Nib Sizes Available for Chinese and Other Asian Pens

[Gr8lakeson]

I want to begin by saying I love almost all of the Asian pens I have picked up over the years, especially the last few, when more and more have become available on multiple platforms. That said, I am always disappointed in the range and choice of nib styles.  I have written directly to a number of manufacturers and while they sympathize with my desire to see broad, stub or oblique nibs, they aren't moved any closer to satisfying that interest. At pen shows and chat rooms I have heard a number of people echo my interest, especially with the huge demand in the US for big nibs and big bold lines in the great rainbow of inks now available. To my knowledge, only TWSBI has addressed this issue and responded to the market, which has caused my to go for a lot of their products.  Has anyone else addressed this? Is there a way to get other nibs into pens after I buy them? I have a number of nice writing and looking Hong Dian and Jinhao pens, among others.  To me it seems their nibs are all fastened to the section and are therefore not readily swap-able.  Anyway, I would appreciate any hope, insight or answers the community might be able to offer. Thanks in advance.

[A Smug Dill]

 

15 hours ago, Gr8lakeson said:

Is there a way to get other nibs into pens after I buy them? I have a number of nice writing and looking Hong Dian and Jinhao pens, among others.  To me it seems their nibs are all fastened to the section and are therefore not readily swap-able.

 

HongDian definitely uses interchangeable, self-contained nib-and-feed units that can be screwed out of the nib sections, on any number of its pen models including the 1850 (aka Black Forest and Birch Forest) and 1851 (which most Western buyers think of as "Forest" models in other colours), 6013, 517D, etc.

 

Delike uses interchangeable, self-contained nib-and-feed units for any number of its pen models.

 

Moonman, too.

 

PenBBS, too, which you can buy as standalone retail products from its official Etsy store (and sellers on some other market platforms). You can also build your own out of the spare parts PenBBS sells.

 

I have a whole bunch of Jinhao 992 pens here with interchangeable broad-edged ‘Italic’ nibs of different widths. I can confirm that these use screw-in nib units.

 

Opus 88 pen models can be ordered with Broad or Stub nibs. Standalone nib units can be bought as retail products. (I bought one for my Opus 88 Picnic pens.)

 

Fine Writing International uses screw-in nib units for its Planet series pens, and I'll assume also for its Bronze Age and Fenestro series.

 

I've put Pilot steel nibs harvested from MR, Penmanship and Plumix pens (so you can work out the total range of nib options) into PenBBS 494 and Pali 013 (and thus also Wing Sung 3013) pens. I'm confident these also fit the Wing Sung 698.

 

I've put a bare Nemosine nib into a Jinhao X750. Swapping bare nibs into the Wing Sung 699 (of which I have three) is easy.

 

Oh, and some forum members have mentioned successfully fitting Lamy Z50 nibs (so think of the range of nib options) onto Wing Sung 3008 pens and the like.

 

p.s. Just to be clear, I'm not saying self-contained nib units are interchangeable between the aforementioned brands. In fact, there may be different types of housing used by a single brand (Opus 88, for example). PenBBS nib units will fit in the 308, 309, 355, etc. models but won't fit the 494; and (e.g. Pilot Plumix) nibs that fit the 494 won't fit the 308, 355, etc.

[Mech-for-i]

I suppose the issue is for almost each and every Asian language in any writing style , Broad, Oblique, or Stub all made for very poor choice.

 

And other than the Japanese big 3 , most Asian and in particular Chinese fountain pen Mfr just do not see the return justifying the cost to additional manufacturing, stocking, and marketing need.

 

XF, F , M, and the varieties of calligraphy nib satisfy pretty much over 95%+ if not even higher so it's unlikely going to change much soon.

 

But plenty of them are sized in the kind of de facto no.5 and no.6 so it's not hard to get some replacements.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Mech-for-i said:

I suppose the issue is for almost each and every Asian language in any writing style , Broad, Oblique, or Stub all made for very poor choice.

 

I'd qualify it by saying it's uncommon to find journals, notebooks, and loose lined sheets ruled for 1cm-tall rows (or 1cm-wide vertical columns) marketed for everyday/adult/school use in the average stationery store, even in Chinese and Japanese markets. The only ones I've seen tend to be specifically marketed for kanji or hanzi writing practice by beginners and young learners. Writing (especially traditional) Chinese characters using a ‘Western’ Broad nib more or less necessitates such wide lines to keep marks made by individual pen strokes distinct and the shapes they collective form legible.

 

I can't quite find them on demand right now, but I know I've seen video clips of signwriters demonstrating using broad-edged nibs to draw hanzi in particular font-faces for poster-sized artefacts, so Stub and Italic nibs do have their uses writing in Chinese and is not necessarily a poor choice for the task; but for everyday writing in notebooks ruled for lines between 6mm and 8mm tall, they aren't all that suitable. It takes a lot of skill, effort and concentration to get sharp tails and crisp upticks at the end of pen strokes with a broad round tip.

 

1 hour ago, Mech-for-i said:

XF, F , M, and the varieties of calligraphy nib satisfy pretty much over 95%+ if not even higher so it's unlikely going to change much soon.

 

I concur. In particular, something like the bent nib option for the HongDian (say, model 1850) can most certainly produce very broad pen strokes in writing, and superficially meet the implied requirement in:

18 hours ago, Gr8lakeson said:

… big bold lines in the great rainbow of inks now available.

 

but it may also require the user adopt a different pen hold and/or writing technique. Wanting a physically large nib for personal aesthetic preferences does not make it a functional necessity for laying line broad lines of ink to better show off its characteristics.