Who Make Their Own Nibs

[Blade Runner]

I've had very good nib QC from Aurora and MB. Both make nibs in house and MB at least (not sure about Aurora) has post production nib testing. . I've also heard Japanese brands like Sailor and Pilot also make their own nibs and test each before leaving the factory, and their nib QC generally gets very good marks on FPN. I've had only a few of each of these Japanese brands, and had no nib issues. Lamy produces their own nibs, and I read recently that their higher end pens are hand tested and adjusted following production. I don't often hear complaints about their higher end models's nibs.

I had nib QC issues with my Pelikan Souverans several years ago. So have quite a few others on FPN. There was a thread that quoted a Pelikan rep who acknowledged nib QC issues and for that reason brought nib production back in house (except for the Pel 1000 i believe). See https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/102443-some-good-news-about-pelikan-nibs/?&p=1008134&hl=quality&fromsearch=1&do=findComment&comment=1008134. So evidently Pelikan believes there is an advantage to nib QC with in house control of nib production.

Those that do not have nib production probably do not have a stable of nibmeisters, relying instead on outside nib makers like Bock. Do 3rd party nib manufacturers test all their nibs by writing with each? I should hope so, but if not, that would be left to the manufacturer after attaching nib to the rest of the pen. Do they? If not, that would let a number of defective nibs out, and the consumer would be in effect the nib tester. But maybe it's cheaper to replace nibs that customers complain about than hire a team of nibmeisters and/or nib testers? Who knows? And perhaps as Sexauerw commented, some brands that use 3rd party nib makers can afford "better specifications" which may include better nib QC measures, and some brands that use 3rd party nib makers can't.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Blade Runner

[dip_n_flow]

Schmidt produces nibs for a few cheaper pens in Germany:

 

http://www.schmidttechnology.de/de/schreibgeraete/produkte/fuellhaltersysteme/c_1_3_1.htm

 

And (as far as I know) is the Super5 from papierlabor equipped with a in-house made nib:

 

http://papierlabor.de/de/shop/schreibgeraete/super5-kalligrafie-fueller/

[flipper_gv]

As I already said above: Pelikan started to make their own again. I read somewhere here on the forum (years back) that now only the more flexible M1000 nib still is made by Bock. The smaller nibs were now made in-house.

 

D.ick

 

The m1000 is back in house AFAIK

[kapanak]

Just wanted to say this thread is extremely helpful and a great resource to have around. Possibly should be pinned.

[sghound]

wat an awesome thread.

 

any major updates since 2014?

[sghound]

I am not at all convinced that Nakaya have better finished nibs than platinum.Nor better attention

On the contrary is my experinience

 

in my conversations with yoshida-san, they're the same.