Hello From Canada! Loving Fine And Flexible Nibs

[Emby]

Hello!

I have been reading these forums for a few days and have just recently gotten into fountain pens.

 

I wrote mainly with Maica Hi-tec-C 0.3 and 0.4 pens but found that they ran out of ink quite fast and was on the hunt for something that would fill that niche.... enter fountain pens!

 

I started out by ordering the Pilot Metropolitan with a fine nib thanks to posts on the penaddict blog.

Within about a week I now have:

Pilot penmanship EF nib (a bit toothy)

Pilot plumix M nib (stub/italic, a bit wide for my writing but fun to do letters with)

Noodler's Nib Creaper (feels cheap but the flex nib is really neat)

and a Platinum Preppy XF on order.

 

All great pens!

 

I have quickly amassed a wishlist of pens thanks to posts on here regarding fine nibs and flex nibs.

 

I now realize I like extra fine to fine nibs (Japanese sizing) that are not overly toothy (the pilot XF is a bit too scratchy for me) and I LOOOOOOOVE flex nibs ( though I can't say I am a fan of the nib creaper).

 

I am on the hunt for something that will be a smooth extra fine writer with a little bit of flex (maybe flex to an M or at most or B, and not too wet) I think something that writes a smooth 0.3 with little pressure and goes to M or so would be ideal!

 

So far on my wishlist I have:

- Platinum extra fine on a 3778 century

- Sailor Sabi togi on a 1911, maybe with an extra fine or fine nib as well

- Pilot custom 743 with #15 FA nib

- Twsibi eco - the filling system on these looks great! maybe a 1.1 stub nib on this as a fun pen

 

 

Also a couple vintage pens but I don't think I am ready to figure out how to buy a vintage pen ATM.

- Vintage Waterman flexible nib (may be too wide and wet for me but some of those vintage nibs look amazing!)

- Vintage Esterbrook

- Vintage Wahl

- Vintage Parker 51 - these look so great

 

If you have any thoughts or recommendations please feel free to let me know.

 

Thank you and nice to meet you

[OCArt]

Welcome to our little corner of the universe from a pen user formerly from Winnipeg. I'm glad you are here!

[estie1948]

Hello and welcome to the Fountain Pen Network. Glad you have joined us. You, having joined us, make us better. This is now your place as much as it is ours. Please don't be shy. Ask all the questions you have and don't hesitate to state your opinions. I am glad to see Esterbrook on your list of pens to purchase in the future. I highly recommend an Esterbrook J with a 9550 nib (extra fine-but no flex-sorry). A toothy or scratchy nib can be smoothed relatively easily. I hope you enjoy your time here.

-David (Estie).

[Chrissy]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello Emby, and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[vojtahlad]

Hi, I would say that Japanese soft fine nibs (available both for Pilot and Platinum pens) may fit your preferences well. Platinum 3776 Century or Pilot Custom 74 with soft fine nib may be an affordable pen you will enjoy a lot.

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

[jar]

Welcome home. Pull up a stump and set a spell.

[Sasha Royale]

Welcome !

 

The Metropolitan reloads with a full ink cartridge in just seconds. The empty cartridge can be refilled with bottle ink, using a syringe. The ECO has a large ink capacity. I hope that problem is solved.

 

Some "bad" news. EF nibs are very sharp. Sharp nibs typically scratch the paper. For this reason, one seldom scratches an itch, with a billiard ball, to any degree of satisfaction. I do wish you luck, but I suspect that "sharp" and "smooth" are mostly mutually exclusive. I have accomplished some reduction, however, in roughness by decreasing the writing angle of my fountain pen grip.

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

[Emby]

Thanks everyone!

nice too meet you.

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to the Fountain Pen Network. Glad you have joined us. You, having joined us, make us better. This is now your place as much as it is ours. Please don't be shy. Ask all the questions you have and don't hesitate to state your opinions. I am glad to see Esterbrook on your list of pens to purchase in the future. I highly recommend an Esterbrook J with a 9550 nib (extra fine-but no flex-sorry). A toothy or scratchy nib can be smoothed relatively easily. I hope you enjoy your time here.

-David (Estie).

 

Thanks! I like the look of the esterbrook J., the 9550 looks great! Can you just unscrew the nibs and change them out? can you do that when the pen is full of ink? if so that would be neat. I also like the flex nibs they have the 2048 and the 9128. Would be nice to have a pen where you can just swab nibs.

 

 

Hi, I would say that Japanese soft fine nibs (available both for Pilot and Platinum pens) may fit your preferences well. Platinum 3776 Century or Pilot Custom 74 with soft fine nib may be an affordable pen you will enjoy a lot.

Ohhh, nice I will check those out as well.

 

 

 

Welcome !

 

The Metropolitan reloads with a full ink cartridge in just seconds. The empty cartridge can be refilled with bottle ink, using a syringe. The ECO has a large ink capacity. I hope that problem is solved.

 

Some "bad" news. EF nibs are very sharp. Sharp nibs typically scratch the paper. For this reason, one seldom scratches an itch, with a billiard ball, to any degree of satisfaction. I do wish you luck, but I suspect that "sharp" and "smooth" are mostly mutually exclusive. I have accomplished some reduction, however, in roughness by decreasing the writing angle of my fountain pen grip.

Ah! I will try reducing the angle! Thanks for the tip...hahah...

I am adjusting my pressure now with them and that seems to help too.

[Wahl]

[truthpil]

Welcome to this fun group of addiction enablers!

 

If you like Japanese fine nibs, then I think a Pilot 78G or 78G+ with fine nib would be an essential and inexpensive part of your collection.Mine were daily workhorses until I moved on to more expensive pens. I still use them for troublesome and hard to clean inks like Noodler's bulletproof inks because they are easy to disassemble and thoroughly clean.

 

You had mentioned the Platinum 3776 Century on your wishlist.
With more expensive pens from brands like Sailor and Platinum, be aware that the EF and F nibs are often "toothy" (some might even say to the point of being scratchy, like you experienced with the Pilot Penmanship) which is usually due to the fact that those companies make their pens for people writing in Asian scripts and usually prefer some tooth to get the right feel for each tiny stroke. I have a Platinum 3776 Soft Fine and it does exactly what you want as far as flexing from 0.38 to M, but I simply find it too toothy to use for writing in English; I don't like feeling like I'm dragging the nib across the paper. However, it is perfect for writing Chinese characters and makes my Chinese chicken scratching look a little more classy. The Platinum 3776 also has a sharp step between the barrel and section (even sharper than the step on the Pilot Metropolitan) which can be painful if you have a tight pen grasp or like to hold the pen further back from the nib.

 

If you like stubs, then yes, the TWSBI ECO 1.1 is a lot of fun! It can just be a bummer to clean if you use stain-prone or waterproof inks. I did find that a Goulet Pens 1.1 stub nib in a cheapo Jinhao X750 writes a little wetter and smoother, but it's not a huge difference. Both the TWSBI and Goulet nibs are made by JoWo I believe.

 

As for flex...you'll soon find on here that the topic is a huge can of worms that is highly subjective and controversial. There are some great posts on here about the process of getting used to writing with a flex pen. You definitely don't want to jump into really flexible pens until you've spent some time training your hand to write with no pressure (this can take time for most of use who have grown up jamming ball points and gel pens into the paper). The Noodler's Nib Creaper actually requires a lot of pressure to flex when compared to real flex pens. When I jumped from a Creaper to a vintage flex pen I almost destroyed the vintage nib! Many have recommended on here to get a dip pen holder and a few flexible dip pen nibs (all super cheap) to learn how to write without pressure, then move on to semi-flex and eventually full flex fountain pens.

 

Sorry for rambling, it's just exciting to see someone else following on the same pen path I started on a few years ago.

 

Warmest welcome!!

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[Emby]

Welcome to this fun group of addiction enablers!

 

If you like Japanese fine nibs, then I think a Pilot 78G or 78G+ with fine nib would be an essential and inexpensive part of your collection.Mine were daily workhorses until I moved on to more expensive pens. I still use them for troublesome and hard to clean inks like Noodler's bulletproof inks because they are easy to disassemble and thoroughly clean.

 

You had mentioned the Platinum 3776 Century on your wishlist.

With more expensive pens from brands like Sailor and Platinum, be aware that the EF and F nibs are often "toothy" (some might even say to the point of being scratchy, like you experienced with the Pilot Penmanship) which is usually due to the fact that those companies make their pens for people writing in Asian scripts and usually prefer some tooth to get the right feel for each tiny stroke. I have a Platinum 3776 Soft Fine and it does exactly what you want as far as flexing from 0.38 to M, but I simply find it too toothy to use for writing in English; I don't like feeling like I'm dragging the nib across the paper. However, it is perfect for writing Chinese characters and makes my Chinese chicken scratching look a little more classy. The Platinum 3776 also has a sharp step between the barrel and section (even sharper than the step on the Pilot Metropolitan) which can be painful if you have a tight pen grasp or like to hold the pen further back from the nib.

 

If you like stubs, then yes, the TWSBI ECO 1.1 is a lot of fun! It can just be a bummer to clean if you use stain-prone or waterproof inks. I did find that a Goulet Pens 1.1 stub nib in a cheapo Jinhao X750 writes a little wetter and smoother, but it's not a huge difference. Both the TWSBI and Goulet nibs are made by JoWo I believe.

 

As for flex...you'll soon find on here that the topic is a huge can of worms that is highly subjective and controversial. There are some great posts on here about the process of getting used to writing with a flex pen. You definitely don't want to jump into really flexible pens until you've spent some time training your hand to write with no pressure (this can take time for most of use who have grown up jamming ball points and gel pens into the paper). The Noodler's Nib Creaper actually requires a lot of pressure to flex when compared to real flex pens. When I jumped from a Creaper to a vintage flex pen I almost destroyed the vintage nib! Many have recommended on here to get a dip pen holder and a few flexible dip pen nibs (all super cheap) to learn how to write without pressure, then move on to semi-flex and eventually full flex fountain pens.

 

Sorry for rambling, it's just exciting to see someone else following on the same pen path I started on a few years ago.

 

Warmest welcome!!

Thanks for the great info!

That's too bad about the platinum 3776 being toothy. Do you know of any others that have similar flex but smoother?

 

I know! I find the pressure required for the nib creaper really tiring! I usually write fairly light since I haven't needed a lot of pressure with the .3 and .4 hi-tec-c's and I've been using them for quite some time. The pilot F and Ef are now my daily writers but I would prefer line variation and I could go even finer than the ef if that's possible with any degree of smoothness.

[Carrau]

Welcome aboard, Emby, from Charleston, SC.

Mike

[truthpil]

Thanks for the great info!

That's too bad about the platinum 3776 being toothy. Do you know of any others that have similar flex but smoother?

 

Perhaps one of the more expensive Pilot pens with an 18K gold EF nib would hit the spot,or something an Pilot FA nib. Still they wouldn't be real flex, but just soft and springy with some line variation. If you want real flex, you'll have to go vintage. With vintage flex pens the finer nibs tend to cost more, especially if more fine than a Western fine.