Parker 75 italic nibs - how wide are they?

[Mercian]

Hi,

I currently have two Parker 75 pens, and I love them.

I am thinking of buying a factory-italic nib to use in them (or perhaps another 75 that has a factory italic nib).

 

My handwriting is rather small, so I am conscious that I won’t be able to use an italic nib if its width is as broad as that of e.g. the ‘fine’ italic nib in the Vector ‘Calligraphy’ set.

I expect that only a 75 ‘FI’ or ‘MI’ nib will be narrow enough to suit my cramped handwriting.

As replacement 75 nibs are no longer made, they are not cheap. I don’t want to spend a lot of money to buy one, only to then find that it is too wide for me to be able to write with it.

 

So, I would like to ask the FPN ‘Hive Mind’ for any information that you can let me have about these nibs.
I don’t expect anyone to be able to measure the nibs’ widths, and then tell me that a ‘Fine Italic’ 75 nib is e.g. 0.34mm wide, or that a ‘Medium Italic’ 75 nib is 0.45mm wide, but I would be very grateful to receive any guidance that you can offer to me.

So, would you say that the 75 ‘FI’ nib is ground to a similar width as a ‘normal’ 75 ‘F’ nib?
Or perhaps that its grind would be nearer to - or wider than - that of a ‘normal’ 75 ‘M’ nib?
Is a 75 ‘MI’ nib ground as wide as the ‘fine’ italic nib in a Vector calligraphy set? Or is it considerably narrower?

 

Can anyone perhaps show me pictures of cross-hatching #### that they have drawn with their ‘FI’ or ‘MI’ nib, alongside comparison cross-hatches that they have drawn with a ‘normal’ 75 ‘F’ or ‘M’ nib, or the ‘normal’ ‘M’ nib of any modern Parker, or the ‘fine’ nib from a Vector ‘calligraphy’ set?

 

My thanks to you in advance!

 

Slàinte,
M.

[Carrau]

I don’t have a 75 Italic nib, but I believe I have a #70  Medium stub nib for a Parker 75 that I bought some time ago, and have used very little.  I very much looked forward to using it when I bought it, however, if I recall correctly, it was less enjoyable than other stub nibs I had written with.  The reason for this, IIRC, was that most of my other pens with stubs had more girth, and the slim build of the 75 seemed to make it more difficult to control the nib:  it wanted to rotate in my hand.  I have a Platinum 3776 with a  custom CI nib, which is also a bit more difficult to control than pens with more girth, even though it is a bit wider than the 75.  Of course, this may be related to my hand size and writing style, but I thought it might be worth mentioning, in case you have not written with a slender pen with an italic nib. 

[Carrau]

I did a quick search on FPN, and found a couple possibly useful links,  not specifically addressing the width, but the writing experience.  Forgive me if you’ve already read these.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/5430-parker-italic-nibs/ See comment #3-most of the rest of the comments are about finding nibs for Sonnets.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353946-just-discovered-a-parker-75-with-14k-fine-italic-nib/. See comments 1,4, and 8.

 

[Mercian]

21 hours ago, Carrau said:

I don’t have a 75 Italic nib, but I believe I have a #70  Medium stub nib for a Parker 75 that I bought some time ago, and have used very little.  I very much looked forward to using it when I bought it, however, if I recall correctly, it was less enjoyable than other stub nibs I had written with.  The reason for this, IIRC, was that most of my other pens with stubs had more girth, and the slim build of the 75 seemed to make it more difficult to control the nib:  it wanted to rotate in my hand.  I have a Platinum 3776 with a  custom CI nib, which is also a bit more difficult to control than pens with more girth, even though it is a bit wider than the 75.  Of course, this may be related to my hand size and writing style, but I thought it might be worth mentioning, in case you have not written with a slender pen with an italic nib. 

What you wrote here reminds me of one thing that - to my surprise - made me love the 75.
 

I have fairly-large hands, and the 75 is a ‘small’/‘short’ pen. The writing-tip of its nib is therefore relatively close to its grip-section.

There is a problem that I have found that I have with many ‘smaller’ pens, so I expected to dislike trying to write with the first 75 that I bought (I bought it for sentimental reasons)...

The size of my hands means that, in order to be able to write with shorter pens, I have found that I have to hold my hand so that the back of my hand is almost flat/parallel with the surface of the table. Otherwise my little finger and ‘ring’ finger ‘get in the way’ - they touch the table while the pen’s nib is still off the paper.

 

This is where the light weight of the 75 becomes an advantage, but its rotatable nib is the thing that makes the pen so good.
The light weight/small size means that the pen doesn’t fall out of my ‘tripod’ grip, and the rotatable nib means that I can just ‘relax’ my hand into its most-comfortable position, and then rotate the nib to the correct ‘roll’ angle, to get the pen to write smoothly. And my ‘F’ and ‘M’ nibs write really nicely.

 

I do not consider myself to be blessed with good fine-motor control, and in any case I am too impatient and impetuous to slow myself down to a speed at which I can make my writing consistent enough for me to find it ‘satisfying’ - let alone ‘pretty’.

It was therefore an immense surprise to me when I found that I can write comfortably with the very-crisp italic nib of my 1954 Pelikan 400. Especially because I find that I tend to want to rotate pens that have relatively-narrow round grip-sections. I have found that I spontaneously use a different grip (with my index finger on top of the pen) when writing with them. 

 

My enjoyment of the crisp italic nib on my 400, and the fact that I find that my 75s are the pens that I find most-comfortable to write with, makes me very keen to try to get hold of a factory-italic nib for them.

 

Slàinte,
M.

 

[Carrau]

I have fairly large hands as well, not ham-fisted, but long.  I’m curious now about my recollection of the writing experience with the stub nib, particularly since the triangular shape of the section should really have helped prevent rotation of the nib.  I don’t write with my 75s as often as some other pens, as all mine are the French gold or silver iterations, and I keep them contained with tarnish preventing paper.  I’ll have to hunt for the stub nib, which is in a an envelope in a bin I have with other nibs,  converters, odds and ends.

[dms525]

I have a Parker 75 with a "97" nib which is their narrow italic. It's not inked currently, but by inspection and recall, I believe it's comparable to a 0.9mm italic. It is quite crisp - suitable for calligraphy. - but also quite smooth - suitable for cursive.Hope this helps.

 

David

 

[Mercian]

2 hours ago, dms525 said:

I have a Parker 75 with a "97" nib which is their narrow italic. It's not inked currently, but by inspection and recall, I believe it's comparable to a 0.9mm italic. It is quite crisp - suitable for calligraphy. - but also quite smooth - suitable for cursive.Hope this helps.

 

David

 

That is very helpful, thank you 

 

0.9mm would, alas, be too broad for my normal hand - but I can still enjoy using my ‘F’ and ‘M’ nibs on my 75s, and get my ‘italic-fix’ from my Pelikan 400.

Plus there’s the fact that this news has just saved me from spending ~£100 😊

 

‘All’ that I need to do now is not rush off to spend that suddenly-‘spare’ £100 on something else… 😬

[Bo Bo Olson]

Take two sheets of paper, fold them in 4ths, start writing bigger and bigger in each 4th of paper, then the back...then on the second sheet go from absolutely huge, where you stopped on the other sheet and work your way down to as narrow as you take pride in.

 

You can write larger if you wish....but print out some wide lined paper there are programs that will do that....find HS wide, and scribble then on that for a while.

 

Or you can forget about Italic , stub nibs and writing on classic rough papers like laid or linen effect which like M&B nibs. 

I write wide, but can remember not having beer money...living in Germany so wrote on collage notebooks with F ball points. ...Saving beer money.

 

I can if I wish write small enough I got to take out my magnifying glass to read it, but why. And I find that hard work.

Writing tiny, don't allow you to enjoy two toned shading inks...glitter inks, sheen inks. Or inks for good to better papers.

 

 

Yes, good to better paper does cost beer money!....but your liver will thank you.

 

Eventualy you might even learn to like an M nib.

I started wide, B-BB and their oblique....went F because of availability, but now often go for a M for a nice nib that is in the middle. You do get more in two toned shading inks.

 

do you have a fun, B nib? Those are a lot of fun.

 

[mitto]

A few of my Parker 75 Italic and Stub? nibs. 

The italic #95 is broad italic and the italic #98 is fine italic. And both these italic nibs are French made 18k gold. 

 

The Stub looking nib is USA made and as it is without a feed I don't know what number or letter it may have come with. Currently I am using it with a feed inscribed 'M' in one of my Cisele P75. 

 

[encremental]

I've got a 75 with a 98 fine italic, and a 75 Insignia (France 14k) with an italic marked 44,  which I would call a medium. Both lovely to write with - I use the fine all the time.

 

John

[Bo Bo Olson]

 I don't have an P-75 in italic or stub.

I have a Thuya (brown and black) in OB. Inked, but OB is to wide to edit in.

& a Sterling Silver Cicelé in M, also inked...a tad too wide to edit in.

The Thuya BP is not as dark s the picture shows.

 

 a 1936 Canadian factory BB stub, on a '38 Vac. Don't have a picture of the nib.