Which Extra Fine Nib Is Really Extra Fine?

[A Smug Dill]

Just wanted to point out, this is not correct: I can order a few nibs with shipping (via registered postal service) of €7.90 - unless they're not willing to provide that service for gold nibs?

I'm not sure, but that may well be the case. I did take a shopping cart in which the contents is a single Pelikan M600 nib (since they have no M80x nibs) through to checkout, as an experiment, before I made my earlier post which you quoted.

 

Just now, as another experiment, it seems you can put four Visconti steel nibs – with a total price in excess of €200 – in the shopping cart, and the shipping charge applied is €7.90. However, if you have just a Visconti gold nib with a price of €140.49 in the cart, the shipping charge applied is €30.89. Basically, registered international post is excluded as an option, and the system forces the customer to select DHL or better as the shipping method.

 

FPnibs.com's system also does this weird thing that prevents you from adding multiple of the 'same' product in the cart; you cannot add two differently specified (e.g. one polished steel and one gold-plated) Visconti Smarttouch steel tubular F nibs to the cart, for example, even though you can put them in separate carts, so it doesn't appear to be a stock levels issue. Very annoying.

 

Right now there is one product I can find on its site that has free shipping to Australia, and that's the Pelikan M101N if that is the only item in the shopping cart. (Add so much as a bog-standard Lamy Z50 steel nib to the cart, and a €30.89 shipping charge applies.) It's so not my cup of tea, though.

 

Anyway, for the purposes of any Pelikan nib FPnibs.com is selling, the minimum shipping charge to Australia is €30.89.

[WLSpec]

For me, a my 1911 MF is closer to an EF than anything else! Sailor makes some really fine nibs...

[minddance]

My Sailor 14k and 21k mf are quite broad at the sweet spot where things are rather smooth. Out of the sweet spot, where it is feedbacky, it is quite fine.

[ethernautrix]

Just received a Platinum 3776 for its UEF nib (now installed in a Nakaya Piccolo), and it's the finest of my extra-fines. I had to tinker with it (gently) to increase ink flow (times were too close together), and now it writes as expected. A very UEF nib.

[minddance]

Just received a Platinum 3776 for its UEF nib (now installed in a Nakaya Piccolo), and it's the finest of my extra-fines. I had to tinker with it (gently) to increase ink flow (times were too close together), and now it writes as expected. A very UEF nib.

Yes, it is one of the very finest. And certainly choosey with inks and papers. Perfect for an A6 size little journal with plenty of content squeezed in, and written in Asian characters.

[A Smug Dill]

For me, a my 1911 MF is closer to an EF than anything else!

The finer of two 14K gold medium-sized Sailor 1911 H-MF nibs I have (on my Sailor koshu-inden pens) is certainly not as fine as the 14K gold EF nib on my Platinum PTL-5000A. At street prices of under ¥4,000 (including 8% domestic consumption tax in Japan), which come up on Amazon.co.jp from time to time for either colour, the PTL-5000A is just extraordinary value compared to the say the steel-nibbed Platinum Procyon or Sailor Procolor 500, which don't even bother offering EF nibs as an option.

[Sicblades14]

For myself, the preppy 0.2 with carbon black ink, or my PCH912 PO nib with any ink are the fine.

 

I tried a Platinum UEF but I guess I found it a bit too scratchy at the time. Maybe I'll try again soon

[Jonr1971]

 

Maybe. All I can say is that, on the whole, the Platinum Preppy nibs aren't what I'd be using if I was looking to lay down a 'really' fine line:

 

 

On that page scan, the top EF is a steel EF nib on a Rotring 400. The bottom EF is a Pilot Penmanship EF nib. The MF is the 14K gold 1911 H-MF nib on my Sailor koshu-inden pen.

 

Beautiful writing samples!

[A Smug Dill]

Beautiful writing samples!

 

 

Thank you very much, even if my scribbles are entirely undeserving of your praise.

[awa54]

The finer of two 14K gold medium-sized Sailor 1911 H-MF nibs I have (on my Sailor koshu-inden pens) is certainly not as fine as the 14K gold EF nib on my Platinum PTL-5000A. At street prices of under ¥4,000 (including 8% domestic consumption tax in Japan), which come up on Amazon.co.jp from time to time for either colour, the PTL-5000A is just extraordinary value compared to the say the steel-nibbed Platinum Procyon or Sailor Procolor 500, which don't even bother offering EF nibs as an option.

 

It looks like the nib on the PTL-5000A is the same as the Riviere, BelAge and some other slim Plats from past decades. My 14kwg nibbed stainless grid Riviere is marked as a medium, but is on the finer side of a Japanese fine, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if this series ran narrow.

 

On average, in my collection of vintage Japanese (1960s through early 90s) pens the Platinum nibs tend to run finer than the Pilots... none of my Sailor pens came with stickers and the nibs aren't marked, although the finest nib in my entire horde is a Sailor, which is un-nervingly smooth for a true needlepoint nib.

[Honeybadgers]

I'd say platinum nibs run finer because they're ground sharper and tuned drier. Once a slightly toothy platinum nib is smoothed and its flow increased to a more normal level, the width comes up. I've gone through several 3776 UEF's and they're rampant with QC fails.Once you get a good one, though, man they're useful.

 

a 3776 UEF isn't a pen I'd write on anything but smooth paper with, but mine's perpetually inked as a layout pen for my bullet journal.

[awa54]

I'd say platinum nibs run finer because they're ground sharper and tuned drier. Once a slightly toothy platinum nib is smoothed and its flow increased to a more normal level, the width comes up. I've gone through several 3776 UEF's and they're rampant with QC fails.Once you get a good one, though, man they're useful.

 

a 3776 UEF isn't a pen I'd write on anything but smooth paper with, but mine's perpetually inked as a layout pen for my bullet journal.

 

 

Interesting... the driest writers in my F/EF stable are older Pilots and both of my #3776 nibs (yeah, just two ) are rather wet writers. The alleged medium Riviere is quite a dry writer though, as well as being ground much finer than any medium I've ever seen, in fact it's noticeably finer than my Pelikan M205 EF.

[Honeybadgers]

 

 

Interesting... the driest writers in my F/EF stable are older Pilots and both of my #3776 nibs (yeah, just two ) are rather wet writers. The alleged medium Riviere is quite a dry writer though, as well as being ground much finer than any medium I've ever seen, in fact it's noticeably finer than my Pelikan M205 EF.

 

Exceptions to every rule of course, but generally speaking, you could expect a 3776 to run drier than a pilot 74/91.

 

I have noticed this to be true in all but one of my 3776's, and I currently have UEF, EF, SF, B, C, and MS, and have replaced the UEF several times due to odd problems such as archictect style grinds (2 of them) and one lost a piece of tipping (they're hand ground so razor fine that I don't mind, the UEF is really ludicrous to offer as a standard nib anyways, so I applaud platinum for keeping it at all)

[jar]

ST Dupont XF nibs are really XF nibs.

[finzi]

ST Dupont XF nibs are really XF nibs.

Thats very good to know. I have been lusting after one of their pens for years but had no idea what the name might be like. Do you think it would match a Japanese extra fine?

[bemon]

I once had some variety of Platinum with a Maki-E finish in an extra fine. Not a fan of fines or extra fines, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Having nothing to compare it to I was all kinds of impressed. The line was razor thin, but still wet and vibrant. Very little nib feedback and even cheap paper didn't score on the up strokes.

 

Some of that success can be attributed to Noodler's Blue of course. The pen is long sold, but if I ever decide to try out another EF I'll look no further than Platinum.

[bemon]

I once had some variety of Platinum with a Maki-E finish in an extra fine. Not a fan of fines or extra fines, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Having nothing to compare it to I was all kinds of impressed. The line was razor thin, but still wet and vibrant. Very little nib feedback and even cheap paper didn't score on the up strokes.

 

Some of that success can be attributed to Noodler's Blue of course. The pen is long sold, but if I ever decide to try out another EF I'll look no further than Platinum.