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Wet and wide: medium stub from FPnibs

I’ve bought a fair few pens and inks recently. My Pelikan M805. Monteverde Fireopal. Pilot 92. Birmingham inks (two batches). Jinhaos. Titanium nib. And I’ve backed the new Namisu on Kickstarter.

Nonetheless, I recently found myself getting itchy for a new pen. And I’d just reclaimed from my partner her Kaweco Al Sport, fitted with a BB nib — too fat for me, entertaining as it is. The nib, not her.

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The Al Sport is simply charming.

An idea was born. A quick trip to FPnibs.com and I’d ordered two new steel nibs for the Kaweco, plus an additional short converter, both nibs reground, including international shipping, for the princely sum of £50.

I went for a fine ground down to an XXF needlepoint — specifically to compare against the incomparably wonderful UEF in my Platinum 3776. And I also chose a M ground down to a stub, nominally 0.6mm, to compare against the fine cursive italic that FPnibs created to grace my TWSBI Vac Mini.

On test here is the medium stub. I asked Pablo to make it “very wet”, incidentally.

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Did Pablo strike a happy medium? Geddit?

As in my last experience with FPnibs, the service was great. I ordered the evening of 23rd June; on 26th June I received a shipping notification. The nibs arrived on the 30th June, each well packed in cotton wool in a plastic tube.

So far I’ve tried the stub out with two inks: Blackstone Barrier Reef Blue, and Akkerman Passage Blauw (like all great artists, I’m having my blue period).

How does it perform?

Well, as you’ll see from the photos it’s beautifully ground.

It’s not so rounded as a TWSBI 1.1 stub or an Edison #6 stub (my only real previous factory stub experiences). It’s noticeably less sharp than the FPnibs cursive italic, which makes it considerably easier to write with for long periods. There’s not a great deal of line variation — less than 2x — which is the tradeoff.

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Just enough line variation to qualify as a stub.

It’s DEFINITELY wet. And I’d say it runs much broader than 0.6mm, probably due to that flow. Closer to 1mm.

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The line’s a touch fatter than a medium, but I won’t hold that against it.

For exactly £15.39 including the source nib, FPnibs have again delivered a wonderfully smooth, wet and characterful nib that looks great under a loupe and breathes new life into an old favourite. If you’ve got a TWSBI, Kaweco or #6-nib pen, and you’re interested in pushing your boundaries a little, this is a very inexpensive way to do it. Take a look at the range of grinds here for a bit of inspiration.

Look out for a review of the needlepoint in the near future!

5 Comments

  1. slightlyunnerved

    Thanks, an interesting read. I wasn’t aware of the options from FPnibs – looks like I can get a WA and PO nib for a TWSBI 580 for a lot less than the cost of a couple of Pilot Custom 912s. Definitely worth a look.

    • Anthony

      Yes, exactly! Obliques, posting and waverley, xxxf, architect, fude, it’s all there. A great way to experiment before dropping bigger money…

  2. Alison Cross

    Made a note of FP Nibs for that glorious day when I know enough about fountain pens to be able to appreciate the difference a specialist nib can make!!

    • Anthony

      If you’ve got a TWSBI or Kaweco, you can order just the nib units and it’s pretty cheap! In fact I’d be happy to post you mine to try out if you’ve got the pens for them 🙂

  3. John Dodd

    Looking forwards to the review on the needlepoint, giving that some serious thought myself.

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