Nib Numbering (2024)

What do nib numbers mean?

Look on top of many older nibs and you will find at the bottom of the imprinta number. This number was used to denote the size of the nib, not thethickness of the writing tip.

Unfortunately, there was no standard numerical scale for nib sizes, so whileone can be certain that a Waterman #2 will be smaller than a Waterman #5, onecannot count on similar consistency from brand to brand. Some makers --Conklin being the prime example -- changed the size of their nibs quitedrastically over the years. Economy brands sometimes also engaged in asort of nib size inflation, putting large numbers on nibs of quite moderatesize.

Among the better penmakers, #2 was the most common basic size; #8 was usuallythe largest standard nib, larger numbers being used primarily for giantpens. John Holland's fountain pens used nibs running from #12 onup, but their #12 was the equivalent of a Waterman #2, their #15 the equivalentof a Waterman #5, and so on.

Numbered nibs began to fall out of favor among major American penmakers inthe 1920s. With the shift to pens identified by name rather than number(e.g., "Lifetime", "Duofold", "Endura","Balance"), nibs began to be marked correspondingly, and often did notbear any numerical designation of size. For a time both Sheaffer andParker placed long serialnumbers on their top line nibs, and from around 1935 Parker placed anumerical date codebelow the nib imprint. Nonetheless, many makers continued to use numberednibs, and many used both numbered and unnumbered nibs.

Marking the thickness and style of the writing tip on the nib itself seems tohave been a European innovation dating to the 1930s, which did not find generalacceptance in the USA until the 1950s (some American special-purpose nibs weremarked "ACCOUNT" or "POSTING" in the '20s and '30s, but thiswas exceptional). Sheaffer Snorkel and later Touchdown pens often do bearan etched mark denoting tip grade, but other later Sheaffers do not always bearsuch marks, and no indication of tip grade appeared on Parker nibs until the1960s.