dachemist
Member
I have been using one of Lou's (DCBluesman)semi-flex steel nibs for a number of months now and wanted to share my thoughts on them. For a review by someone more qualified see Gerry's here: http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32864
I've only used 3 nibs for any significant amount of writing (2 from kits, and 1 of the 5 I bought from Lou).
I bought the fine, large nibs to use in a Gent's pen at work. I tried using the kit nib but the line was so broad it was like writing with a sharpie. Since 99+% of my writing at work is in a lab notebook, legibility is rather important.
The paper in the lab notebooks is not very FP friendly. The rulings act like strips of plastic imbedded into the paper (the ink visibly beads up) but the nib glides over everything smoothly without hesitation. There was (what I perceived to be) some scratchiness at first which has since gone away. I DO NOT believe this to be a fault of the nib. I had learned here that nibs need some prep work prior to using them. I assumed these do as well. I skipped all that though and went straight to writing with the pen. The nib gave me what I was looking for, a narrow, legible line that didn't look like it was written with a paint brush. The nib seems to write smoother as I continue to use it. I had used the kit nib from a Berea kit for a few months and never had that experience.
I don't know what kind of ink Gerry used in his test but I have been using Noodler's bulletproof black ink (which I understand in notorious for nib creep) and have noticed little to no creeping. I have also left the pen unused for days at time and have picked it up and immediately started writing with it.
I could not justify the expense of a gold nib but these have been an excellent replacement for the stock nibs.
I've only used 3 nibs for any significant amount of writing (2 from kits, and 1 of the 5 I bought from Lou).
I bought the fine, large nibs to use in a Gent's pen at work. I tried using the kit nib but the line was so broad it was like writing with a sharpie. Since 99+% of my writing at work is in a lab notebook, legibility is rather important.
The paper in the lab notebooks is not very FP friendly. The rulings act like strips of plastic imbedded into the paper (the ink visibly beads up) but the nib glides over everything smoothly without hesitation. There was (what I perceived to be) some scratchiness at first which has since gone away. I DO NOT believe this to be a fault of the nib. I had learned here that nibs need some prep work prior to using them. I assumed these do as well. I skipped all that though and went straight to writing with the pen. The nib gave me what I was looking for, a narrow, legible line that didn't look like it was written with a paint brush. The nib seems to write smoother as I continue to use it. I had used the kit nib from a Berea kit for a few months and never had that experience.
I don't know what kind of ink Gerry used in his test but I have been using Noodler's bulletproof black ink (which I understand in notorious for nib creep) and have noticed little to no creeping. I have also left the pen unused for days at time and have picked it up and immediately started writing with it.
I could not justify the expense of a gold nib but these have been an excellent replacement for the stock nibs.
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