Levenger True Writer Fountain Pen Replacement Nib

Fountain Pens — 04 November 2009

Levenger True Writer Fountain Pen Nib, Fine in the forefront

Normally when I buy a fountain pen, I like to get a nib that is either a fine or extra fine, but when I saw the Levenger True Writers on sale earlier this year, the only option was a medium nib. I couldn’t pass up the deal on the great looking gun metal finish, so I grabbed it anyway, and was happy with its performance. Recently I noticed that on the Levenger site they have replacement nibs available, so I ordered a fine to add to my True Writer.

I was excited to give my new Levenger True Writer an upgrade with this fine sized nib, so I quickly swapped out the medium-sized nib that it came with and loaded some Private Reserve Velvet Black in it because in the past I got really good results with that combination. I figured I should just stick with what worked in the past.

Levenger True Writer Writing Sample with a Fine Nib

Once I had the ink loaded and ready to go I went straight to my Levenger daily planner to try out my new fine sized nib. With the first few strokes of the pen, I ended up with what felt like a really wide line for a fine nib, so I gave it a few light scribbles to make sure I didnt just have a little bit of extra ink that may have collected on the tip of the nib.

Feeling as if my scribbling should have displaced any stray ink from the tip now, I went about writing again, only to find that the writing continued to produce what looked like way too wide of a line for a fine nib. With confusion setting in, I double checked the stamp on each nib to make sure I didn’t somehow mix up the “F” and the “M” nibs. Everything looked right, the “F” nib was the one in the True Writer, and the “M” nib was there soaking in a glass of water to clean it out.

Now that I was 100% sure that I had the right nib in the pen, I went back to doing some writing and was again looking at some pretty wide strokes, so as you can see in the writing sample I compared it to my Pelikan M215 with a fine nib, and you can see a drastic difference. After coming to grips with the fact that this nib might be mislabeled somehow, I began to realize that it did write REALLY nicely. I get the feeling that this might be a medium or bold nib that is marked incorrectly, but the smoothness and flow are really remarkable, and I love how it feels to write with it.

I’m going to have to give Levenger a call in the next few days to see if I can sort out whats going on here, so Ill be sure to update you. They have excellent customer service, so I’m not at all worried and am sure that whatever the situation they will straighten it out for me…who knows, I could just be crazy and this is what a fine nib writes like.

Update 11/16/2009 – Well, the Customer Service at Levenger did not disappoint, they apologized for the issue, put a new fine size nib in the mail to me, and emailed me a filled out FedEx shipping label to send the old one back. Ill be putting the old one in the mail tomorrow, and Ill come back with an update to the review once I get the new one and test it out.

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About Author

OfficeSupplyGeek

http://www.justoneanna.com Anna

I’ll be looking to see what your response is – I almost can’t write with a medium nibbed pen, and I’ve been poking around about ordering a Levenger.
http://goldspotpens.blogspot.com Tom

Wow, the medium looks like it writes finer than the “fine.” I have two true writers in fine and both of them seem a bit on the wider side to me. I don’t think it is as bad as your case, however. I have never dealt with Levenger’s legendary customer service, so I will be eager to hear how the issue is resolved.
Kelly Seltzer

I love the True Writer and only use the medium nibs – your writing sample definitely looks like it was a medium. Please let us know how you make out with Levenger. I am curious to see if they were actually mislabeled. I order from them quite a bit and have never had a problem.
http://notabooknerd.blogspot.com Taylor

Hi! I’m Taylor. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I just started my own blog about stationery, books, and movies at notabooknerd.blogspot.com. I’d love to add you to my blogroll. Would that be okay?

Thanks!
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Anna – I will be sure to update this post after I get a chance to call them. They always stand behind their stuff and have great customer service, so I know they will take care of whatever the issue might be here.

@Tom – Thanks for that bit of info, always good to have a known fountain pen expert from Goldspot weigh in on the issue so I know Im not crazy.

@Kelly – Thanks for the feedback, helpful to know that it looks like a medium to you as well, at least I know Im not off base here.

@Taylor – Thanks for stopping by and Im glad you have been enjoying the blog. Im looking forward to good stuff from yours as well, and please feel free to link, its much appreciated.
http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/officesupplygeek.com/pen-review/fountain-pens/levenger-true-writer-fountain-pen-replacement-nib/ uberVU – social comments

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Stephanie

I have all fine points on my True Writers and I have not compared them against a medium of the same brand. I have compared them against fine points from other manufacturers and found the True Writer fine to produce the thickest line of them all.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@Stephanie – Good to know that across brands they are a little wider.
debraji

I had the same exact nib problem.I also have another True Writer with an F nib that does indeed write an F line, so I knew I was making a fair comparison.

Levenger replaced the F nib with another F nib that wrote an M line. After some back and forth, they told me that was just the way the nibs were, and maybe older nibs were thinner once, but too bad. (They were very polite, but that’s what it boiled down to.)

I’ve since purchased a stub nib for the pen which is great–but I’m reluctant to buy any more True Writers if I can’t get an F nib that’s really an F nib.
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@debraji – I’m glad to know it wasnt just me, but that is a little disappointing that the response was kind of “blah” from them. I’m unfortunately probably going to avoid the Levenger fountain pens for this reason as well, I just prefer writing with a much smaller nib than a Medium.
debraji

It’s a shame, because I *really* like the True Writers. They are a pleasure to write with and are attractive-looking pens. I was hoping that Levenger just had a batch of M nibs that were mislabeled F.
Kristina

I’m curious what the resolution was with this. Did you get a replacement fine tip nib that actually wrote with a fine line? I just bought a Medium tipped Kyoto fountain pen for super cheap on ebay. I was thinking of buying a replacement but this post made me pause and wonder if I should . . . I absolutely love your blog!
http://www.officesupplygeek.com OfficeSupplyGeek

@debraji – Yeah, I dont know what the deal is, it seems to me that there might be a consistency issue with their nibs, but I do agree, the are great looking pens. Sorry, not sure how I missed your comment and didnt get back to you until now.

@Kristina – Levenger did end up sending me a new nib, but it was really no different than the first. Here is a link to a follow up review that I did:
http://officesupplygeek.com/pen-review/fountain-pens/revisiting-the-levenger-fine-fountain-pen-nib/

Hope that helps.
Stephanie

@Kristina: I’ve been following Pendemonium for awhile and bought a FP with a custom ground nib from them last year (Lamy Safari). http://www.pendemonium.com/ It seems their custom grinding option runs about $20-30 depending on how fine you want the nib. It might be an alternative to purchasing a new fine point nib, and may give results more consistent with what you’re looking for. True Writer nibs run $24 from Levenger so the price isn’t too different. I’m sure there are others that can do the grinding, I am just a long-time customer, so this is what I am familiar with. I have been considering this option for my True Writers, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.