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Hello FPNers - I have a Sailor Pro Gear that originally came with a music nib. This nib wrote beautifully, but I don’t write music scores, so I wanted to convert it from a once-in-a-while writer to a daily writer. I hired a nibmeister to convert it to a medium nib, which turned out to be impossible because the ball tipping material wasn’t there. He reduced its size and made it smoother, but it’s not working for me at all. I’m open to suggestions, including nib replacement (is this possible on a Pro Gear?), alternate nibmeisters, etc. I don’t want to end up with a stub or anything unusual. I prefer standard medium or fine nibs, or perhaps a smooth cursive nib like Lamy offers. The Pro Gear is perfect for me ergonomically; I just need to get the nib right. Thanks, GNL

This article appeared in the fountain pen feed of this morning's FlipBoard. http://www.mypenneedsink.com/blog/2017/06/19/nibmeister-services/#comment-3306

This is not a pen review, strictly speaking. Rather, it is a review of nibs. More specifically, it is a comparison of 4 italic nibs installed on 4 high-end pens, reflecting my continuing quest for the very best fountain pen for writing italic text. A couple more distinctions seem in order: First, this is not about the cheapest italic pen, nor even the “best buy” italic pen. It is about the best italic nib. Second, it is not about italic nibs used to make ones Palmer-type cursive writing “more interesting.” It is about using italic nibs for writing italic script. Okay. That is (at least) enough for preliminaries. My accumulating/collecting fountain pens started with my resuming study of italic calligraphy about 3 years ago. I have used a rather wide variety of pens, including relatively inexpensive pens with stock italic nibs. Of these, the vintage Osmiroid italic nibs remain the best, particularly in the wider sizes. The wider Lamy nibs and steel nibs sold with Edison pens are rather good too. The narrower nibs that most would use for note taking, correspondence and so forth suffer from insufficient thick/thin line differentiation. On the other hand, 14 and 18 Kt gold stock nibs from higher end modern pens (Pelikan, Onoto, OMAS, Conway Stewart, Nakaya, etc.), custom-ground to crisp cursive italics by Richard Binder, John Mottishaw and Michael Masuyama have been excellent to heart stoppingly incredibly amazing. Most started as round nibs, except for the Conway Stewarts and a couple Pelikan M800 IB nibs. But, the question remained in my mind: Are there stock italic nibs out there that can come close to matching the wonderfulness of my custom-ground italic nibs? So far, the only one I have found that comes close is the Conway Stewart IB nib, which is pretty darn nice. Recently, I have acquired a couple new examples of stock italic nibs from lines that have good reputations for nib quality - A 14 Kt gold Stipula italic nib that is 1.1 mm wide and an 18 Kt gold Aurora italic nib that is 1.0 mm wide. This has prompted me to offer this comparison. The pen photos are primarily to show the sizes of the nibs and the pens on which they are installed. The Pelikan M800 and Pelikan M620 are more widely known pens of comparable length to the Stipula Erutria Tuscany Dreams and the Aurora Primavera, respectively. However, both the Stipula and Aurora pen barrels are of greater girth. The little bear up top is there to keep the pens from rolling. For this comparison, all four pens were loaded with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black Ink. The Pelikan M800 is an example of a customized wide nib. The Nakaya is an example of a narrower nib. Both the Stipula and Aurora nibs are flawless in terms of quality of manufacturing. Neither has problems with skipping, failing to writing after a rest, outrageously dry or wet ink flow or any other “defect.” Both are single-tone, yellow gold. The writing sample demonstrates that, while the Stipula has quite reasonable line differentiation, it is not nearly as good as that of either the Pelikan M800 customized IB or the Nakaya customized BB nib. The Aurora nib has surprisingly poor differentiation, particularly since I had read that the Aurora italic nibs were especially good and quite crisp. What you can’t see is that the Stipula nib writes very smoothly. The Aurora nib is rather toothy - not to a problematic degree, though. Now, I am quite aware that one nib from a pen company is not sufficient grounds for any sweeping generalizations. But, based on this comparison, I will continue having nibs custom ground rather than thinking I would be satisfied with stock italic nibs “out of the box,” even from pen manufacturers with reputations for excellent quality. In fact, I would have to say that, in my opinion, the much less expensive nibs from Osmiroid, Lamy, and those made to Brian Gray’s specifications, for example, are better for italic script than these gold nibs, as they come from the high end pen makers. I suppose this should be no surprise. It speaks more to how fortunate we are to have folks like Binder, Mottishaw and Masuyama available to us than to the shortcomings of the stock nibs. I would be very pleased if others shared their experience and opinions of the italic pen/nib market. David Note: Since this is not really a pen review, if it fits better in another forum, I trust the moderators will inform me and move it.

This isn't a review of a specific pen but is a review of nib work done by Shawn Newton of Newton Pens (and this forum!) Let me start by saying that I am very demanding of my nibs. For the last few years, I have entrusted them to no one but John Mottishaw or Mike Masuyama. If a nib isn't perfect, I don't use it. There are many nib technicians out there but only a handful that are true nibmeisters. I had some work that I needed done, though. I didn't want to wait three to six months this time, so when I found out that Mike is not coming to the Dallas show this year, I knew I would have to make some hard choices. In the end I had three nibs that I sent to two new nibmeisters. I have written about one of those elsewhere, (it was a good experience) but my experience with the two nibs I sent to Shawn was phenomenal. I asked him to take two Jowo nibs and make them even finer than a Vanishing Point extra fine. From the beginning, Shawn's service was informative and fast. When he returned the nibs in the mail, he included the writing sample I had sent him, and I saw that he used the sample to judge the strokes and line quality of the nibs he was working on. Looking at his markings was almost like reading his thought process as he refined the nibs. These two nibs are absolutely fantastic! I have had them back for a month now and have used them on multiple papers and several inks. I've written in cursive and in print, large and tiny, slow and fast. They have never once skipped or hesitated, and they are glassy smooth. That is an almost impossible feat with nibs this narrow! I'm not exaggerating when I say that these two nibs are equal in every way to the nibs John and Mike ground for me. Great job, Shawn! You are a meister of nibs. You can find him at NewtonPens.com or here on FPN as Watch_art.

Firstly, I just joined, So, hi there. I been thinking about nibmeisters for sometime now and I have some queries with regards to that, 1, Where do they come from? Where do they get trained for the art, is there a school for nib grinders and pen restorers? Or are they all downsized former employees of FP manufacturing companes who have come out to ply their trade outside. If yes, what with so many smaller companies shutting shop of late due to poor interest and demand, will we one day be left without nibmeisters to approach in times of distress? Or, are they coming from a long line of nibmeister lineage in whose heritage rests the arcane secrets of nib grinding and filing, Passed on from father to son and so forth for all eternity? Or, are they aliens from outerspace who try to emancipate mankind into super-concsciousness by promoting and modifying FPs? You see, not many nibmeisters around in India. I'd like to contact this alien group to check if they have missed us somehow. [should this be in 'Repair and Q&A? Please move it there if it should, I was not sure.]