Pens and nibs for italic to write this small?

[PhiloPlume]

Hello!

 

The attached is from Fred Eager's book about discussions of pen widths.

 

Are there really "stub" nibs that will write as small as the rows of fine and extra fine?

 

I am using a Franklin-Christoph medium stub right now.  I can, of course, measure out four pen widths but not write as small as those rows (and have it look nice).  I am using his guide sheet for 4 1/2 pen widths with it and it writes pretty nicely at that size.

 

Just curious.

 

 

[Karmachanic]

Mr Binder used to grind F, XF, and XXF nibs. Unfortunately the images have disappeared from this 2007 thread,. There remains a downloadable image from this 2008 thread

[A Smug Dill]

 

[PhiloPlume]

>>A photo of the back of the packaging in which I received my Pilot Plumix ‘F’.  <<

 

Don't think the Plumix is available any longer.  And not in fine for sure.  I have a few Pilot Metropolitan Italic (CM?) and they work fine, not very smooth.

 

I love the F-C Cursive-Italics but can't quite get the look of a stub yet.

 

Thanks!

[PhiloPlume]

8 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

Mr Binder used to grind F, XF, and XXF nibs. Unfortunately the images have disappeared from this 2007 thread,. There remains a downloadable image from this 2008 thread

Most of the topics here seem to have been started a long, long time ago.  I wonder if there is a way to filter them to recent or a date range.

 

Thank you!

[Penguincollector]

  Esterbrook had some fine italics as did Osmiroid. I would look into what calligraphy sets were popular around the time of publication.

[Mercian]

7 minutes ago, PhiloPlume said:

Most of the topics here seem to have been started a long, long time ago.  I wonder if there is a way to filter them to recent or a date range.

 

Thank you!

One can sort the threads on any FPN board in different ways.

The default sorting is by most-recently-replied (a sorting that keeps ‘topical’ threads at the top).

 

But, if one goes to the main page of the board…

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/forum/151-broad-or-edged-pen-calligraphy/

 

…and looks just underneath the blue ‘Start new topic’ button, one can see the ‘Sort by’ pull-down button.

 

Clicking on that opens a pull-down list, revealing options to sort the board’s threads by:

• Recently Updated
• Title
• Start Date
• Most Viewed
• Most Replies
• Custom

Slàinte,
M.

[Mercian]

18 minutes ago, PhiloPlume said:

Don't think the Plumix is available any longer.  And not in fine for sure.

I got mine from eBay. I have one with a ‘Fine’ nib, and one with a ‘Medium’ nib.

 

I had tried to buy one from France through a seller on Amazon ‘Marketplace’, but that purchase fell foul of Pilot’s annoying fatwa against selling their non-luxury pens to Brits 😠

[PhiloPlume]

56 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

Esterbrook had some fine italics as did Osmiroid. I would look into what calligraphy sets were popular around the time of publication

Not any more: https://www.esterbrookpens.com/products/esterbrook-nibs

 

I have a few of their pens. Pretty large to use. Including a fine italic, journaler, Scribe (don't know why I bought it but for some reason I keep going back to it), fine point, fine flex.  Their nibs seem to write larger than what they are described as.

[PhiloPlume]

52 minutes ago, Mercian said:

…and looks just underneath the blue ‘Start new topic’ button, one can see the ‘Sort by’ pull-down button.

 

Clicking on that opens a pull-down list, revealing options to sort the board’s threads by:

 

Thanks!  I will play with that.

[Penguincollector]

46 minutes ago, PhiloPlume said:

Not any more: https://www.esterbrookpens.com/products/esterbrook-nibs

 

I have a few of their pens. Pretty large to use. Including a fine italic, journaler, Scribe (don't know why I bought it but for some reason I keep going back to it), fine point, fine flex.  Their nibs seem to write larger than what they are described as.

  The new Esterbrook has nothing to do with the vintage company. They just bought and resurrected the IP. I was thinking about the vintage ones, as the book  was written 50 years ago. I think the closest modern pen you would find would be a bespoke grind. I have an italic broad nib ground by Kirk Speer, and will probably have him italicize my medium modern Duofold this summer 

  You can still find Pilot Pluminix pens on AliExpress. I bought a IF nibbed one for very cheap. 1970s era Osmiroid  calligraphy sets are available on eBay.

[Karmachanic]

Pilot Plumix F nib, as mentioned above, fits perfectly on a Wing Sung 698 piston filler.  Mine's been inked continuously for 6 ± years.

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, PhiloPlume said:

Don't think the Plumix is available any longer.  And not in fine for sure.

 

Pilot doesn't make the Plumix any more, but that does not mean nobody is selling them (cf. available, for purchase) today. It just means the prospective buyer who wants one needs to hunt for it, and then deal with the asking price. I've seen some Plumix pens offered for several-fold their original retail prices, and I've seen (as recently as last December) someone in the US selling off Pilot Enso Plumix lettering sets (with three pens in each set, sporting F, M, and B broad-edged nibs) for under US$10 for the whole set. Sadly they wouldn't ship overseas, or I'd have taken every last set they had in stock.

 

In any case, you asked,

 

15 hours ago, PhiloPlume said:

Are there really "stub" nibs that will write as small as the rows of fine and extra fine?

 

They exist; I can see that you know they do. Whether you can buy them, especially at “reasonable” prices, is not the question; I was answering as if you were asking the question as a hobbyist with an academic interest, and not with a view to helping a consumer assess the in-market options he/she could just order readily with a few clicks of a mouse button.

[Karmachanic]

2 hours ago, PhiloPlume said:

Don't think the Plumix is available any longer.  And not in fine for sure.

 

You just need a friend in Japan.  Mine usually swings by in July. Amazon.jp

[PhiloPlume]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

The new Esterbrook has nothing to do with the vintage company. They just bought and resurrected the IP. I was thinking about the vintage ones, as the book  was written 50 years ago.

I forgot about the renewal of Esterbrook.  I guess that explains the modern look of their pens and how wider their nibs write than described (to me). I realize they are not Japanese nibs.

 

There is no mention of brands of pens in the "Italic Way" book that I can see. The nib of the pen on the cover looks pretty fine. I did find some used Vintage Platignum fountain pens on eBay that have squeeze converters but fit Pilot Con-40s.  They look and write like what I have seen in the book, and finer.  Just a little rough to use.

 

[inkstainedruth]

On 4/13/2024 at 2:02 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

Pilot doesn't make the Plumix any more, but that does not mean nobody is selling them (cf. available, for purchase) today. It just means the prospective buyer who wants one needs to hunt for it, and then deal with the asking price. I've seen some Plumix pens offered for several-fold their original retail prices, and I've seen (as recently as last December) someone in the US selling off Pilot Enso Plumix lettering sets (with three pens in each set, sporting F, M, and B broad-edged nibs) for under US$10 for the whole set. Sadly they wouldn't ship overseas, or I'd have taken every last set they had in stock.

 

I got one for free last month at the Baltimore/Washington Pen Show, as swag for signing up for a talk on the history of Pilot Vanishing Points (thanks to Pilot USA, who had a table at the show).  Everyone who went to the talk got their choice of a Plumix or a box of Pilot cartridges, and I chose the pen.  Mine has an IM nib on it (I think).  I don't remember if it came with a converter, or if I had a spare one.  But I was using it just this morning; it's inked up with Iroshizuku Tsuyu-kusa.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PhiloPlume]

18 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I got one for free last month at the Baltimore/Washington Pen Show

I ordered a Pilot Prera Iro-Ai Calligraphy-Nib from Amazon.  I will see how that goes.  But my stub and cursive-italic nibs from Franklin-Christof are working out pretty good for me!

 

Thanks!

[Misfit]

Franklin-Christoph might be the way to go. I took a screenshot of their nib widths. 
 

[inkstainedruth]

WOW!  And I thought *Sailor* had a wide range of nib widths....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penguincollector]

  My local store, Main Street Stamps and Stationery, has 3  packs of Plumixes left. They come 3 in a pack, italic medium. $22.95. Google the store name and call if interested, they mail order.