Greetings!

I'm rather new to the fountain pen world and I have an interest in trying a flex-nibbed pen to explore the possiblities with type of nib. I'm not looking for the cream of the crop but rather an inexpensive workhorse that will provide me with the essentials to begin writing with a flex tip. As always, your comments and recommendation is always appreciated.

Regards
Frank
St. Louis, MO

Inexpensive pens with flex nibs that are often mentioned are:

1. Waterman's: The pens from the 20s and 30s (52, 5, 7, etc.) can have some amazing nibs and can be found (not too easily) in working but not stellar condition for around $75. The 50s and 60s pens 5xx (and others?) often also have nice flex nibs and someone was selling them on the Green Board for $35 recently.

2. Parkers: Some Duofolds and Vacumatics occasionally show up with flex nibs, but expect to pay a premium for the pen

3. 50s german pens: Montblanc, Pelikan, Faber Castell and others made flex nibbed pens during this era and some of the less well-known brands show up around $50 sometimes.

4. Wahl: generally famous for their flex nibs. Pricey for the nicer pens, but there are some lower-end models that still have great nibs just not all the hype.

See Marketplace posts here and here for some options. At around $100, you can have your pick of the above brands. Lex Villines lexvil@sbcglobal.net who is well-known on Pentrace often has flex-nib pens for sale on the green board.

I highly recommend the search for inexpensive flex-nib pens. I've been virtually doing it for a while now until the money comes back (where has it been?) and it's fun to keep an eye out for those things.

Hi Frank,

In addition to the good suggestions you just received on the post above, you may want to e-mail or PM Antonios Z. He sometimes has some to sell and may be able to help you out.

Best regards,
Ann
(also from St. Louis)

Mabie Todd "Swan" fountain pens from the 1930s have some of the finest flex nibs available.

Let me repeat the notes on flex/semi-flex fountain pen nibs from my Web site ..........

Just about all fountain pens came equipped with what are now popularly called "flexible" (or "semi-flexible") nibs when I was growing up. Nobody knew they had a "flexible" nib in their pen and they didn't attempt to develop a technique of consciously producing pressure induced thick and thin strokes in their writing. Of course, everybody I was acquainted with used a light and relaxed pen hold touch when writing -- a technique that seems to have become generally lost -- the nuance of letter form line weight was incidental.

The general public just used their fountain pens as they had their school dip pens -- some wrote with light paper contact (as I always have) and produced writing similar to that on the following exemplars. Some wrote with moderate pressure and produced writing with nicely "shaded" (as they say these days) letter forms. Some wrote with heavy pressure and produced noticeably (but often erratically) "shaded" writing -- and lots of blots. Heavy pressure writers also risked ruining their nibs -- all that excessive tine spreading eventually took its toll -- fountain pens saw an enormous amount of daily use in those days.

Modern users of fountain pens with these "flexible" nibs can write normally with them -- as they do with any fountain pen -- but with a relaxed and light hold -- or they can use them to produce deliberately "shaded" writing by developing a conscious "pressure on the nib" technique (or even employ them for Copperplate writing).

I derive my own greatest pleasure in using these nibs from the soft feeling and tactile feedback that I experience when writing on fine paper (the subtle line variation is incidental). I believe that is what they were originally designed for.

Italic handwriting with a Swan #2 flex nib .....