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.