Which metal?

[shufen]

Hi everyone,

 

So, there are a few precious metal: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, gold, platinum... as a layman of fountain pen, I just want to know which is the hardest for nib, which is the most common for nibs and also the most expensive one? Palladium or silver or osmium are seldom used for nibs... right?

 

Thanks.

 

SF

[NeoTiger]

Nibs are usually made of either steel or gold, with various platings for cosmetic appearance only.

 

The part at the tip of the nib, where you actually write with, is a ball of "iridium" alloy. It is called iridium because historically it may have contained a fraction of iridium, but this tip is basically an alloy of many hard wearing metals and varies based on manufacturer.

[richardandtracy]

Hi everyone,

 

So, there are a few precious metal: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, gold, platinum... as a layman of fountain pen, I just want to know which is the hardest for nib, which is the most common for nibs and also the most expensive one? Palladium or silver or osmium are seldom used for nibs... right?

 

Thanks.

 

SF

shufen,

 

The tiny nib that touches the paper is of a hard wearing, refractory material. Steel is not used as it wears too fast. When you think what paper is made from this seems more reasonable - paper is a mixture of wood fibres and rock particles (china clay). Steel tools don't cut rock well before thay wear -and for long term use in timber industries harder blade tips are used. Materials like Tungsten Carbide are used in industrial processes for rock & wood, so the nib on a pen has similar properties too. Iridium is one metal that is very hard, and there are others. [As a pure fantasy, thinking about it, the recently invented vapour diamond deposition process could be used to great advantage - polished diamond has an exceptionally low coefficient of friction so it should glide like no other pen.]

 

The rest of the 'nib' can be almost any material once it's protected by the hard wearing blob at the end. It needs to have adequate strength, shock resistance and machinability or formability. Steel/ stainless steel is used in cheaper pens, while the more flexible gold is used on the expensive pens. I've not heard of many other materials being used, but with good design I see no engineering reason why other materials (like aluminium or carbon fibre) couldn't be used.

 

Regards

 

Richard.