This post will be the first in a series about the technical aspects of fountain pens. — by Tracy McCusker
If you have never owned a fountain pen before, it can be bewildering to understand them when you run across one for the first time. Most fountain pens look gorgeous. The bare nib is their most striking feature. Aside from the price (which can span from twenty to two thousand dollars), it can be hard to understand the pen beyond its appearance. Despite a fetching lacquer & chrome trim, the appearance of a fountain pen will tell you nothing about how it writes.
The truism that “fountain pens are not ballpoints” should be kept in mind. Ballpoint pens have standardized points that vary very little from refill to refill. The writing experience with a fountain pen, on the other hand, is highly individual. If you ask the opinion of ten different people, each of them will likely desire a different kind of “feel” to their pen. You will often hear the “feel” of a fountain pen described on several continuums of “smooth or scratchy,” “springy or stiff,” “flexible or nail.”
There are three factors that go into the writing experience with a fountain pen: the ink, the paper, and the nib. Two of these factors can be controlled by choosing different papers, or different inks. For example, a pen may feel scratchy on printer paper but smooth in a journal. The one variable you cannot change is the quality of nib. That is why when you buy a fountain pen—and mean to write with it, rather than display it—you buy it for its nib.
Anatomy of a Nib
The fountain pen contacts paper with a nib rather than a ball (as in a ballpoint or rollerball). The nib is
A loupe will help you see your nib close up.
made up of several parts, though only a few are important to us right now. The breather hole is the small hole (usually on top of the nib) that allows air to replace the ink that moves out of the pen. The slit is the small space between the tines of the nib that allows ink to travel down to the tip. The tip of the nib is coated with an extra-hard tipping material that stands up to the pressure exerted during writing. This tip is often small enough that you would need a loupe (a jeweler’s magnifying glass) to actually see what you write with.
The breather hole, tines, and slit control the amount of ink that follows to its tip. In turn, the tip of nib affects how scratchy or smooth a writing experience is. Tipping a fountain pen nib is so common that descriptions will not mention it. If they do, they often call it “iridium tipping,” even though iridium is hardly used.
Nib Materials
Modern fountain pen nibs are made from various materials such as palladium silver, titanium, gold, gold-plated steel or stainless steel. Nib materials need to be corrosion-resistant because inks are generally acidic.
14k gold, 18k gold, and stainless steel are the three most common alloys used in nibs. Stainless steel nibs are seen as workman-like and are generally inexpensive. Stainless steel has shorter shelf-life than gold, though a good stainless steel nib can last for twenty years or more. Gold nibs can last for a hundred if properly maintained, and can be heirloom-quality objects. Gold nibs are, however, expensive. Unless a pen has inlayed rare metals or stones on their body (and believe me, Krone is plenty guilty of that excess), a pen price over 200 dollars generally means that it has a gold nib. Recently higher-end pens like the Waterman Exception and Perspective have been released with rhodium-plated gold or polished steel nibs in place of traditional yellow-gold nibs. It is therefore important to check the material of the nib in the description to understand what you are paying for.
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Gold nibs have a springy feel vs stainless steel which is stiff.
A word now on gold nibs, as they are associated with better writing experiences. Many collectors believe that gold nibs automatically equal better “feel”; many first-time pen buyers also assume that a higher price will equal a better pen.
Generally it is said that gold nibs are “springy,” or “supple” and stainless steel nibs are “nails,” or “stiff.” The assumption is that everyone prefers to write with a “springy” nib, and shuns the “stiff” nib. But these are relative terms and every writer has a different preference. I personally like to write with nibs that are stiffer than average; I currently favor two fairly inexpensive pens that use stainless steel nibs. The stainless steel nibs can stand up to a constant torrent of writing. I have also written with nibs that I would consider too stiff–one was a 14k gold nib on a Pelikan 205 Demonstrator. There is no substitute for actually trying the nib before buying a pen.
A pen-maker’s reputation often can serve as a guide for what their nibs will feel like. Several pen manufacturers are notable for their good stainless steel nibs–Lamy and Rotring are among the best. Other pen-makers, like Waterman, use truly amazing gold nibs in their higher-end pens that are a great mixture of springy & smooth.
Nib Sizes
The other important factor in the writing experience is the size of the pen nib. The size of the nib refers to the amount of tipping material that touches the paper. The broader the nib, the more ink flows onto the paper; thus, the broader the nib, the smoother the writing experience. Most pen nibs are available in fine, medium, or broad. Less common are extra-fine, double-broad, stub, italic, and oblique nibs. Medium is considered the “average” size nib that will serve the majority of writers. Stub, italic, and oblique nibs are nibs that offer a variation in line width that you see in beautiful samples of handwriting; italic and oblique nibs are often found on calligraphy pens, or specially ground by a nibmeister.
Nibs are generally bought & fitted to different types of handwriting. Those of us that write in small, tight
Size matters.
handwriting usually require a fine or extra-fine nib. Those who write in larger hands do well with medium, or broad nibs. Even if you love the smooth feeling of broad nib gliding across the page, if you can’t read your handwriting through the broad strokes of the nib, the pen is not going to be very suitable.
The flow of ink to a nib often changes with time. As I write with a pen it adjusts to my writing. Over time, the tip tends to broaden and put down more ink than it did at first. Thus after a few months, many of my fines start to write more like mediums, and some of my mediums more like broads.
Nib sizes are relative to the pen manufacturers. Japanese pen manufacturers like Namiki (Pilot), Sailor, Platinum and Tombow tend to have nibs on the smaller side than Western pen manufacturers like Waterman, Parker, Aurora, and Lamy. I own a Pilot Prera with a fine nib, and it writes smaller than even my extra-fine Lamy. If you have tiny handwriting like me, you may consider looking at Japanese pens to find a pen more suited to small script.
In closing, I have scratched the surface on the topic of nibs. It is important to keep in mind how the pen writes. More often than not, we have a very good idea about what we want our pens to look like. With fountain pens, however, it’s often more rewarding to go with a pen that compliments how you would like to write than what you’d like it to appear to be. A good pen shouldn’t be chosen like jewelry, and you may consider giving a chance to a pen that looks a little strange (or plain) if it offers you a good “feel” on paper.
