Well I got the Tardiff Harpoon nibbed pen the other day and have been playing with it a bit.
The nib was designed and made byNathan Tardiff and to say it is interesting is an understatement. The amount of iridium used could tip a bunch of other pens. And it writes butter smooth
You can get all kinds of line variation with this depending on what angle you lay down the nib. The maximum cross stroke I have gotten was 3/32" wide... and the down strokes are about like a nice fine nib... If you raise the angle of attack you get less of a cross stroke to the point of writing like a normal fine nib.
The nib obviously writes wet because of the amount of meat on the paper and you get some great toning depending on how fast you move the pen.
This particular pen was built on an early (1949) large bodied Sheaffer Sentinal DeLuxe Touch Down and is in fantastic shape.
While the line variation is absolutley amazing and I can envision all kinds of wild things you might be able to do, I normally do not do a lot of fancy writing. But I had to try this nib out. So I am not sure if I am going to keep this pen. Watch the market place, it may be there sometime later...
For reference the writing sample was done on 1/4" line Clairefontaine paper.

Wow! It looks like a Hebrew/Arabic calligraphy nib on steroids, and the writing looks that way too (thin verticals and wide horizontals, the converse of Greek/Roman/Cyrillic calligraphy). The ink-shading effect is really interesting.

Very interesting, Griz. I'm amazed it writes so smoothly.

Very nice, Tom. What ink is that, by the way?

Neil

PR Avacado .. usually not one of my favorites.. but it has shading with this nib..

That is a really cool looing nib, bet it would be great for scribing arabic or hebrew.

Thanks, Tom. I actually have the ink in question, but it's never looked as good as that coming from one of my nibs! Or maybe it's just my monitor doing odd things.

Neil

Very nice Tom!!

You are very fortunate to have one of Nathan's nibs. They are legendary. Some are downright scary looking.

Now that he is heavy into the ink business, the chances of getting one have lessened. Cherish it as a classic.

Looks like it will be good for box labels, invitations and generally having fun with.

philm

Very nice, Tom. Now go get Moby Dick!

That nib looks like it was just MADE for Hebrew Calligraphy. Probably Arabic and Saskrit script too, but I don't know much about those.

I see alephs dancing across the stage................

Excellent Hebrew requires a nib that has broad horizontals and a narrow vertical stroke. When a Torah scribe prepares a feather or reed pen for sacred writing he cuts it in a way that resembles that harpoon nib.

I have a cheap Hero that was modified in Pakistan with an Arabic nib that does beautiful Hebrew. Unfortunately it is a mediocre pen and mediocre nib that doesn't start well or flow well. A bunch of us played with it at the LA Pen Show at Windocs party.

Someday I hope to try a well made nib like yours and see if it works better or if fitful pens are just the nature of the beast in Hebrew and Arabic writing.

Enjoy it, you have a treasure!

Andy

Wow! Beautiful! Enjoy it. :bunny1:

Nice and unusual pen, Tom.

Andy, Richard Binder sells Arabic nibs for Pelikans on his site, and Dillon has experience grinding them also, so a good Arabic nib on the pen of your choice is a lot easier to get than one might think (and quite reasonably priced). No affiliation with either, just a happy customer of both.