Parker 75 Stub Ciselé (Usa) Brief Review

[ardene]

This is a Parker 75 medium stub ciselé of around 1968-1971.

 

Writing sample:

 

The line thickness it produces is about 0.9 mm in width. This width is comfortable for writing characters of medium size (see also the writing comparison). The pen’s triangular section is thin, but it is very comfortable to hold. The pen as a whole is on the smaller side, but the nib is big. Since the pen is of some vintage it is a stub proper rather than cursive italic, i.e. the tipping is noticeably thick with the writing edge noticeably but not drastically rounded (see schematic). The side edges are not rounded so as to be visible with the naked eye; the Artpen is also like that whereas the bottom of the Dostoevsky’s tipping has no corners but only smooth curves. It will not tear paper however. All three pens are extremely forgiving with the Artpen being the one most able to be held entirely carefree as if it did not have a broad edge.

 

 

The 75’s stub nib does not like very much smooth paper, either of the good (Rhodia) or of the cheaper (many modern notepads) variety. On Rhodia the 75 stub flies off the paper surface, often leaving no ink behind. Skipping on downstrokes is usual when writing at my usual speed, which is rather fast. By comparison, the Artpen iceskates on Rhodia leaving a thin film on ink behind and the Dostoevsky swims in its own ink. On school notebooks and on paper with cotton content the stub 75 performs consistently without problems and is definitely wet (the Dostoevsky and the Duofold are wetter, as can be seen on the comparison sheet).

Some closeups of the nib:

 

 

The pen feels light but with a perceptible substance in the hand.

 

 

Overall, this is a gorgeous pen allowing some very expressive writing.

 

[senzen]

Thank you, very interesting and very well done. It's a beautiful pen, the line laid seems fine enough for me who only writes with fine or close to fine nibs; strange that it has problems on good paper.

[DCirjan]

Wow, I got the chills looking at those pics. Beautiful comparison: how would you compare the MB OBB with the OB: is the difference significant ?

[ardene]

Wow, I got the chills looking at those pics. Beautiful comparison: how would you compare the MB OBB with the OB: is the difference significant ?

Unfortunately, I cannot tell you since I do not have an OB.

[alexander_k]

Thanks for the review, especially the comparison and the relation to paper. Parker stubs are among the best factory nibs I've used, only rather stingy in terms of low. Ironically I've never used them with Penman inks, which could have been the solution.

[ardene]

Thank you, very interesting and very well done. It's a beautiful pen, the line laid seems fine enough for me who only writes with fine or close to fine nibs; strange that it has problems on good paper.

I am glad you found the interesting and well done. The page is A4 in size; so yes, the line can be said to be appropriately fine for people who use fine nibs but make letters closer to the medium size. Rhodia generally gives me problems with my higher-end or more specialised fountain pens. I have a Sonnet with a medium (plain) nib, made in 2018, which does the fly-off trick from Rhodia if I speed up as well. The Artpen leaves too thin an ink layer on Rhodia (black appears grey), and the Dostoevsky has bad control on this type of paper (full stops are effectively ink puddles, but also and more significantly, because it's an oblique, often the nib loses grip and writes -if there's ink under it- with part of the right tine only). It is probably because I tend to write fast and with practically no pressure. Rhodia is perfect for dip pens though and a consistent good performer with fountain pens addressed to the average person. Paper made entirely from cotton or with some cotton fibre inside is the best variety of paper there is. School paper on the other hand is probably manufactured in such a way that all sorts of writing instruments can perform on it. It provides good resistance. I use some spiral-bound notebooks of a brand called "nü". Like most school paper they are cheap, lined (which I like), show shading (visible in the picture), don't feather and ink doesn't bleed through.

 

 

Edit: On the writing thickness I should add that I usually hold the 75 nibs writing edge at an angle of 45 degrees, so many vertical strokes are thinner than what the pen can produce. Full thickness is found in the line variation demonstrations at the bottom of the page.

Edited October 5, 2019 by ardene

[ardene]

Thanks for the review, especially the comparison and the relation to paper. Parker stubs are among the best factory nibs I've used, only rather stingy in terms of low. Ironically I've never used them with Penman inks, which could have been the solution.

 

I have also never used the 75 with penman ink. I find that both older and modern Parker nibs are generally very good writers.

[Hanoi]

Have any of you spotted one where the feed number does not match the nib? I just realized that a parker 75 pen in my collection has the wrong nib section.