What is your favorite nib size?

[Peony Blush]

I realize nib sizes vary from pen to pen, company to company but, generally speaking, what is your favorite nib size? Do any of you have a preferred custom nib grind? I'm new enough to this that I'm still trying to find mine, but I'm having fun doing it!

[jchch1950]

Stub 1.1 or stub 1.5.

[A Smug Dill]

I am not obsessed with nibs having to be interchangeable between brands, and thus I do not particularly favour a nib length of ~35mm from tip to root — that's (size) number 35 in the Chinese fountain pen industry's most prevalent terminology, #6 in JoWo terminology often borrowed by the pen brands that don't produce their own nibs in-house but only source them from Germany, type 250 in Bock terminology, etc. — on account of it being the most common and thus most likely to fit a wide range of pen models.

 

I also do not find larger nibs — such as #40 and #42 in Chinese industry terminology, #30 for the Pilot Custom line, #8 in JoWo terminology, dunno what Bock calls its, etc. — to either be more appealing aesthetically, or offer a “better” writing experience or outcome. In fact, the longer nib length and corresponding longer tines often produce less controlled or less precise results on the page. It doesn't help that larger nibs also tend to be priced higher than their smaller immediate siblings of the same make.

 

Relatively small nibs work OK for me, whether that's a ‘medium-sized’ nib on a Sailor Profit Standard (with a gold nib) or Procolor 500 (with a steel nib), Pilot Custom #5 14K gold nib or Lightive's steel nib, the nib on a Platinum Vicoh or Balance, or a Pelikan M20x nib, or Chinese #26 nib, or even a LAMY Z53 nib.

 

6 hours ago, Peony Blush said:

I realize nib sizes vary from pen to pen, company to company but, generally speaking, what is your favorite nib size?

 

I guess around a Chinese #26, Sailor ‘medium-sized’, Pilot Custom #5, JoWo #5, Pelikan M20x, etc. Being physically compact is good, and Pilot and Pelikan have both demonstrated that small nibs can be bouncy if made deliberately that way.

 

6 hours ago, Peony Blush said:

Do any of you have a preferred custom nib grind?

 

Custom nib grind? No. I love the Pelikan M600 EF nib ground down by to a crisp Italic for me by Dan Smith, but I don't love the Aurora 18K gold F nib I asked him to grind to the exact same specifications for me. I missed the opportunity to ask Yukio Nagahara at the Tokyo International Pen Show 2023 to do a custom grind for me on pens (such as my Parker Duofold Centennial) that could really do with one if they're ever to make it into “rotation”.

 

Out of regular nib grinds (or tipping shapes), I'm generally quite happy what what Sailor does for its EF, F, MF, and even M nibs.

 

The grind on Chinese ‘long knife’ nibs — fashioned after Sailor Naginata Togi nibs originated, or at least made famous, by the Nagaharas — are a bit hit-and-miss for me in terms of usability.

[tde44x]

I like larger widths, so Broad, Double Broad, and smooth stubs 1.1, 1.3, 1.5.

Nib sizes I prefer are #6 and larger.

[avlisyar]

Broad , #6 nibs by JoWo and Bock are my go to sizes.

 

I tend to have them ground down to Cursive Italics in the

.8 to 1.0 range.

 

1.1, 1.5 Stubs also have a place in my collection.

[Duffy]

Fine, and 1.1 stubs. 

[kulnet]

I really like to have a diverse set of nibs but if I had to choose one, I would say medium.

[Chris1]

Medium, but I have plenty of 'medium' pens of the same model from the same manufactuer and they differ, so 'medium' varies.

 

I'd like to like broad (actually, I do like the one I have), but they use so much ink!

 

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

No real preference. Love all my various nibs. Depends more on ink I’m using and also paper, and writing purposes 

[inkstainedruth]

Ditto to what Mark from Yorkshire said.  Maybe a *slight* preference for F, MF, and M nibs.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

German Semi-flex....'50-70, #3 is ok, but I prefer 4/4 1/2 or 5. #2 is a bit small for me.

Width. Coming back from 40 years in the ball point desert, I came back to M, in I'd had my bought in '70/71 P-75 in M. And this inherited pen was a M.

I went wide...only getting narrow euro F, to hold places for when that pen could be gotten in a wider nib.

That really seldom happened in I was a bottom feeder, greedy for the next pen.

I do use an F to day more than an OBB, but prefer an M to either.

[Peony Blush]

On 9/25/2024 at 1:26 AM, jchch1950 said:

Stub 1.1 or stub 1.5.

Wow! I didn't expect that as a response! Are you a calligrapher?

[Peony Blush]

On 9/25/2024 at 4:16 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I love the Pelikan M600 EF nib ground down by to a crisp Italic for me by Dan Smith

I have a Platinum 3776 broad, cursive italic coming to me from Dan. I'm excited, but apprehensive as well. I've been so annoyed with the fine and medium nibs I've tried, I just went straight for a bold. I recently tried some Platinum Preppys in medium, and they were too wide for me. 🫣

[Peony Blush]

On 9/25/2024 at 5:22 PM, Bo Bo Olson said:

And this inherited pen was a M.

That is freakin' beautiful!

[Bo Bo Olson]

That inherited pen started my addiction.

[inkstainedruth]

Sigh.  Another person who started off with a family heirloom pen.  Meaning Yet Another™ person I have to be jealous of now....  

Closest I ever got was the [unknown brand] pen/pencil combo that had been my grandfather's, which I found on my dad's dresser after my grandfather died when I was little (lost decades ago ) and the Sheaffer Balance Oversized which had been my husband's grandfather's (which, when my mother-in-law gave it to me, had the (engraved with her name) cap for her old Eversharp Skyline, jammed onto the pen so hard I needed someone with section pliers to remove it for me without breaking anything...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

@ 1970/71 I went over to the (base exchange) to get a high status $8.00 thin mat black Cross ball point. A jotter cost $3.75.

 

At the small four counter pen stand, there was a classic black and gold Snorkel, that I'd promised my self, when I got grown up and had a job...must have been right after payday in the draft time AF...ie very, very ill paid.

I took a quarter of a step to the right, and was mugged by the P-75 brothers....

AP/BX was cheaper than civy market....so I paid $22 in silver money for the P-75 and $18 for the silver thin P-75 ball point....as thin and @ same size as the Cross...it had a MP cartridge in it....still have two of those cartridges, that would fit a Jotter too.

Th fountain pen got used 4-5 times in 40 years, the ball point twice... Helped my wife locked them up in her Jewelry Jail.

At least I didn't lose them.

 

Then came the first flea market we were to sell at....I said 1€ for for of those obsolete leaky fountain pens; like the Esterbrook, and €5.00 for the pretty one. And I was ordered to look up what that Osmia was worth. I started at 20:00 and by 02:00 in the morning I had a collection.

 

.....The Osmia was worth then $250...my P-75 worth $225.....an instant collection along with the midnight gray Esterbrook DJ.

 

I had a metal capped 1961 ugly solid colored Esterbrook, that was stolen like all my pens, but none of the pretty ones from before 1961.

The pretty Esterbrooks were from 1940-60.

 

[torstar]

The comfortable old slippers nib called  M

 

 

[LandyVlad]

Well *it depends*  

 

Being 'new' to all this my first new pen was going to me an F or M, I chose M (TWSBI 580) as it would be smoother.

It's lovely and I'll continue to use it but being naturally curious I bought a couple of TWSBI Ecos in F and EF.

And this is where "it depends" comes into it.

 

I've found that the F nib with Pilot Iroshizuku yama-budo ink writes with a near identical line thickness as my M nib with Diamine oxblood. 

I'm assuming this is what people are talking about when they say some inks are wetter than others.

When this fill is used I'll put the yama-budo in the EF nib and see how it performs.  I'm expecting similar to a normal F but we'll see  

 

Ultimately as I continue with this sickness hobby I am sure the answer will end up being "all of them because it depends"

 

(Oh and I made the distinction about new pens above because I have a couple of vintage Parker 51s but have no idea what nib size they would be. One writes like a TWSBI M and one writes more like what I imagine a TWSBI B would).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Coming back to fountain pens after 40 yars inthe ball point desert, I went wide. B, OB,BB, & OBB.I ended up with F's as place holders for pens in wider widths I'd eventually get. Doubt if I did. Didn't sell the F's as planned.

For editing I want western EF. Pelikan EF will do.

 

But mostly I grew into liking M. It is wide enough for classic rough papers, laid and linen effect. But I did drift into getting M's on most of my Pelikan 200's I've ordered inthe last 6-7 years or looking in my 120 pens, I'll take M over the rest.