The Fountain Pen Thread

What nib would you recommend?

 

What do you want your writing and lettering to look like? I'm a fan of medium italics for everyday writing and large broad italics for fancier writing. If you write on the smaller side I would go Medium or fine.

 

fine will be hairline, which isn't a bad thing if you left handed. a Japanese Medium is still pretty fine, good for multi tasking notes and signatures though a lot of makers do make a FM or MF meaning medium fine or fine medium, good choices both, medium to MF is kind of a sweet spot for having usability and showing off ink colour. If its only for signatures Bold make a big statement, but for general writing it forces you to write pretty big to accommodate its size. lots of specialty nibs out there, that can spin your head, but for on good pen, I would worry about them as it can make your pen a Niche pen in a way my Pilot is a Medium, and its my most often used pen

 

I am going to need to start seeing some pics here pretty quick.

 

Ok, here you go.

 

AH! Now there is something looking fine! I guess there is a pun, are those fine tips?

 

Edison is a medium italic (I believe, purchased secondhand), FC a Needlepoint and the rest EF.

 

Any chance you or anybody else could do a quick scribble, so I can see a few examples side by side?

 

Here is one that I had in my photobucket, will try and get some showing the larger nibs compared to fine ones.

 

Here are a couple of vids that might help

 

I'd stay away from Sailor Fine nibs if you're new to this. I'm a huge fan of Japanese pens and fine nibs in general, but I couldn't deal with the Sailor 21K fine nib I had in a Pro Gear. It was springy, which was nice, but too scratchy for my liking.

I can also help with the photos.

-Andy

 

Medium nib. Both the Sailor 14K and 21K nibs are wonderful, and their medium nibs would be a fantastic place to start. I'd also say that if you like the Sailor Pro Gear, avoid the Pro Gear Slim. Go for the full size if you have medium or large hands.

-Andy

 

I'm not sure how helpful this will be. This is a bit arbitrary, since one brand's fine nib may be another brand's medium nib. The "soft fine" nibs are semi-flex fine nibs. The Falcon is a lot more flexible than the 3776 Century.

Note the Lamy fine nib and Edison fine nib (actually a JoWo nib... German nib manufacturer) produce a similar line width. The Pilot Vanishing Point lays down a very fine line, which is typical of fine nibs. Western fine nibs are similar to Japanese medium nibs in line width, generally speaking. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I can't think of any.

The pens are pictured left to right in the same order as they are listed. The Edison is last on the litst but situated horizontally at the top of the photo. These are just the pens I have inked at the moment.

Sorry for the poor photos. Our living room is lit with 2 lamps, so it's a bit dim here.

-Andy

 

Andy, you have too many pens inked

Do you not have a 140?

PelikanM200 custom ground cursive italic BB

Pilot Vanishing Point in F ( I do not recommend the matte black finish)

 

Is Harry here? He must be incognito.

 

Wow... Haven't used a proper pen since finishing school... If I remember correctly my facourite pen was much thinner than usual. I tended to use the pen with the erasable ink which was pretty much the standard back then. What would be a good pen to get back into it?

 

Good old Erase a Mates.,Too bad they found out that the ink was toxic and caused a condition known as hotdog fingers, that'swhy I don'ttype so guud.

 

I always thought you had great typing

 

Thanks for proving my point. I justassumedthatyouwereoneofthoseguysthatchewedonthepencausingyoutolosecontrol ofyourtypingskills.

 

So if I like the look of the scrip that has a wider up-down strokes, and thin on the left-right, what am I looking for? I am not thinking as wide as a calligraphic nib, but more so than a simple fine-medium pen.