Nib feel similar to sailor

[schweitzerp]

Hello, all!
Like many, I've become enamored with the feel of sailor's nibs while writing. The best I've heard it described is as being close to a mechanical pencil with wide diameter graphite, which I think Comes close to the mark.
I'm curious as to whether anyone knows if this can be replicated by a nibmeister (as I have large hands, and the KOP is well out of my price range)? I'm uncertain to whether the particular feel originates from tipping material, adjustment, metal composition, or what. Looking for any input about replicating it in other pens

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[Laura N]

Mike Masuyama can do it. I had a Japanese fine nib from a different brand that I just didn't love, and I brought it to Mike and said "can you make this write like a Sailor fine?" And he did.

[conib]

Which pen was that? I've tried to get my Pilot Custom 74 F (rhodium) to write well -- like my Prera F, say -- with no luck. But I'd be thrilled if it wrote like a Sailor.

[Laura N]

It was a Nakaya nib.

I like the Prera fine nib, too.

[conib]

I like the Prera fine nib, too.

Yeah, it's a good one. I was kind of surprised to learn (for myself -- I'd read it elsewhere but hadn't quite believed it) that the Custom 74's F wasn't good out of the box, like the Prera.

All my Sailors (Procolor 500, Somiko/Young Profit, 1911 Standard, and Pro Gear Slim) have been perfect out of the box, too.

I very much hope to be able spend a little time with Mr. Masuyama at the upcoming SF show. (my first show! I'm excited ...)

[Laura N]

I like the Prera fine nib, too.

Yeah, it's a good one. I was kind of surprised to learn (for myself -- I'd read it elsewhere but hadn't quite believed it) that the Custom 74's F wasn't good out of the box, like the Prera.

All my Sailors (Procolor 500, Somiko/Young Profit, 1911 Standard, and Pro Gear Slim) have been perfect out of the box, too.

I very much hope to be able spend a little time with Mr. Masuyama at the upcoming SF show. (my first show! I'm excited ...)

You are so lucky! I can't go to that show ever, because of when it is, even though the Bay Area is my favorite place in the world.

I had no idea about the Pilot Custom 74 until you just said that. That's disappointing. I will say that I once had a Custom 823 with a great fine nib; I just didn't like the pen itself.

But I've had the same experience with Sailor pens: every one, even the cheapest desk pen, had good fine nibs right out of the box. Maybe some of us are just Sailor nib fans? I have a friend who doesn't like them, and swears by Pilot, and I've always wondered if maybe the nibs have different characteristics.

[dr.grace]

It's certainly not hard to get a Custom 74 nib to write well. Out of the box they can be a bit dry, but opening the tines a bit works wonders. Ultra-reliable in my experience.

[conib]

It's certainly not hard to get a Custom 74 nib to write well. Out of the box they can be a bit dry, but opening the tines a bit works wonders. Ultra-reliable in my experience.

Yes, thanks for posting. I had indeed seen where many people were able to get a satisfactory performance by opening the tines, and it was in fact the second adjustment I tried (after a careful tine alignment under the loupe).

Opening the tines did increase flow, but unfortunately it did not solve the original problem: the nib starves on the backstroke. It doesn't skip, but the line comes out very fine and doesn't recover for a bit. (For example, the loops on my lower-case "d" and "a" always come out much, much finer than the nominal stroke width with this pen. The entire loop, not just the top part of it.)

When I'd seen this issue before (and when flossing didn't resolve it) it turned out to be due to tine misalignment and/or baby's bottom. On this pen, the tines weren't really that much out of alignment -- if at all -- and certainly not enough to have caused such a severe issue. And there wasn't any baby's bottom that I could see, either. I tried opening the tines to various degrees (realigning the tines each time as precisely as I could) but it didn't solve the issue. I finally did a little work with some micromesh, but that made no difference at all.

And really, the pen doesn't skip -- it's never skipped in fact -- so I'm wondering if there's something else wrong with this nib that a pro knows about and can resolve.

So, I'm punting. Hopefully Mr. Masuyama can help me with this issue.

[dr.grace]

It does sound like something subtle, but maybe also aggravated by rotation of the pen outside the sweet spot on those particular strokes? Actually I've found Sailor nibs to have a less forgiving sweet spot than Pilot nibs.

[conib]

Thanks for posting! Yes, it very well could be a subtle issue aggravated by how I hold the pen on backstrokes -- I hadn't considered that. It will be good to take the problem up with Mr. Masuyama, to hear what he thinks, but in the mean time I'm very glad to hear from you and anyone else who's had more experience than I've had with unusually recalcitrant nibs. :-)

[schweitzerp]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! Can't believe I didn't think of Masuyama in the beginning

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[conib]

Well, I'm back from the SF Show. Mr. Masuyama did his magic on my Custom 74 smoke demo (rhodium-plated) "F". It does really now feel like a Sailor 14K nib! Incredible. I'm sooo happy.

(He first watched me write a bit. He then said that although I seemed to be holding the pen too tightly, I still wrote wrote lightly (I don't press very hard on the paper), and that I don't rotate the pen when I write. So that was okay.)

And ... Mr. Masuyama also made my Pelikan M101N "F" write like a Pelikan M205 "F" (I had brought with me an inked up M205 "F" so he could know exactly what was ideal to me w.r.t. a Pelikan "F")! So I'll no longer pass on buying a pen with a modern Pelikan 14k nib, because now I know that Mr. Masuyama can make it write the way I want it to.

Anyway, here's one thing I can strongly suggest: if you have the opportunity to visit a nibmeister in person, it's good to bring a pen with you that writes the way you want the problem pen to write.

-- Constance