Faber Castell Steel Nibs - Same On All The Pens?

[jslallar]

Hello Forum,

 

I was in Germany recently and visited the KaDeWe store, the Berlin equivalent of London's Harrods I am told. They have a nice section dedicated to pens, and many German brands were on sale there. I bought 4 cheap to medium range faber Castell pens, ie:

1. Grip (Euro15/-)
2. Essentio (Euro 35/-) - this pen has been reviewed by Brian Goulet but he calls it Basic - maybe the different nakme in USA.
3. E-Motion (Euro 110/-), &
4. Ondoro (Euro 100/-)

All pens were B nibs (the size i love).

All pens have steel nibs.

 

Back home and on a closer look I see that the nibs are all the same. In Essentio, Emotion and Ondoro the nibs are prefitted into a screw on sleeve which is easily screwed off for servicing or changing, ansd all were the exact same thing and can be fitted from one to the other. The nib of the Grip if a friction fit but the size and design is again the same.

 

So either the cheaper pens like Grip and Essentio/Basic are being sold with a better than price range nib or the medium range pens are being sold with a lower quality nib??

 

Out of the biox the smoothness was in the order E-Motion - Essentio - Ondoro and Grip. The Grip nib isnt bad just has a bit more tooth to it than the others.

[Enkida]

Hey, the Essentio is the replacement for the Basic, which I think is being dc'd.

 

I've always liked the FC steel nibs, but I can tell you that the WritINKs (still in production) definitely had different nibs that the rest of the ones you mentioned. I mean they write nicely too, but they were black, harder (more "nail" like from their usual), and had a slight curve to them that the silver ones didn't. I'm also pretty sure the Loom has a larger nib than my Grip. Also, what they probably didn't stock at KaDeWe were the blister pack supermarket school fountain pens FC makes, which definitely come with a different nib from the rest of the lineup.

 

This makes me think they do indeed use different nibs for different production lines, perhaps with different quality control. Not that it really matters; my every experience with FC customer service if you happen to not like one of their nibs or the size you ordered it in, expensive or not, is to have that nib replaced, no questions asked, and for free if it's within 3 months of purchasing the pen.