Both fountain pens I have purchased are by Pilot. Both have fine nibs. However, the Petit1 Mini nib writes more like a medium I would guess. I’ve been using it at work, and when I first started using it, I thought, “wow, the line is a lot wider than the Metropolitan.” I liked the fine line of the Metro. The nibs are different, so I guess that’s why the “fine” for the one is not the same as “fine“ for the other.
Nib sizes aren’t always the same.
- Thread starter Dominic
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tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
Excellent PSA! Yes, thanks. It’s true there can be a bit of variation in the same brand, even the same pen model. Though, the Japanese brands are usually more consistent than most.
Try a drier ink to tighten up the line width.
Try a drier ink to tighten up the line width.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
Maybe in fpen nibs it isn’t an exact science.
- Thread starter
- #4
I can't seem to understand why F, M, B are the sizes. Why can't they use rollerball sizes like .3, .5., .7 etc. So much better!
Wouldn‘t that be F, M, B tough? .3 - F, .5 - M, .7 B. ?
perhaps maybe the rollerball are even more confusing because some “bold” roller ball are considered a .8 tip. And then you have broad tip that is 1.0. And then some Bold that is 1.0.
So who really knows!
Paper and ink selection can also effect the line width quite a lot.
That’s true. I don’t focus so much on Bold, Medium, Fine. But rather, what width works best with what I’m writing on.
Case in point - back to what I use at work - the G2 (did I say G7 before? I meant G2) pen. For a few months I used the Pilot Vanishing Point which was a Fine point Fountain pen. It wrote too fine for the task. Then I dropped it, had to send it off to get repaired , and decided the G7 in Fine (which is .07) works just as good and fills up the tiles of data even better than the Fine VP. So thus, began using the G2 pen in .07 Fine. Which IMO, is more like a Bold.
In my Bullet Journal I use the Sakura Pigma in a .03 or .05.
The numbering system I dream about is for companies to label the nib size the actual size it is. It could be exactly as I described or it couldn't be. Some companies F is .5 while others could be .7. I've see Mediums that range from .5 to .9. I've seen extra fines at .5 while I think they should be .3. Its my dream, what can I say!?
Yeah man who really knows. We can’t tell companies how to label for our own needs. To bad!. It Took me a while to find the pen width I like after trying numerous types.
Rhody
I'm a Lumberjack.
I think there are other variables like flex materials pressure ink craftsmanship of the nib that make it difficult to label with specificity.
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
A rollerball always uses the same ink. If you switch out the refill, you're switching out the tip too, because they are connected in the refill. That allows a consistent line width on a given paper that you can measure and label .3mm, .5, .7mm, or what have you. The line width from a fountain pen nib depends on the nib width, but also how the tipping is ground, how wet or dry the nib is tuned and how wet or dry the ink is. So just labelling the nib .3, .5, .7 won't tell you anything about how wide the writing will actually be. Might as well just call it F, M, B.
And just because there is an exception to every rule, I would be willing to bet that if you grabbed half a dozen different .5mm rollerball refills and measured the lines they write, there would be a fair bit of variability. Probably a visual difference. Furthermore, fountain pen stub nibs usually are labelled by width, i.e. .9mm, 1.1mm, 1.3mm, etc, even though everything I said about variability in nib tuning and ink wetness also applies to stub nibs too.
Isn't this hobby fun?!
Some kind of do give a width to their nib sizes, though almost always with regard to broad+ nibs. You might see it with regard to XF nibs though that is usually terminology used by nibmeisters who custom grind nibs to needlepoint widths.
