If you’re not yet familiar with the world of « feather-pen » (fountain pen) writing, you must be wondering, « what is a stub nib? »

So, a little explanation is more than called for!

Among the different elements that differentiate one fountain pen from another, is the size of the iridium point sealed onto the extremity of the pen.  This aspect is of utmost importance.

In most cases, when you write with an extra-fine, fine, medium, large or extra-large nib, it’s probably a round “ball” of which the size varies, depending.  Any lines made with this type of pen will be of the same width, whether they be vertical, diagonal or horizontal.

However, in the case of the “stub” nib, the extremity is enlarged to facilitate the placement of a rectangular iridium with rounded edges.  Writing with such a nib is quite different: the vertical line will be rather wider than the horizontal one, thereby emphasizing the script aspect of long ago days (pleins et deliés: wide and narrow lines), without for as much necessitating the exertion of extra pressure in order that the writing appear smooth and regular.

Attention, please!  If you are prone to a calligraphic hand, (exception made for specific pens) you’ll definitely notice the difference between a diagonally cut, “italic” nib, (in most cases, this being responsible for the great difference in the size of the line), and this TWSBI nib which is rectangular though round-edged.  The width of the vertical line traced is noticeably larger when compared to the horizontal one, however it offers a nice compromise (by way of these rounded edges on the bias) and thus, this nib gives itself well to a day-to-day use, allowing fluid handwriting of an everyday nature, while remaining in keep with the script aspect of yesteryear writing.

Mots-clefs : TWSBI, TWSBI 540, twsbi stub

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2012 at 20 h 56 min and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.