The problem
A grind outlives its memory.
Years later nobody remembers which pen got the architect cut, who did it, or what it cost. The nib is the only witness.
Nib grind chart
Know which pen got which grind, and what it cost you.
Custom grinds are one-way: a nib cut can be reworked, but never un-cut. A free chart of the common grinds, plus a CSV to log who did yours.
Free early access
Join the waitlist and get the free CSV.
One field. No password, no card. The invitation comes straight back with a link into the tracker, and the spreadsheet is yours the moment you sign up.
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Grinds on the desk
4 pensTWSBI Diamond 580
Cursive italic, from a pen show
Pelikan M400
Architect, mail-away
Platinum 3776 Century
Needlepoint, returned and refunded
Sailor Pro Gear
Oblique, quoted and waiting
The chart: what each grind does
Every grind below widens the line in one direction and thins it in another. Pick by how you hold the pen, not by what looks good in a photo.
- Stub
- A straight, crisp foot on the tip. Wide downstrokes, thin cross-strokes, and heavy shading where the ink pools.
- Cursive italic
- A stub with rounded corners. Nearly as crisp, but it turns between letters at speed without catching the page.
- Architect
- The stub's mirror: thin downstrokes, wide cross-strokes. It rewards a slow hand and shows its best on smooth paper.
- Oblique
- The tip is cut on an angle instead of straight across. Made for overwriters whose nib arrives at the page skewed.
- Needlepoint
- A needle-fine point smoothed into a cursive foot. The sharpest line in the bunch, without the scratch of a stock extra fine.
- Fude
- A tip bent upward like a brush. Held low it swings from hairline to wide, and some cheap pens ship with one.
The expensive symptom
The same grind twice.
A collector with three pens at one grindsmith has often bought the same disappointment twice, because nothing was written down after the first one.
Not a repair log
Cuts, not fixes.
This list is for permanent work: grinds, not alignment or flow tuning. A collection tracker holds the pen; this holds the surgery.
The columns, and what goes in them
10 columns, grouped the way the work moves: the pen leaves, it comes back, it earns a verdict. Leave a column blank rather than inventing a value.
The grind
- grind_type
- cursive_italic / architect / oblique / needlepoint / fude / stub_1.5
- pen
- TWSBI Diamond 580
- original_nib_size
- broad
The work
- grindsmith
- A pen show, a local shop, or a mail-away grinder
- date_sent
- 2026-02-07
- date_returned
- Blank until the pen is back on the desk
- cost_usd
- 45
The verdict
- paper_tested_on
- Rhodia 80gsm
- verdict
- not sent yet / tuning / keep / send back
- writing_notes
- Sharp corners but stays fast; the best daily writer on the desk
One row starts before the pen is gone
Write the row when you get the quote, not when the pen returns. A pen away at a grinder with a blank date_returned is money you have already spent and cannot see.
grindsmith is the other column that pays. If a grind suits you, that name is worth keeping; if it does not, that name is worth avoiding.
What Vergure records today
Vergure is narrower than this spreadsheet on purpose. Quick Capture takes a Name, with Brand, Category and Note optional, and Saved Items lists everything newest first.
A ground nib goes in as an item in the pen category. The grind and the grindsmith go in the Note, and the price of the work in the cost. Vergure does not compare grinds or schedule work, and it says so plainly.
Vergure is run end to end by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how a page this narrow gets written and kept current at all.
The spreadsheet, if that is all you came for
10 columns and 6 filled rows, including one pen still at the quote stage and one grind that came stock. It opens in Sheets, Excel or Numbers, and it costs nothing.
Download the free CSVIf the file didn't download, here's the direct link: nib-grind-chart.csv