) nibs. I realized that anything in my collection with a nib wider than that just plain doesn't get used, so I started buying only fines.

 

Marc

[FP Writing]

I have greater preference for Fine nibs from Japan pen makers.

As the nibs tend to be soft and most would allow for some flex.

 

I was thinking of writing a little thot on the fine nib from Platinum

[Arts11]

I have [had?] a heavy preference towards Japanese Fine-nibbed pens, but that's started to change. I started out trying out different sized/styled nibs, but quickly settled on Japanese F nibs. Now, I've started to branch out again into different sized/styled nibs, though I still put a priority on practicality [ie- being able to use the nib as an "everyday" writer].

[gyasko]

Now, I've started to branch out again into different sized/styled nibs, though I still put a priority on practicality [ie- being able to use the nib as an "everyday" writer].

 

Me too. That's why i go for the wider tips.

[Arts11]

Now, I've started to branch out again into different sized/styled nibs, though I still put a priority on practicality [ie- being able to use the nib as an "everyday" writer].

 

Me too. That's why i go for the wider tips.

Yeah, I've been using my broader nibbed pens a lot more lately [they're only Western F/M's, but that's still significantly broader than the Japanese XF/F's I'm used to]. Partly it's because my broader nibs write more "pronounced" and easily distinguishable lines [which makes it easier to read against ruled paper], and partly it's because the feeling while writing is different [it's not really about smoothness as all the pens I use are smooth enough for me, but my broader nibs just have a different feel to them that I've been liking recently].