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I like pens that offer something special in their physical/technical design. I'm sure classic black cigar-shaped pens, either with a plain 'resin' body or a lacquer-coated barrel, with a traditional nib could be elegant and worth every penny of their asking prices, but I find them boring. A well-made nib that can consistently lay down a narrow line, either dryly or wetly but definitely without skipping, which allows me to write complex Chinese characters legibly inside 5mm squares is my primary 'test' or criteria, even though most of what I actually write for work or business is in English. A nib that is more versatile, and can deliver more than that when (and only if) desired by the user on the odd occasion, earns extra points. Thus I've spent quite a bit on acquiring pens with Fude nibs, Concord nibs, Zoom nibs, 'flex' nibs, 'soft' nibs, etc. in addition to my 80 or so pens that are fitted with regular EF and F nibs. Features such as being push-button retractable nibs (a la Pilot Vanishing Point and Decimo), spring-loaded inner caps (Platinum #3776 Century) to prevent nibs and feeds from drying, etc. earn extra points with me. I'm not fond of either demonstrators or plain (clear or opaque) plastic pen bodies, but I'm a sucker for attractive acrylics with shiny inlaid fragments, precious woods, metals with intricately carved designs, special finishing techniques (e.g. maki-e, koshu-inden, kaba-zaiku, yosegi-zaiku), raden, or just classy urushi. Piston-fill as a mechanism adds zero value in my book, and eye-dropper is actually a minus. Give me a robust and easy-to-use converter any day, even if the ink capacity is lesser than something that fills the entire barrel. The only use I have for piston-fill demonstrators is as expendable pens I don't fear clogging up with shimmer inks, which would benefit from my being able to see whether the particles have all settled on one side of the pen, and having the extra room inside the barrel to agitate the particles by shaking. My general preference is for Japanese pens, because it seems Europeans don't really understand the meaning of 'Extra Fine', and most European EF nibs stretch the envelope of my acceptance of what counts as Fine nibs. That said, I do have one Rotring 400 fountain pen that deserves the EF nib grade, and the EF nib on my Diplomat Aero is not too bad.
(Edited)
nemodos
8
Dec 19, 2018
charlizeworshipperThis is really interesting as someone who also writes in a different language from time to time - do you find yourself using some pens for Chinese and others for English? (And do you work in any other languages?) I find that stub nibs are better for when I'm trying to do Persian calligraphy, but only if I hold the pen a certain way.
nemodosI don't really make a distinction between pens I use for writing English and pens I use for writing Chinese (and Japanese, even though I don't actually understand text written in kana and can only copy those bits). However, broad-edged ('italic') nibs don't work particularly well for writing Chinese characters, and there is nothing to gain aesthetically from using the broader side of a Fude nib or a Concord nib to write in English, unless I'm trying to achieve some sort of special effects for 'lettering' – and I'm no calligrapher. To achieve the proper shapes of certain strokes in Chinese kaishu (regular script), what I need is a little bit of 'give' or softness in a nib, but some popular 'flex' nib options – such as the FA nib on a Pilot Custom Heritage 912, or any nib width on a Pilot/Namiki Falcon (or Elabo) – tend to actually produce the wrong shape for na strokes, for example, by flexing and splaying too early. A regular 'hard' gold Fine nib usually works well for me when writing Chinese, and I have dozens of pens with those. From what I've read, architect's nibs, and broad-edged nibs in the style of say the Pilot Parallel pens, are good for writing Arabic and Persian and can achieve shapes that are very much present in the 'standard' scripts for those languages?
nemodos
8
Dec 19, 2018
charlizeworshipperThat's very interesting! It's kind of surprising how well italic nibs are suited to Roman letter calligraphy considering how poorly they suit other alphabets. I don't know anything about writing kaishu or kana, but somehow standard nibs not fitting makes sense to me. You're right that an architect's grind is better for Arabic/Persian/Urdu calligraphy, etc., and I've used the Pilot Parallels in most of the calligraphy I've done as gifts. I've also used brushes although I'm not as well versed with those. Brush pens are okay provided the brush is thick enough to get a varied line.
nemodosIt's not just a matter of the alphabet or writing system, though. Italic or broad-edged nibs are not suitable for producing copperplate or Spencerian calligraphy in Roman or English alphabets. The particular 'hand', script, style and/or intended aesthetic of the writing matters greatly, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_calligraphy#Gallery_along_history I'm sure I've recently seen some interesting examples (online) of using Pilot Parallel pens or broad-edged 'poster' nibs to draw Chinese characters in advertising/signwriting, but I couldn't find an image of one in Google just now to show you. I find brush 'nibs' on fountain pens (or disposable pens with built-in feeds and ink reservoirs) too difficult to control, either using my regular three-finger grip for writing, or using the traditional grip for calligraphy brushes used in Chinese and Japanese writing. To achieve a brush-like effect, I usually use fountain pens with either Fude de Mannen nibs or Concord nibs.
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I don't think Massdrop is likely to offer 'drops' of pens of such niche interest, though.
nemodos
8
Dec 20, 2018
charlizeworshipperThanks so much for sharing! I'm still leaning into my pen habit so I have quite a bit to learn.
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