Stylo Fans? Question About Smoothness

[Greenie]

I have three stylos in my large FP collection, two Mabie Todd Long Short, and a very early AT Cross.

 

How smooth should these feel on the paper, or how smooth can they be? They aren't exactly scratchy, but they are kind of "toothy"

 

The AT Cross has no protruding needle - the needle stays inside. It seems to need a fairly vertical writing angle, but writes well. I would imagine this to be normal based ont the physics of the pen, but I have nothing to compare it to.

 

The Mabie Todds have protruding needles that are on springs, which seems to allow the pen to be used at an angle more like 45 degrees, but of course there is some vague feel of the needle on paper.

 

 

So, can any fans of vintage stylos tell me more about how old stylos are supposed to perform, and how much can I expect from them. They are not really for using much, but I still enjoy getting all my pens are tuned up as possible regardless of whether or not they will be actually used in the future.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

In my experience, they generally are reasonably smooth, but they do often have a small amount of feedback as you may have noticed. Some of them do have needles that stick out of the tip slightly. I haven't done much work on the AT Cross ones, so I can't tell you much about how those usually are. In the past I have reground the tip on a Inkograph to make it more round since it was slightly flattened from wear, but usually that is not necessary.

 

Dillon

[Greenie]

Thanks Dillo

 

Sounds like these stylos are about how they should be.