a good, robust pen for a nib fiddler?

2025-02-23T15:35:54Z

asking for a friend.

so, i know a guy who is wanting to try his hand at custom grinding nibs, mostly for his own amusement. back in the day he was a self-taught jewellery-maker and still has his tools from back then so he imagines he's got most of what he needs to do some nice nib work.

having recently learned that his old TWSBI pens are __not__ the pens to be doing this with -- notoriously fragile apparently -- he's wondering if anyone can recommend a particular brand and/or model of Aliexpress fountain pen that would be amenable to painless nib swapping and so forth. he has a preference for piston, pump and vacuum fillers but knows that beggars can't be choosers and is perfectly willing to go with the flow -- ha ha! -- on that particular issue.

any suggestions would be appreciated. tyvm.

2025-02-23T17:17:53Z

Try Jinhao pens. While they aren’t piston or vacuum fillers, the nibs are sold separately for cheap in multi packs, and the 9016 has a giant converter. The 9019 does as well, but I don’t know if the bigger nibs are as plentiful. There are other models that nibs are just as easy to replace, but these have the largest ink capacity. You can also look for piston/Vacuum pens that feature Jowo and Bock nibs, as you can buy the nib separately. I think Moonman/Majohn, Admok, and Asvine feature these. Pump fillers I haven’t really run into.

2025-02-23T17:28:43Z

excellent! thank you. i have a couple Jinhao's on order -- including the 9016 -- so sounds like i'm off to a good start.

the piston/vac with Jowo/Bock nib sounds like a stellar suggestion, should have thought of that myself. 👍

👑👑 many thanks! 👑👑

2025-02-23T18:00:49Z

No problem! Something to keep in mind as well is that the fountain pen community really needs the art of nib retipping to survive, as we have literally one or two people who can do that (that I know of, hope I’m wrong, to be honest) in the whole world. If nib work interests you, take a look at it.

2025-02-23T18:10:54Z

Alternatively, mount the nib in a dip pen handle. Nothing to break, easy to clean between adjustments, and you can also use it with the vast range of dip nibs which are still reasonably easy to get hold of.

If you start looking at stacked nibs, it'll be interesting to see what you come up with.

Good luck!

2025-02-23T18:13:11Z

11 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

No problem! Something to keep in mind as well is that the fountain pen community really needs the art of nib retipping to survive, as we have literally one or two people who can do that (that I know of, hope I’m wrong, to be honest) in the whole world. If nib work interests you, take a look at it.

interesting ... when ~~i was doing~~ my friend was doing ( ) the jewellery one of the best parts was working with metals at their soldering, fusing and/or flow temperatures. no idea what the temps are for tipping materials but i'l bet the magic is there too.

2025-02-23T18:19:08Z

2 minutes ago, Gris Nuage said:

Alternatively, mount the nib in a dip pen handle. ...

excellent idea! i'll remember that one.

as it happens though my concern wasn't the wear and tear on the pen while doing the actual nib work, it was the basic issue of getting the nibs in and out of the body in the first place. did this a few times on my TWSBIs and ... long story short, i have fewer TWSBIs to worry about. and i'm not rough on my gear, just don't like taking "no" for an answer when it comes to nib swapping and such. lessonn learned though: hands off the TWSBIs if you want to keep them in rotation.

2025-02-24T08:27:03Z

You could also try Asvine. I only have the V200 but it seems not only very solid but it is very nice to use. They also do packs of 3 nib and feed units at an okay price but will take any No.6 nibs. I have a Montblac 146 nib in mine currently. Not as cheap as the Jinhao's though.

2025-02-24T13:36:45Z

yes, Asvines had crossed my mind, but my only experience with them so far is the V126 and thus far I've been unable to extract the nib from its housing unit. it seemed a good pen before i started messing with it though. must see what i can find on them, maybe there's a trick to getting those nibs out.