Is Aurora Optima Flex Le The Nicest Stiff Fine Nib On The Market?

[4lex]

I have Aurora Optima Grey Flex. It is very nice dry, smooth fine stiff nib. Excellent daily writer. It has zero snap back so you can with exerting significant pressure vary the line from medium to fat broad. It is less prone to springing the tines then most nibs. But the only flexibility in this nib is the imagination of the people naming it flex nib.

 

In fact it is my smoothest fine nib and coming from Aurora that is a bit of a shock. It is now my daily writer and I cant think of any smoother stiff fine nib than this one.

[Bo Bo Olson]

:thumbup:

 

Compared to a nail....it can be flexed....and one don't need months of weight training to do it.............two hands perhaps.........as I have read.

 

But most folks do use a nail, so what do they know ease of flex..........they are often real heavy handed as is.....it does flex.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[4lex]

:thumbup:

 

Compared to a nail....it can be flexed....and one don't need months of weight training to do it.............two hands perhaps.........as I have read.

 

But most folks do use a nail, so what do they know ease of flex..........they are often real heavy handed as is.....it does flex.

Yes I can confirm, using two hands you can flex this nib without springing it. Its still a stiff nib but very safe to flex although Im not sure why would you. It doesnt have enough spring back to use it as a flex nib. I have 1950s Aurora Duocart with a steel nib and I always thought of it as a nail but its way more flexible than this one. Edited May 22, 2019 by vonManstein

[Mr.Rene]

I will not buy Aurora pens anymore..a nigthmare with its flex nib and the worst post sale and guarantee service.. I am still waiting a solution from factory in Torino...after 2 months since it gets my nib...

Edited May 22, 2019 by Mr.Rene

[4lex]

I will not buy Aurora pens anymore..a nigthmare with its flex nib and the worst post sale and guarantee service.. I am still waiting a solution from factory in Torino...after 2 months since it gets my nib...

Sorry to hear that. Thus far Aurora has been the only non Japanese pen manufacturer I never had any problems with.

[4lex]

That’s the problem with art. It’s unreliable. Although fit and finish on My Aurora pens is even better than on my Sailor. I think they have wild imagination. A bit like Delta with their magic fusion nib.

[4lex]

What I do like about Optima is that it is a writers pen. It looks deceptively small but it is anything but. Here you can see it compared to Sailor King Pro Gear and Pilot Custom Heritage 92. Capped Optima is shorter but uncapped its longer than both these pens.

[Honeybadgers]

the sailor demo just looks so sad with that tiny little cartridge.

 

That version really needed to be a piston filler.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[4lex]

the sailor demo just looks so sad with that tiny little cartridge.

 

That version really needed to be a piston filler.

The Sailor King Pro Gear is basically £200 nib on a £2 pen body.

But I love it. It’s very comfortable, looks smaller than it really is and does not attract unwanted attention. And the nib feedback is just wonderful.

[4lex]

the sailor demo just looks so sad with that tiny little cartridge.

 

That version really needed to be a piston filler.

You do realise that because of their pricing strategy those additional three pieces of plastic on the piston filler would add $200 to the price?

[4lex]

I have Aurora Optima Grey Flex. It is very nice dry, smooth fine stiff nib. Excellent daily writer. It has zero snap back so you can with exerting significant pressure vary the line from medium to fat broad. It is less prone to springing the tines then most nibs. But the only flexibility in this nib is the imagination of the people naming it flex nib.

 

In fact it is my smoothest fine nib and coming from Aurora that is a bit of a shock. It is now my daily writer and I cant think of any smoother stiff fine nib than this one.

I guess it’s a lesson for me, to not post comments about a pen online to soon after purchase.

After a month of use the character of this pen has changed significantly.

First of all it’s no longer smooth. A month of flexing the nib has slightly spread the tines that before were very tight. This has made the nib feel more like Aurora nib with notable but not unpleasant feedback.

It has also made the pen wetter. It’s no longer a dry pen.

I note that it is fussy about what inks it likes. It’s skipping and runs dry with inks that are not wet. It works fine with Aurora Black or J Herbin Perle Noire.

It’s now a medium wet, feedbacky semi flexible nib. I kinda like it.

[Intensity]

It could be the nib doesn’t touch the feed properly now, after that month of flexing, resulting in ink breaking contact with the nib and resulting in skipping. Likewise if the gap between the tines has increased.

[sansenri]

I actually like the Aurora Optima flex.

I own some of the older Optima versions with the longer tines nib.

It somewhat compares, although not exactly (the older nibs are more flexy), but at least it's not a nail like the newer Optima nibs.

Not that I don't like the newer nibs, certainly they are good writers, but stiffer. In the newer nibs I prefer the broader ones, M, B.

The long tines is lovely as an F, and I don't usually like to much fine nibs unless they have some flex, nor dry nibs.

Neither the Optima flex nor the long tines nibs are flex nibs, they are not supposed to be, but they have some give, and they snap back very fast. I can certainly feel the difference when I write. There is less fatigue, and some line variation. I wouldn't say the nib is stiff. I've also heard that not all the Optima flex nibs are alike, some are more flexy, some less... I have no direct experience of this though, I have one only.