Sailor King of pen medium nib too broad???

[skudiva]

Hi everyone. Not sure if this is the right forum but looked and it is the closest I can find. 

 

I got a sailor king of pen in medium but found it to be too broad and wet. is it typical or just mine? 

[The Duck Hunter]

They are soft, wet nibs.  In my experience with KOP's (I have 7 or so of them), that is pretty typical.  You might have the nib tuned a bit dryer and/or find a dry ink and see if that helps.  

[SpecTP]

as was previously mentioned. the KOP nib is soft so it could also be writing broader because you're putting too much pressure on it.

[MuddyWaters]

I have a sailor M nib in a Cross Peerless, and it is also quite broad for a medium, I thought. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

You are talking Japanese widths...not western....but a fine Japanese poster stated that of the Japanese nibs Sailor was the widest.

So Sailor would be wider than what ever brand of narrow you prefer.

 

I have no Japanes pens...I never wanted spiderwebs and baby spiderweb with nibs.

They weren't available in Germany when I started out in Germany. Don't see any in the two B&M's in my town. So Japanese width is not going to be a problem to me.

 

I say, horseshoe close to hand grenade close is about all one can expect, with nib widths of any company or country.

 

It is just as easy to get a Fat B as a skinny B....a B in the middle of that company's tolerance is pure luck.....and you are comparing oranges and tangerines, byy thinkng Salior has anything to do with the slightly different other Japanese brands...

I have a chart somewhere from the '90s before Japanese fountain pens hit mainstream....and were not even mentioned..

Parker was once fatter than Shaffer....and believe it or not, back in the -90;s Pelikan was thinker than Sheaffer...Waterman was thinnest.

 

 

I like western M = more or less a Japanese B.

 

There is slop/tolerance in every manufacture's nibs, and each company has it's very own standards.

 

Back when it was One Man, One pen, and a new pen was bought once a decade....Fat nib Parker didn't want it's customers getting confused and buying a skinny nib Shaffer, if they made the same width nib as Shaffer....sort of Ford vs Chevy mentality.

..........................................................

"""""Ron Zorn tolerance

Sheaffer used a dial indicator nib gauge for measuring nib sizes. The nib was inserted into the gauge, and the size read off of the dial. A given size being nibs that fell within a given range. What is listed below were the ranges given on a gauge that I saw in the Sheaffer service center prior to being closed in March 2008.

Measurements are in thousandths of an inch. (((((do notice that a skinny M can = a Fat F.)))

XXF = 0.010 - 0.013
XF = 0.013 - 0.018
F = 0.018 - 0.025
M = 0.025 - 0.031
Broad* = 0.031 - 0.050
Stub = 0.038 - 0.050

*there was some overlap on the gauge. May be 0.035 - 0.050""""""

........................................................

 

And remember each company has it's very own standard of width and all have slop/tollerance.

[USG]

On 5/23/2023 at 3:41 AM, skudiva said:

Hi everyone. Not sure if this is the right forum but looked and it is the closest I can find. 

 

I got a sailor king of pen in medium but found it to be too broad and wet. is it typical or just mine? 

 

You didn't say what ink you were using.

My Sailor KOP [M] writes the same as my Sailor 1911L [M]

 

Edit to say this is Sanzen Tomoe River 52gsm

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ink can make up to 1/2 a width difference as can paper make a 1/2 a width difference.

Go one way to a full width wider, the opposite to a full width narrower.

 

 

Richard binder has a chart where you can measure the width of your nibs.......often by those who like narrow nibs....as a guy who liked wide, it never bothered me if my nib was a tad wider or narrower than it 'should' be.

 

There is that slop i showed....so a nib is only going to be with in horseshoe range....one nib comes off the line at one side of tolerance; the very next nib on the other side of the median of tolerance.  Having it exactly in the middle may well be pure luck.

The main thing is a nice smooth, clean line.

if it really bothers you there are nibmiesters, who will grind the nib to your exact thoughts of width.