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PEN WORLD
|February 2025
JULIAN H. KREEGER explores trends in nib preferences.
When I first purchased a modern Parker Duofold, I noticed that the Duofold nibs seemed to be broader than the corresponding nibs of the Parker VP or 75. The Duofold needlepoint (No. 80), for example, was much broader than the needlepoint of the VP (No. 61) or of the 75 (No. 61). Indeed, it seemed closer to the medium of a Parker 75.
This piqued my curiosity, and I began to notice that some major companies, such as Montblanc and Pelikan, were offering pens with BB and BBB nibs—widths I had rarely encountered in vintage pens.
Since very few pen dealers offer the full range of nib widths for customers to either try or buy (the Montblanc boutiques that have a demonstration kit for customers to try their range of nibs being a rare exception), I called upon Susan Wirth, Sherrell Tyree, and Michael Masuyama to see whether they have noticed any trend in customer preferences.
This story is from the February 2025 edition of PEN WORLD.
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