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I Think I've Found The Perfect Pen For Me


saltypete

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In the 6 or so months that I've been collecting pens I have aquired some very nice pieces. I enjoy writing with them all. Some of my pens are not perfect, that is to say they have tiny flaws which I can live with, but which make them fall short of the absolute ideal.

Today, however, I think I've found perfection. I found a site selling vintage pens and ordered a Parker Duofold from about 1946 and a Conway Stewart 28. The Parker is a nice little pen which gives a somewhat parsimonious line from its medium nib. The Conway Stewart has a medium flexible nib and is absolutely outstanding. It is quite a wet writer and puts down a beautiful line. Writing with it is sheer bliss, it just flows and I simply don't want to stop. It makes my writing better too. :puddle: The way it performs is, in my mind, the absolute ideal way for a FP to write.

Needless to say I'm elated, but I'm also sensing that I will soon be purchasing every vintage CS with a flexible nib that I can find :rolleyes:

 

Pete

My Pens: Visconti Homo Sapiens M, Pelikan M800 F, Sailor 1911 Realo B, Lamy 2000 M,Conway Stewart 28 M,1946 Parker Duofold M,Waterman Carene F, Waterman Expert F, Parker IM F

My Inks: Iroshizuku Tsuki Yo, Iroshizuku Ku Jaku, Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku, Iroshizuku Tsyu Kusa, Visconti Blue, Stipula Calamo, Pelikan Black

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You must be one happy bunny for having found that perfect pen. :-) Please give us a writing sample.

Parker 51 Vacumatic 0.7 Masuyama stub; TWSBI 540 M; TWSBI 580 1.1; Mabie, Todd and Bard 3200 stub; Waterman 14 Eyedropper F; 2 x Hero 616; several flexible dip nibs

owned for a time: Parker 45 flighter Pendleton stub, Parker 51 aerometric F, Parker 51 Special 0.7 Binder stub, Sheaffer Valiant Snorkel M, Lamy Joy Calligraphy 1.5 mm, Pelikan M200 M, Parker Vacumatic US Azure Blue M, Parker Vacumatic Canada Burgundy F, Waterman 12 Eyedropper, Mabie Todd SF2 flexible F

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Congratulations :thumbup: you're lucky to have found "the one" so early I think some of us spend a long time looking for the pen that is just so... ;)

“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”- Oscar Wilde

50's Mont Blanc 144-G Med nib hopefully getting fixed soon, Parker 51 of undetermined age Med nib

Waterman 515, Lucky Curve Jr., Esterbrook SJ lost, Pilot Vanishing Point, Pelican m400, 3 Esties in the mail.

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From my reading most, CS are regular nibs. You were very, very lucky to get a semi-flex or flexi nib.

So to find more Conway Stewarts, with the more flexible nibs will be hard to do.

 

Swan is more the pen with semi-flex, slightly flexible and Full Flexible nibs. There are many of them.

 

 

I spent some six weeks looking at CS and Swan pens, before, buying some German Osmia's with Slightly Flexible nibs.

 

Wet Noodles more than full flexible, and I'm not up on where to find them.

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The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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But the reality is, you've found the perfect pen - for now. You will keep searching and you will find it - again, and again, and again........ ;)

You are dead right. And therein lies the fun :clap1:

 

Pete

My Pens: Visconti Homo Sapiens M, Pelikan M800 F, Sailor 1911 Realo B, Lamy 2000 M,Conway Stewart 28 M,1946 Parker Duofold M,Waterman Carene F, Waterman Expert F, Parker IM F

My Inks: Iroshizuku Tsuki Yo, Iroshizuku Ku Jaku, Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku, Iroshizuku Tsyu Kusa, Visconti Blue, Stipula Calamo, Pelikan Black

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I've never tried a vintage pen. Glad you are happy with yours though.

 

A question for the experts. A lot of people like the original poster state the amazement of the vintage more flexible nibs. If they are so great, why have manufacturers stopped making them like this?

My Collection: Montblanc Writers Edition: Hemingway, Christie, Wilde, Voltaire, Dumas, Dostoevsky, Poe, Proust, Schiller, Dickens, Fitzgerald (set), Verne, Kafka, Cervantes, Woolf, Faulkner, Shaw, Mann, Twain, Collodi, Swift, Balzac, Defoe, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Saint-Exupery, Homer & Kipling. Montblanc Einstein (3,000) FP. Montblanc Heritage 1912 Resin FP. Montblanc Starwalker Resin: FP/BP/MP. Montblanc Traveller FP.

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I've never tried a vintage pen. Glad you are happy with yours though.

 

A question for the experts. A lot of people like the original poster state the amazement of the vintage more flexible nibs. If they are so great, why have manufacturers stopped making them like this?

 

Because they lasted too long. Consumerism, consumer society.

Parker 51 Vacumatic 0.7 Masuyama stub; TWSBI 540 M; TWSBI 580 1.1; Mabie, Todd and Bard 3200 stub; Waterman 14 Eyedropper F; 2 x Hero 616; several flexible dip nibs

owned for a time: Parker 45 flighter Pendleton stub, Parker 51 aerometric F, Parker 51 Special 0.7 Binder stub, Sheaffer Valiant Snorkel M, Lamy Joy Calligraphy 1.5 mm, Pelikan M200 M, Parker Vacumatic US Azure Blue M, Parker Vacumatic Canada Burgundy F, Waterman 12 Eyedropper, Mabie Todd SF2 flexible F

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This reminds me of my reaction when I got my vintage Waterman Thorobred. Tiny black pen. . . wonderful full-flex nib! I've gotten a few other flexible nibs since then, but the Thorobred remains the most special.

 

Waterman and Wahl-Eversharp were known for producing a lot of good flex nibs. Parker and Sheaffer, by comparison, were known for producing firm nibs. However, this is not a rule, it only refers to what is more common. Parker and Sheaffer turned out flex nibs once in a while too. You just never know where they'll turn up.

 

As to why pen companies stopped making these kinds of nibs. . . I'm not entirely sure, but I've noticed that flexible nibs become less common -- and less flexible -- decade by decade, from the 1920s to the 1960s. It looks like a very gradual trend.

 

The rise of ballpoints probably was a death knell for flexible nibs. They'd already become scarce, but after most people learned to write using ballpoints, they would be prone to damage flex nibs by applying too much force. The warranty department would end up having to deal with that.

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I've never tried a vintage pen. Glad you are happy with yours though.

 

A question for the experts. A lot of people like the original poster state the amazement of the vintage more flexible nibs. If they are so great, why have manufacturers stopped making them like this?

 

The average person off the street, who are used to using BPs would damage a flexible nib. I think FP companies would go bust, trying to replace these nibs under warranty :roflmho:

http://i1027.photobucket.com/albums/y331/fuchsiaprincess/Fuchsiaprincess_0001.jpg http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/036/2/2/Narnia_Flag_by_Narnia14.gif

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