Do All Silver/chrome Sections Get Slippery With Usage?

[Microgrs]

The Pineider Avatars with the chrome section look attractive; their durability is a great transit. However, the chrome sections look like they would get slippery from hand/finger moisture after some use.

Does anyone have any experiences to share on that?

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

[jar]

http://www.fototime.com/CBEB1BF63187D6C/orig.gif

 

No. In particular silver sections generally work well. Plated is often fine but Sterling better. After all Sterling silver has been a best choice for tableware for hundreds of years.

 

Chrome or other plated surfaces will depend on the design and texturing.

[Honeybadgers]

Chrome/plating, it depends more on the person's hands. Sweaty or oily fingers will never play nice with polished and untextured grips. I can't stand them.

 

But even highly polished brass, copper, and sterling silver I find very very solid to grip, and I HATE polished chrome grips. It's the only reason I don't have an avatar myself, I know I'd loathe that section.

 

Ron can media blast the sections to give them texture, but I haven't yet tried his service on a pen, though I will soon-ish on a conklin nozac that I quite like apart from the stupid polished section.

[A Smug Dill]

The Pineider Avatars with the chrome section_...‹snip›... Does anyone have any experiences to share on that?

I'm a little confused as to whether you question pertains specifically (and only) to the Pineider Avatar, or "all silver/chrome sections" as stated in your chosen title.

 

I don't have a Pineider Avatar. I have a number of fountain pens with glossy chrome sections, including some that I was wary of getting because of that specific issue (such as my Aurora 88 Sigaro Blu), but I haven't found it to be an issue in my experience. That said, someone here remarked that I have an unusual grip, and I'm not about to deny or challenge that assertion.

[Erik Dalton]

Welcome to the group.

Everyone is different. For me, metal sections are a no go. I’ve had a problem with “metal” sections all my life. Must be my body chemistry, but they all become too slippery for me to comfortably write. Gold and Silver are less slippery in my hand than others, but still not great for me. I’ve tried different pens through the years, but now just avoid all pens with metal sections...no worries

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[praxim]

I have a few metal-sectioned pens, mostly S T Dupont. The fact I can not recall the others by name or brand is consistent with my Dupont experience (which is most of it) that they do not cause problems despite my fears based on reading when I first joined FPN. If your fingers do not slide on plastic pens, I doubt you need fear anything about metal. Indeed, the superior conduction of metal should reduce likelihood of fingertip perspiration compared with the various plastic resins, no matter how precious the latter.

 

I could say, start with solid gold sections and work down from there.

I think you will find metal, perhaps other than smooth polished chrome, to be fine.

 

eta: I suspect that when you wrote "transit" you were spell-checked out of "asset"

Edited October 7, 2019 by praxim

[sansenri]

I don't have any problems with metal sections relating to them being slippery, the reason I like them slightly less is... they're cold!

That said, some metal sections are better than others.

Silver is usually much better than chrome, It's objectively less slippery, and it's warmer (or better, warms up faster).

I do generally prefer non metal sections, but some are quite ok.

When the cap threading on the section or just above it is metal, then that can be a problem...

This metal section in the Visconti Opera series, for example, is quite comfortable for me.

[silverlifter]

The only metal section I can tolerate is the L2K, and that is for two reasons: first, it is brushed, and second, given there is no demarcation between section and body, I am able to hold the pen halfway between the two, so my fingers are in contact with brushed metal and makrolon.

[bemon]

The Pineider Avatars with the chrome section look attractive; their durability is a great transit. However, the chrome sections look like they would get slippery from hand/finger moisture after some use.

Does anyone have any experiences to share on that?

In my experience they're harder to hold onto. Not so much slippery just not as easy to grip as a more textured surface that provides some friction. I ended up putting a piece of tape on the polished section of one of my pens and it's 10 times more enjoyable to use now that I've got something to grip.

[chalkdust]

The latest Avatars, which are demonstrators, have a rubbery covering over the metal section. They cost a bit more than the earlier Avatars.

 

I avoided metal sections for a long time due to the generally disparaging remarks about them in many forums. But I am beginning to form my own stable opinions about such things. Metal sections are not to be avoided simply because they are metal. I find the sections of the Pineider La Grande Bellezza pens to be perfectly comfortable for me. I generally do not write more than about a A4 or 8.5X11 page at a time. Metal is OK. What is more important to me is the size of the section.

[Joe124013]

I've never had an issue personally but I think it really depends on the person and how they hold the pen, as well as the particular section in question. Some have a lot more contour than others which I believe would help.

[Arkanabar]

 

No. In particular silver sections generally work well. Plated is often fine but Sterling better. After all Sterling silver has been a best choice for tableware for hundreds of years.

The original reason for that is that silver is antiseptic, which matters more when you don't have a dishwasher apart from your scullion (or wife). People eating from silverware that they used all day didn't get sick as often as those eating from iron or wooden flatware. (And napkin rings, which were inscribed with the names of those who used them, helped ensure that each person used only their own napkin throughout the day, lowering laundry costs.)

 

The latest Avatars, which are demonstrators, have a rubbery covering over the metal section. They cost a bit more than the earlier Avatars.

Rubbery coverings are the reason I would never have a Parker Reflex, or any of a large number of Online's Young Writer pens. They are far less durable than other plastics, often quite vulnerable to hand oils.

[1nkulus]

I have a few pens with chrome sections and they have been fine. I tend to prefer chrome sections for the 'overall look'.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Rubbery coverings are the reason I would never have a Parker Reflex, or any of a large number of Online's Young Writer pens. They are far less durable than other plastics, often quite vulnerable to hand oils.

+1

[Intensity]

It's a pretty individual experience with section materials, I think. Personally I really don't like polished metal sections, but I can live with brushed metal (textured) or sterling silver sections. Still, I'm happy that both my sterling silver Omas and sterling silver Montegrappa pens have resin (plastic) sections. Much more secure and warm to touch. (My favorite section material so far is ebonite, as opposed to acrylic. I really enjoy using FPR Himalaya in ebonite and find the acrylic version slippery, despite it being the same shape as the ebonite one).

[Honeybadgers]

The latest Avatars, which are demonstrators, have a rubbery covering over the metal section. They cost a bit more than the earlier Avatars.

 

I avoided metal sections for a long time due to the generally disparaging remarks about them in many forums. But I am beginning to form my own stable opinions about such things. Metal sections are not to be avoided simply because they are metal. I find the sections of the Pineider La Grande Bellezza pens to be perfectly comfortable for me. I generally do not write more than about a A4 or 8.5X11 page at a time. Metal is OK. What is more important to me is the size of the section.

 

I saw that. And a rubber texture on a pen that cost more than $5 scares the hell out of me.

[Honeybadgers]

The original reason for that is that silver is antiseptic, which matters more when you don't have a dishwasher apart from your scullion (or wife). People eating from silverware that they used all day didn't get sick as often as those eating from iron or wooden flatware. (And napkin rings, which were inscribed with the names of those who used them, helped ensure that each person used only their own napkin throughout the day, lowering laundry costs.)

 

Rubbery coverings are the reason I would never have a Parker Reflex, or any of a large number of Online's Young Writer pens. They are far less durable than other plastics, often quite vulnerable to hand oils.

 

Weirdly the rubbers can be kept in surprisingly good order with soapy water, but I agree, they will NEVER last for 20 years of regular use, though the parker school pen I had as a teen was recently rediscovered after ~20 years had a nasty rubber grip, but cleaned up nicely and feels new again, though I'd still never spend money on a pen with one again.

 

And you're very correct about silver as an antiseptic, though that doesn't mean anything about grip itself, because they don't prevent oils from forming, just kill the bacterial.

 

If you're into antiseptic pens, all copper compounds are equally effective to silver. So copper, bronze, and brass are all going to self-sanitize (it's why my daily work pens as a medic are a copper tactile turn gist, a brass delike alpha with the lacquer sanded off, and a raw brass prototype fisher AG-7.)

 

What matters is the coefficient of friction. Even highly polished brass has a different coefficient of friction to chromium, same goes for gold and silver, which is why they all feel a little different.

[Bibliophage]

Copper is better at self-sanitizing than silver. Silver requires moisture, but copper denatures DNA directly.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3067274/

 

The problem is that brass and copper end up smelling strange, and that odour passes onto your hands.

 

Rubber surfaces - much depends on if it's solid rubber, or a rubberized coating. The Cross Penatia had a set of coloured, striped pens. The striping was textured as well. The texture on my first pen went 'tacky' because it was apparently some sort of vinyl coating. (It was subsequently stolen). A replacement had the same problem, even though it has never been used. (original box, original cartridge still intact in the box)

 

Wiping down with paint thinner/mineral spirits removed the tacky feel, without removing the colour. If it's solid rubber, plasticizers come out and it degrades. Salt from hands speeds this up. If you have one where the plastic has completely eroded, you might be able to build a new one from Plasti-Dip, or Sugro.

[Honeybadgers]

Copper is better at self-sanitizing than silver. Silver requires moisture, but copper denatures DNA directly.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3067274/

 

The problem is that brass and copper end up smelling strange, and that odour passes onto your hands.

 

Rubber surfaces - much depends on if it's solid rubber, or a rubberized coating. The Cross Penatia had a set of coloured, striped pens. The striping was textured as well. The texture on my first pen went 'tacky' because it was apparently some sort of vinyl coating. (It was subsequently stolen). A replacement had the same problem, even though it has never been used. (original box, original cartridge still intact in the box)

 

Wiping down with paint thinner/mineral spirits removed the tacky feel, without removing the colour. If it's solid rubber, plasticizers come out and it degrades. Salt from hands speeds this up. If you have one where the plastic has completely eroded, you might be able to build a new one from Plasti-Dip, or Sugro.

 

Spirits are nonpolar, so should do a good job on SOME rubberized coatings, but not others. And it can be super dangerous for some plastics.

 

The moisture from your hands alone is enough to catalyze the reaction on silver. It's a very microscale kind of environment.

 

And the copper smell goes away as the patina forms. it never disappears, but that really raw, offensive odor of the copper oxidizing the oils in your hands when the metal is fresh and bare fades dramatically. My hands don't really smell noticeably whatsoever anymore with my copper/brass pens.