What Is Your Favorite Vintage Nib?

[Addertooth]

I will freely admit to enjoying vintage nibs. In some cases, they made nibs in a way which had high production costs, and so nobody makes them that way anymore.

Which Vintage nibs are your favorite? Here are three of my favorites.

 

I really like the Wahl "self fitting points" which had the solid slider blocks which allowed you to adjust the nib from manifold stiff to very flexible and expressive.

 

An incomplete pen was purchased tonight with the intent of transplanting this nib.

 

 

The kissing cousin to this nib is in a Coronet pen I have already restored, and it is a great writer.

 

 

The Waterman Red Keyhole pens are another favorite of mine, with excellent flex and control without being toothy when flexed.

 

 

There are currently three of these RED keyhole flexy nibs on hand.

 

Perhaps the most surprising vintage nib is when a superflex Eversharp Skyline nib shows up in a pen. We are talking about over 2.4mm of flex with amazing control.

They even seem to tolerate flex with horizontal movement without grabbing or distorting the nib.

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by Addertooth

[WLSpec]

Sheaffer Snorkel Waverly 14k. A nice writer

 

Those are some nice flexible Wahl nibs! I'm jealous

Edited January 25, 2020 by WLSpec

[PAKMAN]

Waterman #7 Red keyhole nib

[Addertooth]

PAKMAN,

 

I do really like a #7 Red keyhole. It is pictured in that Silver Ray Ink-Vue pen. Not pictured is the Copper Ray desk pen which produced the black sample text. It uses a #5 Red Keyhole nib.

[Beechwood]

I used two early 30s Parkers today, a Duofold Junior and a Duette, both of them were a pleasure to use. You would think that the two nibs would be similar in style but the Dufold was flamboyant and was happy with long tailed letters and writing with an extravagence, the Duette didnt feel like it had any flex but showed great line variation from BB to a Fine. Perfect flow from both pens.

 

I have to say, IMHO, 1930-1939 was the most perfect time for pens.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Beechwood

[silverlifter]

It's a toss up between the Sheaffer Triumph and the inlaid nibs on the PFMs and subsequent models. If I could only write with one nib for the rest of my life, it would be a Sheaffer inlaid nib (PFM II PdAg, or the 14k on my Targa). Those are some exquisite nibs to write with, and they look quite attractive while you are doing it...

[inkstainedruth]

Probably my favorite vintage nib is a 14C (yes, with a C) music nib that was originally on a no-name lever filler I found in the wild in a town outside Erie, PA a few years ago. The nib and feed were transplanted onto a Parker Parkette that Ron Zorn was rehabbing at the Triangle Pen Show a couple of summers ago, and when he couldn't get the lever-filler apart, we worked out a deal to put the nib and feed onto the Parkette instead, since he thought that they would fit in the section.

Not *quite* a wet noodle nib, but the line variation is pretty impressive nonetheless.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkypinkies]

My Aurora 88s both have two of the best nibs I've ever used. Semiflex, nice feedback, great feel.

I also have a striped Duofold that I don't quite understand...it's hard as a nail, a non-descript fine nib, but it's perfectly polishe and the exact right wetness for me.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

it is really hard to say.

I have some vintage flex nibs at hands, EEF to medium, semi flex to wet noodle...

Some of them are able to give a nice line when writing small with flex, like this Swan one:

 

 

 

Made by Mabie Todd in the late 1930s/1940s.

 

Best

Jens

[ENewton]

My favorite nib is on a Parker Victory Mk 1. Theoretically it is semi-flexible, but my hand is so light that, in my experience, the nib is just soft and wet.

[Jerome Tarshis]

For an ordinary line with great smoothness under my hand, any of several medium nibs in Parker Aero 51s. But for an extraordinary line together with a very rich, eventful smoothness under the hand, the OM nib in my Montblanc 342, also dating back to the middle 1950s.

[Estycollector]

I've aquired several vintage Esterbrook flat feed and later round feed nibs. Overall, the 2556 seem to be the best ink sparing and smooth writers. There is one 9460 that I have in a full size J that provides a nice fat and smooth writing experience.

[eachan]

Swan, any size, flex or firm.

[Honeybadgers]

My adjustable Wahl Doric.

 

Outrageously controllable, from nail hard XXF to wet noodle.

 

Eversharp nibs in general are always my favorite vintage.

[SchaumburgSwan]

Swan, any size, flex or firm.

 

+1

 

So many fantastic nibs... and the quality and style of the pens.

Never regreded buying and restoring a bunch of swans instead of a few modern ones.

 

Jens

Edited January 26, 2020 by SchaumburgSwan

[sidthecat]

I’m finding a lot of pleasure in a Conklin ringtop with a fine flexible nib; the notebooks I’m using are on the absorbent side, I’m using a finer nib than usual. On harder paper my taste runs to a medium Hicks nib, which is not that flexible but a very expressive writer.

And the there’s a Doric ringtop with an Adjustable nib that lost its slider: that one’s a paintbrush.

[GoldenNibs]

Pretty much any Waterman #2 nib that has flex to it. The one in my 52 ripple is great. In terms or non flex nibs, I would have to pick either a Moore Fingertip nib or the nib in my Parker Duofold senior. My most hated vintage nibs are those cheap spoon nibs with no tipping found in third tiers. I toss those out and replace them with IPG nibs that at least write without ripping the page in two.

[KBeezie]

That I currently own (there's been some I used to have that I loved):

Top of the list would be my Wahl semi-flex needlepoint, shown at the top here currently installed on my late-20s Conklin Crescent Filler.



The nib shown here on the pen it's originally from (and which I still have, not going to separate them, just prefer the Wahl in the much longer crescent filler)



Followed by my 14K "Falcon" (December 1968) in my Pilot Super 250 (May 22nd, 1964)





Of pens I used to own (and want back), it would be the #3 Adjustable on a Eversharp Doric I had, as well as a 14K semi-flex EF on an Eversharp Skyline standard.

[goodpens]

It's a toss up between the Sheaffer Triumph and the inlaid nibs on the PFMs and subsequent models. If I could only write with one nib for the rest of my life, it would be a Sheaffer inlaid nib (PFM II PdAg, or the 14k on my Targa). Those are some exquisite nibs to write with, and they look quite attractive while you are doing it...

+1 for Sheaffer Triumph. I have two, they are amazing, and keep growing on me. A few more on my wishlist...

[Estycollector]

I will update my limited experience to say that an Esterbrook 3558 aka Sunburst, is a mighty fine writing nib.