The title of this thread is a bit misleading and perhaps might be considered a pun by some people.

I have never been sure but I think “Ideal” was a line designator used by Waterman, though how this applies to Le Man, Opera, etc., I have no idea. And though this is not the intent of this post, a little clarification would of course be appreciated.

Yesterday (23 March 2008) I was reading a thread (Adjusting Tines) that discussed spreading the tines on nibs to compensate for a particular ink. Mainly I think this thread ended up being concerned with the gap that exists on some nibs between the breather hole and the tip of the nib.

There was a question about how much light should be seen through the nib.
There was even a reference to how difficult it is would be for most of us to photograph this detail.
I found this thread very interesting but after reading it I moved on to other things, including trying to understand why after such a nice Easter family get-together I still cannot shake a strong feeling of need for a new pen.

I recently made a joke to a friend about how nice it is to have ten loaded fountain pens available at my desk. And now my wife does not think I "need" a new pen. And she might be a little correct. Certainly not just any pen.

I have been looking a particular pen for a while now, but that will have to wait, and wait, and wait. So rather than buy a lesser pen I think that I should be able to satisfy this craving by taking out one of my better pens that I haven’t used for a while. So I unpacked my Waterman Opera, I think it’s a nice pen.

Now of course having a dry pen in my hands I had to look for the gap in the tines. And yes I realize now that this nib does not appear to have a breather hole. This lead to several attempts to try and get a picture of the gap using my Canon SD400, not really a professional level camera at all.

Well, I got lucky. Not at the level of a corporate brochure photo, but I think it shows the gap in a satisfactory light, so to speak.

Now all I need to do is decide which ink to use.

TTFN

The Ideal Gap indeed! ...assuming it writes well. And a sufficiently illustrative picture of the phenomenon, too, regardless of the camera's particulars. Good show.

I don't see a photo...

I do not know why the image statment is not working for you.

Here is a direct link to the photograph:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/tinneyp/IdealGap.jpg

HTH

BTW: I have decided on Waterman Purple for the Opera. At least for now.

Love that Ideal nib! That's about the same gap I have. Writes like a dream!!

I was a bit disappointed in how blurry the backlit picture of my Opera’s nib was.

My Opera now has ink in it so I cannot retake the picture, but I do have my old Rhapsody in its box, so I decided to try and stabilize the pen and the camera this time.

Now the Rhapsody’s nib is still a Waterman Ideal, but you will note that this one does have a breather hole and that it does not have the globe image.

Here is the direct link:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/tin...ealGapRcopy.jpg
And here is the picture. I couldn’t decide which picture I like so you get both backlit versions:

One thing I noticed in both sets of pictures is that even in the non-backlit picture you can tell where the feed ends and the tip comes together, though it is not as easy to see with \out the light coming through it.

TTFN

Good shots!

(yes I can see them now.)