Getting The Most From Your Pens

Here's an idea that can save you some money on with fountain pens. Find a couple pens that you really enjoy and order a bunch of extra nib types to give you endless options. Fountain pens can get very expensive, and most of don't have a huge budget to invest in the hobby. Buying pens where its easy to swap and exchange nibs is a great wat to maximize and get the most from your pens.

Here's a list of the items I use to inspect, tune, and grind my nibs:

Here are some links for the nibs and pens in the video.

Ranga 9B

Bobby Architect Nib. Currently only see #5 in stock, but also has #6 and lamy style.
#5 Size

Fude Nib:

Cursive Italic Nibs

Flex Nibs

[Sallysaurus]

Making frankenpens is my thing for sure, nothing is sacred, I have a ink sample vial packed with spare nibs and those are just the ones not in my 30+ pens, I've even got nibs most people have never seen like the monster nibs which are like architects but on steroids

[jeffroberts]

It's the weekend and it's time to PARTY! BUST OUT THE OBLIQUE NIBS! Hahaha!!!!

Ubernerd!

I love your humor & your vids! Thank you so much!

[farukhhasan]

O man I love the way you speak. Very interesting and natural. Awesome Sir!

[ssfoster]

I absolutely love my 2009 Charlie Chaplin by Duke. I got the fude nib. It comes in a fine which when I asked the seller they said it is .6 and some consider it a medium. I would love a flex nib or 1.0 stub or Broad nib but the seller also informed me the nib is fixed and very difficult to remove. I love the purple color but most of all I love the weight of this beauty. Just wish I could get more nibs for it.

[dianarene]

Great video . I discovered after several pens, I should have just bought one, with every nib, We all learn. I’m going to stick with the few I have and learn to enjoy a new nib occasionally. I do love the Goulet nibs. Finally understanding “wet” ink and “wet” pens has made a huge difference.

[cynthiaalvarado]

I’ve been doing this a lot lately with my current pens. There haven’t been many that I’m looking for in the market, but have been getting spare nibs and swapping them on existing pens. It’s made it fun and fresh trying out old pens with new writing experiences.

[gazzar]

I also had that rattle with my MM-Dolcevita. To get rid of it I put a thin layer of clear, neutral-set silicone sealant around the inside of the metal collar that the converter goes through.

[anguswhite]

Esterbrook new/old stock renew nibs are amazingly diverse - not too cheap if you’re trying to ship them to the UK but at least you get to experience the nib unadulterated, like!:)

[stevenbrown]

Oblique nibs for party time. Now I know what all my parties have been missing!

[soxandbears]

franklin-christoph also has easily replaceable nib units if you have a bigger budget

[sevurueva]

Good advice. I should try out a flex nib like this instead of getting a whole new pen.

[derekdavis]

Great video one way to do this to get a Lamy Joy calligraphy set. Many nibs one pen. Lamy Joy is quite a comfortable pen as well. Although I prefer Rotring. Your video shows a great way of experimenting without getting your fingered too badly burnt financially. Thank you

[deshan]

That's the reason I like my Pelikan M200 and M400. The nibs could be swapped and fit both models.

[sathishrao]

I (a lazy-bone) have found an easier option. Bought a Parker 180 which serves as ‘One pen, two nibs’ from the factory !
I’ve a Parker Classic too (180’s successor) which also surprisingly writes extremely well on both sides !

[paulherman]

With a vintage Esterbrook, there's the possibility of 33 different options for nibs. 😁
Great suggestion! And it can be much more economical than buying a different pen for each different writing style.

[slo_carry]

Very good advice! I need to find some Jowo nib units for my Ranga 9B now. 😁

[peterharris]

Treating the nib as a component compliments your confidence in making adjustments to fix a nib that isn't performing well. Failure would be at the expense of a component, not the whole pen.
I am curious about the marriage of nib to feed and whether the arc of nibs from different manufacturers is the same. I gave up trying to fit a Bock titanium nib into a TWSBI feed.

[hikingpipes]

I'm doing this with my Monteverde Giant Sequoia. I got it with a fine but I really didn't enjoy it as a regular writer as mostly all my pens are in the fine range and I prefer others.
So, I just decided I want to play with sheening ink and some other writing styles so I just spent $20 US on a 1.1 Monteverde stub rather than buying a while new Pen, I figured a less used pen will now get used a bit more.

[ncerator]

great video as always now i need to figure out which pen my naginata pen bbs nib fits into to try that out...

[MrCabimero]

Also not sure if you ever tried but the FPR Ultra flex nib with an ebonite feed is AMAZING!!