Pendleton Point Elegant Butter Line Stub Review

September 21, 2014

I'm fairly new to the world of custom ground nibs, to date all of my stubs are either factory or courtesy of Mr. Masuyama. Can anyone explain how a PB BLS would differ from a Masuyama stub?

... I have a medium cursive Italic by Masuyama and two (one arrived today!) Butter Line Stubs by Brown. Comparing the mediums (one of my Brown nibs is a fine) -- the Brown BLS M is a noticeably smoother writer than the Masuyama CI M. This is to be expected, when comparing a stub with a cursive italic. The unexpected element is that the line width variation is comparable between the two. Both write a heavier vertical stroke of about 0.8mm. Both write a lighter horizontal stroke of about 0.2-0.3mm. (Incidentally, I'm not just eyeballing this, used a magnifier with a measuring reticle.) The BLS is just smoother...

...The bottom line is that both are excellent workmen who have made a lot of pen owners very happy. Since you already have multiple Masuyama nibs, according to your post, you should treat yourself to a PB BLS and enjoy the work of both of these fine nibmeisters.

I have a Masuyama CI as well as the BLS I reviewed in the OP. The bold portion of the text above is spot on. They lay down the same line, but the BLS is much more forgiving with a much more generous "sweet spot".

September 21, 2014

If you missed Pendleton at the DC Pen Show - he will be at the First Asheville Pen Posse meeting next Saturday September 27th. He has modified at least a dozen of my pens. I think that it is personal preference but I prefer the BLS over the Bad Boy with Angel Wings.

Join us for the first

Asheville Pen Posse Meeting!

Pens, ink and great conversation!

Origami Ink

6 Boston Way in Historic Biltmore Village

Asheville, North Carolina

Saturday, September 27^th

3:00 – 5:00pm

Pendleton Brown

will be here from 11:00 – 5:00 offering custom nib work

from fine tuning to custom grinding

and a free nib smoothing seminar at the Posse meeting!

Special Posse pricing!

$25.00 - “Pendletuning”

$40.00 - “Butter-line” stub ~ italic grind

both include alignment, flow adjust and smoothing

Guaranteed to please!

visit www.pendletonspens.com for more info

Hope to see you there – bring your favorite pens

and take home a bottle of ink of your choice!

(some restrictions apply)

Edited September 21, 2014 by marie9999

September 23, 2014

I have 2 Masuyama stubs on my Franklin-Christophs and recently bought a TWSBI 580 with what he calls a medium-rare stub on what started to be a F point. I'm still debating with myself which I prefer. So far the Masuyama stubs seem smoother to me, but both nibs seem to have equal line variation.

September 24, 2014

I had Pendleton regrind a Pelikan M620 city series to a stub for me and was actually rather dissapointed...I wasnt even able to really find a sweet spot on it and it caught the paper with a sharp edge frequently...and this is using iroshizuku ink

September 25, 2014

I'm awaiting a TWSBI Mini BLS Fine & just stumbled upon this thread. I can't wait to receive the pen, as I do truly love stubs. Glad I decided on this pen!

October 11, 2014

Pendleton did a great 'simple' job for me. I asked him to reduce a Rotring Newton Medium nib to Fine.

It was probably a boring effort for him, and didn't take advantage of a fraction of his skills, but the pen came back on schedule with a great fine nib.

This is just to let people know that PB will do the simple things also.

October 13, 2014

oooh.....stubby. I need to send a pen or two off to Binder soon. A .6-.9 sounds good to me!!

October 16, 2014

Received a TWBSI Mini White/Rose Gold with BLS (ground from a "B" nib) from him a few weeks ago.

Will do a full review soon, but I can already say that it's totally amazing... quite some line variation and very smooth, my favourite nib at the moment...

February 14, 2015

Having enjoyed my demonstrator TWSBI 580 and seeing/reading of the glories of Pendleton Brown's work, I ordered a Rose Gold 580 with a medium BLS this week. He is out of medium nibs at the moment, but graciously agreed to toss in added flex on a fine nib. I anxiously await its arrival and experiencing his "Butter-Line-Stub" for myself. Can't wait!

Does anyone know if he attends the Columbus, OH pen show in November?

November 14, 2015

Well, Mr. Pendleton Brown has done it again. Another Pendleton Point Butter Line Stub~Italic writing with panache somewhere out there in the world. I've had him stub some Pelikan nibs for me, and I love those pens. But the total experience, in my opinion, comes with the TWSBI Diamond 580AL pens he sells. I now have a

• "Lumi" which is the TWSBI Diamond 580AL silver-colored version, with a BLS-B nib, and a

• TWSBI Diamond 580AL purple-colored version, with a BLS-M nib, and a

• TWSBI Diamond 580AL blue-colored version, with a BLS-F nib.

The blue is the latest edition. As far as the "total experience," these are bespoke pens. Mr. Brown remembers how his customers write, and the pens all suit the peculiar traits of my writing – I am a left-handed over-writer that holds the pen virtually perpendicular to the paper. But wait, there's more! These pens are demonstrators with facets that make the ink sparkle in the pen. Very cool and not too distracting. And finally, TWSBIs are user-friendly pens that you can tinker with, if you choose.

Of course, the best part of the entire experience is Pendleton Brown himself. The world is simply a better place with him, and even if he did terrible work, I'd have to get at least one nib done by him just to buy some good karma. Too bad for my bank account that he does outstanding work.

In comparison to Michael Masuyama, I can only say that it's really a difference in style. My personal experience is that a Masuyama nib is ever-so-slightly crisper, and a Butter Line Stub-Italic is ever-so-slightly more forgiving. The way that translates to practice in using my pens, is that I reach for a BLS pen when I want to write fast with a flamboyant hand ("panache"), and I'll reach for my Masuyama stub when I'm writing long drafts that I'll need to be able to easily read later (simple, easy legibility). Of course, this is simply my personal experience, with a small sample size, that will inevitably get bigger over time, since both nibmeisters will see more orders from me.