Jump to content

The Uber Supra Xetra Flexible Fad -- Or How Fine Pens Are Turned Into Wrecks

pinkpelikan

By pinkpelikan
in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop

 Share

Recommended Posts

Corona688 Extremely Rare

Corona688

Posted
Posted

and about $4.50 in vintage steel pens.

Not if people start buying them, they're not.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • ReadyFireAim

    12

  • Corona688

    12

  • pinkpelikan

    11

  • AAAndrew

    4

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Posted Images

AAAndrew Antique

AAAndrew

Posted
Posted

Not if people start buying them, they're not.

 

I keep forgetting.

 

Uh, yeah. Steel pens. Lousy things. Too sharp and scratchy. Horrible to use. Ignore everything I said above.

 

I have noticed an increase in bidding for nibs and therefore higher prices in the last couple of years. Maybe I shouldn't be such a strong advocate for them. Of course, I kind of have more than my share already. I'm only interested in the really unusual ones myself.

 

“When the historians of education do equal and exact justice to all who have contributed toward educational progress, they will devote several pages to those revolutionists who invented steel pens and blackboards.” V.T. Thayer, 1928

Check out my Steel Pen Blog. 

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the mistake is to do it solemnly."

-Montaigne

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corona688 Extremely Rare

Corona688

Posted
Posted

I find flexible pen writing difficult to read.

I did too until I started practicing up my cursive. It's been a long time since elementary.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ReadyFireAim Extremely Rare

ReadyFireAim

Posted
Posted

Uh, yeah. Steel pens. Lousy things. Too sharp and scratchy. Horrible to use. Ignore everything I said above.

I have one of these on the way.

I'm going to see what all the fuss is about.

post-135048-0-96933700-1520455493_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corona688 Extremely Rare

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have noticed an increase in bidding for nibs and therefore higher prices in the last couple of years. Maybe I shouldn't be such a strong advocate for them. Of course, I kind of have more than my share already. I'm only interested in the really unusual ones myself.

Still, while most modern steels seem either poorer-quality or overspecialized, I've been impressed by a few. Wondering your opinion of the Hiro Crown / Leonoardt 41?

Edited by Corona688
Link to comment
Share on other sites
AAAndrew Antique

AAAndrew

Posted
Posted

I have one of these on the way.

I'm going to see what all the fuss is about.

attachicon.gif s-l1600.jpg

 

They're good, solid, flexible pens with a sharp-ish tip and durable. (as long as they're the "England" or "Made in England" ones) I have a fair number of them but don't really use them. I'm not a calligrapher, just a writer.

 

 

 

Still, while most modern steels seem either poorer-quality or overspecialized, I've been impressed by a few. Wondering your opinion of the Hiro Crown / Leonoardt 41?

 

Frankly, I haven't written with any modern nibs except the Zebra G in a couple of years. I know some calligraphers like the Hiro Crown nib, and I've used the vintage version and I find it a bit too flexible for my modest writing. I have difficulty making sure I keep a smooth and controlled spread of the tines. Don't know if the new one is as soft. That's about all I know.

 

Vintage is where my heart lies. With around 20,000 vintage nibs in over 600 styles in my collection, I don't really have much call to use modern nibs. Wish I could be of more help.

 

“When the historians of education do equal and exact justice to all who have contributed toward educational progress, they will devote several pages to those revolutionists who invented steel pens and blackboards.” V.T. Thayer, 1928

Check out my Steel Pen Blog. 

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the mistake is to do it solemnly."

-Montaigne

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corona688 Extremely Rare

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think you'd either love or hate it. The modern ones may be less flexible, it took some courage for me to push it. I also think that crown-neck has a bit of give, making it feel softer than it really is. It also starts a bit wider than most "calligraphy" points. Mostly though it's the smoothest point I've ever used, it easily beats my "ball-tipped" ones.

Edited by Corona688
Link to comment
Share on other sites
larsenproject NOS (New Old Stock)

larsenproject

Posted
Posted

I have one of these on the way.

I'm going to see what all the fuss is about.

attachicon.gif s-l1600.jpg

I have a modest collection of vintage nibs I use for cartooning, so I personally lend towards a medium to high flex (though I keep a few stiff brands for hatching). I would be curious to know what kind of line quality this lends, as I usually buy in the gilbert-blanzy pourre range. I've seen the spencerian nibs around, so I'd be curious what their line quality is like.

christinelarsenillustration.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Christopher Godfrey Vintage

Christopher Godfrey

Posted
Posted

Nail-Bender wrote, some pages back: <I look at people talking about gold nibs and all I see are collectors.

Very very few in the least bit interested in actually using them>

That is a load of cods-wallop, if I might say so! I have a number of vintage Watermans, Swans, Pelikans, Omas, Osmia, mostly with gold nibs, all flexible-- and (guess what?) I use them all! I <love> using them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lloyd Donor Pen

Lloyd

Posted
Posted

Nail-Bender wrote, some pages back: <I look at people talking about gold nibs and all I see are collectors.

Very very few in the least bit interested in actually using them>

That is a load of cods-wallop, if I might say so! I have a number of vintage Watermans, Swans, Pelikans, Omas, Osmia, mostly with gold nibs, all flexible-- and (guess what?) I use them all! I <love> using them!

Nail-Bender didn't say that none were using them; he said very few were using them.

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Corona688 Extremely Rare

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)

Nail-Bender wrote, some pages back: <I look at people talking about gold nibs and all I see are collectors.

Very very few in the least bit interested in actually using them>

That is a load of cods-wallop, if I might say so! I have a number of vintage Watermans, Swans, Pelikans, Omas, Osmia, mostly with gold nibs, all flexible-- and (guess what?) I use them all! I <love> using them!

 

I'm happy you're enjoying your collection of fountain pens, but at that point in the conversation we were discussing dip pens.

 

I'd asked if there was a kind of flexible dip pen nib which had a proper iridium tip and didn't wear, which people could buy a gross of and abuse fearlessly. But the answer is "not really, and not any more".. Those "gold" dip pens were always rare and expensive, and now that they're out of production, even more so.

 

Eventually we found a middle ground of some cheap modern noodler's flex pens.

Edited by Corona688
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ReadyFireAim Extremely Rare

ReadyFireAim

Posted
Posted

Eventually we found a middle ground of some cheap modern noodler's flex pens.

 

I was surprised & disappointed by how much my expensive an rare gold dipper wrote like disposable plastic pen.

The flex pressure and line variation were almost identical as well as tip size.

 

A $6,modified, stainless steel Creaper nib gave it a genuine run for the money.

There was the small issue of character that the Noodler's nib does lack. B)

 

It was also a learning experience I thought I should share.

A lot of hype & mystery surrounds these rare pens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ASCIIaardvark Mint

ASCIIaardvark

Posted
Posted

I find flexible pen writing difficult to read.

 

Is that all flex-writing? Or just the ornamental stuff?

 

My flex writing leans heavily on print, as many of my friends haven't used cursive since middle-school and are unaccustomed to some of the more traditional cursive letter-shapes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33584
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26772
    5. jar
      jar
      26105

  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      Links to web pages or articles about Chinese typesetting, signwriting, etc.

      By Shanghai Knife Dude · Posted

      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o

  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More

  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...