Osprey Milano with Zebra G nib (fountain pen review)

This is a continuation of the quick guide I've written about the fountain pens from Osprey Pens.

The Osprey Milano is a mid-range fountain pen that starts from US $70. The selling point is this pen can take a huge variety of flex nibs, and it can take the Zebra G nib.

The pen is available in many colours. The body's made with either acrylic or ebonite.

The black one I have is the Black Chased design with a grid pattern on the cap and body. The grid pattern is slightly warped with my pen and I'm not sure if that's intentional. Anyway, the design looks alright to me and is not the main reason why I would consider this pen.

This particular pen that I have comes with the Zebra G nib.

The highlight here is the feed that's designed to work with the Zebra G nib, an EF flexible nib that's quite popular with manga artists.

Zebra G nibs are usually used with pen holders as dip pens.

Being able to use a Zebra G nib on a fountain pen means you don't have to reload ink that often since there's an ink convertor. A Zebra G nib fountain pen will allow you to draw without interruption for a much longer period of time. This is extremely convenient. Not to mention you also won't have the risk of ink dripping from the pen nib right after dipping it in an ink bottle.

The drawing performance and experience is what you would expect from a Zebra G nib.

The nib is extremely sharp and can draw fine lines easily. The flex is medium stiff and the line variation you can create is from EF to broad. This pen can produce a nice variation of line thickness. The line thickness variation is the main reason why someone would want to use a dip pen and work with the inconvenience of ink reloads.

Zebra G nib is great for precision and for drawing tiny details. You also need to pull the nib downwards to get the broad stroke. The nib is so sharp that it can dig into the paper so it's not a nib that's good for quick sketches.

I'm someone who likes to sketch fast so using a pen with such a sharp nib means I have to work much slower. It feels weird. It's like asking a person who likes to draw loose to draw neat, or a neat person to draw loose.

Ink flow is good but to draw thicker lines you have to slow down which is not unexpected.

If you use pigmented inks, be sure to clean out the ink if you don't plan on using the pen for long periods of time. Ink can dry inside and clog the pen. It happened to me and I had to use the Zebra G nib's sharp point to scrap off the hardened ink pigments from the back of the feed.

Price of the pen with the standard non-flex nibs start from US $70. The pen with the Zebra G nib cost $82. You can also buy two nibs with one pen and swap them depending on your preference.

If you want a cheaper pen, consider the Osprey Madison instead where the Zebra G nib pen cost just US $30 and is a much better deal for the money.

Fountain pens that work with Zebra G nibs are difficult to find. If you're interested to get one, just visit Osprey Pens online store.