Nibs: steel vs gold

[Guest Attila]

There are many different tastes about nibs but one of the most desired quality is the smoothness.

 

At this time, on which industry can count on high technology devices, can a steel nib, with a perfect shaped tip, beat a gold one in terms of smoothness?

 

Broading the question: is excellence a gold nib prerogative?

[Bill_D]

My smoothest-writing nib is a steel nib from Levengers, and my smoothest stub nib is a steel FILCAO nib from Richard binder. I have long thought that steel nibs can write just as well as gold nibs. I am sure others' experience will vary.

[Kimo]

Modern technology does not allow the kind of excellence you are talking about. A perfect nib is going to require hand finishing at the factory, or afterwards if the factory does not do it like they do on the more pricey pens/nibs.

 

 

 

 

 

[ANM]

Feather quills were replaced by steel nibs because they lasted longer and were cheap (bear with me, I am leading somewhere) But steel nibs rusted and had to be replace fairly often. Gold nibs did not rust and lasted much longer, especially when tipped with a harder metal. In fairly recent times stainless steel nibs have come along and don't rust, last a long time and can be tipped with a harder metal just like gold---and cost less too. IMHO gold has a good reputation because it has been around a long time and is used on high quality pens but stainless steel, while less glamorous, is just as efficient and since the same properties of flexibility or stiffness and the tipping material that actually touches the paper is the same, the two kinds of nibs are perfectly capable of performing equally.

[skipwilliams]

Given that the only thing that touches the paper is the Iridium or similar metal tip, and not the nib's body metal, the smoothness of a nib does not depend on the nib's material.

 

Note that I said "smoothness". Just because a nib is smooth, doesn't mean that it writes with inflection, emotion, and responsiveness. You can get a bad nib in any material, gold, steel, or titanium, which are all the ones I know of being made today for commercial products.

 

Skip

[troglokev]

Exactly so.

 

The good reasons for using gold are corrosion resistance and aesthetics.

[hamadryad11]

Exactly so.

 

The good reasons for using gold are corrosion resistance and aesthetics.

And the second reason only applies if you like the look of gold. Some people prefer the look of white metals.

 

Actually even the first reason isn't that relevant for day-to-day use. For most people corrosion will probably not become an issue.

[handlebar]

I admire the two toned nibs the most but as for which writes better: I have both and they are equal. None supersedes the other.

 

My best writer is a Stipula Etruria which is 18k gold two toned.

 

Jim

[Ink Stained Wretch]

If you stare at the nib a lot and want it to be gold then that's what it should be, nothing else will do.

 

But for actual writing I think that the state of the tipping material is paramount. Just look at the various threads up here with people complaining about their high priced, gold nibbed pens that simply do not write well or in some cases simply do not write at all period.

 

And then you can find people lauding their relatively cheap, steel nibbed pens for who smoothly they write.

 

IMO steel nibbed pens can write very well indeed, as well as the gold nibbed ones, all other things being equal.

[burmeseboyz]

As others have pointed out, smoothness has to do with the iridium point. Not the material of the nib. I prefer gold nibs over steel because of the resistance to rust and stains. Stainless steel resists rusting but it can still rust and stain up pretty badly. Or maybe I'm just OCD.

[Titivillus]

There are many different tastes about nibs but one of the most desired quality is the smoothness.

 

At this time, on which industry can count on high technology devices, can a steel nib, with a perfect shaped tip, beat a gold one in terms of smoothness?

 

Broading the question: is excellence a gold nib prerogative?

 

No it is the nib itself that is the final word. I think my glass nib is the smoothest one I have ever used but smooth is not the only thing that a nib should be judged on.

 

Kurt

 

[savarez]

I agree with what most of the other posters have said.

 

I'd rather have, for example, a custom ground and tuned 0.3mm Steel Nib from Binder than a factory Pelikan XF any day.

 

[Brian]

There are many different tastes about nibs but one of the most desired quality is the smoothness.

At this time, on which industry can count on high technology devices, can a steel nib, with a perfect shaped tip, beat a gold one in terms of smoothness?

Broading the question: is excellence a gold nib prerogative?

 

Here's an opinion. And that's all it is so I hope others will speak up.

 

This raises a very good point. Assuming that a steel nib is tipped with the same quality as a good quality gold nib, there should be no difference in smoothness. Years ago when the fountain pen started its renaissance in the mid to late-1980s there were few to no quality pens with steel nibs. Today, that is not the case and we see the likes of Edison Pen Co., Laban, and others producing the kind of pen with a steel nib that just wouldn't have existed then. I think this is a great turn of events because it advances the cause of the fountain pen. It becomes more cost accessible because no gold is used.

 

IMO we're experiencing the birth/growth of a kind of new class of fountain pen where the point becomes that much more important. Heck, I can even see cetain premium houses, e.g. Montblanc and perhaps Montegrappa, launching complete new lines or brands to exploit pens using exclusively steel nibs.

 

Anyway, that was just a thought.

[JimStrutton]

This discussion come up with regard to the gold 14ct nibs in the Parker "51" against the later and cheaper Octanium nibs. In a blind test, I would defy anybody to tell the difference, all else being equal. The bit where the nib meets the paper is exactly the same, and this is practically true for most nibs.

 

My only concern is that a steel nib does corrode whereas a gold nib does not. Therefore I tend to carefully flush and dry my steel nib pens before storing them away.

 

[Garageboy]

My Pelikan gold nibs have that wonderful springy cushion my M200 doesn't have

[Chris]

I have both - neither can spell

 

I love gold for the looks, especially two-tone, but I have some stainless steel nibs that write beautifully (and some that don't).

 

Chris

[Mark Cummins]

(Newbie showing). I assumed that the gold was in the tip, and being gold, was naturally smooth. I gather from what I read here that this is not so. I would appreciate being directed to a detailed layout of nib point (if that is the right term) construction and its relation to writing quality.

Thanks in advance.

[ANM]

Modern stainless steel nibs don't rust, as far as I know and some of my steel nibs are quite flexible (they are gold plated steel)

 

For information about nibs, this is a good place to start

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?newp=pel+nibchart

 

Or go to richardspens.com and type in nibs in the quick search box

Edited September 26, 2008 by ANM

[penguinmaster]

Thank the lord this begun as one specific point between gold and steel. IMHO both write just as smooth. Although I at the moment do not have any steel nibs to compare to, but have had many. I rival any pen to be as smooth as the stiff as nails Rotring nibs. I just tend towards gold for personal reasons. (One being I just really like the look of it!)

 

-penguin

[Greg]

I too have found that the nib material is not relevant to the smoothness, which is the matter of the original question. I have scratchy gold nibs and lovely, smooth steel nibs on cheap pens from WH Smiths.

 

However, I would comment on the other matter in the original question which states; "... one of the most desired quality is the smoothness."

 

I'm not so sure about this, initially. Eventually, maybe. A scratchy nib can be adjusted and smoothed to be a sweet writer but a 'nail' will take some expert engineering to give it some flex and vice versa must be almost impossible.

 

Therefore, if its a flexy nib you want then the desired flex is most important, the smoothness can normally be sorted and will improve with use anyway.

 

For me, I'm afraid the snob value of a gold nib makes me look down on anything else. Bit like being offered blended whisky when you're used to single malts. Nothing wrong with blended whisky, its just that...

 

Greg