Why Aren't There Gold Dip Pen Nibs?

November 7, 2017

Okay, so iridium-tipped dip pens. I think they had to rely in the early days on deposits of the native metal, with whatever impurities and flaws it had. I wonder what sort of solder (or braze) they used to join iridium and gold.

John Foley, a leading 19th century dip pen maker, used no solder. The gold was "sweated" (welded?) onto the iridium tip by directing a gas flame with a blow pipe:

Note that "diamond" was just a marketing phrase; the tips were all iridium. Foley's book describes the whole manufacturing process, if you're interested:

https://archive.org/details/historyofinventi00fole

November 8, 2017

Foley's book describes the whole manufacturing process, if you're interested:

https://archive.org/details/historyofinventi00fole

Wow!...That is a fantastic find!

Thank you for posting it.

On a related note...

Check out this monster size 12 on e-bay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MONSTER-12-14K-NIB-BARD-MABIE-TODD-DIP-PEN-ANTIQUE-VICTORIAN-VINTAGE-WET-NOODLE/322836531822?hash=item4b2a8e8a6e:g:qukAAOSw63FZ69OA

Edited November 8, 2017 by Bordeaux146

November 8, 2017

There's a rather nice item in Classifieds for someone with a bit of extra money.

November 10, 2017

I got interested in the history of iridium and found this snippet on Wikipedia:

"British scientist John George Children was the first to melt a sample of iridium in 1813 with the aid of "the greatest galvanic battery that has ever been constructed" (at that time).^[7] The first to obtain high-purity iridium was Robert Hare in 1842. He found it had a density of around 21.8 g/cm³ and noted the metal is nearly immalleable and very hard. The first melting in appreciable quantity was done by Henri Sainte-Claire Deville and Jules Henri Debray in 1860. They required burning more than 300 liters of pure O
2 and H2 gas for each kilogram of iridium.^[7]

These extreme difficulties in melting the metal limited the possibilities for handling iridium. John Isaac Hawkins was looking to obtain a fine and hard point for fountain pen nibs, and in 1834 managed to create an iridium-pointed gold pen. In 1880, John Holland and William Lofland Dudley were able to melt iridium by adding phosphorus and patented the process in the United States."