Do All Silver/chrome Sections Get Slippery With Usage?

[Bibliophage]

Most of the rubberized coatings are the same (bleep) - it's a layer of vinyl of some sort. I also have had to clean off various pieces of electronic equipment that had plastic cases that they wanted to give a 'grip'. Eventually they have a grip that makes you feel like you're fondling well-loved snot.

[Honeybadgers]

Most of the rubberized coatings are the same (bleep) - it's a layer of vinyl of some sort. I also have had to clean off various pieces of electronic equipment that had plastic cases that they wanted to give a 'grip'. Eventually they have a grip that makes you feel like you're fondling well-loved snot.

 

It's mostly a butylene rubber which forms butyric acid when exposed to the oils in your hands long enough, which smells and feels like vomit.

 

Soapy water does a good job of removing it, but there's no way to make it "really" last and with regular use and oily hands, you could never expect more than a few years of service from any current "soft" grip.

 

Silicone grips may last longer, but still has a habit of picking up all the nastiness from your hands and not letting go.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Bibliophage]

except that butylene rubber would normally _not_ degrade when un-handled. I'm pretty sure this is a vinyl plasticizer, just like what's in my old HS jacket sleeves. The 'Leather' of the sleeves has gone sticky. It's a very common thing - if you search for 'sticky vinyl', you'll find a lot of it online.

 

Now, the full rubber grips probably _are_ butylene rubber or similar. Those can last for years when unused, (or just powder apart), but under normal use they get gooier and gooier. I think I preferred the old latex rubber grips. They just got hard.

[Honeybadgers]

except that butylene rubber would normally _not_ degrade when un-handled. I'm pretty sure this is a vinyl plasticizer, just like what's in my old HS jacket sleeves. The 'Leather' of the sleeves has gone sticky. It's a very common thing - if you search for 'sticky vinyl', you'll find a lot of it online.

 

Now, the full rubber grips probably _are_ butylene rubber or similar. Those can last for years when unused, (or just powder apart), but under normal use they get gooier and gooier. I think I preferred the old latex rubber grips. They just got hard.

 

 

There's a boatload of different rubbers in industry. I'd wager that most pens that use this material (cheap junk, maybe not this pineider) are using butylene because it's just soooooo cheap and efficient.

 

I just hate soft grips of all kind. they don't feel right. You shouldn't be holding anything that hard anyways - and soft grips just encourage that (exception being people with grip and hand strength issues)

[Bibliophage]

I just hate soft grips of all kind. they don't feel right. You shouldn't be holding anything that hard anyways - and soft grips just encourage that (exception being people with grip and hand strength issues)

If you use a ball point, you pretty much _have_ to hold it that hard

[Honeybadgers]

If you use a ball point, you pretty much _have_ to hold it that hard

 

I like heavy ballpoints for that reason, I use a fisher AG-7/11 (I have a one-off prototype in raw brass that they sold me) every day, and used an ag-7 for years. The pen is heavy enough to write under its own weight, which I like.

 

But I agree. cheap plastic ballpoints drive me nuts for how hard I have to press.

[Bibliophage]

 

I like heavy ballpoints for that reason, I use a fisher AG-7/11 (I have a one-off prototype in raw brass that they sold me) every day, and used an ag-7 for years. The pen is heavy enough to write under its own weight, which I like.

 

But I agree. cheap plastic ballpoints drive me nuts for how hard I have to press.

I have some solid brass "Cialis" and "Viagra" pens that I got from the family doctor. Doctors hate carrying heavy pens around, and these are heavy - but good writers.

[Honeybadgers]

I have some solid brass "Cialis" and "Viagra" pens that I got from the family doctor. Doctors hate carrying heavy pens around, and these are heavy - but good writers.

 

Oh jesus I can't even imagine what those drug companies were trying to say with solid metal pens.

 

Doctors are just weird people. They whine about having to carry a one pound stethoscope, and I have to carry around nearly 20 pounds of gear as a paramedic, not including my jump bag and monitor.

 

I have no sympathy for them when I had to climb Mt. Si with all my gear in full uniform and steel toe boots for an air evac rescue.

[Intensity]

Age and fitness level are probably part of it though. I think you are fairly young, relatively speaking? Age starts catching up with resilience after mid 30s. Some people have chronic back issues too due to damage or other medical causes. In that case having more weight is also noticeable.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Intensity

[Bibliophage]

I think it's more that they put them in the loose pocket of the white 'blood splatter catcher' coat, and heavy pens flop around a lot as they move.

[Honeybadgers]

Age and fitness level are probably part of it though. I think you are fairly young, relatively speaking? Age starts catching up with resilience after mid 30s. Some people have chronic back issues too due to damage or other medical causes. In that case having more weight is also noticeable.

 

That "anti-stethoscope" thing starts really young. I've heard so many residents younger than me whine about it. Nurses are even worse.

 

Those are the residents I mess with. Doclings are so fun to screw with.

 

They also have a habit of carrying it in a labcoat pocket (bibliophage is right), which is an idiotic place to put a relatively heavy object, since it bounces around and smacks into your legs. Any medic will tell you to never put your heavy gear in your thigh pockets. They make belt-mounted stethoscope holsters, and there's also the simple "carry it around your neck" classic. But a lot of doctors are told not to do this because patients can "grab" at it and choke you with them... Which is something I've never seen in 10 years as a medic (I've had patients grab for them but never succeed, and as a medic, you spend a lot of time in a LOT closer proximity to patients in an ambulance than a doctor ever will). Any doc that gets choked by his/her own stethoscope shouldn't be in the gene pool anyways.

 

One thing I've noticed is that good doctors don't wear labcoats. They dress normally, or wear scrubs. I've never actually run into a hospital that requires labcoats for docs, and I've been to about 30-40 different hospitals in my career. A labcoat is usually just a pretentious doctor trying to "distinguish" themselves, instead of letting their demeanor do the talking. Again, it comes from us generally graduating so many terrified timid children as physicians. My little sister in law just started at dartmouth and she wears her labcoat all the time, even though it's not mandatory. I constantly point out how bad it looks, but she's 1.) intensely insecure and 2.) going to be an awful doctor because she's a genuine sociopath.

 

The thing I find most annoying working in a hospital is how many nurses and doctors don't have a damn pen of their own. They just show up to work and then search for ten minutes for a ballpoint because they don't care enough to just hang onto one. I keep my fisher AG-7 for that, and have had to hunt down a couple nurses who just absent mindedly stole it. But in nearly 10 years as a medic, I've yet to lose it. That, and trauma shears. We use them SO MUCH, and so many nurses, techs and doctors just don't keep a 10 cent pair of penny cutters on them. Since I left the field as a paramedic this summer and work in an emergency room as a patient registrar and occasionally assist the nurses and docs with my skills, I tend to keep them on me, but I only have so much reasonable space since I dress very business-like. The funny part about that is since I dress well and carry myself with a lot of confidence, I'm mistaken for the doctor by like 40-50% of patients.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Noihvo]

 

[Bibliophage]

 

That "anti-stethoscope" thing starts really young. I've heard so many residents younger than me whine about it. Nurses are even worse.

 

Those are the residents I mess with. Doclings are so fun to screw with.

 

They also have a habit of carrying it in a labcoat pocket (bibliophage is right), which is an idiotic place to put a relatively heavy object, since it bounces around and smacks into your legs. Any medic will tell you to never put your heavy gear in your thigh pockets. They make belt-mounted stethoscope holsters, and there's also the simple "carry it around your neck" classic. But a lot of doctors are told not to do this because patients can "grab" at it and choke you with them... Which is something I've never seen in 10 years as a medic (I've had patients grab for them but never succeed, and as a medic, you spend a lot of time in a LOT closer proximity to patients in an ambulance than a doctor ever will). Any doc that gets choked by his/her own stethoscope shouldn't be in the gene pool anyways.

 

One thing I've noticed is that good doctors don't wear labcoats. They dress normally, or wear scrubs.

 

Most of the doctors that I know that wear the lab coats (I wouldn't call them that, they're not thick enough) wear them for identification more than anything else. The breast area is marked with their name and their position (P.A., Dr, etc). Underneath, they're wearing normal clothing. Including the one that retired after 50 years of working. Although he draped his stethoscope around his neck, and generally wore the labcoat only when vendors were visiting.

 

On the original subject as well -the Penatia that I use are heavily polished chrome, and they can get slippery. They lose that after a while, because I carry them in my pocket. The hairline scratches give you more grip

[tinta]

Not a fan of them, though I do use thee such pens. My stainless Lilliput's section & barrel can get slippery in extended writing sessions. but this pen is not intended for that kind of use.

My two slim metal Kaweco "Special" FP fountain pens are covered with a kind of heavy black anodizing. This finish is intended to reduce slippage & performs very well in long writing sessions.

 

For sections I prefer a concave shaped grip that flares towards an exposed nib. Machined resins or PMMA molded resins are my favourites, & of course Celluloid, a material that has a distinct feel of its own.

Edited November 9, 2019 by tinta

[alexwi]

Going back to the original question - leave it to fpn for a punctual question to turn into the most unexpected discussion, the one pen I have with a metal section (Pelikan Jazz) is problematic for me.

 

I solved it by wrapping a strip of one of its labels around the section. Ugly as hell, but works. I keep telling meself that I'll replace it with a strip of clear tape, but that hasn't happened so far.

 

Since then, I'm staying away from shiny metal sections.

 

Alex

[Mongoosey]

Bottom line: YES. Metal sections will be more slippery than non metal sections.

 

Some people have less of a problem because they have drier hands,

 

Some people have more of a problem because they have more oily hands,

 

But the answer is simply YES.

 

Something on the other end of the spectrum, and thus being less slippery, would be an Ebonite pen.

 

I personally never use metal sections for that reason. I prefer Ebonite, but I mostly use Resin/Plastic pens (Big Lamy Safari/Vista/Al star fan).

[Bibliophage]

I'd amend that. _Polished_ metal sections will have less friction than _Polished_ plastic sections. Unpolished metal will likely be about the same as unpolished plastic. Lacquered metal, of whatever type, is likely to be about the same as polished plastic.

[A Smug Dill]

Then there is the polished metal section on the Aurora Alpha fountain pen, for example,

 

Source: La Couronne du Comte (from whom I bought mine)

 

which is not slippery at all.

[seaclanky]

Got a Faber-Castell with the piano black cap. Looks great and writes fine but the body is smooth chromed. And I don't grip on the section, I hold by the shiny chrome part, What a nuisance, the pen feels as if it's trying to escape all the time. So I tend not to use the pen so much, which is a shame.

Have a Parker Vector with a similar shiny body, I think in stainless steel rather than hard chrome plate, I would have expected it to also feel slippery, but no, it doesn't.

The various "brushed stainless" pens also don't feel slippery, meither do any of the shiny acrylic ones. So the problem seems to lie in the smooth hard chrome plating.

So, for me, no more smooth chrome. Ever.

 

And rubber coatings? Ew no. Just no.

[Honeybadgers]

Then there is the polished metal section on the Aurora Alpha fountain pen, for example,

 

Source: La Couronne du Comte (from whom I bought mine)

 

which is not slippery at all.

 

That's kind of the odd ball out, when we're talking polished in this context, we're talking "untextured"

 

How do you like the alpha, Gil? I've been kinda wanting one.