Comparing Some Medium Nib Pens.

[AndyYNWA]

It is a beautiful pen~! I have one. I let it sit, with cap on, of course, for 4 months. When I began to write with it, there the ink was, no skipping. So I now believe what they say about it not drying out~! Enjoy your pen~!

Thanks!

I'm tacking its whereabouts several times every day...

[jar]

Part 3:

 

Fountain pen lore is filled with many myths and truisms; the story of Waterman and the Contract, that Japanese nibs run one size finer that European or US nibs.

'aint necessarily so.

If you look at the writing sample below maybe I can make things clearer.

http://www.fototime.com/8F04E20EF9EF619/large.jpg

Remember I mentioned I used cartridges in all the pens and when possible used the manufacturers cartridges since it's likely the maker tuned their pens to work with their ink. Using their own ink should give us an idea of how the maker expected the pen to perform.

So which pens were used in the above writing sample?

The first group of lines is the Pilot 743 with the medium nib.

The second group were from the Aurora Talentum with an Aurora cartridge. BUT ... while the box the pen came in is marked medium, it is actually an Aurora Factory stub tuned by Richard Binder to be slightly more than moderately wet. Notice there is far less than the expected line width difference.

The next pair starts with the Sheaffer cartridge pen compared to the Platinum #3776 Century. Both of those pens are mediums yet the Sheaffer puts down a finer line than the Platinum.

The last group is the Parker France "75" over the Sailor 1911L. Again, both nibs were mediums.

I've posted other similar examples over the years.

http://www.fototime.com/CBFA2ECACC0E5FD/medium800.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/9D66832BC7AC168/medium800.jpg

While some Japanese pen nibs might run finer than some US or European nib that is certainly not always true. In fact many of my US made pens have nibs that put down a finer line than any Japanese pen I've ever come across.

In addition, I have found that simply changing the ink used can have a greater effect than found with the variation between the nibs themselves.

[crescent2]

Excellent, entertaining, well written reviews; thanks!

 

So sorry about your cat-child Abbey Road. The new babies are adorable. So are your pens.

 

I have the Platinum 3776 in Chartres Blue and I like it a lot. Keep up the good work!

[Bo Bo Olson]

A great thread Jar...... :notworthy1:

 

Fantastic...the third myth that died.....or partially died. Japanese is not always a full width narrower than western.

 

A question remains of German nibs...vintage or modern vs Japanese.

 

Semi-vintage and Vintage German nibs are supposed to be 1/2 narrower than modern German nibs. And are as far as I can tell......but I only have a few of the fat modern German pens, and lots of semi-vintage and vintage German ones.

 

Other myths....once there were many fire storms here with Waterman users being jealous of the Pelikan ease of switching nibs....and loudly proclaimed....Waterman was a skinnier nib.

(Mostly that was true....skinny nibbed Waterman made a wet ink....Fatter nibbed Pelikan made a drier ink.

1. Waterman was narrower than Pelikan.....a second normal set of Waterman nibs were discovered that was a wide as Pelikan....'90's. Pelikan EF was narrower than either Waterman's EF nibs. The air was taken out of Waterman's sails and there were no more of that firestorm.

 

Is not true any more?????....In fatter stiffer nibs are now made by Pelikan for the ham fisted ball point barbarians who hold their pen like a ball point.

I'm not sure how skinny all the Waterman nib sets are now in modern days of making nibs harder to bend, and broader tipped for ball point users.

2. Certain cartridges carried as much or more ink than many piston pens ....like a certain Sheaffer cartridge carried 1.60ml, the same as a 149....and more than the 1000,800,600, 400/200 Pelikan pens.

Two international carried 1.48 mi.....more than many Pelikan/MB pens.

That killed the myth of how much ink a Piston pen carried.....they do carry more than converters.

 

I did have a Sheaffer made in Japan, that had the 'typical' narrow Sheaffer nib of the '50-60's...."Japanese narrow."

Once Sheaffer made narrower nibs than Parker. I got rid of it because it was a nail....and I prefer 'softer' nibs.

Many have said, the '50's Sheaffer nibs were very narrow.

 

The narrowest Euro nib was supposed to be Aurora. Had Jar's Aurora not been stubbed it could have been narrower.

[jar]

A great thread Jar...... :notworthy1:

 

 

 

The narrowest Euro nib was supposed to be Aurora. Had Jar's Aurora not been stubbed it could have been narrower.

'ain't necessarily so there either. I have a fair size sampling of Aurora pens and I find the width has varied over time just as with most every other pen maker I'm aware of. The one in the sample referenced wasn't stubbed but rather a factory stub. And I have more than one of those. Here is one from a modern small 88.

 

http://www.fototime.com/7990E526E106679/standard.jpg

 

What does seem to be a constant is that paper, ink, user and environmental conditions will produce greater variation of the final result than country of origin or even maker.

[amberleadavis]

Great Review, Comparison and Cats. Thank you.

[MuddyWaters]

This is a great thread jar, any updates on which of these have remained your favourites?