Nib evolution

I can remember one of the reasons behind starting to use a fountain pen again being the quest to improve my handwriting. Initially, I started with fine nibs.
As time went on, my nibs got finer and finer. From western I migrated to Japanese, thinking my cursive was getting better all the time.
At some point I realised that you could no longer see clearly the colour of ink I'd used. Blue looked black, brown looked black and green was so faint you couldn't see it.

Though my e's and a's now had a clear holed in the middle, my writing still looked as though a spider had fallen in some ink, convulsed across the page and died a painful death.

I decided that if I wasn't making progress with form, I might as well at least enjoy what I was doing.

Nibs became broader and miraculously my hand spaced to compensate. Shading was apparent and ink burnt up a little quicker.
I think all the talk of the kaweco has tempted me with a sport classic and I might venture a broad nib.

Anyway, how has your nib preference evolved?

I would like to hear other's opinions on this. I have gone finer and finer, but now I am curious.

I started with an OB that gave me fits for a few weeks - kept missing the angle.

My next nib was a fine in a nice Sailor, but I can't say I enjoy the skinny line. So I next went with a medium as I was still occasionally frustrated by the OB, but not as often.

Eventually I mastered the OB and liked the small amount of line variation, so I tried a 1.5 stub. Love it!

Now everything non-stub seems a bit dull, but this could be a passing fancy. I'm seriously considering having one of the other nibs converted to a smaller stub. I'm not ready for an italic - I still have vivid memories of the first month with the OB!

Started with medium nibs...

Came across a 51 in the wild with a fine nib and liked it for note taking and journaling... I do a lot of both.

Read about stub nibs and decided to try one on an FC pen. Their broad stub, medium sized in terms of US / many European pens, was a great fit for my hand and my tastes.

I asked around and found a restorer that had a good 51 medium stub in stock. I sent him a 51 Demi that needed repair and ended up with my daily writer. (Danny Fudge did the restore and the re-nibbing.)

I started, like many, with medium nibs. I still don't have any fine nibs, although I want one (will probably be what I get when I finally get a kaweco). However, I've learned to LOVE stubs, à la FC B&B Essential specially ground by Mike Masuyama.

For general use I prefer Fine nibs. I can write tighter and smaller with those .. so for taking notes etc. Otherwise I love writing with an 1.1 or similar .. pronounces the shading of the ink much better and colors do come out way better. Lately do mostly I use my Pelikan 400 with semi-flex nib. So it writes fine but still can give a bit flare if I need/want it to.

I prefer nibs with character now, whether it has flex, or is a crispy italic. Though I do like my dip nibs more since they start hairline fine and fill out nicely

Neat topic and thanks to OP for bringing it up as this journey into The Nib is getting to be fascinating to say the least!

Last year, I started with a Parker 51 compliments of my brother-in-law (fine nib ) along with some Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black ink and I loved it for sending notes (photo note paper) and daily journals I was keeping to get back to "writing" cursive.

In late 2013, he gave me a Waterman Commando to try with ? nib that I used with some Pelikan 4001 Violet I bought at the Boston Pen Show in June that I now really like.

Next up was a Parker Vacumatic with a broader nib that took me awhile to understand my writing but I now like.

I'll be posting a February purchase I just received tomorrow, with pics, to show how a "successful" 2013 Sabbatical Survivor is spending his $$$$ he saved in 2013 from shaving into 2014 FP et al

Gene

Your progression matches mine Nightshade18. I started with fine because I didn't know where else to start. Problem is it made my handwriting look like chicken scratch (although your spider analogy made me laugh out loud).

So I progressed to medium then to broad but I discovered a new problem... Feathering.

I now prefer nibs with character which typically means a stub or cursive italic.

I started with Mediums and worked my way into Fines, tried EF but didn't like it.

As I was struggling with ink flow/technique issues I played around with oblique (lefty) nibs a bit, but I realized that the problem was more the user than the equipment. I've toyed with italics and what Noodler calls a flex nib (it isn't) but not a stub yet.