Cross Nib Manufacturers

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I was wondering if there is a list or just some "general" knowledge about who makes what nibs for Cross's pens. For example, I know that Sailor makes the nibs for the Peerless 125, but what about the Townsends, Centuries, etc.?

[Kevan]

According to Nibs.com, the Townsend nibs are the same as Pelikan nibs. The Century nibs look similar, so I would say they're Pelikan/Bock as well.

[Tweel]

According to a representative of A.T. Cross, "crosspens", who used to post on FPN, all pen production was moved to the new factory in China, e.g. this post. According to post #8 in the thread, at that point in 2009 there were still nibs being made elsewhere, but they planned to finish moving nib production to China "soon". So I guess that except for one-offs like the Peerless, the answer is "China".

[Donald2]

I just love that everything is made in China. The Chinese have excellent manufacturing capabilities and resources. I'm looking forward to seeing more Cross products being developed and manufactured in China.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Donald2

[Tweel]

The literary ghosts of Concord would certainly be happy to see the mills out of Milford, and everywhere else in the U.S.

[Donald2]

The literary ghosts of Concord would certainly be happy to see the mills out of Milford, and everywhere else in the U.S.

 

I was being sarcastic in my post above, but to be honest about this, you can thank the lack of tax incentives for the mills getting out of Milford. Cross and the rest of American manufacturing would still be here if it wasn't for the negative tax consequences that were imposed on American manufacturing companies doing business here in this country. It's our loss and the Chinese's gain. Things can change to our advantage if all manufacturing companies are given favorable tax advantages. It's sad that Cross left Rhode Island. I've noticed that a lot of the Chinese made pens that they sell are not as well made like the ones that were made in the USA. Quality has dropped. Thank God that Japan still makes a lot of good writing instruments. Maybe Cross can move their manufacturing to Japan. That would be a better choice than China. Or they can come back to Rhode Island or better yet, they can move to one of the non-socialist tax haven states down south and reboot their pen manufacturing back here in the United States where they belong.

Edited October 28, 2017 by Donald2

[JonB55198]

The nibs on the new Peerless 125 are made by Sailor. They look exactly like a sailor nib, perform exactly like a sailor nib, and the Peerless even has a Zoom nib option. Definitely Sailor for this one particular model.

 

Also, I agree with the posts above that there has been some sourcing from Pelikan in the past.