Platinum 3776 Century Nibs

[Laurie]

I am about to purchase a Platinum 3776 Century. The pen is described as having a "Bold" nib. I see from their website that this pen comes with a broad and a double broad nib. I assume "Bold" means "broad"
I have read that the japanese nibs are finer than the european equivalents. I like nibs on the bolder side of medium. I am a bit unsure as to whether to go for the broad or the double broad. Has anyone had any experience with these nibs.

[Jon Szanto]

Great nibs. I bought a 3776 "Nice" last year in a B, but had it immediately ground to a 0.7mm italic - so I can't say much about it as a B! I think you should definitely take a look at this page (http://www.nibs.com/TippingSizespage.htm) of nib size measurements on the nibs.com site.

Also, as before: I am totally assuming when you say "I am about to purchase" you are talking online (otherwise you would have been trying out the pen in a store). If that is the case, a link to the sale is very helpful when you are asking us to answer questions. Because, yes, "bold" is not a term usually used with nib sizes. More for fonts. ;)

[Robert]

I have four Platinum 3776 pens - - each with a broad nib. For me, that is the perfect size. I tried a double-broad on a Nakaya once, but didn't like it nearly as well as the Platinum broads - - too much of a good thing, perhaps. I echo Jon Szanto's recommendation to visit the nibs.com tipping page, where you can compare the width of Platinum broad nibs to others with which you are personally familiar. Here's a link directly to that page: http://www.nibs.com/TippingSizespage.htm

Good luck!

[Lady Onogaro]

I am about to purchase a Platinum 3776 Century. The pen is described as having a "Bold" nib. I see from their website that this pen comes with a broad and a double broad nib. I assume "Bold" means "broad"
I have read that the japanese nibs are finer than the european equivalents. I like nibs on the bolder side of medium. I am a bit unsure as to whether to go for the broad or the double broad. Has anyone had any experience with these nibs.

Pendleton Brown told me that those nibs are among the best he's worked with. Like John, I also had the M nib of my pen ground to an italic (a Pendleton point).

[Laurie]

Thanks Lady Onogaro. I am very excited about my purchase. I had two minds about whether to go for the double broad as i do like a broad nib and have read that the japanese nibs are are bit finer than other brands. I even considered the music nib. So I erred on the side of caution as I am new to this infatuation. I intend to buy a few replacement Italic 1.1 Goulet nibs to exchange on a few cheap Jinhao X`450's I bought so i will get the feel of a stub. I am amazed how a fountain pen improves your handwriting. My writing with a biro is pretty ordinary but is much better with a fountain pen. Probably because you tend to write a bit slower. Problem now is that I have to find someone to write to. Most people I know correspond with emails so I will have to break the tradition and write a letter and post it. I just love the various colour inks and my next exercise will be to build up a good range of colours. I am waiting on a Herbin turquoise coloured ink (Pervenche Bleu or something like that) and a another bronzy coloured ink which I cant think of at the moment (late in night in Australia and a bottle of shiraz devoured) Also like to get a nice emerald coloured ink. I have purchased a few reasonable samples of paper such as Rhodia, Japanese Life and Clairefontaine.
Just loving the experience of going back to fountain pens instead of boring biros and recalling the experience of having ink stains on your fingers. Brings back memories of my school days (1960's) Must have dementia I thiink.

[KBeezie]

I've not had much problems with the Century 3776 nibs, they tend to be a hair smaller than the equivalent Pilot nibs, both of which are a size smaller than the western counterpart which is typical of Japanese nibs (Jpn M = Western F, Jpn F = Western EF, etc), usually when you get into bold and up, the difference seems to diminish somewhat.

The Century 3776 nibs tend to be a little firmer and a touch more feedback than some of the Pilot nibs, it's kind of a trait of the brand that has it's own unique feel to it.

Thus far I've used the Soft Fine, Medium, and currently have a Fine-Medium with my Century 3776 (Had the black, then red, and now the Nice Pur LE).
The Soft Fine compared to a Pilot Falcon Soft fine, was a bit dryer, tad scratchier, and not nearly as "flexy", but I prefered the Soft Fine on the Platinum as it felt more controlled in my hands, mainly good for a decent springy feel when you have a light hand, but there's definitely some feedback to it. The Medium was pretty smooth, but also seemingly boring to me, not sure what it was about it exactly, but there wasn't really any issues to it. The Fine-Medium (FM) so far is probably my favorite of the nibs offered on the Century 3776, close to the smoothness of the medium, but line size in between the fine and medium which is more my preference.

I'm not sure where you would normally get a FM as I got my Pur second hand, and from my understanding if you get one from nibs.com you can request an FM nib, but it's not listed as standard on their site.


http://pens.kbeezie.com/content/public/upload/purnib_0_o.jpg (http://pens.kbeezie.com/post/platinum-century-3776-nice-pur/)

I wouldn't mind trying the Music nib they have which is often sought after, but the price of a Century 3776 with a music nib isn't much different than the US price for them (ie: the Black, Bourgogne, and Chartreuse Century 3776 can be had for around $90-100 shipped from Japan thru Bunkidou Shop on Rakuten, and all three are available with UEF, SF, F, M, B, BB when they're in stock http://global.rakuten.com/en/search/?k=3776&sid=bunkidou-shop&l-id=gs_product_search )

[moynihan]

I have a 3776 Century with a B nib. I find it to be similar re line width to a (non-Pelikan) Western B, at least on my sample.

[stub]

I have had a bunch of 3776 pens and currently I have a Sai in B which is one of my favorites. It is absolutely fantastic. I love the nib and especially enjoy that Aurora-like feedback many Platinum nibs have. I find the pen is a joy to use and the B nib is especially nice. B nibs are unavailable here generally and can't even be special ordered but this one was sent for a display. They were reluctant to sell it (they could't find the box) but I talked them into it and I am glad I did.

I also still have my M nib Blue 3776, which I also enjoy. It has an almost pencil like gritty glide to it but the line is a tad thinner than I like so I grab the B more often. Weird as I don't ordinarily like demonstrators and am a huge Pilot booster but the 3776 is a really nice pen and I like the Sai as it looks like the pen was frozen in a block of ice.

It would be all alone out there as the best $80 on the planet if it were not for the Pilot Custom 74 which is, in its own way, also full of super fun and charm. These are the modern day equivalent of the ubiquitous workhorse UK squeeze Duofolds of mid century. Both a little bland in styling but high performance, utterly reliable and punch above their weight.

[rpsyed]

I have a broad 3776 nib in my Nakaya right now. It's really a fantastic nib and every bit as good as a Nakaya nib. I just did a writing sample for you. From top to bottom: Broad 3776 nib, Sailor Miruai; Eboya Kyouka with Medium 14kt Bock nib, Diamine Blue Velvet; and Hakumin/Edison Pearl with 18kt Fine JoWo nib, Iroshizuku Ku-jaku. The paper is an A5 Clairefontaine Triomphe pad and the lines are 8mm apart.

http://i.imgur.com/TshKXYQ.jpg?1

Hope that helps!

Edit: just realized this thread is over 7 months old ...

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I've always heard that Nakaya nibs were basically just rebranded #3776 nibs (they're made by the same folks, after all). I could be wrong, though.

[rpsyed]

Yeah, that's true. I guess Nakaya pens are tuned to your hand as John at CFP or Nakaya themselves will ask you about your writing pressure, angle, etc. I've not written with tons of Nakaya and 3776 nibs (probably around a half dozen) but from what I can tell, they are exactly the same in writing qualities, tuned or not. It speaks well for Platinum: they just make some really good, consistent nibs.

[tandaina]

Not exactly. Nakaya nibs are rebranded PLATINUM nibs, not necessarily 3776 (just one of Platinum's lines). They're similar but I actually think the Nakaya nibs are a different line. I've got three Nakaya and a ton of 3776 and they're just not quite the same. (But who knows, I might be imagining that.)

The 3776 nibs are less "Japanese" to me than many. The B I have is a pretty true B, the M a true M, etc. So if you like B nibs I'd go with the B. I have a Nakaya BB that was ground to OBB cursive italic by Mr. Mottishaw and it's an amazing nib but it is *very* broad. I'd find it hard to use for daily writing if it weren't italic to be honest. IT's BIG.

[rpsyed]

Not exactly. Nakaya nibs are rebranded PLATINUM nibs, not necessarily 3776 (just one of Platinum's lines). They're similar but I actually think the Nakaya nibs are a different line. I've got three Nakaya and a ton of 3776 and they're just not quite the same. (But who knows, I might be imagining that.)

The 3776 nibs are less "Japanese" to me than many. The B I have is a pretty true B, the M a true M, etc. So if you like B nibs I'd go with the B. I have a Nakaya BB that was ground to OBB cursive italic by Mr. Mottishaw and it's an amazing nib but it is *very* broad. I'd find it hard to use for daily writing if it weren't italic to be honest. IT's BIG.

IDK ... Which line of Platinum is Nakaya rebranding? I know that the feed and nib shape, size, thickness, etc of the Nakaya nibs and 3776 is exactly the same - you can swap feeds and nibs. The Platinum President nib is of a different shape. It makes sense that it's the 3776 nib as well since when the feed for the 3776 changed, Nakaya's feed changed too.

[jar]

Some other differences between the Platinum President and #3776/Nakaya nibs are that the former are 18K while the latter are 14K.