Having been a fountain pen user for many years I have always used only pens with gold nibs believing that steel or anything else was just a toy.

However, since joining FPN my eyes have been opened to other nib grades and I now accept you don't have to pay $150 plus to get a good writing pen. In fact I am now a real fan of Lamy Safari and All Star, great out of the box writers, my Pencraft (Edison) has a Taccia steel nib that is a delight to use, and I am looking to add more inexpensive good writers to my collection.

What does everyone suggest is a great writer? Lets say under $50 or so.

Pelikano and Pelikano, Jr. are real nice. Recently I got a Rotring Core (ugly, but a good writer) for $9 from Swisher (not a plug-no financial connection).

So you discovered my "cheap favourite" Lamy's. Aren't they great? You have to try the italic nibs.

Yeah, I'm still a gold snob, though I realize it's just not rational. My Pilot Knight is absolutely a favorite writer of mine, yet I keep wishing I could have a Knight with a gold nib. The chances that the nib will corrode in my lifetime if I keep writing with it and keep cleaning it are next to none, so why would I want it to be any material other than what it is? I don't know. I just do.

That is to answer your question: Pilot Knight. Great writer under $50.

Another of my favorite nibs is the Rotring 700's nib. That's not an under-$50 pen, but steel and much nicer than many gold nibs. One of the best-feeling nibs of any material, though the pen itself has some shortcomings.

One thing that bugs me is gold-plated steel. I can see the logic, but I figure that gold should be gold and steel should be steel, and that one shouldn't pretend to be the other. Then again I have no problem with platinum-plated gold, so I must just be a hypocrite.

Not a gold snob, but I do feel that gold nibs vastly outperform steel nibs for corrosion resistance, quality and durability.

Well, at least up until the late 1930s- 1940s. After that steel nibs are fine.

John

(but maybe I am a vintage snob - or just a vintage imp )

I only have one steel nib that I truly enjoy using, and that's my Mazzuoli Moka. My Stipula and Aurora steel nibs are nice, just not as nice.

Everything else I've tried has been disappointing.

Seems everyone is trying to revert me to a gold snob.

I must say my three fave pens are all modern duofolds with gold nibs but my play pens are all steel nibs. I am just waiting for some rework nibs to arrive back from Greg Minuskin and really looking forward to getting them back and on my pens.

But the Lamy Safaris and All Stars are real faves now too. Am about to order a few with itallic nibs.

I admit it I am a pen snob.Actualy I am kind of proud of it.
I know gold nib doesnt mean its any better then a steel nib but I must have a piece of gold at the end of my pen.
I also almost always will use only piston fill pens and I like my pens to feel made of high quality material.
I have a Parker Vector,this pen is a wonderful writer it really is but it looks and feels like a 10$ pen so I will never use it.
I am not a fancy guy,not trying to impress anyone with my pens.As a fact I own few flashy pens (especialy my MB Cervantes) but I almost never use them.My everyday pen is my Omas Paragon,this is a black pen with a white nib so it really doesnt attract attantion but it has a gold nib,a piston filler and it feels good in the hand (not as good as my MB 149 but good enough not to feel like a 10$ pen).

"Rufus" has a steel nibed Taccia and this pen is a true marvel,a real jewel.I adore the way the nib feels.If I'd get a steel nib pen I would opted to this pen.

You will enjoy the italic nibs

I was a gold snob until I got my AL-star. I won't lie I prefer the look of a gold nib (especially yellow gold ) but the sad truth is that construction quality is more important than actual material.

Enjoy your Lamy!

The Lamy is what made me a gold snob, actually. It was the first really bad steel nib I'd personally owned (and considering that Stypens don't have the world's best nib, that's saying something). It wasn't until I started getting gold-nibbed pens that I really fell for fountain pens.

In all honesty the B nib that my AL-star came with was horrible, but the 1.1 italic is very smooth and that's the little bit that kicked the gold snob in me (but at 12-18$ a nib some variability is to be expected!)

Vintage Watermans, can be found for under $50 with a careful eye.

-Kushana

I try not to extrapolate too much from a single experience for exactly that reason.

I also really don't like fine steel nibs. They strike me more like dull Olfa cutters than nibs.

Try a Pelikan 150 or 200 series.

Have had two Pelikans now and both disappointing. My M200 is a dry starter (first mm or two) so I bought a Binder itallic nib and not much better to be honest. I also have another gold nib but can't remember the model and its a disappointment too - gone right off Pelikan. Reading a lot of the chat on FPN it seems Pelikans are notorious for that dry or slow start.

I learned not to be a gold snob many years ago. But, it never hurts to be discerning. There are some pens that will be B.A.D. no matter if they have nibs of gold or steel. Other pens are classic great witers no matter what the nib material - Bexleys or the Parker Sonnet series as examples. Buyer beware! Great writing pens are to be had out there. There are also turkeys.

Did I bring one of my 700s to the last meet? If I neglected to, I'll bring one to the next.

Not trying to to convince you of anything, just curious what you think of the 700's nib. It's fine and steel and one of my favorites.

I wrote with a lot of things, but I don't think the 700 was one of them. Next time, I'll write down what I'm writing with instead of just doodling inanely.

I've been happily carrying around a Lamy Safari with medium ball nib for the past few weeks. It's my default pen for work right now, loaded with Lamy Blue-Black for improved water resistance. So far I haven't seen any evidence of corrosion on the nib. Maybe it's not so much of an issue with modern nibs.

I love my Pilot Prera F .

Yes, foo, there are plenty of good steel nibs out there.

Waterman Laureat, Parker 45, Parker 25, Lamy Al-Star/Safari, Lamy CP-1, Esterbrook 9xxx series..., Parker 51 Special....

Etc. List goes on and on.

I guess I'm a reverse pen snob. With the exception of a few vintage pens, and my one M400, I avoid pens with gold nibs.

In terms of pens for under $50, I haven't found that many I really, really love, because I prefer piston-fill pens and they seem to cost a bit more than that, but the Pilot V-Pen is very nice to write with. Much to my surprise.

I'm a gold nib snob. I love getting vintage pens with gold nibs for a fraction of the price you'd have to pay for a new pen with a gold nib. They are often cheaper than steel nibbed pens! And yes, my ego requires that I write with a gold nib. That is, while I'm walking around with my nose angled upwards and running into things.

My Bexley's have been anything BUT great writers! In fact, IMHO, the Bexley gold nibs are worse than their steel nibs. Maybe ts the feeds they use. I don't know. My regular Simplicity wriites better than my Poseidon ever does!

I really dont think its an issue of "is a steel nib any better then gold nib" but rather do you like to have your nibs made of gold or not.
Pen snobs like me simply love to have a piece of gold stuck at the end of there pens.
As for nib performance its really a more of a personal issue,one might like the feel of a nib without the connection to if it really is gold or steel.

What does everyone suggest is a great writer? Lets say under $50 or so.
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The Safari/AlStar/Vista may be the best value fp out there. Many other Lamy models use the same nibs. You'll probably like the Studio; it's heavier, but a joy to use. Mine is the steel body and cap, and I love it.

A Pelikan M200 would be a great option too.

Juan

I do love gold nibs but mainly because I do love vintage nibs with some flex.

But I use some good steel nibs as well with the Lamy vista or the Pelikano (extremely smooth writing nib!). I always toss one of those pens into my bag. And the gold plated OB nib of my 20+ years old M200 is still one of the best nibs I have ....

It is not the writing characteristics that makes a gold nib more appealing, it is the aesthetics: a gold plated nib that is loosing the gold is simply not pleasing to the eye.

I love my Stipula Pinocchio with its titanium nib - smooth and flexible.

Waterman Phileas and Pilot Knight write extremely well (there's also an array of sub-$50 Pilots available from Japan which I would expect to be excellent, but I've not tried them).

Pencraft/Edison/Taccia nibs are marvelous, aren't they?

Simon

I've even heard nib specialists say that steel nibs can be just as good as gold nibs. I own a few steel nibs and feel the same way. It's just that gold has a particular aesthetic that is hard to beat with certain nib designs. But in essence, yes--the nib doesn't have to be gold. Glad to see you've discovered this as well.

With the "look only" definition I must confess I am still a gold snob, yellow at that

Many times I have taken a steel nib, and added some flex to it.

It's kind of tricky, and I find it more difficult than working on adding flex to gold, but if you get it just right, a steel nib can have a wonderful feel if you like flex, or prefer the steel nib to be less like a nail.

Also, steel nibs are cheap, so it's less daunting to start grinding on them.

I found practicing on steel nibs to be beneficial. Working on them is like hitting a 90 mph fastball, while gold is a softball...which surpised me the first time that I worked up the chutzpah to grind a $100 gold nib!

But even unaltered, I love steel nibs.

I wonder how representative FPN is of the overall FP user community. We don't like gold furniture but we like gold nibs

At one meter distance it is likely impossible for most people to tell the difference between two single-tone gold-colored nibs, say for example an $1100 Paragon and and a $70 Simplicity. Or between rhodium-plated gold and steel nibs.

And I bet most of us could not tell the difference during blind writing test, either.

Yep, we're pen snobs.

Bill

You got it and damn proud of it too

I bought a Taccia Andante pen. It is $90, but it has a steel nib. It is a great writer. I have no complaints about it. It is one of the few pens I own that does not have a gold nib.