Going boutique: Choosing crisp nib grinds to slow down and pay attention
I opted for a narrow, boutique collection of nibs this week. Fancy? Sure. Needed? Also: sure.
I anticipate storms of detailed notetaking — on topics with which I should take my time. Crisply ground nibs force me to slow down and write deliberately with attention to my writing angle. More so when crisp italics and architects live on medium, fine and extra fine tippings.
Pilot’s F and All in the Nib’s Mini Cutlass give me two options for European-EF-width writing. Lamy’s Cursive nib and Franklin-Christoph’s F SIG are slightly broader. All four will make excellent detailed notetakers as I build out my two new classes for the coming school year.
The two broadest nibs on my pen tray this week are mediums. The skinny jeans of broad lines. My Cypress’ M-SIG offers deep, murky blue-black lines. Hongdian’s Long Blade shows dusty purple. Together, the two mediums (media?) offer inverted line variations, one with narrow vertical strokes and the other with narrow horizontal strokes. Insanity.
Grey/Black
Pilot Custom 743 Deep Red (F). Jacques Herbin 1670 Gris Orage. This combo is the black sheep of the week’s currently inked. Unadultered F-width tipping. Generous and quick-drying grey ink. Consistent, simple lines that let my thinking live center stage. Perfect for tracking tasks, events, reading notes. Simple done well is far from boring. Simple done well makes for an excellent daily driver.
Blue/Teal
Mr. Cypress Cone Micarta (M SIG, by Franklin-Christoph). Diamine Enchanted Ocean. A wet and dark pairing. A Mariana Trench of writing. Enchanted Ocean’s dark blue runs firehose wet in this SIG nib, which smooths the sharpness of the excellent italic grind. The broadest line this week lends itself to longform writing, especially slow writing tasks like transcribing letters and analytic reflections.
Earth Tones
Nahvalur Nautilus Primary Macchiato (Mini Cutlass, by All in the Nib). Sailor Manyo Shirakashi. I am a fan of Sailor’s Rikyu-cha ink. The fluid boundary between green and brown is a happy place for me. Shirakashi lives along that green-brown boundary. The Mini Cutlass grind is a disciplined EF writer that manages to show off Shirakashi’s fun shading — so I see both green and brown in each letter. A great slow meeting combo. Also: journaling, lesson pre-planning, and D&D notes.
Lamy Safari Terra Red (Cv). Monteverde Gemstone Fireopal. Fireopal’s orange color and shouty shading leap off the page, especially against the week’s otherwise muted color palette. The cursive nib is generous as to writing angle, which accommodates writing tasks in which my mind wanders beyond what my pen-hand is doing. Excellent for reading reflections, reading notes, accenting meeting notes, and *in-situ* D&D notes.
Wild Cards
Carolina Charlotte in Matte Dragon Scales (F SIG, by Franklin-Christoph). Taccia Ukiyo-e Ume Murasaki. Murasaki’s black overtones bring me joy. The musty pink color offers a second excellent choice for accenting notes. The crisp F SIG make this pair well-suited to detailed task and calendar accenting in my Hobonichi’s diminutive 3.7 mm grid, too. The wide section on the Charlotte model keeps the pen comfortable in my hand over long writing sessions, which opens this combo up to journaling and letter writing. Cool.
Hongdian N23 White Rabbit (M Long Blade, by Hongdian). Diamine Solar Storm. The Long Blade grind is a heavenly pairing for Solar Storm. Storm’s rainbow shimmer settles at the ends of letterforms, where the ink pools on the page. As a result, my writing seems punctuated by fun shimmer while overwhelmingly dominated by clean, musty purple hues. Excellent for thoughtful reflections, informal letters, and quickly-scrawled longform writing of many kinds.
