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Stacked nibs come to the UK

There’s a new nib wizard in town — and he’s in the UK.

You’ve seen the Cross Concord and other pricey Sailors. You’ve seen the monsters from Regalia Writing Labs, continents away.

Now meet Jose Munuera, who is building his skills with stacked nibs right here in the UK.

Let me share my experiences with two of Jose’s nibs that he sent to me to try out, then I’ll share how you can get your own.

Jose makes a range of different stacked nib styles, with both two and three layers (or more if you’re up for experimenting), forward and reverse sloped, and with reversible grinds done any way you like, covering needlepoints to triple-broads, italics, zooms and more.

I asked for one like a Naginata Cross Point (BB right way up, EF upside down), and one like a Cross Concord (EF right way up, BB upside down). Both are made from two layers, epoxied together (so they’re glued, not welded or soldered.) They’re steel nibs, made from Jinhao donors.

Jose plans to offer stacked Lamy nibs too, and assembled Bock and JoWo units, but mine were supplied as loose nibs, no feed or unit, with the idea being that you install them into your own #6-suitable pen.

I installed the Cross Point into my John Garnham JG6 Venom, which was fitted with a Bock nib.

I installed the Cross Concord into my Narwhal Original, which had an ‘in house’ nib and a different feed style.

In both cases, installation took literally moments, and I just had to be careful to get everything lined up straight and fully inserted. I checked under a loupe that everything was sorted and properly aligned. The only corrections needed were minor and could be done with my fingertips.

The writing experience is absolutely phenomenal. Each nib really gives you two pens in one.

The Cross Concord style (on the bottom in the pic above) has become one of my favourite nibs. The EF primary side is precise and flow is decent, with moderate feedback.

Flip it over and you get an absolute paintbrush. It’s wet, and very very broad, and silky smooth. It writes wider and at a slightly lower angle than the Sailor equivalent, but the experience is otherwise very similar. It blew me away.

The Cross Point version also works very well. In the primary position it’s broad and wet, but not as crazy broad as the Cross Concord style, so it’s usable on a normal 7mm line or even 5mm dot like in the pic below. Reversed it’s a nice toothy EF/F.

I’ve been running these nibs with regular use for a couple of weeks and I’ve experienced no problems at all. They’re solidly made and the ink is still flowing beautifully. I imagine they’ll be a bit trickier to flush than a normal nib, but that’s the price you pay…

Unlike the Sailor versions, Jose stacks most of the length of the two nibs together (Sailor just keeps the very front portion ahead of the breather hole, cut to a kind of V shape). Jose’s version is actually neater cosmetically, but it does mean that depending on the pen/feed you install it into, the top nib may not fit flush with the body of the pen, creating an unsightly gap — which you can see in some of the photos. If you tell Jose what pen you plan to install it in, he can ensure it’s cut to the correct length for you.

So the Sailor 1911 Cross Concord is sold as a complete pen for about £700, meaning you’re paying something like £450 for the nib alone. For that you get a perfect gold masterpiece by a true Japanese grand master whose name is renowned. I was happy to pay it and I treasure the pen.

Jose charges £50 for a two-layer nib, £75 for a three-layer nib, plus the cost of the base nibs and shipping. You may not get gold, but you get a very similar writing experience to a Naginata, at a fraction of the price — and it’ll come to you from right here in the UK, about a week after you order, made just for you. Honestly, if you’re interested in a stacked nib but can’t justify the cost of the Sailor, this is an absolute no-brainer. A good place to start is emailing [email protected] with some idea of what you’re looking for. You can thank me later.

9 Comments

  1. Jim

    Watching Jose’s progress on Reddit has been fantastic. I’m glad to read that his nibs perform so well.

    -Jim, Pensloth

    • Anthony

      I was really surprised at how great they write. Anyone who hasn’t been able to try a stacked reversible nib has been missing out, and this is the easiest way in!

    • Noah M

      It sounds like I’ve been missing out on some progress as I’m not on reddt. I’m intrigued.

    • Kevin

      Amazing! I had never heard of this. Thanks.

  2. Noah M

    Thank you later? I’ll thank you now.
    I’ve been waiting for this to happen. To be honest I’ve been waiting for someone to do the welding part. I thought of doing them glued before but wasn’t certain of ink resistance so never pulled it off.

    I might order one or two just to try them out. Really great price there!

    • Anthony

      Hah 😎. I know Jose has done ink resistance tests and I’ve used Sailor, Beaufort and Standard Bindery in mine for a couple of weeks with no noticeable deterioration. Enjoy!

      • Noah M

        Sounds great. Do you know which epoxy he used? That’s so encouraging I might end up doing it.
        Gotta focus a bit more on certain grinds first. 😉 I think I’m sending Jose an email to order. Which do you recommen, the concord or the eagel? Two layers or three? or both? Or all? XD

        • Anthony

          Two layers is enough for me — look how wide the line is just with mine! I like the Concord shape the best, just because you get the most practical line width right way up (and I think it looks best too).

      • Noah M

        I think you’re right about choosing the concord.
        I’ve just found his his thread on reddit and see that he used…. exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of using… a bit disheartening as this makes me think I should have just done it when I thought I would, but also exciting to know it works. Good luck to all the players!

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