Fountain Pen Suggestion Please: 1 Mm Line Width Minimum

January 31, 2015

I've been collecting fountain pens for a while, a small hobby that my friend had noticed. All of my fountain pens are in the thinnest side of fineness, ranging from Pilot's EF, Platinum's UEF, to Sailor's Saibi Togi. He's asking me if I could find a moderately priced fountain pen with at least a 1 mm nib. He made certain that it should be a fountain pen and not a calligraphic pen such as Pilot parallel, Lamy Joy, and Rotring Artpen.

He had tried a Pilot Metropolitan with Broad nib, and he wants it to be that smooth.

I've been looking at TWSBI for some time, with the 1.1 and 1.5 mm stub nib. I also noticed the more than usual comments of the pen acting up. I have no issues with that, since I know my way around fountain pen tinkering and adjustment, but I doubt he would like it if his pen is acting up.

Also, Kaweco is out of question for the shape and Nemosine is 0.2 mm thinner than requested.

So I hope this community could help me with finding the best fountain pen with a really broad nib priced under 80 USD that's just as fine as japanese fountain pens. Or at least tell if there's none in the market.

January 31, 2015

Well, the TWSBI with 1.1 stub is in almost daily use here, this nib is available for all models as far as I know. An alternative would be an Italix Parson essential with medium stub, also around 1 mm. Those are the nibs that I use and I am quite happy with them. I have no experiences with the TWSBI 'actin up' in any way. Lamy also has 1.1 and 1.5 nibs that fit the Safari or Al-Star. I own both and must say that they are ok'ish but not as smooth as the TWSBI. The next step would be an Edison, the 1,1 is probably the best on the market today for a reasonable price but still about twice your budget.

There must be a bunch of others, they will be mentioned here by other users

January 31, 2015

Shop carefully and you can find a Platinum 3776 Century or Pilot Custom 74 under $80

January 31, 2015

Pilot 78G; B nib ~ 1.1mm stub, I think the BB nib ~ 1.5mm

Lamy Safari; 1.1, 1.5 and 1.9mm (stub) italic nibs. May need a bit of nib work to make it really smooth. My 1.1 is plenty smooth enough for me. I did have to adjust the nib to increase the ink flow.

January 31, 2015

Regular Lamy broad nibs should meet the requirements.

February 1, 2015

Not sure of the exact measurement of the TWSBI's 580's B nib, but eyeballing it, it is pretty close to 1 mm, maybe .9 mm

February 3, 2015

Thank you for the inputs! Much appreciated!

Will suggest my friend to get a Pilot 78G in Broad, since it's the cheapest (10 - 15 USD),

If it sucks, I'll try to get a Sailor Young Profit with Music nib (40 - 50 USD).

March 14, 2015

Update:

Bought the Sailor Young Profit with Music nib at less than 40 USD from J-subculture (billed as 3964 JPY)*. Works well out of the box in mint condition. But they don't provide the converter, so it's an extra cost (571 JPY). shipped in 36 hours and it took 2 days to arrive in Jakarta.

*) I'm a happy consumer with no affiliation