Bottom arc of pens are from the Kakuno "family" set, each color has a different nib face design (L-R Pink, Blue, Green, Red, Cyan). Top pen is a typical Kakuno EF.
What can I say, they're fun. The world needs more fun. What's life without whimsy?
Unfortunately the "family" pens aren't available with EF nibs but this does let me finally branch out and try the other sizes.
"The Pilot Precise V5 with an extra fine rolling ball and black ink is my pen. I grew up with it. My handwriting developed with it. With it, I perfected the signature that appears on the title page of the book I have written in my daydreams and anxiety-induced nightmares."
For the #RedWings to regain control over their playoff destiny tonight, they need a win over the #Pens and a #Caps regulation loss. Time is running out. #LGRW#HNOM#NHL
Music is important to me, I love listening and singing (have been taking singing lessons for the past 6 years, currently on hiatus since 2022 though. My music taste is very eclactic!
love watching tv-series and movies, and some streamers.
I love stationery, I have a lot of #pens and enjoy #fountainpens, i have also fountain pen inks, use a analog planner and journal regurlary. I also have washi tape and stickers
I also love colouring, so have enough colouring pencils and markers!
I like cross stitching, but I need more patience for it 😂 . Trying to learn to crochet and maybe knitting.
I have a diamond painting, but I also need more patience so I actually finish that one, LOL
Here's a fresh-ish grid comparing a variety of EF and similar fountain pen nibs. I tried to limit it to pen+inks with thinner lines to keep it manageable.
Still some variance by ink but not a ton in this group. I tried to use more Diamine Sapphire Blue, which is a bit on the dry side compared to Pilot Iroshizuku inks.
The Platinum UEF is still the best. Kakuno is still the next best. Penmanship is nearly the same as Kakuno.
HongDian 1861 Black Forest Pro in Raw Brass with Long Blade nib.
Had this for a week or two now, it's been great so far. Has a bit of heft to it since it's brass, but not so heavy it's a problem for me. The long blade nib writes very smoothly and has an interesting variation to the line width depending on the angle of the nib when writing. The nib also has an engraved image of a planet with a ring and a rocket ship, which is fun.
HongDian sure seems to love putting cats and birds on their pens. And from what I'm told, they also have a bunch of other designs out there including rabbits, and various shapes and drawings
For inexpensive fountain pens (~$10-26) they look, feel, and write great. These are metal, too, which means they can put up with a fair amount of banging around, though that does increase the weight.
Finally had time to ink up pens with Endless Alchemy Candy Sea & Mystic Forest
The ultra flex EF nib in the Jaipur v2 puts down more than enough ink to show off the sheen on Candy Sea and it looks great. Completely different head-on compared to when the light hits it at an angle.
I put Mystic Forest in a Jinhao 82 with a Fude nib and I can't see much sheen in it, though if I pool a bit of ink it shows a little. Probably wants a nib that flows even more freely.
Figured out a slightly better way to compare fountain pen nibs but it takes much longer!
Most interesting new bit is that I grabbed a four pack of cheap Yongsheng 3008 EF which makes it possible to see the difference between inks in the "same" pen.
Also realized it would help to try nibs both forward and reverse (upside-down) as that tends to produce an even thinner line.
Still working through fountain pens trying to find the finest of the extra fine w/o custom grinding. I think I've reached a satisfactory conclusion for now.
Platinum Century 3776 UEF wins by a (very thin and costly) hair but the Kakuno EF is not that far behind. The Jinhao EF#08 is decent but a tad thicker. All of them are better than the Platinum EF02 which is significantly thicker.
tl;dr: 3776UEF is best but expensive, Kakuno EF has best price/perf @ ~1/20th the cost.
Recently renewed my interest in fountain pens and found stub/italic nibs I liked right away but now am in search of the EF-iest EF-ing nib I can find reasonably priced. So far the Extra Fine nib on the Pilot Kakuno is the best and the Jinhao 9019 w/#8 EF nib is very close. I have a couple more on the way to try, but the Kakuno will be hard to beat.
The 9019 is on the larger side (not my preference), Kakuno is smaller but not overly so. They are both ~$12-15USD each.