Great roundup of info for beginners - well done! Regarding the difference in line weight between western and Japanese nibs, one reason is that the characters in the language of the origin country of the pens are very different. Japanese/Chinese etc characters are more detailed and therefore a very fine nib makes it easier to write those characters. Western characters have less detail so you can afford to have a wider nib. I write in a western script but most of my favourite pens are Japanese.
Such an informative video! Even as a seasoned newbie (2 years) into fountain pens I can say this was really comprehensive! Can’t believe I haven’t subscribed yet! Love the Vibes…Subscribed! You are getting so close to 10k🎉
I just got into fountain pens this summer and definitely support getting Kakunos as a first pen. I started with a TWSBI eco (f) and Lamy safari (m). I like them well enough but I felt like I needed something that wrote with a finer line, so I got a Kakuno (f) and was blown away by how smoothly it wrote. Ended up buying more colours of the Kakuno so they could be my everyday carry staples. I personally would recommend the Kakuno over the Preppy; when I tried the preppys out in store they felt much scratchier (but maybe that was due to damage from being tester pens? Who knows… but I’m happy to stick with Kakunos as my cheap staple pen)
Thank you so much for sharing! Kakunos are fantastic :) Good to know about the Preppy! I haven't had that happen to me, so it could just be hit or miss, sometimes quality control can vary :)
I'm a long time fountain pen fan who just found your channel, and this is a great introductory video! Another detail about Japanese nib sizes as compared to European is that many Japanese fountain pen brands offer nib sizes between fine and medium in Japan but rarer in the U.S.--medium-fine, or fine-medium. I have a steel nib Sailor Lecoule (which is their more affordable Pro Gear Slim) with a medium-fine nib, and I recently purchased the newly available Pilot Custom 743 with a fine-medium 14k gold nib. I use cursive italic handwriting on 5 mm dot grid paper, so these two pens are my most used pens: I can clearly see ink qualities without sacrificing handwriting clarity. Thanks for your great videos!
The difference between Japanese nibs and foreign nibs is because the characters used in the Japanese language are tiny and detailed as compared to the English language so they have to make nibs extra fine
A lamy Safari would be the best fountain pen to start with as you can go through a wide range of nibs with that one main pen expense, go cartidge or converter in that scenario and get a standard fountain pen experience to base fine tuning off of than the cheaper pens such as the preppy which is a good pen to have on hand to lend to others vs one of your more expensive pens you will later baby
I've honestly never counted to see how many of each nib size I have....I would imagine it's probably like ~20ish? I usually gravitate between fine and medium nibs the most :)
