Exploring Custom Nibs: Predator Hybrid by Mark Bacas

May 28, 2022

Late last year I embarked on what I expect to be a year-long experiment of comparing custom nibs available from the different nib grinders currently working, focusing on those grinds from each that can be considered a specialty or “signature”. Mark Bacas is one of the most experienced nib grinders out there, and whether you’re looking for a simple tuning or a more complex grind like the “Predator Hybrid” I’m discussing today, Mark will work with you to ensure the nib is ground to your personal preferences, and that you’re happy with the result.

So What the Heck is a “Predator Hybrid” Nib?

I can only assume that the “Predator” name draws its inspiration from the shape - pictured at the top - which resembles a bird’s beak. The “Predator Hybrid” nib is ground to an ultra-fine point on the normal side, with the reverse a wider, slightly brush-like medium. To compare, a “Predator Extreme” nib has the same ultra-fine point on the normal side, with the reverse ground to a full architect. You can read Mark’s own descriptions on these and other nib grinds he offers directly on his site. I would say that on this “Hybrid” version, the reverse is slightly softer than a full architect, while still offering a bit of the line variation you would expect from that grind.

Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid Nib Writing Sample — A writing sample showing the “normal” (i.e., nib down) width, compared against the reverse (i.e., nib upside down) width.

So in practice, how do I use this nib? If you’ve read my past pen reviews, you’ll know that I value pens I can use for annotation during my reading and research. This particular nib falls squarely into that category. The ultra-fine point accommodates my tiny handwriting and allows me to make even the smallest margin notes, while the reverse side is perfect for underlining, highlighting, and even standard writing. Frankly, I’ve never had a reversible nib write well to the point where I could use the reverse side for much more than a line or two. This one is smooth enough for standard writing.

TWSBI Diamond 580 Interchangeable Nibs — The TWSBI Diamond 580 Fountain Pen is one of many that features interchangeable nib units, so you can have multiple custom nibs ground to switch among your various TWSBI Pens.

Why I Love Interchangeable Nib Units for Custom Nib Work

For this grind, I chose to have Mark modify a TWSBI 580 medium nib unit, so that I can swap the nib between my various TWSBI Diamond 580 pens. Lately, wherever possible I’ve been having nib grinders modify interchangeable nib units from JoWo, Bock, and TWSBI so that their work isn’t tied to any particular pen. It’s quite helpful to be able to move the nibs around at times - some grinds are more suitable to different pens, depending on weight, balance, etc., and these threaded nib housings make swapping nibs a cinch.

Cost of Nib Modification - Cheaper Than Buying a New Pen

The grind featured here cost $50, and since I did not pay a rush fee, it took several weeks for Mark to turn around. (Mark is fast - some nib grinders take months, or even up to a year.) In response to posts like these, I often get the question: “Why pay extra money to ‘fix’ a pen that should write perfectly out of the box?” Here I think we need to break down the question a bit: Are you paying to fix a manufacturer’s flaw with the nib, in which case I absolutely agree with you that the cost of any repair should be born by the company that made the pen, or are you looking to personalize the pen for how you write? It should be fairly obvious that if you write extremely small, a standard stainless steel extra-fine nib may not be narrow enough for you, and you should consider a needlepoint or a nib like the Predator.

Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid Comparison — The “normal” point of the Predator nibs writes a ***very*** fine line, even finer than a needlepoint nib like the one ground by Kirk Speer (Pen Realm) for Esterbrook.

Even with standard nib widths, it’s impossible for a manufacturer to anticipate things like the amount of pressure you use and how you hold the pen. I have pens in my collection that, out of the box, wrote within “the range of reasonableness” and wouldn’t be considered defective, but still didn’t work for me until I had them tuned. I would estimate that 80-85% of the pens in my collection have been modified or tuned from “factory standard,” either by a nib grinder or yours truly. At the end of the day, if you love the look of a pen, and it’s not writing perfectly, consider paying a little extra to make it yours. If you keep it for years, you’ll get more enjoyment from the writing experience than the $20-50 modification fee, and in many cases it’s cheaper than buying a new pen.

Memorial Day Weekend Giveaway: Courtesy of the Well-Appointed Desk and Skylab Letterpress!

May 27, 2022

As it turns out, I have a lot more stuff in storage that I will never be able to work my way through, so let’s do another giveaway! The plan will be to continue these periodically (maybe weekly or every other week). This week’s giveaway is a product sampler from my friends at The Well-Appointed Desk and Skylab Letterpress, who have been kind enough to send me many samples of their excellent work over the years. Included in the giveaway will be Well-Appointed Desk Col-o-ring ink testing notebooks, including a “Dipper” and one oversized notebook, as well as some Skylab Letterpress notepads. In addition to what’s pictured here, I may throw in some additional product samples as I sort through my backlog. This giveaway will run through Memorial Day Weekend, and end at 11:59pm Monday, May 30, 2022 US Central Time.

As per the usual, enter via the Gleam widget below. While I need participants to provide an e-mail address so that I can contact the winners, I don’t compile e-mail addresses into a marketing list. That said, Gleam is a third-party, so please see the app below for their privacy policy and the full terms and conditions. This giveaway is open to anyone, though if you’re international (i.e., non-US), your ability to receive the prize may be limited by shipping regulations and cost. If shipping is prohibitively expensive I will give you the opportunity to cover some or all of the cost if you still wish to claim the prize. Many thanks!

Midori MD Five-Year and Platinum Desk Pen — The Platinum Carbon Desk Pen (right) and the Midori Five-Year Journal (left)

Thursday Drops: Recapping All That's New and Shiny

May 26, 2022

It’s been a big couple of months around here and I’m only now getting caught up. Between our milestone giveaway, office renovation, and just life in general, you can say there’s been a lot going on and, of course, more to come! I wanted to take a few minutes to recap all the recent new arrivals, and personally thank everyone who’s supported the site and our little shop during what’s been a fun - but stressful - growth phase.

The biggest news from this week, of course, has been the arrival of a massive shipment of Washi Tapes and Snail Mail accessories, discussed in this post from earlier this week. We’ve also redesigned the Washi Tapes and Enamel Pin section of the shop to make it more navigable. and to better show off the designs of the individual tapes.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

Caran d’Ache “Black Code,” “Gold Bar,” and “Brut Rosé” Mechanical Pencils. What I like to think of as our “signature” everyday writers, since they were the first high-end pens we carried, are now available in .7mm mechanical pencil format.
TWSBI Swipe Fountain Pens in Salmon and Pear. TWSBI has begun to release its “Swipe” cartridge-converter fountain pens in different color acrylics, including Salmon (more of a peach than a pink, at least to me) and Pear (a bright green). I find these a perfect match for a couple of ink colors in TWSBI’s six-ink sets.
Platinum Carbon Desk Pens. Featuring one of the best steel extra-fine nibs that I’ve tried anywhere, this desk pen is an excellent writer and costs only $13. The base is sold separately, if you’d like to add a vintage look to your desk setup.
Caran d’Ache x Nespresso Swiss Wood Set. We recently received a large shipment of the Caran d’Ache x Nespresso collaboration pencils! These have been out of stock for a while, but the Swiss Wood with colored ends made from recycled Nespresso capsules are back. Standard Swiss Wood gift/starter sets are back as well.
Tombow Mono 100 Woodcase Pencils. It’s a toss-up between the Tombow Mono 100 and Mitsubishi Hi-Uni as to what’s the best high-end Japanese pencil on the market. Both brands sharpen exceptionally well, and as a gross generalization, those who prefer a slight bit of tooth to their graphite will appreciate Tombow, while those who like a perfectly smooth pencil will go Hi-Uni.
Mitsubishi Hi-Uni Woodcase Pencils. See above. You can’t go wrong with either. We recently received several 22-pencil drawing sets containing the full range of Hi-Uni graphite hardnesses.
Midori MD Notebook Light. In addition to the thicker Midori MD Notebooks (which have probably become our best-selling product in the shop), we’ve also stocked the Midori MD light range, which are slimmer notebooks sold in packs of three. In addition to the standard sizes, we have the 70th Anniversary set.
Traveler’s Company Spiral Ring Notebooks. In addition to the standard Traveler’s Company lineup, we’ve added the Traveler’s Company Spiral Notebooks, which contain 100 pages/200 sheets of blank Midori MD Paper.
Midori Five-Year Journal 70th Anniversary Edition. I’ve picked up my five-year journal again, and what spurred me to finally do it was the release of this gorgeous leatherbound edition for Midori’s 70th Anniversary.
Midori Leather Notebook Covers. These are on backorder from the distributor, but I have a couple of the natural leather notebook covers in B6 size. I will update the site once the other sizes become available once again.

Cleaning Fountain Pens — Don’t drink the ink.

Fountain Pen Maintenance: How I Clean My Fountain Pens

May 25, 2022

Every once in a while I like to take things back to basics and talk a bit about how to care for, maintain, and store fountain pens. While not as “high-maintenance” and messy as some would have you believe, fountain pens definitely require more attention than your typical ballpoint or rollerball in order to maintain an enjoyable writing experience. So what brought this particular topic to mind today? Well, I finally have a sink in my dedicated work area, so I can actually flush out some pens that I’ve been waiting to clean since the Baltimore Pen Show back in March.

For 90% of cleaning jobs, you need little more than a glass of water, a towel, and (maybe) a bulb syringe.

My cleaning process is pretty simple, and I follow three steps:

Start (and Finish) With Water. Most of the time, since I use fairly unexciting inks without permanence, shimmer, sparkles, extreme iron gall content, etc., I can make do with a glass of water. I can flush the pen by running plain water through the filling mechanism 5 or 6 times, and that’s typically more than sufficient to clean the pen to a point where you won’t have old ink drying up in the feed and clogging the pen, nor will you see traces of the previous ink when you go to refill it. To dry the pen out I will usually (GENTLY) place the pen nib down in a glass with a folded paper towel or tissue at the bottom for padding, which will wick out any remaining inky water. Note: Some people will probably flip out when they hear that I place the flushed pens nib-down to dry. I’ve never damaged a pen this way but as with everything here, proceed at your own risk and do what you are comfortable with.
Proceed to Water + Dish Detergent for Stubborn Messes. If I have a fountain pen where the ink has dried out, or a pen that was inked with a super-saturated color or shimmer ink, I will add a drop of dish detergent (i.e., Dawn) to a large glass of water and repeat step one. 9/10 times, this fixes any problem I have cleaning stubborn pens. In my experience, “pen flush” or dedicated cleaning fluids are almost always unnecessary, though they can sometimes speed up the cleaning process. Buy them from a pen store (preferably a pen manufacturer) and don’t try to make your own with ammonia, diluted Windex, etc. Certainly don’t use them with expensive pens or rare materials like celluloid or other vintage plastics because you never truly know what’s in them or how the material will react.
- Buy a Bulb Syringe. For either of these first two steps, you might want to pick up a bulb syringe. For cartridge-converter pens, it’s easier to flush water through the section using the bulb syringe than it is the converter, which doesn’t move much water at all. Just be sure to grip the section firmly because a bulb syringe can form a seal and cause the section to go shooting across the room if you’re not careful.

Buy an Ultrasonic Cleaner. IF you think you need one. That’s a big “IF” for me, because I hardly ever break mine out, and when I do it’s for pens like the Parker 51, Lamy 2000, or other hooded-nibs where flushing the pen is inadequate because it doesn’t necessarily get water to all parts of the feed. Vacumatic fountain pens are also easier to clean with an Ultrasonic, since the filling mechanism doesn’t push water through the feed with much force.

Cleaning a Cartridge-Converter pen with a bulb syringe — Cartridge-Converter section with a bulb syringe attached. It takes no time at all to clean a nib/section using the bulb syringe to flush water through the feed.

For tough jobs, a $40 ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (purchased at Bed, Bath & Beyond or Amazon on sale) is all the “heavy equipment” you’ll need. I typically use plain water, though you can add a drop of dish detergent if you like. Just be sure to flush the pen clean afterwards. (And if you’re considering remodeling, a grey or black sink is a nice upgrade to your “pen room” to hide the ink stains!)

Drying Cleaned Fountain Pens — Drying cleaned fountain pens nibs-down, which allows any remaining inky water to leach out. Just be sure to rest the nibs on a folded paper towel. As you can see, I don’t baby my pens.

Final Thoughts and Further Reading

To summarize my philosophy on cleaning fountain pens: Clean relatively frequently and go slowly, only adding substances other than water to the cleaning process if absolutely necessary. I think you’ll find that for most inks and most pens, it’s not. For some additional information and further reading on techniques for cleaning specific types of filling systems, check out this previous post.

I will likely do a further post on this topic at a later date, but favorite high-ink-capacity pens that are easy to clean include the TWSBI 580 piston filler, and the Opus 88 Japanese-style eyedroppers. I was able to flush all of these demonstrator pens perfectly clean in less than a minute since the sections separate and allow you to access the interior. Run them under the sink and/or flush them with a syringe.

This post does not contain third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop, and memberships via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

New arrivals from iLootPaperie hit the shop this week!

Curated Shop Update: Massive New Drop of Washi Tape!

May 24, 2022

In addition to the traditional categories of pens and pencils, paper and notebook systems, and desk and reading accessories, The T.G.S. Curated Shop also features a fun, wide-ranging selection of washi tapes and enamel pins, all of which have a strong snail-mail and/or reading theme. Most of our washi tapes are made by Pasadena, California-based iLootPaperie, famous for their puns and cheeky (and, yes, “highly irreverent”) takes on modern stationery. We recently added nearly a dozen new washi tape designs!

We’ve also recently redesigned the Washi Tape section of the shop to make it easier to navigate, and to list each tape separately to better showcase the design. Tapes include standard and extra-wide widths.

Enamel Pins — And, of course, we have our best-selling enamel pins available to show your love for science, reading, snail mail, and all other things analogue.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. Many thanks for all your support!