Top Ten Nibs

Figboot on Pens
P.O. Box 12430
Durham, NC 27709

Instagram - @figboot11

[jasminejohnston]

My favourite’s the Pilot Kakuno. That happy face is the best part of the nib!

[JMcClure]

You know it is going to be a good list when the pilot custom 823, Lamy 2000, Pelikan 1000 and 805, and Montblanc 149 all made honourable mention.

[efecanl]

I think Pilot Vanishing Point's 18kt gold nibs are criminally underrated. The pen being retractable completely overshadows the nib's performance. It's extremely smooth, and quite springy for how narrow it is.

[kumakumao]

As a Japanese, I am very happy to see that Japanese fountain pens dominate the top rankings.
I also love custom URUSHI.

[chiarac]

Your Sailor King of Pens Pro Gear Sky... be still my heart.

My favourite nib is the H-MF LF (Lefty) on my Sailor 1911L. I don't know what makes a "Lefty" nib a lefty, but writing with it feels better than the non-lefty one, for me anyway; and I'm right-handed.

I tried different H-MF at the store, and I was always going back to this one. I didn't realize it was a "Lefty" until I got home. When I went back to get the silver trim, there were no more, and a restock wasn't planned. This was in the fall of 2018. I haven't seen any lefties anymore.

My second favourite is my Fine 14kt nib on my Montblanc Meisterstück 144 - not nail hard at all.
My third is the H-B 21kt on a 1911L, then my H-F 21kt (yup) on my 1911S.

Honourable mention: Pilot Petit1.

I love these types of videos. Thank you so much!

[sPaio.]

Thank you for this very well documented nibs comparison that encouraged me to make the big jump of buying a Namiki Emperor last month in Japan. Every day since that purchase, I enjoy the wonderful feeling of precision and dynamism in writing with it. Useful to mention indeed that my handwriting is different that with my other loved nibs (MB149, Pelikan1000, Lamy2000, Waterman Edson, Pilot 845…). It’s more expressive with the nib asking for bigger mouvements and allowing some changes in pressure safely. What a joy!

[ramonafirehorse]

Just wanted to thank you. I purchased my first starter pen today and I got the Faber-Castell Loom. I was planning my first trip to the fancy pen shop near me on Friday then they announced on social media they were closing the shop again because of COVID numbers increasing. ☹️ Found a Loom in an art store and the color I liked was $15 less than the other colors for some reason. 🙌🏼🙌🏼 I purchased without being able to try it based on your recommendation and I couldn’t be happier. It’s so smooth and a great size for my hand and I like the weight versus some of the plastic and aluminum models I was considering.

[calumk]

Just got a Pilot Custom Urushi and the nib is absolutely sensational. Perfect ink flow, touch of tactile feedback, hint of flex. Gorgeous.

[penarbor]

WOW! All Japanese top 3! Not surprising at all I guess. Sailor and Pilot are easy to recommend for that near perfect writing experience. And I appreciate how you don't write off those steel nibs just because they're inexpensive, I've had some amazing steel nibs in my collection too. If they were stamped 14K or 18K, no one would question if they were really gold or not.

I just spent a bunch of time tuning, heat setting a $200 Bock #8 14K nib. It kept running dry even though there was enough spacing between the tines. I finally had to increase the air exchange by modding the feed to get the desired ink flow. It should have been perfect out of the box for the price.

[osirisgolad]

I never thought I'd ever watch one of these list videos and agree with literally everything on it, but the day has come; even down to the honourable mentions and the Loom. Haven't tried three of them, but I can see why they'd be nice nibs. The only thing I'd add for people who love feedback is the Platinum President, which I think is both the best looking nib in existence and the best feeling heavy feedback nib.

I have a theory about why Pilot/Namiki nibs feel so good. If you look at the tip of the nib, it isn't a smooth curve like any other nib. Instead, the Pilot nibs have this unique feature where the tines kink and narrow the part of the tines closest to the tipping. Seems to me like it acts as a little needle with a lot more spring to it than a straight curve from shoulder to tine.

[GPngts]

A couple of nibs I enjoy a lot and no one mentioned:
1) The red-lacquered steel Bock #6. It is not just the color, it is actually a lot more bouncy than other bock steel nibs.
2) The "flex" nib that comes on Ranga eyedropper pens - I am not sure who makes it, but it is amazing - smooth and bouncy

[tiantuatara]

I'm not surprised to see so many Pilot/Namiki nibs. Even though I only have inexpensive Pilots, I love the nibs. Also, thumbs up for the Leonardo and the Loom.

[thebrickshooter]

Great video, as always!
I'd say my favorite nib is the nib on my 1950 pelikan 400. I got it from my grandfather (it was his pen) and it was in dire need of love. I fixed and tuned the nib, freed up the piston and polished out most of the scratches that were gathered by decades of use. It is just so supple, smooth and wet it is unbelievable.
Next up would be my 18K Visconti HS F nib followed by the EF nib on my TWSBI Precision.

[KB-cxdr]

Thanks for sharing, very entertaining. I miss the inlaid Sheaffer nib, like in the Legacy or PFM.

[mGARANDEUR]

My 18k vanishing point ef is so smooth yet so loud. Writing on cheap paper as a lefty makes a racket and i love it.

[gizmogeek]

I’ve been wanting to see a video like this. It’s hard to parse how different pen manufacturers tune their nibs in comparison to each other and you do a good job describing how each of them feel.

[notlt]

I love the close-ups of the nibs! While I am getting into some vintage nibs, there is something special about these more modern nibs.

[wplminecraft]

I absolutely love the nib on my Pilot Custom Heritage 92. It's smooth with a touch of feedback and has a little line variation as well

[gadgetyo]

I cannot afford gold nib pens. How about a list of top 10 steel nibs? And my biggest problem with steel nibs is that most pens uses either Bock or Jowo nibs. Should we consider in house tuning (Diplomat) or grinds (Franklin-Christoph)?

[gregmason]

Love that loom nib, posts well too. That would be a good top ten list also, “top 10 best posting fountain pens”.