Not a pen review, but a nib fineness comparison

[PuliMorgan]

I have to frequently write some mathematical expressions as part of my job and I prefer to use a fine nibs for the same. Here is a comparison of various fine nibbed pens I have used so far. 

 

Pens are arranged in the order of finest to thickest lines as perceived by me (I am not able to capture the actual line thicknesses in the photograph with my phone camera - so you have to trust my judgement here).

 

1) Pilot Metropolitan

2) Camlin Elegante

3) Noodler's Charlie

4) Kanwrite Legacy

5) Platinum Preppy

6) Parker Vector CT* (See the note below)

 

 

 

(*Note: Parker Vector is the work horse pen of my 10 year old son which he uses for all his school work and might have changed its character under constant abuse. I think it used to be finer than this when I had bought it).

[A Smug Dill]

The pens you showed do not appear to be using the same ink, and so it isn't a fair — or, should I say, useful — comparison of the fineness of the nibs in their own right.

 

Platinum Carbon Black ink, for example, would most likely result in thicker lines than Sailor Kiwaguro, coming out of the same pen, even though both of those inks are top quality Japanese black pigment inks.

[PuliMorgan]

 

17 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

The pens you showed do not appear to be using the same ink, and so it isn't a fair — or, should I say, useful — comparison of the fineness of the nibs in their own right.

 

Platinum Carbon Black ink, for example, would most likely result in thicker lines than Sailor Kiwaguro, coming out of the same pen, even though both of those inks are top quality Japanese black pigment inks.

 

 

I agree with you on the unfairness of the comparison due to the different ink factor and I should have mentioned the inks used in the original post. 

 

The following are the inks used:

 

Pilot Metropolitan: Lamy Black

Camlin Elegante: Krishna Ink Waterproof Water Sapphire

Noodler's Charlie: Lamy Black

Kanwrite Legacy: Lamy Black

Platinum Preppy: Platinum Black Cartridge

Parker Vector: Parker Quink Black

 

I hope the comparison is still useful to some extent.

[antarmukhee]

Aside from the fine-ness, which nib did you like best in terms of writing experience, smoothness etc? I am curious to know.

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

Are these pens all labeled Fine by the manufacturers, or just determined by you to be of Fine width? I ask because I would normally expect a Pilot Fine and a Platinum Fine (as labeled by them) to make a noticeably narrower line than any Parker labeled Fine. At least this would be true for new pens. 

 

Unfortunately my powers of visual discrimination are not adequate to make much difference out of these line widths, inks aside. I am, however, impressed with the blackness of Lamy Black compared to the other two blacks. 

[PuliMorgan]

6 minutes ago, bestillmysoul said:

Aside from the fine-ness, which nib did you like best in terms of writing experience, smoothness etc? I am curious to know.

 

 

 

Kanwrite Legacy. Noodler's Charlie. Pilot Metropolitan.

 

In that order.

[antarmukhee]

Just now, PuliMorgan said:

 

Kanwrite Legacy. Noodler's Charlie. Pilot Metropolitan.

 

In that order.

 

Thank you..

I have used KW nibs - I have liked them. I too like writing with fine and EF nibs.

I find that Ambitious fine nibs are finer than KW fine nibs. They are smooth as well.

[PuliMorgan]

10 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Are these pens all labeled Fine by the manufacturers, or just determined by you to be of Fine width? I ask because I would normally expect a Pilot Fine and a Platinum Fine (as labeled by them) to make a noticeably narrower line than any Parker labeled Fine. At least this would be true for new pens. 

 

Unfortunately my powers of visual discrimination are not adequate to make much difference out of these line widths, inks aside. I am, however, impressed with the blackness of Lamy Black compared to the other two blacks. 

 

All the pens other than Noodler's Charlie are labelled Fine by the manufacturers. I judged the Noodler's as Fine based on comparison with other Kanwrite pens (Kanwrite is the original manufacturer of Noodler's Charlie).

 

 

Platinum Preppy's fine nib unfortunately did not meet my expectations of Japanese nib fineness. It could just be the piece I got, but my Preppy fine nib writes wider than I like.

 

 

[PuliMorgan]

7 minutes ago, bestillmysoul said:

 

Thank you..

I have used KW nibs - I have liked them. I too like writing with fine and EF nibs.

I find that Ambitious fine nibs are finer than KW fine nibs. They are smooth as well.

 

In my experience Kanwrite Medium and Fine nibs are really smooth. But I haven't liked their EF nibs. But both my KW EF nibs have plastic feeds while the other pens have ebonite feeds. I don't know if the feed makes so much of a difference though.

[PuliMorgan]

On 8/16/2021 at 11:16 PM, bestillmysoul said:

Aside from the fine-ness, which nib did you like best in terms of writing experience, smoothness etc? I am curious to know.

 

 

 

Update: I am loving the new Metropolitan as I use it more and more! It is now a close second to Kanwrite Legacy 🙂

 

[essayfaire]

I find the Preppy F to be less fine than the Pilot Metro F; it seems a bit finer than a European F, but wider than Sailor MF. This has been consistent across different inks.   Both are .3mm in theory.