Recent Acquisition - Early Bock Nib?

[sidthecat]

I got this the other day, blugged into a German postwat piston-filler - it's gold and quite flexible, and possibly prewar. the beast on the nib makes me think it's a Bock...does anyone know? Here's a picture:

I'm probably going to plug it into a prewar (maybe) Reform ringtop which needs a nicer nib than the one it came with.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I'd think so too. There is another 'Bock' on a mountain, is turned the other way. It's been years since I saw it. That is not a Bock nib. Riding on the good name of others.

 

That is a post war nib, in the Bock factory some 20-25 minutes away, started in '38, when Hitler stole the gold. So Bock didn't have any gold until after the War.

 

My gold Bock nib is semi-flex....the steel one I think is only regular flex.

 

Grumble Cubed, I just went through five or six nib holder cases of one type or an other***, and couldn't find them, a steel one and a gold one, and with them is another semi-flex Warrented or Ideal BB or wider un-tipped semi-flex nib that will some day go off and get some tipping. They are there...but where?

Organization is half the war....a hell of a time to find out I'm a pacifist.

 

***It's not that I have so many nibs....I got hit by an avalance of the things with in a few months of starting....and my wife gave me two 4"x2 1/2" briefcases....that have too few nibs in them. Obviously, I had some plan in mind, it appears I misplaced my mind longer ago than I thought.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[sidthecat]

I noticed that of the wartime Reform pens on eBay, none had a Reform nib. German officers seemed to have had a fondness for Warranted nibs.

 

The shortage of gold might explain that...the supply of fillings from dead Jews wasn't available until later on.

Among the many ironies of this pen, one is that I lived in Heidelberg back in the Seventies, but back then I wasn't into pens.

Edited March 23, 2017 by sidthecat

[Bo Bo Olson]

I got to H-berg in the mid-70s....was in Mannheim and Munich before.

[sidthecat]

Pepperdine University had a small program - I spent eight months there in 73-74. Got home just in time for the Watergate hearings.

[Bo Bo Olson]

'72(-74) I was at the second best party school in the whole world! Playboy said so! I of course did my part.....and didn't quite lose my P-75 there....did leave at home the next time I took a train to Heidelberg.

No one had their own car....insurance was out of the world. (Almost...one guy had a VW we put 8 people into driving out to Andechs monistary. Where with 5 liters of double bock you could talk to JC....with 7 you could talk directly to God. A ham-hock half the size of a bowling ball.

 

U of Maryland, Munich Campus. Olympics, Rolling Stones, O-Fest, Fashing, cheap smoke etc. (half naked girls sunbathing in English Gardens.) The Almighty Dollar had just fallen from DM4-$1 to 3.60-1........Then Nixon took us off of Silver and the good times slowly left. To add insult to injury they jumped the price of beer at the O-fest the next year from DM2.80 to 3.00 or was that 3.10? And at 3-to 1 that suddenly mattered.

Rich man's Yale was #1....where Coke didn't come in cans.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[sidthecat]

I remember one of my teachers driving hell-for-leather down the Autobahn (before the Arab oil crisis made the government impose speed limits for the very first time). That was probably the same model Mercedes I inherited from my dad twenty years later. There was a lot of history happening in those eight months.

 

BTW: I sent pen and nib to Mr. Minuskin for mating and a little tweaking, since I think the nib was slightly overflexed. Small changes in geometry make a big difference because my hand is really too light to use a pen properly.

Edited March 25, 2017 by sidthecat

[Bo Bo Olson]

If I drive about two hours away I can still find parts of the autobahn where I can fly low.

 

I had wondered about real flexi. Sprung does real flexi, easily.

I think it's Jar that says any nib will flex, once.

 

My Degassa ones are Superflex, Easy Full flex, like my post war 100n. I have a Rupp that is still my most maxi-semi-flex. So there is no reason that Bock didn't have or couldn't match either of those two Heidelberg companies. Bock is about a 20-25 minute drive. A real good sized factory, seems to be 80-100 meters long....could be more. It's just a factory I've seen all my life in Geramny if I drive back from Frankfurt or Darmstart.

It was only 7 years ago it was an Ah Ha.

As a noobie I was stupid, thinking only In House nibs were any good. That steel Bock almost ended up in file 13....until I though they (others also) don't take up much space.....but it was close.

 

I only have a couple of Bock nibs...so am not an expert. Maybe 3/4 I think I might have some on other pens. Murphy says they are the ones I'll eventually find time to learn to cork.

One needs a clean desk....and that means finishing writing my western.

[sidthecat]

It's pretty flexible: I just noticed that the geometry was a bit wrong.

I've seen nibs on eBay listed as Excellent when the tines aren't even close to each other. Buyer beware.

[sidthecat]

Update: I got the pen back. I'd call it a juicy semiflex, a very nice writer.

[Synnove]

The geometry is such that it very much looks like a Bock produced specimen (I highly doubt the nib geometry has changed much over the course of time).

[sidthecat]

I simply meant that the nib looked a bit overflexed; it looks straight now.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Good, I like semi-flex and like folks to have a good time with them.

 

It will add that old fashioned fountain pen fair with out doing anything but writing regular.

 

I was ham fisted when I got my first semi-flex; and didn't even know it until then.

In it took me three months with my first semi-flex, a 140 OB to learn how not to press too hard, writing with a semi-flex is as fast as with any other nib. I found my Hand lightened naturally.

[sidthecat]

Years in animation has left me with a very light hand, too light for the Doric nib that Mr. Minuskin recently ground for me. Too light for the Mabie Todd dip nib that I sold to someone who had the skills to control it. I've lately had my nose rubbed in the limits of my calligraphic skills. My boss, who's right-handed, can get more flex out of the Bock than I can, of course. The curse of nature and nurture.

[fountainpagan]

Sidthecart, indeed that is not a Bock nib. I had confirmation from Bock, but they don't know which company did them. Truth is, there were so many small shops producing nibs at the time, that it is quite difficult to keep track of them.

After Bock confirmed me this wasn't one of their nibs, I tried to find out who did them. Unfortunately, and despite my intensive quest, in Germany, UK and Italy, none of those who could eventually answer this had a response.

I hope, one day, there will be a member of the forum with the solution for this mistery .

 

Anyhow, congratulations!

Enjoy the flexibility.

Could you show a writing sample, please? Thank you in advance.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Try Kaweco, he'd know.

[sidthecat]

Interesting! Someone went to a lot of trouble to make a counterfeit Bock. There's a whole spy-novel's worth of skullduggery here.

[Bo Bo Olson]

It's not just one of....I think somewhere I have one of them too, along with two loose Bock nibs one steel, the other gold.

Bock developed a name, and someone tried to ride on it.

 

There were very many mom&pop 'pen companies' that just put pens together out of parts ordered from major companies. Then selling them to the corner newspaper shop or local department store. They would be interested in saving a penny.

 

One must remember besides MB making top of the line they made 2xx,3xx and Monte Rosa among others. Pen parts to mom&pop companies. All the German pen companies did that. At one time in the '30's I believe there were some 125 'pen companies' of one sort or the other. "Kit Pens" or brand name.

 

 

Osmia made pens for Akkermann department store in Holland under Akkermann's name, and others companies. Some of the pretty pens with color were for the export market.

 

Rupp and Osmia made nibs from @1922. 1932 Degussa bought up Osmia's nib factory. 1938 Bock started making nibs.....just about the time Hitler stole the gold.

 

There were also other nib companies with Lion's heads, Buffalo heads. Bock's goat facing the other way was then fair game.

[sidthecat]

Just for funsies, can you post a picture of a real one? I find this kind of thing interesting.

 

My dad collected Meissen figurines in a minor way, and one of his prizes was a piece he identified as a Samson: a German firm that faked Meissen figures, but so early that the pieces had acquired their own value. I will think of this nib in that context.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I looked for it at the start of the thread....and it is hiding.