Welcome to Issue 17 of Fountain Pen Weekly! That’s a third of the way to 50 issues - if you’re into that sort of landmarks 🙂 

This week we’ve got some amazing art by Tarun Durga, in addition to Nandini’s doodles, and we will also talk about pen and nib sizes.

Size and related matters

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of attention given to some rather large nibs being launched by Magna Carta. Lots of words have been generated about large nibs, their production, their quality and their price. Also, the phrase ‘Go big or go home’ has been bandied about a bit 🙂 

Initially, I was quite enamored of the bigger nibs - the #6 was absolutely the smallest I would admit to liking, and bigger, chunkier pens featuring large nibs were always on my wishlist. When I first acquired an Opus 88 Koloro with a super-smooth #5 nib, it quickly became my favourite go-to pen. I attributed it to it being a smooth wet writer and being a Japanese eyedropper - which meant I could carry it around with out fear of the ink burping out.

The big revelation about size came to me at last year’s Pelikan Hub, where I got to try out the Pelikans - from the M200 all the way up to the M1000. We had an extended Hub, which meant I got to spend a good amount of time trying out the different pens one after the other and comparing each to the other. The M200 and M400 I found too small for my liking. The M1000 was quite definitely too big for me to comfortably write with - even though I was quite enamoured by its large nib! Between the M600 and M800, I was a bit conflicted, and the M800’s larger nib made me lean towards it. But the more I wrote with the M600, the more I liked it. It was then that I realised that I found the M800 nib to a bit too bit for me to write as comfortably with as I did with the M600.

Once I acquired the M600 I began to see that I did not like the larger nibs, and the sweet spot for me was in the #5 and #6 sizes. It also adequately explained why the Opus 88 was such a favourite.

My fascination with fat and chunky pens continues, as you might have seen from the ones featured in the last issue. But I am no longer enamoured by the bigger and bigger nibs. Sure, as any other enthusiast, I am curious about how big they can make nibs that are still usable, but I don’t see myself buying any nib larger than a #6 in the near future. But then again, things can turn on a dime!

How about you? What are your fountain pen size preferences?

I find myself constantly starting 30 day challenges and never completing them. Over the past few years, I think I have successfully completed #30days30inks twice, but have attempted them many times. On a whim, I started it for this month, and successfully made it on the first three days! How long will I last? Will I get anywhere near the finish line? Watch this space for exciting updates!

~*~

This week, I have been trying out my hand with flexing using a Bluedew nib, thanks to a generous gift from my friend Raj Ahmed. I have never been comfortable with flexing, and this nib is not really good for beginners. But it is pushing me out of my comfort zone and has really motivated me to put in some effort. Hopefully, in a bit I will be able to share some progress I make here. In the meantime, you have to make do with a picture of nib itself.

Share your take on fountain pens and related things in one (or more!) of our upcoming issues.

Any and all content you share will belong to you and will be credited to your name (or a pen name of your choice) and linked to any of your online profiles. Ideal content would be a write-up between 200 and 400 words with 1 to 5 images.

Here are a few things that can go in the Fountain Pen Weekly:

• Pen / ink / paper ownership experience

• Favorites in FP, ink, paper etc.

• Your social handles with your FP content - Insta, FB, Twitter, Reddit

• Any FP-related content you want to call out - articles, podcasts, videos.

If you have any other ideas as well, do share, and I will be happy to think about it.

That’s all from me this week.

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