Jump to content

How much does a nib weigh?


jonro

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 16
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • jonro

    4

  • Nihontochicken

    2

  • Paddler

    2

  • EventHorizon

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

A US penny weighs 2.5 g (per the Mint). Looking at one, if rolled as thin as a nib, there is enough metal to make several nibs, so I will estimate less than 1 g. That estimate rules out MY scale for weighing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I weighed a few of my steel Spencerian nibs for you:

 

Ivison & Phinney #1 = 0.2981g

 

Lady Falcon #29 = 0.3175g

 

Dome Pointed Falcon #50 = 0.5638g

 

Service Pen #49 = 0.4990g

 

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have a scale with Paddler's precision, but I've just weighed two nibs:

 

Waterman Nº 2 flex: 0.4 g

 

Sheaffer Senior Lifetime (1920s): 1.3 g

sig.jpg.2d63a57b2eed52a0310c0428310c3731.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Danitrio Mikado nib weighs 1.11 gm

Parker Duofold Senior nib, (circa 1926) 0.96 gm

Large Stipula nib 1.01 gm

De La Rue Onoto London 14K, 3, stub nib 0.37 gm

Edited by Blorgy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just for fun, assume 0.5 gram average mass of a medium size nib, divide by 31.10 grams per troy ounce, multiply by 0.75 for an 18kt nib, and then by the current spot price of gold, about $675 per troy ounce, yielding a result of about 8 dollars of gold in the average 18kt nib (or about 6 dollars for a 14kt nib). Save those nibs!!! tongue.gif tongue.gif tongue.gif

Nihonto Chicken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all. That's exactly what I wanted to know. By the way, I don't know the price of stainless steel, but it's probably no more than !% of the price of gold. At an average of $6.00 in raw material costs for a 14 kt. gold nib, why do they seem to add about $80 to the cost of a pen (except in China, where every $30+ pen seems to come with a gold nib)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless one wants to write with a raw gold nugget, I assume the cost has to do with manufacturing a good quality nib...

 

Makes perfect sense in relation to cost of gold nibs from parts of the world where labor is comparatively cheap...

 

PS

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't forget that the jewellery value of gold is much higher than the 'actual' value of that metal. Gold rings are far more expensive than their actual value in gold content. It's the same for nibs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was also thinking that labor has a lot to do with the cost. But labor on a steel nib must be close to the same cost as labor on a gold nib. And steel nibs have iridium tips, too. Except for the $6.00 difference in materials cost, steel and gold nibs probably cost about the same to manufacture. If anything, the labor cost for gold, being softer than stainless steel, should be less expensive than the labor cost for steel. Even if you multiplied the material cost by 5, there's still a big difference. There may be other reasons for the price difference, but I don't know what they are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember reading somewhere that gold nibs tend to be hand-crafted, whereas steel nibs were more often machine-crafted. That would account for the difference in labor costs.

"The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. 'I already know the important things!' we say. Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away."

--Frank Herbert; Chapterhouse: Dune

 

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I'll await to be shot down by the experts, but, as has been said in the past by a number of others with greater expertise than I, the gold nibs are basically marketing. Now, I have seen a write-up by someone who championed the engineering positives of work hardened gold alloys, but I've lost the source. However, I cannot believe that a decently designed and fabricated stainless steel nib cannot be superior. Realize that the business end of either gold alloy or stainless steel nibs is the same, and "iridium" tip (or some combination of rare earth, very hard metals). And gold alloys are very limited in their stress-strain response, mainly modified by work hardening. OTOH, steels, particularly stainless steels, are quite well modified by heat treatment phase changes. I'm guessing that the "superiority" of gold nibs is based entirely on the care and concern put into their fabrication. Were stainless steel nibs given the same care, they would be equal, more likely superior, in application. JMHO, FWIW.

Nihonto Chicken

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is fascinating. Could it be that a fountain pen nib is the most efficient use of the smallest amount of metal? At least irrespective of electrical conductivity. Hmmm... I wonder?

Edited by MYU

[MYU's Pen Review Corner] | "The Common Ground" -- Jeffrey Small

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fountain pen is such a traditional writing instrument, that I think there has been relatively little innovation in an attempt to recapture the golden age of fountain pens. That's a good thing. I'm very drawn to the appearance of fine craftsmanship in many pens. Do my written words deserve any less? wink.gif However, there is room in the marketplace for real innovation. There are new materials and fabrication methods that could make the fountain pen interesting and relevant to a large number of new users. That would benefit all of us.

 

For example, what if inkjet printer companies devoted some of their expertise to developing a new fountain pen ink? We might end up with archival-quality inks and kits to mix the exact pantone shade that we desired.

 

Who knows what a nib maker could do with some of the new composite materials? I tend to agree with Nahontochicken when he says that stainless steel nibs could probably outperform gold nibs if that were the goal. Gold will always be desirable in a very fine pen, but not necessarily because it's the best material for the job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jonro I agree with all you said but I'm afraid that all that inovation would be dictated by supply and demand....IMO. I'm sure there are plenty of craftsman out there that can design and make nibs from all the materials that exist today and they would perform beutifully. Mr. Esterbrook and Co. stamped out God knows how many nibs for FP's and dip pens and unless those things were sitting out in the rain, they look and work just as well today. Problem is...supply and demand. He was fullfilling a demand. Again, all in my opinion. If there is ever a copmany created to produce FP's like the good ole days, I will be the first to apply to work there.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Isaac Asimov, Salvor Hardin in "Foundation"

US science fiction novelist & scholar (1920 - 1992)

 

There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man--with human flesh.

Frank Herbert, Dune

US science fiction novelist (1920 - 1986)

 

My Pens on Flikr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think today's nibs are made with gold (those that are) because of the attractive color: the jewelry aspect of the pen. Back when fountain pens (and even dip pens, before that) were first being sold, most people were using corrosive iron gall ink. This ink can't corrode a nib with a high gold content. Platinum would probably resist corrosion just as well as gold, but it is much more expensive.

 

We don't have to worry much about corrosive inks today, so stainless steel, if properly passivated after the nib is made, should stay bright and shiny for generations.

 

Paddler

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...