Are Smooth Nibs The Best?

[akustyk]

I prefer a bit of feedback of the kind where you can "feel" the paper through the nib. I appreciate buttery smooth nibs, but they're not my favorite: a good example is my Opera Elements, which is sooooo smooth, almost too smooth.

[guilhermejf]

I like feedback, as long as it is not unpleasant.

 

It is a bit similar to table tennis blades: some are so fast that you can't feel what you are doing at all, you just see the ball going fast. Others give you some vibrational feedback, without being unpleasant, giving more control.

[Joker4Eva]

Think I'm still on the amateurish side of things, liking my nibs to be as smooth as they can be. I mean, why get a writing equipment which writes like a ballpoint but costs so much more? I just feel a smooth nib takes writing from a chore to a level of luxury, and that's what I would pay for.

But then again, to each, his (or her!) own!

[humsin]

Think I'm still on the amateurish side of things, liking my nibs to be as smooth as they can be. I mean, why get a writing equipment which writes like a ballpoint but costs so much more? I just feel a smooth nib takes writing from a chore to a level of luxury, and that's what I would pay for.

But then again, to each, his (or her!) own!

 

smooth is a mark of quality

feedback is a feel of luxury

[Joker4Eva]

smooth is a mark of quality

feedback is a feel of luxury

 

But, but, I get feedback from my 2.50 USD Pilot Shaker Mechanical Pencil too! :embarrassed_smile:

[iamchum]

I think controlled feedback is what humsin is trying to say haha.

[ethernautrix]

Except there's not enough air on Mars to have a fire, and a heat wave is still cold enough to make the butter hard.

 

OOO! SCIENCE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:-D

[ethernautrix]

Think I'm still on the amateurish side of things, liking my nibs to be as smooth as they can be. I mean, why get a writing equipment which writes like a ballpoint but costs so much more? I just feel a smooth nib takes writing from a chore to a level of luxury, and that's what I would pay for.

But then again, to each, his (or her!) own!

 

smooth is a mark of quality

feedback is a feel of luxury

 

Nice, humsin.

 

Joker4Eva -- None of my fountain pens writes like a ballpoint, ha ha ha. That's cray-cray.

[Mags]

I prefer a nib that is smooth and which gives a tiny level of friction feedback from the paper. I dislike nib noise and so my preference for smooth nibs.

[Doraemon_nobita]

People tend to put "scratchiness", "tooth", "feedback", "drag", "slipperyness" and "smoothness" on the same continuum. It ain't necessarily so.

Scratchiness is caused by a sharp edge or corner on the nib that scrapes the surface of the paper. Most people dislike this form of feedback. As a sharp edge is ground away, a nib will progress from scratchy to toothy.

Tooth is caused by the nib geometry following the texture of the paper. Finer nibs and coarser paper make for more tooth. Some people prefer this form of feedback over scratchiness. Grinding away the tooth makes a nib smooth.

Drag is caused by friction between the paper and the nib. A nib can be very smooth and still have a lot of drag. Drag is shown by nibs with coarse scratches on the writing surface and/or by a lack of ink lubricity. As coarse scratches are polished away, a nib becomes slippery. Polished to a mirror-like surface a nib can drag again. Glass nibs that have been fire polished tend to have excessive drag. Drag is the least objectionable form of feedback.

 

As a new user of fountain pen, these terms are indeed very confusing. Thank you so much for the detail explanations and I believe my EF nibs is actually toothy not scratchy. And I can also tell the differences on the toothness in different papers.

Cheers

Stephen

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Whether smooth nibs are really the best depends on the type of nib we have. Some nibs are meant to be somewhat sharper. It depends on the profile they are supposed to have. While not all nibs are buttery smooth, they generally are made so that when used properly, they don't shred the paper or cut into it like a sharp knife. Some have a little tooth or feedback as part of their design. Some vintage nibs and some flexible nibs as well as micro italics and sharper italics are like this. I like those nibs when doing calligraphy and lettering because they make very crisp lines, but for my daily use, all my pens have rounder nibs that are very smooth.

 

Dillon

[Bo Bo Olson]

Large rant removed.

 

You may micro-mesh your Chinese or modern pen...out side Italian, as you wish.... to 'greasy slick as popcorn butter on the tile floor' smooth.

 

Please don't grind a nib made before 1998.

 

It could well be that nib was designed to be good and smooth, with a touch of feel built in.

 

You would be surprised how good even cheap paper, much less typewriter paper was back before 1980's.

 

Paper makes such a difference to how a nib feels. Could be as odd as it sounds to the butter smooth only brigade, how different different nib, paper and ink combos can feel.

Some times you want to feel the expensive paper you bought.

 

Of course you don't ever have to buy any good to better paper.

Can get by with only supersaturated Eel ink too. That will help turn your nib into butter smooth.

 

 

Many go to grinding their nib into butter smooth before even thinking about getting a solid sampling of good to better paper.

 

Yep, ground it butter smooth like my sharpie.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

Don't grind them unless you know what you are doing. Every nib has a distinct profile, made before 1998 or not. Some people really damage nibs by trying to make them buttery smooth and by smoothening without knowing what they are actually doing. I have had to repair large numbers of these pens that were damaged by this. Many times they can be restored to their former glory. Sometimes, the problem is too extreme to fix without retipping. Many pens that catch the paper can be ground extremely slightly to keep them from shredding paper without any appreciable changes in the feedback characteristics and other characteristics the nib is supposed to have. Micro rounding of knife sharp edges can provide a crisp line with feedback without any paper shredding. This is how very sharp and crisp italics and some needlepoint nibs work as well as flexible nibs.

 

The problem with people trying to smoothen their nibs is often that they don't know what they are doing and destroy their nib in the process. It happens a lot. Sometimes they are, without knowing it, making knife sharp edges on their nibs in all the wrong places. You can use Micromesh on vintage nibs, but only with experience. I use Micromesh for surface finishing and polishing, not grinding. I never grind nibs on micro mesh. Don't use it to smoothen nibs.

 

Before you touch a nib, see how it is. Some nibs are meant to have feedback. Don't go grinding nibs just because you can. Many nibs are damaged because they are misunderstood, not because they are bad to begin with.

 

Dillon

[goyo]

Personally, I vote for fairly toothy and not too wet.

 

I write a lot and my handwriting is much better with a toothy nib. I have a few pens that are very smooth and don't seem to use them that much. As a matter of fact, a couple of them are well to the scratchy side of toothy, and I use those all the time.

[Runnin_Ute]

Just fooling around with the few pens I have, my perception of the amount of feedback/toothiness isn't just the pen.

 

It is a combination of the pen, the ink and the paper - if any one of the three is less than ideal it is going to affect the amount of feedback or tooth. My AL Star (F) is toothier on all the papers I tried than either of my Phileas' (F & M). I used 90gsm black n red notebook pages, copy/multifunction paper (75 gsm), 90 gsm Southworth Granite Specialty paper and a cheap ($1.00) Composition book I picked up at OfficeMax. (this was a Made in Brazil version)

 

In other words, it is never JUST the pen. I like a little, but a lot? not so much. My medium nibbed Phileas is the smoothest of the three by far.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Dillon...

 

By god I got to learn how to link...that is what I wanted to say, said so much better than I could.

 

Some folks and many noobies relate feed back to bad.

 

I have a six gear Mazda MX-5, when I take it into the mountain twisties with the 70-90-130-180 degree turns, I really use my gears, (feed back) and have a hell of a good time...the reason I bought that car instead of an Autobahn 'butter smooth' car.

 

An automatic just would not do for me in the mountain twisties....yes, it is possible to be standing on the breaks a lot to get up and down a mountain....but what fun would that be?????

Edited January 28, 2013 by Bo Bo Olson

[FoszFay]

A perfectly smooth nib to me is one which has feedback to the touch but none to the ears.

 

I prefer a smooth nib but to much of something is always bad.

 

Tom.

[liapuyat]

I like a nib that is smooth enough not to snag paper in any direction, but still allows me to feel the paper I am writing on. So yes, a little feedback is good. (And of course I would like the ink flow to be somewhat wet.)

[trauha]

I see a lot of posts where people talk a lot about how wonderfully smooth a nib is. Phrases like "buttery smooth."

 

This somethine we seem to like, generally, but at the same time, is it necessary?

 

For example, I have a nib on a vintage pen from the 1940's which is a noisy writer and is definitely not smooth, and can be scratchy on the upstroke. BUT, my writing with this pen is the best by far. My other pens, many of which are really smooth writers, can't seem to give me such a good hand. These are with nibs varying from EF, F, B, BB, and stub, as well as an Italic caligraphy pen. And pens from Pelikan, Waterman, Parker, Pilot VP, and others.

 

Does anyone else find this to be a similar trait?

 

Exactly what my experience is!

If there is no 'tooth' I can't tell as quickly from the sound or the feel (which are quicker than the eye, as any musician knows) when your nib is on paper and when it is off paper. Hence with some texture in the feedback I can write much faster a better and clearer hand. The smoothest nibs glide as if on air. So no way to know when you have lift off.

Edited October 17, 2014 by trauha

[Tas]

For drawing, I'd prefer a perfectly "buttery smooth" nib and a very wet nib which glides all over the place with no control, but for writing I actually prefer the same type of nib but with a lower than average very wet nib.

 

How strange, for me it's the other way around . . .