# 14K Gold Italc 1.1 nib review



## PenWorks

Okay....your going to get one and a half reviews for the price of one :biggrin:

First off Fed Ex dropped off my new shipment of gold nibs this morning which contains my new 14K gold Italic 1.1 nib. Hot on their heels, brown dropped off my new Luminx LX3 compact camera  A banner day, but I was slammed in the pen store all day and did not have time to play with nothing till I got home. So after dinner, I felt the need to write and take a few pics.

If you are not familar with Italic nibs, some call them Italic or stubs or calligraphy nibs. I am sure all terms are acurate. Very few pen comapnies offer anything in their nibs but Fine, medium, broad. some companies will offer Xfine mostly Japanese companies, Pelikan and Lamy offer a full slate of nibs and I can think of only one Italian company that you can order an italic nib as a standard nib when ordering and that is Stipula. I can order a 0.9 or 1.1 italic nib on a pen, they recently dropped the 1.3 nib.

As far as widths go, italics can be ground by several nib miesters in the country and you can get anything you want from them, width, wettness of line, certain angles on and on. But, you pay for this service and you wait and wait and wait for your custom ground nib, as the good grinders are typically backed up 4-6 months. That is why I started to grind my own nibs, I refused to wait 6 months for a custom ground nib.

In general common italic nibs are 0.9 - 1.1 -1.3 - 1.5  (CSU size)-1.9 this is the line width. So a 1.1 would be considered on the finer side of an italic nib. With an italic nib, (and practice) you get a broad down stroke and a thin cross stroke and variations in between depending on the angle you hold your pen and the pressure you apply to the nib. Pracitce makes perfect. I think once you start writing with an italic, it is hard to go back to anything else. The line is so much prettier and the normal round bead.

Bock of Germany manufacturers nibs for most of the pen companies in the world, they manufacture all my gold nibs. They make Stipula's nibs and I sell a lot of Stipula's with italic nibs. So I broke down and had them make a 1.1 14K gold italic for me.

As expected, this is a top notch nib. Quality in production is first rate, nib is 14K all yellow gold stampped  14K .585 (there are no plans to have this made in the large size at this point in time)

Replacement is typical like replacing any nib, pull out your old nib and replace with the new italic. Make sure the nib is centered in the feed and minimal if any tweeking is needed. I did nothing but pop it in tonight. I have found that polishing the nib with silicone paper will increase the flow and smoothness on any nib. I plan on doing this. Richard Binder sells a nice nib polishing kit for about 8 bucks, well worth it if you play with fountian pens.

I have been jotting a few lines, I would call this a cursive italic nib. I letter everything I write, so I tend to write very fast. A cusrsive italic is generally smoother edges vs a crisp italic is just that, very crisp lines, but that tends to be somewhat scratchy and can catch the paper if you write fast or in cursive. A crips italic will almost always snage the paper on an up stroke. 

I am very please with the out come of these nibs. It writes as good as I expected them to come out. Very seldom do I write with anything other than a stub nib and if I do, it is a fine. I think should you dare cross the round line to a square, there is no turning back. so proceed with caution :wink:

I will post some info in MVV classifieds later on this week about them.

So for the other half of this review, I think I need to throw down a picture or two. I was tired of lugging my Fugi SLR around so I was researching compacts and made my decission on the Lumix LX3, one of the biggest features on this compact is it has the widest angle lens of all compacts 24mm and the fastest lens 2.0 which lets in almost double the light as most compacts. Knowing nothing about the camera yet, I took these pictures at the kitchen table in dim lighting with the auto inteligant mode using no flash and just hand holding the camera, it automatically picked the exposure settings even went to macro auto. Although they pics are not of very good quality, I considered them outstanding for a hand held, dim light macro setting exposure.  The camera offers full manual control, shoots in raw, records in Hi Def and more. I am pleased so far, but it has only been a day :biggrin:

On my last note as long as I am wired and rambling......If you have not heard of Live.com it is Microsofts (sorry for the cussing) search engine. Well you might want to check it out. They are offering 35% cash back on some purchases from MS. I went to Live.com, did a search for LX3 camera, brought me to Ebay, has to be a buy it now, bought the camera and before you hit buy it, it shows you your cash back if it qualifies, I got the full 35% cash back discount. Takes 60 days to get your cash, but I saved 146.00 bucks, Thank you very much MS, now I know you have more money that the US Mint.  To say I have been on a buying spree with the 35% cash back is an understatement, I hope MS doesn;t go bust before I get my cash. I bought my son a new hand held GPS for a Christmas gift and for some reason that was only 25% cash back, I'll still take it :wink:  

The end


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## Dan_F

I'd be interested in a large size cursive italic, if you ever decide to do them. I've been grinding my own steel nibs, but to get to a suitable width, I have to grind off all of the tipping material. Hate to do that to a gold nib.


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## avbill

Well, can someone explain the difference between a Italic nib, and a normal nib?  And what is a cursive italic nib?   If you direct me to some literature thank you!


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## PenWorks

avbill said:


> Well, can someone explain the difference between a Italic nib, and a normal nib?  And what is a cursive italic nib?   If you direct me to some literature thank you!



This will get you started

http://richardspens.com/ref_info/nib_primer.htm


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## Scott

Excellent!  This is a big step forward in offering fountain pen fanatics what they really want!  Thanks Anthony!

Scott.


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## Charles

Ok, Guys I need a medium calligraphy nib for my cousin that inscribes wedding invites etc. Penworks will you be selling these, And which would you recommend when she wants a medium nib. Can you tell me what kits will these go on. Will they work on an imperior jr? I have made fountain pens before but this was a special request Any help appreciated.


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## PenWorks

Charles, yes I sell these, check out my MVV add. These nibs fit small nib pens, like all the Jr series, Baron, Navigator, Jt Statesmen, Jr Emperor etc. Those were the easy answers. As to classify this as a medium, well yes & no.
Stipula's nib offerings were 0.9, 1.1 & 1.3 so yes I would say it is a medium comparing those offerings. Lamy offers 1.1 - 1.5 & 1.9 , so I would say a 1.5 would be a medium. Look at the sample I wrote, there is a comparison between my 1,1 & a Lamy 1.5. I know you want to get it right, but now we enter the realm of splitting hairs and the is no definative yes/no answer,
I haven't looked for a while, but CSU offers a 1.5 steel calligraphy nib for about 6 bucks, I have used this nib before and performed fine.


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## Charles

Thank you! Thank you! What are the cost of your nibs for the steel or gold ones. She is my cousin so I'd like to up grade.


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## Charles

Sorry, what is a MVV add??


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## Dan_F

Charles said:


> Sorry, what is a MVV add??



Most Valuable Vendors forum.

Dan


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## Firefyter-emt

Oh, very nice Anthony!  1.1 is a very nice size for a daily user.  I have a custom Parker with a nib close to 1.1 and I love it.  I also have a Mont-Blanc nib (OBB) that must be pushing 2.0 and is a bit too big unless you are only signing stuff!

Thanks for bringing these to the IAP, it will indeed bring forth buyers in my opinion.


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