Pilot Custom 823 Med Vs. Broad

[park]

I have a 823 in a fine that I find a too dry for me, so after agonizing over Med vs. Broad, I went ahead and ordered a Broad.

 

Received today, dip tested with Asa-Gao and... I'm kicking myself for not going with a medium.

 

This thing is too much nib for me. Tooooo smooth, broad, and wet.

 

Anything I can do to adjust? (I've never tinkered with pens before)

 

Anyone have a Medium and a Broad? Which do you prefer?

 

Think I can sell this thing for $215 and get a medium?

 

I'm so sad. :-(

[YugiRider2]

People often say that Japanese nib sizes are approximately one size finer. This is not true with Pilot nibs. Pilot M and B nibs are more like FM and MB nibs. According to nibs.com, the M nib has a tipping of 0.55mm, while Western fines generally has a tipping size of 0.4mm. A western Broad will usually have a tipping of 0.7mm or 0.65mm so a Pilot M is about a MF.

I have a Pilot Custom 823 in M and it essentially writes like a Western medium except a tiny bit finer, so treat Pilot M and B nibs as Western M and B which are slightly finer. I have a M and it writes fairly broad for a Japanese M and it is it the perfect nib width as I find western Fines too fine and mediums too broad.

TL;DR, yes a Pilot Broad will be as you described. Try selling it and buy a medium. You may be able to sell it for around $180.

Edited October 15, 2015 by YugiRider2

[Bo Bo Olson]

Why not see if you can send it back and get a narrower nib put on it for free. Pelikan allows you 5 weeks to do such, MB also.

[mulrich]

I got an 845 with a B nib recently and feel the same way. I'm debating if/when to sell this one and get a narrower nib. I like the metropolitan M nib width but I'm worried the 823/845 M will be wider so I may go with an F.

[park]

Thanks @Yugi for the tip. I should've posted for help BEFORE I bought!!! All that information is great to know and I'll keep it in mind for future purchases.

 

@BoBo - Not sure if Pilot does that but I'll definitely look into it to see!

 

@Mulrich - In my opinion, the F 823 is much much finer than the Metropolitan M - maybe you should make a post in the Japan forum before you buy and get some more opinions. I'm wishing I'd done so - but I haven't been on in years and was too lazy to retrieve passwords and all that. I'll probably end up selling and replacing my 823 B... eventually.

[mulrich]

 

@Mulrich - In my opinion, the F 823 is much much finer than the Metropolitan M - maybe you should make a post in the Japan forum before you buy and get some more opinions. I'm wishing I'd done so - but I haven't been on in years and was too lazy to retrieve passwords and all that. I'll probably end up selling and replacing my 823 B... eventually.

 

 

I asked the Japan Forum a similar question once and they directed me towards Goulet's nib comparison tool. Your opinion is really helpful because Goulet doesn't include the 845 so I used the 823 for comparison. From these samples it seemed like the 823 F was about the same as the MR M but it sounds like that might not be the case in practice.

 

[jmccarty3]

Think about another alternative: send your 823 Broad to a nibmeister to have it ground into a stub or oblique nib.

[park]

Think about another alternative: send your 823 Broad to a nibmeister to have it ground into a stub or oblique nib.

 

Yup. I'm mulling over that too. I have a few pens Mike Matsuyama worked on for me and I love them. But it gets pricey and I've got a long list of other pens I want to buy...

 

Maybe I'll try to catch him at a pen show. I've been wanting to check one out for the longest time but life always gets in the way!

[FOUR X FOUR]

My 823 is a medium. A broad is too wide for me

[FOUR X FOUR]

.

[eloquentogre]

My 823 is a Waverly, which is about a medium fine. It's got a slight vertical stub sort of shape where horizontal strokes are slightly broader than vertical, and it works really nicely to add a hint of extra character to my writing. I had a fine, but it was a bad nib, one tine longer than the other, so impossible to make non-scratchy without serious regrinding. After a long run of bad fine nibs I just threw up my hands in frustration and was going to order a medium, but saw that I could get waverly nibs too (at japanship-quill.com) and figured what the hell. I came out on top with it, getting a great nib, perfectly shaped, smooth and fine enough for me to write "e" instead of a blob. If I couldn't get a waverly, I'd probably go medium, only because I feel extremely apprehensive about getting anything finer on non vintage pens. It seems like quality control on such nibs now is nonexistant - I know I've just had really bad luck, but I'm disabled now and trying to just survive on a fixed income for the most part, I can't afford to just keep burning money on return shipping til I get lucky. It sucks, but such is life.