Nibs are what fountain pens are all about. As far as I’m concerned, you can have the flashiest celluloid in the world, but I want my eye to go straight to the nib: it’s the jewel in the crown.
The best nibs are not only wonderful performers, but gracefully designed and simply beautiful, too.
So here’s my celebration.
1: Pilot Myu
As I said in my review, to me this nib looks like Concorde. It’s pure engineering: no decoration, nothing fancy. And it’s none the worse for it. (If they made a version 50% bigger, I’d still own it)
2: Pelikan M1000
The two-tone 18k beast on the M1000 couldn’t be more different from the Myu. It’s got acres of gold and rhodium, plenty of space for those intricate looping scrolls.
3: Visconti Homo Sapiens
I love the 23k palladium Visconti nib mainly because of the moon-shaped breather hole — and the eye is subtly drawn to it by the teardrop flourishes radiating from it.
4: Montblanc 149
The daddy of them all. I’m particularly partial to the tri-tone, but it’s the almost deco styling of the “4810” lettering that gets me the most.
(Photo shamelessly stolen from here, because my 18k 149 is on its way…)
5: Sailor Pro Gear
The 21k Pro Gear nib is clearly inspired by the tri-tone 149 nib, but it takes a different tack: the nib is slimmer, and the tri-tone is reversed, mostly rhodium. It gives a lengthening, slimming effect that I love.
6: Platinum 3776
The way Platinum has integrated the peak of Mt Fuji into the 14k nib design is brilliantly elegant. But then there’s the heart-shaped breather hole to inject a bit of whimsy. Exquisite.
Which nibs do you think are the most beautiful?
It is good to find the aesthetic beauty in these objects. Enjoy your 149 once it arrives!
I’m quite excited for my first Montblanc!
They are all so beautiful. The Myu is something special, it echoes the quills that preceded it and yet promises clearly to be so much more reliable.
What a lovely way of putting it 🙂
I think my choice would go for the MontBlanc, but necessarily this one in particular. But pretty much each and every one of their nib ! 😂 Like the one with the apple on the Beatles pen !!