Calligraphy Stub Nibs Explained!

Hi everyone, it's Daisy here. Welcome to today's video. We are talking all about calligraphy stub nibs today. So, stub nibs are a really interesting type of nib that has a different kind of shape than your typical fountain pen nib would. And if you've ever shopped for a fountain pen before, you probably know that fountain pens typically come in a standard range of nib sizes, anywhere from extra fine, fine, medium, broad. And some companies will make like a double broad even for a really thick writing experience. And then in some fountain pens, the range will actually extend beyond those standard lineup. And in some fountain pen models, the actual range will actually extend outside of the standard extra fine to broad nib sizes. And you might start hearing something like 1.1 or 3.5 or like whatever number with a decimal point usually. And if you've ever been in that situation and wondered what a stub nib is, hopefully today's video will help you. So let's take a closer look at a stub nib and find out why this kind of nib is used often for calligraphy. Okay, so here in front of me, I have a Kaweco Sport fountain pen. It's just like the black body. And I've prepared a couple of them. I have a standard nib on this pen here. And this is what a standard nib will look like. Chances are, if you have a fountain pen, your fountain pen nib looks something like this. And then I'm gonna open up this pen here. This is what a calligraphy stub nib will look like. And sometimes it's just called a stub nib and sometimes it'll be called a calligraphy nib. And you can see here that for the most part, it looks very, very similar to the standard fountain pen nib on the bottom. But what makes it different is that it has this very, very flat tip. And it almost looks like somebody's gone and taken this nib down here and like kind of filed away at the top. And that is kind of essentially what a stub nib is. You just kind of file away at a really, really, really fine nib and create this flat stub shape. And so that is essentially what a stub nib is. There are different size stub nibs. So for example, this one here in front of me is a 2.3 millimeter stub nib. And that's the measurement of that top tip over there. And then there are also thinner stub nibs. So for example, I've prepared a couple of LAMYs to show as well. So this is an example of a thinner stub nib. This is actually measured out to be 1.1 millimeter stub nib versus the 2.3 on the bottom here. They're both considered stub nibs because they do produce a different writing experience than a standard nib. But this is just to show you all that stub nibs can come in many different sizes. Anything from the finer ones will be like a one point something, like a 1.1, going up to 2.3. And you might even see even thicker ones for certain fountain pen companies. But it really depends on which fountain pen you're looking at. And today we're just talking about stub nibs in general. So let's write a little bit with these stub nibs and see, take a look at how they produce a different writing than a standard fountain pen would. So here I'm actually gonna write something with this very standard nib size. This is an extra fine nib size and this will produce just standard writing. So let's say I will write in a line, I'll write Coeco EF. Today is February. And then under that, I'm gonna write with a 1.1 millimeter calligraphy stub nib. This is a Lamy 1.1 millimeter stub. And then next up, I'm going to write in this really thick 2.3 millimeter stub from Coeco. So might need a little bit more space for this one. So Coeco 2.3 millimeter. Today is Feb 14th. Okay, so you can see that this is producing these really thick lines. So let's talk a little bit about the actual stroke that you're going to expect with stub nibs. With a stub nib, because it's ground to be this really flat top like this, you are going to get really thick strokes when you come down in these vertical lines on the page versus when you're gonna see a really stark contrast when you go across on the page like this. So that is this line variation that you get in the cross strokes versus the down strokes. And for this reason, because you can get these really drastic line differences, that is what makes the stub nib, especially the really thick ones, really appropriate for calligraphic writing because they just add like a very sort of interesting feeling to the writing. And you can see here that with a stub nib, because it's ground this way, a lot more ink is coming out of it at a time and it kind of forces you to slow down your writing. So often with a stub nib, you'll see that you kind of have to write slower with a little bit more intention as you're writing because the ink, it just needs more contact on the page when you are writing, the bigger the stub nib. So that's kind of my experience with a stub nib. So there you have it. That was a brief explanation of what to expect of a stub nib if you've never looked at a stub nib before. These stub nibs are really great for adding an interesting touch to your handwriting. People who are very skilled calligraphers will practice certain types of calligraphy with stub nib found pens. But even if you're just writing regularly with a stub nib, it adds a calligraphic feeling. It adds like sort of a calligraphic touch to what you've written, whether you're writing a letter or whatever it is. So a lot of people prefer that kind of stub nib character writing experience to normal fountain pens. I hope this video has helped you understand what stub nibs are if you've never looked at one before. And let us know in the comments if you are interested in trying a stub nib or maybe you only write with a stub nib. Let us know what your experience is with stub nibs and thank you so much for watching this video. Bye.