Audrey Matteson's SIG Nibs

[silverlifter]

I recently picked up two of Franklin-Christoph's HPS SIG nibs, ground by Audrey Matteson, in <F> and <M>. I haven't had the opportunity to try one of Jim Rouse's originals, but it is obvious that Audrey's grinds are quite exceptional.

 

Having previously stuck to Cursive Italics, by Mark Bacas, Gena Salorino, and Pablo Carassco, I was looking forward to giving the SIG nibs a spin. They most certainly did not disappoint. Both nibs were exemplary out of the box: crisp enough for delightfully delicate horizontals, and yet smooth enough for quick scribbling on different qualities of paper. Most importantly, both put down a wet line, so the nib feels quite lubricated when turning on the page. I should note that I have only inked each nib with iron galls, which tend to write a little drier anyway, but the experience writing with them is simply wonderful.

 

I have only two regrets. One, that Franklin-Christoph only seems to offer these SIG grinds on their High Performance Steel Nibs, and not the 14k ones (although, given their stellar customer service, it may just be a question of asking), and the more substantive one: that Audrey only works on FC nibs: I would dearly love to send her one or two of my other pens to put this grind on.

 

[kmonroe99]

I just placed an order at FC including a 14k SIG Grind.  They sent me the following instructions:

"Since the SIG grind is our own in house custom grind, we do offer it on 14k. 

When you place your order online, select the 14k nib with the tip size you want. Then immediately send me an email with the order requesting the SIG grind. I will email you an invoice for the $20 upcharge for the SIG. 

Once paid, we'll get your order processed."

[silverlifter]

Thanks: good to have that confirmed. How do you like the nib?

[jandrew]

 

Sadly, my experience with SIG EF grinds from Audrey was less than stellar: one that came installed in a pen required some tuning to be just ok, and the other (just a nib unit) was completely unusable --- badly misaligned and visible grind marks on the actual writing surface under a loupe, like it was accidentally taken from a discard pile.

 

On the plus side, the Nagahara needlepoint from them is one of my favorites.

[silverlifter]

1 hour ago, jandrew said:

Sadly, my experience with SIG EF grinds from Audrey was less than stellar

 

Did you contact FC, and did they make it right?

[jandrew]

Just now, silverlifter said:

 

Did you contact FC, and did they make it right?

I did not ... I figured if this was the kind of work that went out (twice) with the signed card of their in-house nibmeister, I simply wasn't interested in wasting time on any back & forth on the chance of getting better examples of her work. I moved on.