Nibs

[marklavar]

From personal observation, it seems that nearly all nibs are either steel or gold. My question is: are there any pens out there with silver or platinum nibs? I believe Omas once released a pen with a titanium nib, but I have never seen pens with sterling silver or platinum nibs.

 

Any ideas? Thanks.

[london]

The only other non-steel or non-gold nib I know of is also titanium - the Parker T1.

 

- Mark

[kissing]

Wouldn't it be interesting if they made a nib which is entirely made of the tough tipping material?

 

I suppose it'll be expensive (and pointless?) to do so

[ami]

searching fpn, i found an old post about platinum alloy nibs

Platinum Platinum

i guess its more of a novelty thing, and not worth spending much r&d on

[RyanL27]

I have a Sheaffer PFM I with a PdAg (palladium plated silver) nib - one of my best writers!

Edited December 7, 2006 by RyanL27

[*david*]

Wouldn't it be interesting if they made a nib which is entirely made of the tough tipping material?

 

I suppose it'll be expensive (and pointless?) to do so

Wouldn't it be too hard to cut the slit in, too inflexible to be nice to write with, etc?

[saintsimon]

The only other non-steel or non-gold nib I know of is also titanium - the Parker T1.

 

- Mark

Stipula has made several pens with Ti nibs, like the first '22' or the 'Alinari' series.

 

Omas makes now the 'Emotica' with Ti as nib material.

[Maja]

The only other non-steel or non-gold nib I know of is also titanium - the Parker T1.

 

- Mark

Stipula has made several pens with Ti nibs, like the first '22' or the 'Alinari' series.

The Retro 51 LE pen was also made by Stipula, I believe, and it sports a Titanium nib......

 

The Omas T2 (article on Stylophiles Online about Titanium pens here)

and the Stipula La91 (Stylophiles article on it here) also feature Ti nibs....

 

Don't know about platinum nibs, but this ad for the Ducati 1000 fountain pen indicates the pen has a sterling silver nib: http://www.fahrneyspens.com/Item--i-134201...-02_99_100.html

The Ducati pen collection expresses the personality of the legendary brand. Each pen has been engineered for the high performance and gorgeous style expected from the Italian masters at Ducati. This well-balanced pen is significant in weight, with a pleasant feel in hand, and its foldaway clip preserves the linear design. The Ducati fountain pen is aluminum with multi- layered lacquer, has chrome trim and a sterling silver nib in medium only. Matching rollerball and ball pen are also available.

(text of Fahrney's ad from page above)

but I haven't been able to find any other Ducatti ad that indicates this....

[Chris C]

Interestingly, the OMAS "22", or Ventidue in Italian, is so named because of titanium's atomic number on the periodic table of elements.

[TheNobleSavage]

Actually, it was Stipula 22 not the OMAS 22.

 

Now the new Stipula 22 fountain pens have an 14kt gold rhodium plated nib and contains NO titanium.

 

I have a Titan from Levenger that has a Titanium nib. It is a nice writer but nothing special. The nibs have a slightly different feel to it and indeed they do have a bit of spring to them. I wouldnt consider them a noodle like vintage waterman super flex nibs.

 

TNS

[Dan Carmell]

Well, of course Sheaffer made the Platinum/Silver alloy nibs in the 50s, right up to the PFM I. Pelikan made Nickel/Chrome alloy pens during WW II, and Soennencken made "Pargo" nibs, Platinum or Palladium/Silver alloys, supposedly. MB had its own semi-precious alloy nibs during the war years. I bet there were only examples at other times as well.

 

Dan

[tonyv]

I think the Duke "Mini-Torpedo" has a copper nib. Anyone know how the "feel" of that nib is?

[kissing]

I've heard and seen glass nibs - but I think they're for dip pens only (?)

[His Nibs]

I think the Duke "Mini-Torpedo" has a copper nib. Anyone know how the "feel" of that nib is?

Now that would be interesting! But, no, the nib is gold-plated steel. As I mention on the website:

 

"Besides its diminutive size, what captures your attention first about this great little pen is that the metal used throughout isn't steel, silver or gold, but copper! This produces a gorgeous rose-gold color that really makes the pen stand out."

 

As for the feel of the nib, it's smooth, but fairly stiff...like most DUKE (and the majority of Chinese, for that matter) nibs.

 

http://www.hisnibs.com/DukeMiniTorpedoCapNib2_small.jpg

 

Mini Torpedo

[kissing]

I would predict that copper nibs would be too soft, and would just bend if written with. But then again, I suppose that's the same with Gold nibs.

 

However, even if Copper was alloyed with other metals, there wouldn't be much point. Copper is not shiny and beautiful like gold, yet it costs more than steel, but isn't as strong. It would be a sheer waste of money for a pen company to mass produce copper nibs (unless they wanted to make pens that you could use as a electro-shocking device? Aha! A James Bond weapon idea for Q! It's possible to do as the two tines can act as the positive and negative electrodes with whatever in between acting as the bridge. Theoretically, if you stab someone with it, it would give them an electric shock...sorry...drifted away into random thoughts just then )

[saintsimon]

I've heard and seen glass nibs - but I think they're for dip pens only (?)

At wartimes, sometimes glass nibs were used instead of steel or restricted gold.

 

This glass nibbed FP was produced when youve still been to kindergarten, young man

 

Visconti Ragtime celluloid with factory glass nib:

[kissing]

Glass nibs have been an area of curiosity for me.

 

Are they tipped in some way? Or is it just the glass that touches the paper?

 

How fast do they wear out in relation to regular steel nibs ?

 

Smooth? Rigid? Wet writers ?

 

Cool!

[saintsimon]

Glass nibs have been an area of curiosity for me.

 

Are they tipped in some way? Or is it just the glass that touches the paper?

 

How fast do they wear out in relation to regular steel nibs ?

 

Smooth? Rigid? Wet writers ?

 

Cool!

Well, I've yet to own one myself

 

But one thing is sure: they are rigid - as glass

Edited December 8, 2006 by saintsimon

[chud]

I have a couple of glass dip pens... they're pretty, and fun to have as a curiosity, but I don't think they work all that well (at least not the ones I have). They're a bit rough and scratchy, they write a very broad wet line, and they don't hold enough ink to write for more than a line or two on a dip.

 

But then, my sample size is pretty small (3).