The fude nib is bent upwards to create a wedge shape tip (as per diagram above) and the basic principle is that changing the pen angle will change the thickness. Fine lines can be achieved by holding the pen vertically and using the tip. As you lower the angle of the pen the line will get thicker because more of the wedge is on the page. The thickest stroke is achieved by dragging the nib sideways. Like a standard nib you can get even finer lines by drawing with the nib upside down.

There is not as much calligraphic variation (thick to thin) within a single curved stroke as you get from a stub or parallel nib but this means that it is easy to get a fairly uniform thickness which is handy for sketching. Fude nibs have a tendency to leave a nice bead of ink at the end of the stroke and this is particularly the case with the Sailor pens due to a lesser ink flow. Using a fude nib involves mastering a completely different hand movement to the other nibs – one of changing the pen angle depending on the thickness of line you want to achieve.