(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
Recently, I lucked out and bought a Stabilis 65 in tiffany from a seller on Fountain Pen Geeks. The pen came with a Masuyama steel needlepoint nib I was eager to try. Unfortunately, I found the needlepoint scratchy (expected) and very dry (unexpected).
But I loved the pen, so I decided to order a different nib for it. That's when I discovered you can buy a new grind from Franklin-Christoph called the SIG (stub-italic-gradient) nib. The nib is in between an italic and a stub with less sharpness than an italic but a crisper line than a stub. The gradient means that, depending on the angle you hold the pen (shallow or steep), you get more or less line variation.
I purchased a medium SIG for my new Stabilis 65. It arrived a few days later and, I must say, I adore this nib. It is smooth. It's not hard to find the sweet spot because the whole nib is sweet. The edges don't gouge the paper (like some super crisp italics), and there's just enough line variation to distinguish the nib from a stub.
The Franklin-Christoph steel nibs don't have any spring to them, but in this case, it doesn't really matter as the nib itself offers such an enjoyable writing experience.
Franklin-Christoph nibs simply screw into the grip, so you can purchase a nib and use it with any Franklin-Christoph pen. Just make sure you know which size nib your pen requires (#5 or #6).
My Franklin-Christoph Stabilis 65 in tiffany with the medium SIG nib is already one of my favorite writing pens. You can get a Stabilis 65 from Franklin-Christoph with the SIG nib for $159.50 in black or emerald. Unfortunately, the tiffany acrylic was a special run and is no longer available. If you just want the SIG nib, you can order the ^5 nib for $40 and the #6 nib for $45. All the SIG nibs are steel, but hopefully Franklin-Christoph will produce them in gold as well in the future.
(I purchased both the pen and nib with my own funds and was not compensated by Franklin-Christoph for this review.)
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