Pilot FA nib vs vintage flex

July 15, 2008

As some of you know, hardly any pen companies today make nibs with flexibility resembling that which can often be found in vintage fountain pens (throughout what follows I’m referring exclusively to fountain pens, by the way). Barring the custom jobs done by nibmeisters, the closest is probably the Falcon (FA) nib made by Pilot for its Custom 742 and 743; unflexed, it leaves a very fine line, but when you apply pressure the tines will spread until you can make the nib leave a line that would probably qualify as double broad (this is all subjective – the attached scans will show you what actually happens). Not only do the tines spread nicely, but the nib has very good “return” – i.e., when you stop pressing, the tines resume their resting position pretty smartly and the line quickly reverts to very fine.

The only notable problem with this pen is that if you apply pressure and write fast, the ink flow doesn’t always keep up and as a result the line splits – instead of a fat line, you get two extra-fine lines separated by an empty space where ink should be. In my experience this hardly ever happens with vintage flex nibs (and only when you push the nib to close to its limits). At the Philadelphia pen show this year I asked Richard Binder if he could do something about this. He said yes, took my Custom 743/FA back to NH and finally sent it back last week. I don’t know exactly what he does, but (so far, anyway) his fix seems to work well; I can still get the nib to do the splits, but it does so far less than before, and I don’t think it’s happened at all while doing “normal” writing (rather than testing it with challenging doodles, etc.). Perhaps if Richard’s reading this and wants to divulge trade secrets he’ll chime in….

Of course, this raises the question “why bother?” when, for no more money (often far less, though occasionally more), you can buy a vintage pen that needs no such fix in the first place and, in fact, performs better overall; or can get Richard (or John Mottishaw) to make you a custom flex nib from a pen you already own. I’ll leave that to you, and move on to other matters….

Someone (I think it was Splicer) expressed skepticism concerning whether nibs in vintage fountain pens really flex more or otherwise perform better than Pilot FA nibs. Having said that they sometimes did, I thought I would put my money where my mouth is, take out some of my pens which are at least what I would call semi-flex, and see how they compare. (To give you a sense of scale, the sheets are from a Rhodia No. 19 pad; there are 5 squares to the inch.)

There’s nothing scientific about what I did; there are no measurements, and I didn’t try to do exactly the same thing with each pen (e.g. I probably didn’t apply the same amount of pressure in each case; rather, I went as far I could within what I subjectively felt was the nib’s comfort zone). A few pens were already filled (where I could remember what they are, I identified the inks), the rest I dipped in Diamine Imperial Blue. (In my experience, fountain pens are more likely to do the splits when dipped, but fortunately that hardly ever happened here.) To show a nib’s flex performance (extent of spread and return), I wrote a couple of large slightly fussy L shapes, followed by a thick and a thin vertical line, plus a vertical line made by bouncing the nib (to show return; though I seem to have forgotten to do this for a few of them; oh well…). Next to that, I have identified the pen/nib using ordinary fast handwriting of a type that doesn’t show off flex, with as close as I can get to no pressure at all, in part so you can see how the nib writes without flex, in part so that there’s no distraction from the flex demonstration on the left. For easy comparison, each scan begins with the Pilot FA. (Had I taken more care the whole thing would look better, but I hope you get the idea.)

Of course, you can’t tell by looking at the scans how a nib will feel to write with, how much pressure it takes to get any of these results, how quickly/easily the nib flexed, and how “soft” (as opposed to flexible) it is. But you can see for yourself which nibs provide the most contrast from thin to thick, which provide the best “hairlines,” and which have the best “return.”

As you can see, in addition to the Pilot FA nib, I added a few other modern nibs – a Pilot Custom 74 with a soft medium (SM) nib, and two Namiki Falcons (medium and broad). I wish I had a 74 with a soft fine or soft fine-medium nib and a Namiki Falcon with a fine nib to see just how close they come to the FA. Neither provides as much variation, but I can’t tell whether that’s because they’re less flexible or start off less fine…. (Anyone know?) I also tossed in a few flexible obliques just for fun (you obviously don’t use these for classic flex purposes – copperplate and Spencerian – but they’re marvelous to write with if, like me, you like line variation/writing styles of rather different types.) Note that the vintage pens include an elderly Sheaffer, if only to show that they didn’t make just nails…. Oh, and the Swans (I guess I should call them Mabie Todd Swans) I identified by nib size are all English (the other two Swans are American, and older).

I could say a lot more, but I’ve already gone on too long; so two final quick comments. First, does size matter? It may be that nib-maker can conjure up more flex from a bigger nib than a small one (this seems intuitively true, at any rate), but in practice I’ve noticed no correlation at all – at least, not in the pens I used this afternoon; my pretty little Osmia Faber-Castell probably has the smallest nib I used (it would probably qualify as a #1 or smaller) but it may be the most responsive – both very soft and very flexible – of the lot; it’s all but impossible to prevent it from flexing. Second, a word of warning to anyone hoping to track down some of the vintage nibs I used: with many of them there’s no way of knowing for sure how flexible they’re going to be, if at all, until you try them (or can rely on the seller to describe them in some way that’s half-useful – flex descriptions are hopelessly subjective; what you may call a wet noodle I might consider semi-flex, etc. – but with luck you can figure out what s/he uses the words to mean). Some are fairly consistent (Waterman 100 year and colour-coded nibs, and Wahls marked “flexible,” for instance), and shape can be a clue (but isn’t reliably), but the rest are up for grabs – oblique Pelikan nibs could be rigid, and nibs marked with just size numbers are all over the map (compare the two Swan #4 nibs, for instance).

Simon

July 15, 2008

I'm surprised to see you got almost as much flex out of a Namiki Falcon in SF as the 743's FA. My experience with the Falcon was that it was far stiffer than the 742 FA.

Your scans show what I suspected: that the vintage nibs return to a finer line than the FA but that they don't widen very much beyond the FA. Though I believe what I was skeptical about was whether any vintage flex compared to the more flexible modern dip pens. I was asking in earnest whether the vintage flex were much more flexible than the FA.

I'll probably have my 742 sent away to Richard Binder. I'm not happy with how thick a line it puts down. As your scans show, it's not a very fine line.

Very nice and useful comparison. Thank you!

July 15, 2008

I'm surprised to see you got almost as much flex out of a Namiki Falcon in SF as the 743's FA. My experience with the Falcon was that it was far stiffer than the 742 FA.

Look again - His Falcon is a SM. I have a SM Falcon & the 743 FA and get similar results; almost identical range of linewidths.

I'll probably have my 742 sent away to Richard Binder. I'm not happy with how thick a line it puts down. As your scans show, it's not a very fine line.

Let me know how it goes. I've been itching to do this for more than 6 months. I was hoping he'd be at the Boston show but he wasn't. I don't know if I can part with my 743 for 4 months.

July 15, 2008

Let me know how it goes. I've been itching to do this for more than 6 months. I was hoping he'd be at the Boston show but he wasn't. I don't know if I can part with my 743 for 4 months.

Hope springs eternal, or something.... Richard B had mine for almost six!

Simon

July 15, 2008

Let me know how it goes. I've been itching to do this for more than 6 months. I was hoping he'd be at the Boston show but he wasn't. I don't know if I can part with my 743 for 4 months.

Hope springs eternal, or something.... Richard B had mine for almost six!

Simon

I feel your pain...

July 15, 2008

I'm glad you posted this. I think I'm ready for some flex. Just don't know what to try first.

July 15, 2008

Superb Exercise & Comparison thank you very much for doing this

I am very taken with the Skyline example what nib was that?

July 15, 2008

I am very taken with the Skyline example what nib was that?

I'm afraid I don't really know. I'm certainly not an expert on Skyline nibs - all I can say is that it's in a standard 5.25" Skyline, that its breather hole is hexagonal with two very long sides, "Eversharp" is written on the diagonal, with 14K and Made in USA underneath (not diagonal), and that while it's not a "teardrop", it does have a pattern etched into the nib - a line comes down either side of the breather hole until it reaches "Eversharp", at which point it changes direction and frames "Eversharp". As you would expect, the nib has fairly low "shoulders". I have several other Skylines, some flexible, but aside from one with a "teardrop" their nibs are all plainer-looking than this. As with all other Skyline nibs I've seen, there's no indication on the nib of point size or flexibility (presumably that information was reserved for a sticker on the body of the pen or its box). I would be happy to answer any more specific questions you have, but for now I'm afraid that's the best I can do.

Simon

July 15, 2008

I'm surprised to see you got almost as much flex out of a Namiki Falcon in SF as the 743's FA. My experience with the Falcon was that it was far stiffer than the 742 FA.
Look again - His Falcon is a SM. I have a SM Falcon & the 743 FA and get similar results; almost identical range of linewidths.

...and I bought my 742 because you told me it was much more flexy than the Falcon.

I haven't owned a Falcon, only used those belonging to others, but I found it to be less flexible than the Emotica, which is in turn less flexy than the 742FA. Maybe I wasn't as daring with the Falcons because they haven't belonged to me?

I'll probably have my 742 sent away to Richard Binder. I'm not happy with how thick a line it puts down. As your scans show, it's not a very fine line.
Let me know how it goes. I've been itching to do this for more than 6 months. I was hoping he'd be at the Boston show but he wasn't. I don't know if I can part with my 743 for 4 months.

Yeah, that's the heartbreak I get too look forward to if I send it away. I intend to ask if he'll work on the Emotica. John Mottishaw said he wouldn't modify an Emotica for me, I think because of the titanium nib. So Richard may not work on it either. Since I have more problems with the Emotica, if he'll work with it I'll send it away.

Edited July 15, 2008 by Splicer

July 15, 2008

I am very taken with the Skyline example what nib was that?

I would be happy to answer any more specific questions you have, but for now I'm afraid that's the best I can do.

Simon

Do you want to sell it? ;)

July 15, 2008

I am very taken with the Skyline example what nib was that?

I would be happy to answer any more specific questions you have, but for now I'm afraid that's the best I can do.

Simon

Do you want to sell it? ;)

Not yet! (Seriously, though, I will probably be selling a few Eversharps at some point, so you never know....)

Simon

July 15, 2008

PM me when you do please

In meantime this is an L from my diy Lamy Italicised nib ~ I'm not used to writing this way at all & had to copy your style rather than do my own

The Nib is stiffer than stiff & I did press a bit harder on the downstroke

July 15, 2008

I'm surprised to see you got almost as much flex out of a Namiki Falcon in SF as the 743's FA. My experience with the Falcon was that it was far stiffer than the 742 FA.
Look again - His Falcon is a SM. I have a SM Falcon & the 743 FA and get similar results; almost identical range of linewidths.

...and I bought my 742 because you told me it was much more flexy than the Falcon.

I haven't owned a Falcon, only used those belonging to others, but I found it to be less flexible than the Emotica, which is in turn less flexy than the 742FA. Maybe I wasn't as daring with the Falcons because they haven't belonged to me?

My first Falcon was bought new and was a SF. It was stiffer than the FA, for sure. This SM I bought used on Pentrace's greenboard (couldn't pass up a $70 Falcon). With Noodlers black ink, which you know yields a finer than average line, the pen is roughly equal to my FA that has Pilot BlueBlack in it, possibly starting narrower and just as soft. After the FA empties out, I may try Noodlers black in it to see if it narrows the line at all.