At the request of Johnny Appleseed.
Picture says it all. The nib is a rather small Warranted #3 on an Eclipse flat top.
The pen was a trade with a very nice Pentracer Tony S.
When we were discussing the trade, he said (knowing my flexoholism) "this pen will redifine flex for you".
I think it comes very close to the top if not at the top of my wet noddles.
It has been inked with Herbin Eclat de Saphir for the last month or so.

Is that a Conklin?

The picture says it all huh? Well I don't see any picture!
What happened AZ?

It's beautiful! Even the ink!

I can't wait until I start mowing lawns for the summer - there will be ready cash in my wallet to buy cool new inks...

WOW! Do you have a license for that nib? Just gorgeous pennmanship!!!!

No! It is highly illegal! You are in violation of the FPN flex laws. You must surrender that pen to me immediately. I will make sure it is dealt with properly.

I think that the pen's manufacturer was Eclipse. On the nib would be written "Warranted 3", and possibly "14K". "Warranted" does not tell you which company made the nib.

Legal? I'm impressed that it's even possible!

And, I'm liking the hint of Bamboo up in the corner, too...

t!

oh my God! sweet!

That amount of flex is illegal, especially in a blue Eclipse with red end-stripes.

I suggest you turn yourself in peaceably. I will be flying in to monitor the arraignment and secure the contraband. If you cooperate, we can probably arange for release with a warning, but the pen will have to remain in the hands of the proper authorities.

- Officer Appleseed.

PS. In a word - Sweeeeeeeet!!!!!!!

it took a couple of minutes for it to load on my cable modem system. but it's there. sometimes I open a thread and see only the place holders but a quick screen refresh reveals the images.

Wow. Just... wow. That is absolutely gorgeous, and makes me reconsider my avoidance of flex nibs. (Perhaps I can figure out how to get them to work this year, if I get one.)

Your handwriting is amazing.

I'm no Antonios, but I find that my handwriting looks a lot better with a flexible nib and I've just got normal printing. I love the different width strokes in each letter as opposed to an italic or stub which looks much more regulated to me. I say go for a flex nib as soon as you reasonably can. I'm hooked. I mean, I still like a nice fine for taking notes, but for preparing lectures and writing letters I love something with flex.

Not only is that flex illegal, but so too should be your ability with that tool!

Have you no shame for how you make the rest of us feel? You are certainly young enough to be part and parcel of the PC crowd, and I gotta tell you, Antonios, my self esteem is shot to hell!

Excuse me now, while I go out in the desert and eat worms! (Ha! Did I get you on that one...The Sonoran Desert has very few worms!)

Wonderful writing!!! I wouldnt know what to do with a pen and nib like that!!!

nice work

TNS

Antonio:
A great example of handwriting as well as a beautiful pen. I thank the blue Eclipses are by far their best color, next are the reds, not the organge ones but the true reds, some with a little white veining.

As an architect I'm envious of your handwriting skills and the flex nib show it even better. I haven't mastered the flexs yet. I still rely on the obliques.

Show us more - pens and samples.
Robert

In my hands, it would be illegal, but in yours it seems like a must. Flex nibs are like guns : they should be reserved to people who do know how to use them.

In a sense, you are a Flex Warrior ! A Spartan warrior of course.

Wow! Glad to see such a nib is in the hands of one who knows how to put it to good use. Thanks for sharing, AZ. Congrats on the pen.

Antonios, I am just eyeballing the thickness of the thickest lines over the French ruled background, and it seems like they are a lot thicker than full sized letters such as "a" when fitted properly between the lines Is the line variation due solely to flex or is some part of it is due to it being italic/oblique/whatever? Either way, I am amazed how the feed kept up with the flow. Did you have to write very slowly?

Wow!

Gorgeous---The pen, the ink, and the writing! Yep--for you it should be legal!

Thanks for giving us a peak,
Ann

Stylo, you are right the thickness is large about 2.5-3.00 mm depending on holding angle. Not loosing the line quality is a indeed a function of speed as you see below. For comparison I also drew couple of lines with a wet 1.2mm stub/italic Sheaffer.


After I used it for a while, I get an idea of who far it will go for the speed I am writing with. Occasionally it may miss a descender - I just go back and fill it.
Actually I like to write fast with it - in fact I have the feeling that fast writing gives lower friction (but I can not prove it...)

As for whether it is "stubby" without pressure, the answer is no. If I apply zero pressure it produces a fine maybe generously fine line. Even the slightest pressure tends to open the nib. The performance is also a function of paper and ink. This nib is too smooth for Clairefontaine.

Herbin as an ink does not have great flow but I like weak inks in wet flex nibs because they give extra shading within the letters. See for example below how the pen outlines the letter - the center is covered by less ink that the outline, and it gives a nice effect.

Perhaps we lighten up the pressure when writing fast, thus reducing friction? I don't know.

In any case, your pics are amazing When I look at the very last one (you seem to have removed it just now) and I see that super thick line next to the tiny thin nib, I can only try to imagine just how much the tines separate to lay such a thick line. Can a mouse squeeze through them when they are farthest apart? So, of course, we want a picture of the nib in action, with the tines far apart

Btwy, how quickly do you have to refill the pen when you write with so much thickness variation?

When I get 3 hands (one for the pen, one for the camera and one for the loupe, then I will take the photo

Actually to be honest, this is not the best pen for writing a lot. The reason is that for the letter forms to come out OK, high flexing requires very large letters. One the other hand if I try to write small with it because it flexes a lot, I do not like it. For extended writing I prefer the semiflex nibs. I have though written couple of letter (3-4 pages at a time) without the need for refill.

Did you use some big loupe for the last two pictures?

If you need an extra hand, that's what students are for! You can call it extra credit homework.

That would require some experimental Tribology to see in what regime you are, but you could be simply experiencing the stick-and-slip hysteresis.

When two macroscopic surfaces are in contact, one need to apply a force F>F0 to make them slip. Once they are in relative motion, you can decrease the force applied (velocity V imposed) down to a critical value Fc < F0 (or a critical speed Vc) before they stick again (v=0).

If you keep your surfaces in motion at a speed consistently above Vc, you'll experience only the kinetic friction coefficient. If you go lower, you'll have to contend with the static friction coefficient (on and off) which, if I recall correctly, is around a factor 2 higher, for most lubricated surfaces.

Stylo, I used a 30x loupe in front of my digital camera.
As for the students... We dont have students now. We have "customers"

PS> Denis, I do not think I agree for the slip-stick theory. It could not be pretty It would sputter ink all over

I'm not sure I absolutely agree myself with it , but while the surfaces are macroscopic, the stick and subsequent slip are at the microsocpic level... nothing Earth shattering.

If the relation is indeed fs=2.fk for the static and kinematic friction coefficients, fk being the friction you experience when writing above the critical speed, the jump is really nothing extraordinary, but might well be enough to alter the writer's experience.

Well... that's a napkin kind of explanation.

Of course, the friction is also directly proportional to the load. If you can link pressure and speed... That's what Stylo suggested.

Ooooh, can Stephanie buy an A?

Antonios:

Very nice work!! It looks like the flex of a dip pen.

Kirk

That is some insane flex, and very nice writing!