This week, Pen Boutique owner Leena had an assignment for me: write about handwriting and why it is still so important in our lives, even in this fast-paced digital era, and about how journaling by hand can help us relax, calm down, and let go of difficult feelings. She shared how much writing by hand means to her, and I wanted to find a way to explore that subject.
I've already written a lot about the benefits of writing with fountain pens in my article from this spring, How Fountain Pens Slow Down Life... in a Good Way, and I've also struggled with keeping a traditional journal myself, so I found myself stressing over how to approach the topic. After thinking about it, I began to realize there was another subject hidden inside Leena's suggestion, one that interests me very much: what exactly is our handwriting, and how can we experiment with it to express ourselves?
[Pictured: Writing slowly with a Medium nib Delta DV Original to focus on the pleasures of writing by hand.]
The Many Sides of Your Handwriting
Most people think of their handwriting as something fixed; we have "our handwriting" and don't think about changing it very much. It's your own distinctive way of forming letters, unique to you. When I see my friends', relatives', and co-workers' handwriting, I recognize it and feel fondness toward it; it's an expression of their personality and identity. Just think about how moving it is when you find something handwritten by a loved one no longer with you. It's not necessarily the words that touch us, but seeing the handwriting itself. Of course, with conscious effort and practice, we can improve our handwriting or alter its style entirely, and it often evolves as we age. But there's also a way to add flair and personality to your handwriting while still retaining its core style. A different nib can make familiar handwriting look finer, bolder, more decorative, or more expressive. It can even help you bring out a different side of your personality or change your mood.
[Pictured: My experimentation with a Pilot Custom 743 Falcon (FA) nib, which I later ended up getting.]
As I thought more about what handwriting means to us, I began reflecting on my own experiences with writing by hand over the years, and on the huge impact different pens and nibs have had not only on the way my handwriting looks, but also on how the experience of writing feels.
Leena shared that she has moved from using a broad nib to a fine nib for journaling, and I went through a similar transition myself. When I first began using a fountain pen, I loved the smoothness of medium nibs. Finer nibs felt too sharp to me and were a little intimidating. I tried some more unusual nibs, but kept reaching for mediums most of the time. Over time, though, I fell in love with the elegance and precision of fine and extra fine nibs for my personal lists and note taking. Now I have nearly twice as many Fine and Extra Fine nibs combined as I do Medium nibs. I love the way they make my handwriting feel deliberate and controlled, and the delicate details I can express.
More recently, I've been trying bolder nibs in my blog articles, and really enjoying the experience of seeing the way they change my handwriting and show off my inks. Stubs, broads, and double broads can be so expressive, injecting a shot of joy into the words on my page. I don't always have to be so restrained and careful.
[Pictured: DV Original Glow Up Oro fountain pen in my hand, with a thicker nib than my usual one.]
And what about the flexible FA nib on my Pilot Custom 743? I don't reach for it for quick note taking, because it requires slowing down and concentrating on the way I move my hand. But when I uncap that pen and put the special soft nib to the page, I begin to relax, let go, and focus on the beauty of the line and the feeling of the slow, deliberate rhythmic dance of nib, paper, and ink. My stresses fade to the background.
[Pictured: Relaxing with a Pilot Custom 743 Falcon (FA) nib.]
For this article, I decided to choose five different nibs and explore what each one brings to my handwriting and to the experience of writing by hand. Some are very common, while others might be entirely new to you. All of them are nibs I personally enjoy using and thought would be fun to meditate on further.
[Pictured: Writing with a Sailor Professional Gear Anchor Blue Dawn fountain pen in Broad.]
Justus 95: An Adjustable Nib
When I first started writing with fountain pens, I didn't live anywhere near a brick and mortar pen store, so I researched them as thoroughly as I could and ordered them online. Finally, I travelled by car, train, and subway from my home in Connecticut to visit a store in Manhattan that was over three hours away. I was overwhelmed by all the brands I didn't know yet, so I focused in on the store's Pilot pens. That was the first time I saw a Pilot Justus 95, and it's almost the only thing I remember about that day. I can't say for sure why the Justus 95 stuck with me, but maybe it's because it's such a different and memorable pen. The name "Justus" was created from the words "just right for us" or "to adjust," and signifies the ability of the nib to be fine-tuned to the writer's preference.
It's also a pen very few people are familiar with, and every time I teach my "Get the Point!" seminar based on my guide to Pilot's vast array of nibs, it's the nib that participants most often mention in our feedback survey as being surprising and intriguing. It's a frequent answer to the question, "Have you added any Pilot pens/nibs to your wishlist as a result of this seminar?" and I've also had more than one person stop me after class and suggest that I write a blog article about it.
The Justus 95's unique 14k gold nib features a tension adjuster at the top of the grip section that you can turn to extend and retract a plate, making the nib softer ("S"), firmer ("H," for hard), or somewhere in between. The softer setting allows for greater line-width variation, and the hard setting is like a traditional stiff nib. You can select any position along that dial that's most comfortable for you and leave it there, or adjust it whenever you like if your writing needs or preferences vary.
So, how does it feel to write with, and how does it make my handwriting look?
Trying the Fine nib was eye-opening! With the dial turned all the way to "Soft," I could immediately feel the softness and slight flex, and my writing naturally got a little looser, more flowy, and more expressive. The change in the appearance of my letters was noticeable, but subtle, and I liked that it wasn't too extreme. The feeling was fun, but still fairly reserved, which suits me.
[Pictured: Justus 95 writing in "Soft" mode (top) and "Hard" mode (bottom), in my Leuchtturm 1917 journal.]
When I switched to ‘Hard’ mode, I automatically wrote more slowly and carefully just because I had more control, and my handwriting looked slightly neater but less distinctive, with tidy letters featuring thinner lines and little variation. The change felt even more dramatic than it looked. I liked both choices!
When I tired setting the dial partway between "S" and "H," that felt cool too, and I wrote, "What a great nib! It's like me... restrained or impish, depending on mood."
[Pictured: Justus 95 writing in my Leuchtturm 1917 journal, with the dial positioned partway between "S" and "H."]
The Medium Justus nib, which I had tried previously for another article, writes a little wetter than the Fine one, and my personal favorite is the Fine because I really love how I can go from a feeling of great control and precision when in "Hard" mode to feeling more relaxed and quirky when the dial is on "Soft." The Medium nib gives you a similar feeling, but its starting line width is a little thicker. It feels smoother and more luxurious, though not quite as exacting. They are both great, depending on which you prefer!
The Justus 95's line variation in "Soft" mode is similar to what you see and feel with Pilot's other "soft" nibs (available on the Pilot Falcon, Custom 74 in Lavender Fog, Custom Heritage 912, and Custom 743), but, thanks to the slider bar, you can go from "Soft" to "Hard" at will and have a very versatile pen.
I think the "Soft" end of the spectrum would be great for writing letters, journaling, and expressive drawing, while the firmer option is better for note taking and precision drawing. In a planner such as a Hobonichi, the "H" setting would be perfect for writing very small when filling in a small grid, while the "S" setting could be used for writing headings or special parts that you want to look a little fancier, like a quotation or even a single word you want to emphasize.
[Pictured: Random Justus 95 writing in Hobonichi notebook!]
The idea of being able to change how your pen writes at the twist of a dial may sound a little gimmicky, but I think it's actually extremely cool to be able to select how you want your pen to write, and to even change the setting depending on your mood or on how you are using your pen that day. And the Justus 95 is no novelty pen. It's elegant, comfortable in the hand, and has an interesting vertically ribbed texture that I love. The texture isn't very noticeable if you just look at the pen, but feels amazing moving between your fingers, giving the Justus 95's black resin cap and body slight traction and subtle softness almost like ultra fine-wale corduroy.
Although it sticks to classic black, Justus 95 features a choice of yellow gold or rhodium accents (with a matching yellow gold and rhodium-plated nib), and has a contemporary profile with blunt ends and a sword shaped clip. Its long grip section enables you to hold the pen back further from the nib if you wish, in a position that allows you to relax your hand and either let the nib glide effortlessly over the page or deliberately exert more pressure on your downstrokes without gripping tightly. And with the Fine and Medium options, it gives you two different starting points for exploring how you want your lightest and heaviest lines to look.
[Pictured: Pilot Justus 95 in my hand, held in the lower part of its grip section.]
Extra Fine: The Appeal of Precision
The Justus 95 lets us adjust the feel of a single nib. But I also wanted to explore what happens when we choose nibs with different widths and shapes. With the growing popularity of handwritten planners and bullet journals with very small grids, Extra Fine nibs are becoming more and more mainstream. They’re also ideal for people who naturally write very small (I can think of quite a few of those at Pen Boutique!), for taking notes in small spaces such as Bible margins, and for people who use absorbent paper that produces feathering and bleed-through with other pens. Some left-handers also love Extra Fine nibs, as their thinner lines dry more quickly and are less likely to smear.
My most frequently used pens are still Fines, but I now have eight Extra Fines in my pen collection. Most of my German and Italian Extra Fines feel and write like my Japanese Fines but, even if we discount those, I still love truly extra-fine Sailor, Taccia, Platinum, and Pilot nibs because they allow me to write so small and create such precise detail when I'm drawing. My typical handwriting is medium-sized, but I love having the option to write very small sometimes or just to have very crisp lines in my handwriting, with the white spaces in my letters distinct and sharp. An Extra Fine nib can write so small, it's difficult for me to read!
To represent Extra Fine nibs for this article, I decided to use a gold-plated steel Sailor Casual L nib. I love how small I can write with this nib, and that it has that classic Sailor feedback adding to my feeling of control when I use it. However, it's very well tuned and smooth, and I don't find it to be scratchy or overly sharp feeling. It has a little less feedback than Sailor's classic 14K gold nibs, so if you found Sailor's old EF nibs a little too extreme for your taste, give the Casual L nib a try.
If you love extremely fine nibs, there are several other exceptional options to try. The Pilot Vanishing Point in Extra Fine writes finer than other Pilot Extra Fine nibs, although this nib size is only available in certain colors. You can also try the Platinum #3776 Century in Ultra Extra Fine, or Pilot’s Posting nib, available on the Custom Heritage 912 and Custom 743. Pilot's very precise steel Extra Fine nib is only available on the Pilot Kakuno in clear, while the Platinum Preppy comes in 02 Extra Fine in a number of different colors. Another great option is the Esterbrook Needlepoint nib, ground for Esterbrook by Kirk Speer, one of today’s most celebrated nibmeisters.
Here's an experiment I did comparing a classic Japanese Fine nib (a Pilot) with the Sailor Casual L in Extra Fine. Although I adore the pen I used in this sample, its Fine nib isn't designed for writing this small, and my super small letters really pushed it to its limit. It doesn't look very good that small, and the words start to get hard to read and look almost blurry. The Extra Fine nib handled it with ease, though, and it was a very satisfying feeling to write so small. When I tried a Western Fine nib (an Aurora) on the same scale, the result looked terrible, even though it's another one of my favorite pens and has a wonderful nib.
To be honest, writing extremely small isn't my favorite thing to do, and it requires a lot of concentration for me. I think it would be interesting to practice my small and precise handwriting and try to become more comfortable with it and improve its consistency. Do you like writing small, or producing very sharp and distinct lines in your handwriting? I can see the appeal, but maybe it’s not where I am right now in my life. One of the cool things about our handwriting is that, even if we don't really notice, it's always evolving and growing, just as we are.
[Featured: Hobonichi Techo planner and Sailor Casual L Stable fountain pen.]
Stub: Add More Character
Let's go from super small to super large! When I wrote my guide to LAMY's interchangeable nibs back in March, I was very surprised by how much I loved their calligraphy nibs, so I knew I wanted to revisit one for this article. Like other stub nibs, they have blunted, squared-off tips for broad vertical strokes and thin horizontal strokes, but they come in three different sizes: 1.1 mm, 1.5 mm, and 1.9 mm. My favorite was the middle one, 1.5 mm, because it is quite dramatic, but not so extreme that it's totally impractical for writing. (The 1.9 mm nib is typically only used for ornamental calligraphy.) These nibs are featured on the LAMY Joy calligraphy pens, but are also available for purchase separately, so you can turn any LAMY (except the LAMY 2000) into a stub-nib pen. I took one home from Pen Boutique and slid it onto my Turmaline AL-Star, then started playing around with it.
Once again, I was impressed and overjoyed by how easy this nib is for me to use. Because I tend to rotate my hand slightly outward while writing, keeping a stub nib in good contact with the paper can be challenging and frustrating for me, and I have only found a few that work well for me. I didn't have a problem with any of the LAMY calligraphy nibs, though! I was able to write quite quickly, with no skipping, and without the unpleasant sharp feeling that some stub nibs have when their corners scrape the paper. I think the contoured grip section of the Safari and AL-Star pens I paired with the nibs may have helped me find the right angle. With no special effort at all, the blunt end gave decorative flair to my ordinary handwriting and completely transformed it.
The first thing I wrote this time was the title I used for this article's cover photo, and I loved how writing with the pen felt. The nib glides over the paper and produces such cool results so effortlessly that it really is a joy to use. My first experiments were slower and more careful, but soon I got bold and wrote larger and more quickly, and then it was hard to stop!
As I played with the nib more, I wrote, "This nib brings out another side of Laura! It's more dramatic and it makes me happy! I really want to get one of these calligraphy nibs. Maybe it's not as practical, but who cares?! It's only $16 and will fit almost any Lamy! And it's so fun and easy to use, even though I'm usually bad at stubs. Wow!"
It was hard to put the 1.5 mm nib down, and I noticed my tension from earlier in the day was completely disappearing as I let go of my stress with expressive and pleasurable sweeps of the pen. Reluctantly, I remembered that I was supposed to be comparing other nibs, so I reached for the Esterbrook Niblet with a Mini-Stub that I had borrowed from our store's tester pens. It was another stub I had especially enjoyed trying in an earlier article, and is one that is better suited to everyday writing, especially in a planner.
This stub is custom-ground from a Fine nib, so it's much narrower than a standard stub. Its downstroke is around 0.6 or 0.7 mm, while its cross-stroke is Fine. The line variation is a lot more subtle than a typical stub, but it still gives your handwriting a little extra personality and I find it very easy to write with. I like the auditory feedback and the "snappy" feel of the nib moving on the paper. It feels a lot "sharper" than the 1.5 mm stub, and it didn't make me lose my inhibitions, but I think it would be a great stub for someone with small handwriting or who needs to fit their writing into small spaces.
Of course, I had to try it in a Hobonichi, just to check. As you can see, the results were great! I also compared an Extra Fine Sailor Casual L nib and the Pilot Justus 95 Fine nib on "Hard" mode. All three were excellent choices.
Of course, if you want to play around with Stub nibs, you don't have to go to opposite extremes like I did. But I thought it would be interesting to try some more unconventional stub options, and I knew those two were exceptionally user-friendly for my particular handwriting issues. A lot of brands have stub nib options, and TWSBI is one of the most popular at our store, although I myself need to practice when I use one. If you like the Esterbrook Mini-Stub, another subtle one that allows you to write smaller is Pilot's 1.0 mm CM (Calligraphy Medium) nib, which is available on the plain black Metropolitan, the whole Retro Pop MR collection, and the transparent Prera models. Before I move on to the next nib, here's a writing sample showing Esterbrook's standard 1.1 mm Stub vs. its Mini Stub, and the subtle but nice effect the Mini-Stub has on my handwriting.
Broad: Getting Expansive
Leena may be moving away from Broad nibs, but lately I'm moving towards them! No, I'm not giving up my Fines for everyday note-taking at work, but I find myself reaching for Broads more and more often when I just want to relax and enjoy pretty ink, and I love mixing Broad, Fine, Extra Fine, and Flex nibs when I'm drawing for pleasure. I wouldn't say writing with a Broad nib actually makes my handwriting look better, but it does make me feel better.
[Pictured: TWSBI Eco with a Broad nib.]
In my personal collection, I have seven Broad or Double Broad nib pens, and I'd count several of them among my top ten favorites. There's just something special about writing with a juicy nib that can handle shimmer ink and super-sheening ink, show off the beautiful shading in less saturated colors, and glide over the page with delectable smoothness, laying down a thick line of glistening, wet ink. For this article, I decided to feature a Broad TWSBI Eco because they are very popular at Pen Boutique and I love watching customers' excitement and pleasure when they try one of our tester pens. There's just something about watching a beautiful ink color swash back and forth inside a TWSBI's transparent barrel as you uncap and write with the pen, admiring the way it complements the pen's cap and piston knob, and filling your journal with the perfect shade of your favorite color. It's not a thin, subtle line on the page. You're making a statement and sending out a small shout of joy, pain, love, hope, peace, anger, belief, beauty.
As with the LAMY stub nib, my Broad nib writing samples for this article started off more restrained and neat, but soon the allure of the nib loosened up my hand and moved me to more expressive writing. I realized I felt confined by the proportions of the dot grid in my Leuchtturm 1917 notebook, which is more suited to Fine and Medium nib sizes. So, I started to ignore the dots and just do what felt right, letting my handwriting take up space. I wrote on the page, "I don't think it's great with this dot grid. I like it better for writing any size I want, on blank paper, or, especially... on cards! Broad nibs are perfect on cards because they take up a lot of space and look friendly."
Soon, I reached for my own favorite Broad nib pens, eager to see more inks and compare each satisfying glide over the page. One of my Broad nib pens is always filled with my favorite shade of orange, another with a hot pink ink with lots of golden sheen; one has a teal ink with too much sheen for other pens to handle, and one shows off a multichromatic shimmer inspired by mother-of-pearl nacre.
This is when I forgot about my keyboard and let the pens write the article for me. "Here's another one of my favorite Broad nibs! It can handle this really sheen-y ink that clogs other pens. It's so much fun to write with. This is another nib that would be perfect for cards or letters to a friend where I can really have fun writing and express myself."
Now the Broad nibs felt like just the right size. I wasn't struggling to fit. I was just letting them find their space, their rhythm. My stiff shoulders were gone. I wasn't worn out anymore. I was alert, engaged, in love with the inks and the paper and the pens.
With my Opus 88 Shell pen, I wrote, "I don't write with Broads often enough! I should try to enjoy life more." My pen test sentence even started to get a little gleefully rebellious.
Yes, experimenting with nibs and my handwriting was working, and much better than I had expected. I thanked the Broad nibs. I was ready to move on to... Double Broad.
[Pictured: TWSBI, Opus 88, and Waldmann Broad nibs, ready to help me express myself.]
Double Broad: Bold and Beautiful
Let's step back for a moment. I want to tell you about a very special pen. Pilot's US Exclusive Lavender Fog Custom 74 comes in an extremely interesting selection of nibs: Soft Fine, Soft Fine Medium, Soft Medium, and, yes, Double Broad. When I told my co-worker Joy I was planning an article about experimenting with different nibs to see how they affect my handwriting, she immediately brought me one from the warehouse, with a Double Broad nib, which she said was perfect for making people slow down and enjoy the beauty of their inks. Great minds think alike. It was the first pen that I had thought of, too.
First, it's beautiful. And it's a Pilot with a 14-karat gold nib, so it's reliable and a good value. Plus, I actually own a Double Broad Custom 74, and Joy is completely right. I love to fill it with a favorite shimmer ink, feel the deeply satisfying smoothness of it moving across my paper, and watch the glistening ink slowly transform, revealing its true beauty only after it dries and the shimmer particles settle onto the surface of the page. Although I don't often use shimmer inks, I always keep my Double Broad Custom 74 filled with Colorverse Project Shiny Black because it handles it so well, and has never clogged or hard-started. I know that when I need a touch of glam sparkle in my life, I can always reach for that pen, knowing that when the light shines at an angle on my writing, it will reveal an iridescent rainbow glistening inside my lines.
This is the pen in my hand when I want to color in large areas with ink, when I want to write bold headlines, and when I just want to play. Our Pilot rep, Bill, has told me that the Double Broad nib is also popular with people who like to customize their pen with a specialty grind from a nibmeister, because it allows a huge range of fun grinds that let you play with line variation and make your handwriting look more special and unique.
I don't want to change my Double Broad nib, though. No, it's not one of my most commonly used nibs, but I know it's there when I need it. And I do need it sometimes.
[Pictured: writing samples comparing my Broad TWSBI and Double Broad Pilot.]
I have no idea what prompted me to write, "this [is] the Cat's Meow" (or, "this it the Cat's Meow," as the case may be...) but these things happen when I'm using a Double Broad. I lose control a little.
Of course, you don't have to put black ink in your Double Broad. I'm just weird that way. How about a glamorous color like Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu, a perfect pairing for Lavender Fog? "No need to judge my vow. I don't care what you think!"
Flex: Express Yourself!
I have to be honest, I got so into the Broad nibs that I almost forgot to write with my Pilot Custom 743's flexible Falcon (FA) nib. Unbelievable, because it's one of my favorites in my entire collection. I got my Custom 743 after falling head over heels for its FA nib option when I wrote an article explaining Pilot's Falcon nibs and pens back in April, 2024. Before too long, I didn't want to be without this pen/nib! It's a very handsome, very special pen, and I carry it with me often. The nib never becomes boring; every time I use it, I get a thrill watching what it can do, feeling it respond to the gentle movement and pressure of my hand, and marveling at the way it transforms my handwriting into something that looks completely different but still looks very, very Laura.
[Pictured: Writing sample from my original article covering the Custom 743's FA nib.]
The Falcon (FA) nib is an option (along with many other great nib choices) on both the Custom Heritage 912 and Custom 743 pens, and has a semi-circle cut into each side that allows the gold to bend much more dramatically than a traditionally-shaped nib allows. Pictured below, left to right, is the Falcon/Elabo pen with a SF (soft fine) nib, the Custom Heritage 912 with #10 sized FA nib, and Custom 743 with #15 size FA nib. I chose the Custom 743's version of the nib for myself because it suits me best.
Although it's not obvious from looking at it, the smaller #10 size FA nib is a narrower shape and is made from slightly thinner gold than the #15 size FA nib on the Custom 743, so it bends more easily in normal writing. This felt a little out of control to me, while the Custom 743's #15 size FA nib felt "safer" because it was slightly firmer and more precise (but still very flexible!).
Although it's manageable enough for me to use, the varied strokes of the FA nib are still very expressive. They help me unlock my creativity and bring a new perspective to both my sketching and writing, whether they are large and expansive, or slow and controlled. The more I got used to the nib and allowed myself to relax, the more I enjoyed the way the nib inspired more spontaneous ideas.
This was a nib that I had to take my time to get to know and understand. Unlike the Broad nibs, which seem to get even better as I write faster, the FA nib requires me to slow down and be more deliberate with my strokes. Because flexing the tines allows more ink to flow, going too fast while flexing can cause a break in ink flow, making the pen skip. If you write too fast, you may also see "railroading," where the tines produce parallel lines with a space in the middle, like railroad tracks. (You can see this a little on the words "line variation," in my writing sample below.) This isn't a pen I use for quick note taking. It's for being expressive, being creative, and savoring the writing process. Take your time and be gentle with the nib, and you will be rewarded.
[Pictured: FA nib writing in a Hobonichi notebook, and comparison with Justus 95 below. Check out that sheen!]
I absolutely love that the FA nib can write very fine if you don't use any pressure but produce dramatically thick lines glistening with stunning sheen in the next stroke. And, most of all, I can just never get enough of the way it transforms my handwriting. (I also like to just draw loops with it, but that doesn't count as handwriting.)
You don't need beautiful handwriting or calligraphy skills to enjoy experimenting with fountain pen nibs. Each nib offers a different way to express yourself on the page, and there's no single right choice for everyone, or even for every occasion. Whether you're journaling, taking notes, or simply enjoying the act of writing, try a nib you wouldn't normally reach for. You might discover something new about your handwriting, and about yourself!
-Laura P.
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