Pen Fitting

Confessions of a Tailor

Obtaining a pen recommendation from me is a fairly mundane experience. “Go buy a Lamy” I say. Job done, easy.

It seldom works out like that. More often than not people see right through my dastardly deception and demand the full experience. They don’t want a recommendation, they want a fitting. And to be fair that’s fair enough: acquiring a fine writing instrument should be an experience.

Here’s what that experience entails. I admit I actually enjoy it, it is good fun. This is the kit I use which I’ll get to in a bit:

First there’s the questions I either ask or observe. Pens come in a variety of shapes, sizes and characteristics and tailoring to the person’s style, physiology, tastes and purposes all have a bearing on selection.

• Have you used a fountain pen before?

• Are you right or left handed?

• Would you say the characters of your writing are small, medium or large?

• Would you say your hands are small, medium or large?

• When you hold a pen do you clasp it between your thumb and forefinger and rest it on your middle finger or is your grip different?

• When you write is the pen perpendicular to the page or do you write with a bit of an angle?

• Besides its function a pen is also an adornment, like jewellery. Is this aspect important to you?

• Can you show me a photograph of your handwriting with a common object in the picture to show scale?

• Will you be using the pen mostly for short pieces like note taking, longer pieces like letters, or very long pieces like journaling or even a novel?

With this information I can offer some pretty good options for manufacturer and model but the sine qua non of obtaining a tailored writing instrument is nib selection. This where the kit (and the fun) comes in.

90%+ of fountain pens in the world are standard round nibs, Fine, Medium and Broad. Add in Extra Fine to capture the Oriental calligraphy market and it’s probably 99%. Most people will be entirely satisfied with one of these standard round nibs.

That remaining 1% though, contains some truly delightful writing experiences. The attraction isn’t just the feel, it’s the character such a nib can add to your handwriting. This can be challenging because pen boutiques, if they carry them at all, seldom carry a broad range. Maybe a Stub, Cursive Italic, Formal Italic, Oblique, Flex, Fude, Music, Architect or even a Naginata might be the right nib for you though?

Increasingly these specialist nibs are available factory-fitted though many still need to be custom ground by an artisan nibmeister. How do you know which might suit? The answer is spending a couple of hours splashing some ink with Simon, giving each nib a try.

This is a relatively unique experience. High-end pen boutiques (notably Montblanc) conduct a similar process which typically includes Obliques and Stubs and maybe an Architect if you’re lucky. For a broader range you really need to engage a collector, an enthusiast, a pen turbonerd such as me.

After my game of 20 questions and a session of nib playtime I seldom need to offer a recommendation: you will know which pen, fitted with which nib, is right for you.

Be warned: you’ll probably change your mind in about a year though, when you remember there was this other nib you tried in another pen you admire that you really really really want, too.

Because that’s how it starts.

-SRA. Auckland, 9/vi 2025.