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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.

So it's just past my birthday, and every year I've been getting myself a little something in the FP world I've been contemplating a Platinum 3776 UEF or SF since last year, but lately I started thinking maybe I should try EF in the Pilot (my current fave EDC is a F nib Pilot Metro - primarily for the nib) I tend to write 20+ pages a day and prefer to use inks that have waterproof qualities - mostly due to climate here, coupled with my tendency to spill things! Which is disappointing as I love some of the Diamine inks for their sheen & the shimmer ones are so much fun! (that's another topic!) I've been using a 50/50 mix of R&K salix/scabiosa as my EDI in my Pilot and love it. I'll probably get some Platinum Classic to try out next. After reading lots of discussions I'm torn between all 3 of the Japanese makers and today after trawling the forums some more I am thinking maybe what needs to happen is a new nib on my TWSBI ECO. I love its capacity of the piston filler but the EF nib has been nowhere near the pleasant writing experience I get from my Pilot and more like a M nib, which is not fine enough for me. I am currently considering the following: Platinum 3776 chartres bleu in UEF Platinum 3776 in SF Platinum PTL-5000A in EF Sailor pro gear slim in EF Sailor 1911s in EF Pilot Celemo in EF Pilot Vanishing Point decimo in EF NIBS - ack so this is a new experience, I am totally open to suggestions here. I've read of success putting Sailor 1911s nibs on ECO, and also JOWO #5 and Franklin Christoph #5 But this would be a new venture of purposely buying a nib for a pen, and I wonder if I'll get something I love or be stuck with another pen languishing. (my poor Lamy does this despite having EVERY nib) So folks, what do you think?