Poll: Best Nib Ever Made

[penspouse]

My favorite was my vintage tortoise Pelikan 400 Medium nib. Smooth as .................. on................. (you can fill in the blanks). Alas, mine no more. I sure hope whomever found it is taking good care of it.

[Senate1123]

I love my EF Falcon nib with added flex by John Mottishaw. I also fell in love with a cursive italic from Pendleton Brown. I've ask him to duplicate it for me but for the life of me keep postponing shipment of my nib.

[turban1]

waterman pink?

[flodoc]

This is a tough one since most of my fountain pens are modern and most have Bock nibs. That said, my favorite is an EF on a Tibaldi Modello 60. It is very smooth, not just for an EF, but compared to any nib. It is also a large nib that doesn't depend on adornment for beauty.

[sombrueil]

for smoothness without blandness, Pelikan vintage gold.

for flexible wonderfulosity, Waterman Ideal #2.

 

in my so far and very limited experience.

[razr]

Very tough question indeed. So far anyway the best one I've used is the Pelikan M1000 nib (very wet and springy).

[Sandy1]

Hmm :hmm1:

 

MB149 stock B.

Very well matched to the pen and runs the i-g inks extraordinarily well. Very nicely shaped for writing, and drawing margin doodles / illumination. Cruises without jitter on heavily textured papers.

 

Parker Duofold stock M

A wonderfully smooth nib so very well suited to haul-haul writing.

 

Currently having a meaningful relationship with the Triumph Lifetime nib on a Sheaffer '1750' Balance.

 

Passing strange that not one of my hand crafted bespoke nibs made the top three. (So sorry)

Edited January 13, 2011 by Sandy1

[MidnightBlue]

I chase the pen not the nib, 'cause I'm superficial, then I get the nibs fixed and/or customised to suit me. The best.........it changes all the time and for different purposes. Thanks

[georges zaslavsky]

hard to tell for me because the majority of my nibs are flexible/semi flexible writers.

[Rose Nibs]

Bo Bo, please get those Osmia's re-corked, I feel like I've been holding my breath for months. My favourite nib is a Ripet extra-fine, but what would I know?

[WhisperBlade]

Visconti 23k Palladium!!!!!!! F!!!

[MidnightBlue]

I don't know but I'm getting tired of people posting pictures of the boring 149!!!!!!!!!Thanks

[tanalasta]

I don't know but I'm getting tired of people posting pictures of the boring 149!!!!!!!!!Thanks

 

Well, I was actually going to post variations on this theme

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Tanalasta/Fountain%20Pens/MBDumas_149_nibs.jpg

 

They are some of the best nibs ever produced, large and smooth with perfect flow, feedback and a delight to use. Which is why people often use it as a benchmark and many people eventually gravitate towards trying one eventually.

 

However, if an alternative must be suggested, then the ST Dupont nibs are often under-represented on these forums. Their chinese lacquering is just as beautiful as glossy urushi and their worksmanship sublime. Their nibs are stiff, but aesthetically artistic - certainly more graceful than the average nib. And they also make the best lighers (the tabletop ultrajet lighter is the tool of choice for melting wax seal sticks!!!)

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Tanalasta/Fountain%20Pens/Dupont_7.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Tanalasta/Fountain%20Pens/Dupont_4.jpg

[Bo Bo Olson]

Bo Bo, please get those Osmia's re-corked, I feel like I've been holding my breath for months. My favourite nib is a Ripet extra-fine, but what would I know?

 

Me Too!

 

Being retired a little thing like a clutch, not only sets re-corking back but don't allow me to say a word in "What pen are you waiting for in the Mail."

I had bought "Pen Repair" by Marshall and Oldfield, so I was ready to go. I even found some one who makes them.

Then my wife calls up on her cell phone. There was smoke coming out of the motor, and I pulled over.....the clutch, which beats something serious of course.

 

By me, when some one says gold is better than steel, my Osmia Supra nibs say...no.

 

I have three steel and one gold Supra and I don't know which is best.

Osmia/Degussa was making superb steel nibs all the way through the '30's-mid '50's. Not just the war time German great steel nibs.

 

The regular Osmi steel nibs are very good nibs too.

 

I have to put Degussa in there because some time in the early '30's Osmia had to sell it's nib making machines to survive. So I'm not sure when Osmia got more nib making machines. I do know they did, because the name and the nib was what Farber Castell was after when they bought up Osmia. Osmia had Supra nibs from the late '20-mid 50s, so Dugussa made Osmia Supra nibs for Osmia for a while.

 

I have a nice Full Flex Degussa, but not all were that, I have regular nibs also.

 

I also have some old very good Bock nibs (War nibs)....and I have a Rupp nib, also just a nib maker, that is my most flexible Slightly Flexible nib.

 

That Rupp nib was the first 'flexi' nib I had. Since then, because I had the experience, I was able to say...oh...that too is Slightly Flexible/maxi-semi-flex...not Semi-Flex to my Supra nibs.

 

Oddly, I'd not recognized that I even had Slightly Flexible nibs. I 'had' what I expected to see.

 

Lack of Experience....is like drinking 'Old Smuggler' three year old blended scotch, and then getting into single malts.

[leopet]

My nib that says like Valiard or something.. cheap bu awesome

[searcher18]

Bo Bo, please get those Osmia's re-corked, I feel like I've been holding my breath for months. My favourite nib is a Ripet extra-fine, but what would I know?

 

I have 10 Kroutl pens with Ripet nibs. Among my favorites but usually not flexible and broad nibs are uncommon.

 

 

 

 

 

[ANM]

I have a large collection of pens. Some of them have special nibs which I select for special occasions but of the general purpose ones there are around seven or eight that stand out. They are all vintage and include a couple of Watermans, one or two Eversharps, one or two Sheaffers, a Pelikan and at least one Paarker. Some nibs stand alone, some would not be the same without the particular pen it is with. At present my daily user is a Waterman #2 in a Pelikan 6xx pen.

[cclewis76]

Within the confines of my collection and the pens I have tried, I've got a couple of "best" nibs. I bought a vintage Mont Blanc in London last year at the flea market at Admiral Vernons. It has a stub nib with some flex. It is a MB #24. A wonderful pen and a true joy to write with. I also have a Lamy Studio with a 1.1 stub that I like a lot. My top of the list is the F nib on my Pelikan M805. There aren't enough superlatives to describe it.

[lapis]

... actually... this posting isn't a real "poll", anyways...

 

Mike

[searcher18]

I would like to add another nib to the list. I would define this nib as `special` rather than fine. It is an old Aiken Lambert #1 nib set in an early silver ring top Wahl with a large gothic looking clip. I bought this pen from Nancy Wirth and it is special. The nib which I suspect was a dip nib from the late nineteenth center was modified for this pen and is extra fine but more flexible that a wet noodle. If I am too heavy handed I have to realign the tines to get the scratchy feeling out. The nib writes smoothly with good control and flex on demand. When I use this nib, it takes me back to another age. This is a once in a life time nib and I doubt that I will ever find anything like this again. I think that the search for the special nib keeps many of us collecting.