Opinions On Fpr Nibs

[MadAsAHatter]

I can find a bunch of reviews about Fountain Pen Revolution's flex & ultra flex nibs which are mostly positive, but don't see much about their regular nibs. What is everyone's opinion of their other nibs? Quality wise, Are the more akin to a standard JoWo or would they be more similar to something like a PenBBS or Jinhao nib? I'm looking more at the EF and 1.0 Stubs.

Edited August 19, 2020 by MadAsAHatter

[Newton Pens]

They're the same as what Noodler's has always used I think.

[Jamerelbe]

FPR's flex nibs are definitely the "stand-outs" for me - the ultraflexes especially provide a writing experience I very much enjoy. That said, the rest of their nibs are *also* great value for money. Their EFs used to be a bit scratchy, but they've upped their QC in that department, so these are now pretty much my favourites. F and M nibs are also really good. There's a small price jump for the B nibs, but they're also worth it...

 

The one "downside", for me, is their 1.0mm stubs. Unless this has changed in recent times, I've not found them to be very "stubbish". The horizontal lines they lay down may be a *little* bit narrower than their downstrokes, but it's not as dramatic as for (say) a JoWo stub.

 

If you search around the forums, you'll find one FPN member who does his own additional grind to the FPR stubs to customise to his preferences - personally, I've never had the patience for it.

 

TL;DR, FPR's nibs are all great value, except for the 1.0mm stub, which I don't find sufficiently "stubbish". [This applies to both their #5.5 range and their #6's.]

[Jamerelbe]

Sorry, in answer to your other question: I'd put them a step or two above Jinhao, and maybe a step below JoWo - though to be honest, with the exception of the stub nibs (which still write perfectly OK), I find them every bit as decent to write with as my steel JoWos.

 

Edited to add: The shape of their #6 nibs, though, is sufficiently different that you can't easily interchange them for JoWo or Bock nibs - and their proprietary nib units aren't compatible with these brands either. So if you're looking for a nib to swap into an existing pen - just be aware of this!

Edited August 19, 2020 by Jamerelbe

[MadAsAHatter]

The one "downside", for me, is their 1.0mm stubs. Unless this has changed in recent times, I've not found them to be very "stubbish". The horizontal lines they lay down may be a *little* bit narrower than their downstrokes, but it's not as dramatic as for (say) a JoWo stub.

 

 

The shape of their #6 nibs, though, is sufficiently different that you can't easily interchange them for JoWo or Bock nibs - and their proprietary nib units aren't compatible with these brands either. So if you're looking for a nib to swap into an existing pen - just be aware of this!

 

 

 

This is good to know. I was considering getting one of their Himalayan V2's with a stub nib and picking up a couple of their other nibs while I was at it to swap into a few PenBBS pens. If their stub isn't really stubby and their nibs don't swap in easily I may pass on the extra nibs, but still get a Himalayan with an EF instead of a stub

[Jamerelbe]

Never hurts to grab an extra nib while you're ordering - especially if (like me) you're ordering from overseas and have high shipping costs on every order!

 

The Himalaya V2 is a great pen - be warned, though, it's the hardest of the FPR pens to swap nibs in and out of. If you remove them, make sure you take careful note of the orientation of the nib and feed relative to the grip section (it's not obvious, but it *is* directionally sensitive), and be sure to reinsert in the same orientation.

[A Smug Dill]

I agree with @Jamerelbe there. If you're going to get a Himalaya pen anyway, then you may as well get an extra Stub nib when the price is, I'd say, low enough even if the value proposition is constrained by it not being something you can swap into a different pen model or brand; those PenBBS pens you have simply demand more money to be spent on replacement nibs independently of your FPR purchases. Who knows, you might actually like the Stub nib on the Himalaya after giving it a try; and if you don't, that's no worse than having (spent money on) say Moonman nibs you don't like and won't use now. Besides, there's always the possibility of reshaping the Stub nib yourself if you find the cross-strokes not fine enough; not having enough tipping material left as supplied does not apply to that kind of regrind, and if it's a nib you aren't going to use as-is, then there is no further loss of value even if the regrind isn't successful.

 

When I bought my four Himalaya v1 pens, I ordered an EF, a Flex and a Stub nib (with one being already fitted, and the other two being standalone) for each of them. Kevin was good enough to let me know the Flex nibs required different feeds, from what is used to support EF and Stub nibs, in order to get enough ink flow and work properly; and he graciously gave me the extra feed for each pen, instead of tacking them onto my order as additional line items at extra charge. As far as my recollection goes, those Stub nibs write a bit like chisel-tip markers with felt tips, and not unlike the steel Music nib on my Sailor Young Profit.

 

(I don't use my FPR pens these days because they don't seal particularly well when capped and unused, and the threaded converters sometimes ironically seat less securely than say an unthreaded plug-in converter for some other brand of pen, thus allowing for some seepage of ink inside the barrel as well, so I find little incentive to keep the pens inked.)

[Bill P]

My recollection is that some of the FPR nibs are actually produced by Kanwrite, and are just marked as FPR nibs.

 

Kanwrite makes very good nibs, in my experience...

[Jamerelbe]

My recollection is that some of the FPR nibs are actually produced by Kanwrite, and are just marked as FPR nibs.

 

Kanwrite makes very good nibs, in my experience...

 

I *think* that's right - he used to deal with a couple of Indian nib manufacturers, but my recollection is that he settled in with Kanwrite. His flex nibs are made from thinner (and therefore more flexible) steel than the flex nibs on my Kanwrite pens, though...

[TSherbs]

FPR nibs are ok, not great.