I ordered this pen with a fine italic (stub) and the nib is absolutely fabulous. I have other stub nibs but this is by far the smoothest of them all. Just wonderful to write with! I am now very sorry I missed the other Italix drops. The main drawback of the pen is the short section and sharp threads, meaning you will need to write a bit higher up on the barrel section. For the nib alone, I still give the pen 5 stars despite the minor potential issue with section comfort.