Stub O' The Day

[bobje]

Eli, on your Carolingian sample, the t, g, and y look downright musical! And the h and f!

[dms525]

  On 1/12/2017 at 6:20 PM, eliweisz said:

http://c1.staticflickr.com/1/528/31875916850_13629701dc_c.jpg

Pilot Custom Heritage 912 SU nib, Montblanc Toffee Brown, Rhodia R

 

Very nice, Eli!

 

The Pilot Su nib appears to be crisper than I thought it was. How to you think it compares in line differentiation to your Kaweco italic nib?

 

David

[tartuffo]

http://i.imgur.com/0GjInNI.png

Edited January 14, 2017 by tartuffo

[eliweisz]

  On 1/12/2017 at 7:27 PM, Bobje said:

Eli, on your Carolingian sample, the t, g, and y look downright musical! And the h and f!

Musical? I'm flattered Thank you!

 

  On 1/13/2017 at 5:41 AM, dms525 said:

 

Very nice, Eli!

 

The Pilot Su nib appears to be crisper than I thought it was. How to you think it compares in line differentiation to your Kaweco italic nib?

 

David

 

Thank you, David!

 

Regarding the SU: in terms of nib size, it's a bit finer than Kaweco 1.1 italic - something like 0.9mm. And in terms of line variation, Kaweco beats Pilot both hands (or tines) tied down.

[dms525]

  On 1/13/2017 at 8:09 PM, eliweisz said:

 

 

 

Thank you, David!

 

Regarding the SU: in terms of nib size, it's a bit finer than Kaweco 1.1 italic - something like 0.9mm. And in terms of line variation, Kaweco beats Pilot both hands (or tines) tied down.

 

Thanks for the information, Eli. It sounds like the Pilot SU nib would need customization to meet my needs. .... Like I need another pen!

David

[tartuffo]

http://i.imgur.com/1pPVaFd.png

[tartuffo]

http://i.imgur.com/oBHdAC3.png

[dms525]

I recently fed my curiosity about the Pilot capless pens which so many FPN members seem to love. And, being an italic script writer, I also fed my curiosity about the relatively new stub nib for the Vanishing Point. I did not have high expectations for the nib, so I ordered one pen with a cursive italic grind by John Mottishaw and another, which I did not have modified, with the notion that I might have it custom-ground at some future date. I have now inked both nibs. I thought some others might be interested in my findings.

 

 

 

While the stock and modified nibs felt different - the customized nib has more feedback, the difference in crispness/line differentiation is small. Actually, the stock nib is entirely satisfactory for my everyday cursive italic. In hindsight, the cost of the custom cursive italic grind was not worth it. That's not to say the results are less than wonderful. They just are not sufficiently more wonderful than the un-modified nib.

 

That said, the following photos show that the custom grind did modify the nib tip geometry quite significantly.

 

 

Stock nib is on top.

 

 

Stock nib is on the right.

 

The writing with the Fermo really is quite a bit darker. This may be because some of the Sheaffer Blue ink John uses to test nibs was left in the feed. Or maybe the modification also opened up the nib to increase ink flow. I don't know that you can see it in the scan, but the original has a lot of sheen in both writing samples.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[eliweisz]

  On 1/14/2017 at 11:22 PM, dms525 said:

I recently fed my curiosity about the Pilot capless pens which so many FPN members seem to love. And, being an italic script writer, I also fed my curiosity about the relatively new stub nib for the Vanishing Point. I did not have high expectations for the nib, so I ordered one pen with a cursive italic grind by John Mottishaw and another, which I did not have modified, with the notion that I might have it custom-ground at some future date. I have now inked both nibs. I thought some others might be interested in my findings.

 

1 VP nib compare001.jpg

 

While the stock and modified nibs felt different - the customized nib has more feedback, the difference in crispness/line differentiation is small. Actually, the stock nib is entirely satisfactory for my everyday cursive italic. In hindsight, the cost of the custom cursive italic grind was not worth it. That's not to say the results are less than wonderful. They just are not sufficiently more wonderful than the un-modified nib.

 

That said, the following photos show that the custom grind did modify the nib tip geometry quite significantly.

 

1 VP sub vs CI top.jpg

Stock nib is on top.

 

1 VP Stub vs CI side.jpg

Stock nib is on the right.

 

The writing with the Fermo really is quite a bit darker. This may be because some of the Sheaffer Blue ink John uses to test nibs was left in the feed. Or maybe the modification also opened up the nib to increase ink flow. I don't know that you can see it in the scan, but the original has a lot of sheen in both writing samples.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

Thank you for sharing your experience. I find the photos and samples very interesting. It seems that Pilot VP stub is heavily tipped - just as #10 Pilot SU nib.

[griz8791]

This thread continues to feed my SAS (stub acquisition syndrome).

[dms525]

  On 1/15/2017 at 4:56 PM, griz8791 said:

This thread continues to feed my SAS (stub acquisition syndrome).

 

Bon appetit!

 

David

[dms525]

  On 1/15/2017 at 4:15 PM, eliweisz said:

Thank you for sharing your experience. I find the photos and samples very interesting. It seems that Pilot VP stub is heavily tipped - just as #10 Pilot SU nib.

 

I'm glad you found the comparison interesting. I found it both interesting and a bit confusing. I have other pens with similar nib geometry to the WP stub's. If one positions the nib well on the paper, they are surprisingly crisp. My sense of 3-dimensional space is weak. From the nib tip's appearance, I cannot figure out how they can possibly produce the thick/thin line differentiation they demonstrably do.

 

One thing that helps the Pilot stubs is that they are consistently dry writers. I have seen numerous complaints about this from FPN members, but it's an advantage, IMO. BTW, that's why I chose a rather wet ink to test these nibs.

 

David

[tartuffo]

  On 1/15/2017 at 6:47 PM, dms525 said:

....... the Pilot stubs ...... they are consistently dry writers. I have seen numerous complaints about this from FPN members .....

 

It's odd ; I've seen those complaints too but my experience with the #10 Pilot Sutab and Music Nib is that out of the box they are two of the wettest nibs I have .

[dms525]

  On 1/16/2017 at 2:01 AM, tartuffo said:

 

It's odd ; I've seen those complaints too but my experience with the #10 Pilot Sutab and Music Nib is that out of the box they are two of the wettest nibs I have .

 

Well, I have no experience with either of those nibs. It's my understanding that "music nibs" as a species are characteristically wet writers.

[jmccarty3]

It would make sense that music nibs would be wet if their feeds have two ink channels to match the two nib slits. I have no idea whether this is so.

[tartuffo]

  On 1/16/2017 at 2:43 AM, dms525 said:

 

Well, I have no experience with either of those nibs. It's my understanding that "music nibs" as a species are characteristically wet writers.

 

 

  On 1/16/2017 at 3:05 AM, jmccarty3 said:

It would make sense that music nibs would be wet if their feeds have two ink channels to match the two nib slits. I have no idea whether this is so.

 

Wooops I guess I was stating the obvious with the music nib - the not so obvious is the

Sutab I bought with it is just as wet.

[Professor Plume]

  On 1/14/2017 at 3:34 PM, tartuffo said:

http://i.imgur.com/oBHdAC3.png

What is that gorgeous ink !?

 

Thank you.

[tartuffo]

  On 1/16/2017 at 11:01 PM, Professor Plume said:

What is that gorgeous ink !?

Thank you.

 

The camera I use is pretty low tech so the colours are sometimes a little off .

The ink in the picture is in fact ... http://i.imgur.com/mQwq0T6.png

 

but in the picture with the #10 sutab it looks a little more like ...

http://i.imgur.com/4PjCEy0.png

[pomperopero]

Wahl Eversharp Deco Band, with a lovely Stub.

 

 

[bobje]

Pompero, beautiful pen and even prettier italic. Photo composition also shows letter composition, ink character, and nib details. Well done!