Comparing Pilot Emperor #50 nib to Sailor KOP B nib feel?

[arcfide]

I've thought about picking up the gorgeous Namiki #50 Emperor nib in Broad lately, as I love the idea of a classic eyedropper of gargantuan proportions and a huge nib with simple design (black or black with gold trim) and massive ink capacity. However, for a standard everyday nib feel, I have to admit that I've fallen in love with the Sailor and Platinum nibs, and the Sailor KOP B nib that I have is absolutely superb. I've picked up a number of different Pilot ground nibs from their basic steel line to their 912 series of nibs and such, but if I'm totally honest with myself, each time I pick one of these nibs up, it feels...off. They seem well ground and correctly tuned, but the feeling just comes of somewhat less refined than that of Platinum or Sailor for some reason. 

 

Given that I don't have a Pilot #50 nib to test, I'm a little concerned that if I picked up such a nib, and it felt like the rest of the Pilot nib grinds (the best I can describe it is that it feels almost like a glass smooth polish that translates into a rougher ride over the paper, almost like it lacks attenuation, yes, that's the right word, unattenuated) that I would end up not using it much because I liked the feel of my Platinum's or Sailor's more, and nothing would make me more annoyed than having a nice pen that I didn't have a use for inking up regularly. 

 

Can anyone share their experiences with the B nib in Pilot's #50 lineup or other equivalent grinds relative to the Sailor KOP B nib in 21k or the Platinum nibs?

[Maki-eMagic]

I think this is a little tricky because it sounds like you know exactly what you do and don't like, and I'd say that describing pilot as lacking attenuation is a detailed and nuanced perception of a nib which makes it very personal/individual and the advice of others less likely to be representative of you.

 

Anyway for what its worth, I'm big into Emperors and have also Platinum, they are obviously very different writing experiences. The Namiki broads for a start are much wider than the Platinum broads, I'd say nearly a whole size difference although they are not especially broad by western pen standards - the Platinum broad kicks in at about a western medium for me. The Namikis have just a little feedback but mostly the experience is smooth and wet, the Emperor size nibs have a lot more bounce in them than the regular Namikis found in the Art, Yukari and some of the Chinkin ranges, and for me that also gives the 50s a little more feel - the hardness of the smaller nibs is more evident. When comparing a small Namiki with an equally sized Platinum the hardness is similar just as an attribute of the size of the nib, and the key difference is the pencil-like feedback of the Platinum versus the smooth and wetter Namiki.

 

For me an Emperor in Medium is my favourite writing experience but I think from the above that it is likelier that you would encounter a larger bouncier and better tuned version of the same experience you've already identified as not liking. The good news of course is that next to the cost of any Emperor pen, the price of getting it tuned to your specifications is quite small by comparison, so in this case I'd get the black Urushi 50 (one of which I have - great pens for work with that giant ink capacity but also elegant and understated) and find an nibmeister who immediately understands the way you are describing the nib and knows physically what is causing your experience and how to adjust it to something you'd like better. Until reasonably recently the Urushi 50 line was a good deal cheaper so this is one of the Namikis that you will occasionally find on sale or at a significantly cheaper rate.

[arcfide]

Hrm, thanks for that. At least that suggests that the Namiki nibs are consistent with the rest of the Pilot lineup in terms of their polish and grind "technique" if you will. That helps a bit, and I can extrapolate the extra bounce easily enough in my head. I wonder just how close to a Sailor-like grind a nibmeister could come with the #50 nib? I do know that sometimes you just can't replicate the feel of one nib in another because they're just fundamentally too different. That would require some pretty subtle work to get something that was "just as desirable, but different." 

[jandrese]

Maki-eMagic said most of what needs to be said. I have two more cents FWIW.

 

To me, Platinum nibs offer a more consistent writing experience out of the box than Sailor or Pilot. This is splitting hairs because they are all so well made and so different from each other. There is no way a #50 nib can be anything like a Sailor KOP nib. Material, shape, size, feed, and attached pen are radically different. In general, Sailor nibs have some tooth or feel/feedback on paper. Not rough but, well, Sailor. Namiki nibs are not like that and since they are fundamentally different I can't fathom them being made to be the same. It would be like forcing a left arm to be a right arm. 

 

My favorite Platinum nib is the cosu/coarse/C nib. It's fat and luxurious. Kind of like a Sailor Zoom only more consistently broad than the zoom, which is strongly angle dependent.