My First Stub

[Tseg]

I finally bought my first Stub and oh, what a stub it is. Its beautiful, smooth, springy... just a wonderful writing experience, even if I currently lack the skill to use it properly. These Leonardo MomentoZero's really are all that and a box of chocolates. I'm smitten.

 

How long were you into fountain pens before you got your 1st stub? What was your reaction?

 

[mana]

Hmmmm... as I had experienced italic pens/nibs (think of rOtring Art Pens and italic markers) pretty early on I didn't consider them anything special as a kid. I think I liked them, I just remember using them and practicing things like Uncial and Tengwar. Was pretty much into the thinnest japanese markers available then for doing really small art pieces or writing. Think of a highly detailed 2x2 cm drawing that looked amazing when blown to A4 size using a copier.

Then when I found fountain pens again (late 90s) I first leaned towards very thin nibs, then flexy thin nibs... stubs & italic nibs re-emerged to my consciousness later, I think with the rOtring Art Pen (1.1mm italic nib) some ten years ago. I fell in love how my handwriting looked with it. Then way later (five or so years ago?) I ran into my first broader vintage Pelikan nib (which are actually more closer to cursive italics). Now those are really cool and with flex to boot although I rarely flex them at all.

Those vintage B/BB/BBB nibs in Pelikan 100N and 400-series pens are pretty much the ultimate ones for me. They flex when required, are smooth and provide great line variation without any pressure at all. Great writers even for people with not so super light hand and who like to write fluidly/fast... I know I can get my kicks with other nibs too (like pretty much any stub/CI/italic steel nib that is 1.0 - 1.3 mm wide) but yeah, you know when a thing is the thing for you.

[Driften]

My first real fountain pens were in 2008. I had a couple of school pens when I was a kid but really started for real then. I first tried a stub last year and loved it. None of my stubs are currently inked up right now, but its from being able to write faster with round nibs then stubs. I save the stubs for special needs.

[TheDutchGuy]

...its from being able to write faster with round nibs then stubs.

+1. I'm still learning to write at a brisk pace _and_ neatly with broader stubs. I re-ground my Leonardo 1.5 stub to a 0.9 and it turned out great for everyday writing. All my stubs wider than 1.1 are for special purposes.

[Driften]

+1. I'm still learning to write at a brisk pace _and_ neatly with broader stubs. I re-ground my Leonardo 1.5 stub to a 0.9 and it turned out great for everyday writing. All my stubs wider than 1.1 are for special purposes.

 

 

It's not that I can't write faster when I use them, but when using stubs and CI's my mind focuses on making my writing look nice and it takes my focus away from just getting ideas down. It also happens a little with more flexible nibs, but to a lesser extent. I do love them, just not when taking notes in a hurry. Which reminds me, I should send my B Lamy 2000 off for a regrind to a CI.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I got spoiled ...I'd been a One Man, One Pen for 40 years....well the pen was locked up on a life sentence in my wife's Jewelry Jail...............until I did a jail break.

My hand full of inherited pens were German '50's....and I hadn't realized that they were all factory stubs....thought it was shade tree mechanics.

I just thought they were the 'wet writers' that it seemed to the noobie here, everyone wanted......not realizing semi-flex is a wet writing nib.

 

Then I got my 'first' semi-flex stub a Pelikan 140 and found out the the German pens I had were semi-flex stubs ......as a 'noobie' one can be rather ignorant.

 

Have fun...........and remember German nibs of the '50-70s are stubs and semi-flex.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[penzel_washinkton]

My first stub was a recently purchased TWSBI GO and out of surprise (since I am a hardcore fine line user) I enjoyed using a stub nib.

Gives flair to my writing that I couldn't even imagine.

[ENewton]

I took me more than 20 years to get my first stub. It was a Monteverde 1.1, and I didn't like it very much, because it felt dry and particularly stiff. It was also too wide for my handwriting, for any application other than marking the address on a parcel.

 

Then I came upon a set of old Shaeffer calligraphy pens that my daughter had received as a birthday gift in the mid 1990s and found them more pleasant to use, especially the fine one, which I could use for normal writing, except that it was still a bit too wide, and I realized I'd like something crisper. I began to wonder about cursive italics and eventually bought one last year, as an option with a prototype pen from Peyton Street Pens in Santa Cruz, California. I love it; it is one of pens I use most often.

 

In the meantime, I also acquired a vintage Parker Duofold Junior, which I've never heard characterized as a stub, but which writes similarly to the one fine cursive italic I have tried. It is also one of my favorite nibs.

[A Smug Dill]

How long were you into fountain pens before you got your 1st stub?

Do you mean a nib that was expressly marked/sold as being a Stub nib? If so, that'd be some eighteen or nineteen years since I bought my first fountain pen with my own money.

 

What was your reaction?

The output was interesting, but frankly the nib is far less transformative or transcendent for my handwriting than some others here seem to think (or portray) stub nibs and/or 'flex' nibs automatically give flair to, or make art out of, one's normal handwriting. I mean, yes, a nib with stub-like qualities tend to make my handwriting come out looking a bit reminiscent of graffiti done with broad marker pens, and that can be quite pleasing aesthetically while being different, but I had some far finer (as in narrower) nibs that also made wider downstrokes than sideway strokes and have much the same effect on a smaller scale — and I liked it better when it's observed/observable when I write in what is the regular size for my handwriting.

 

It's only when I'm really trying to write in an italic hand that I think a Stub or Italic nib is indispensable. (I have used broad-edged nibs on dip pens long before that, just not on fountain pens.)

 

I now have six pens with Stub nibs (and some spare FPR #5.5 Stub nibs to swap into my other FPR Himalaya pens if I want to), and in fact just received one of them in the post two days ago. I like using them sometimes, but it certainly isn't one of those things where I'd think or say, "You've got to try it! You don't know what writing with a fountain pen is until you've written with a Stub (or Italic, or 'flex') nib."

[Bo Bo Olson]

stub + semi-flex = great flair to one's writing....with out doing anything. One of the reasons I like my '50-70 era German pens.

27 semi-flex @ 16 maxi-semi-flex and some 16 obliques in both flexes and in 15 & 30 degree grinds.; I have OBB, OB, OM&OF.....................one OBBB that is a pure signature nib on a Pelikan 500, in a legal signature is 2/3rds to 3/4ths of a page.

My Manuscript BBBB is just for making headings. It is of course a stub.

 

I have a Parker Vac with a nail BB factory stub. An Australian Snorkel maxi-semi-flex factory BB stub.

Francis turned my 605 BB into a butter smooth 1.0 stub. (Before stubbing it I had a early '50's B nib in it...That nib is as I have said a stubbed semi-flex. )