Jowo Gold Nib Question

[a_m]

FPN members plz tell me - those who have used both the JoWo steel nib and JoWo gold nib - is the writing experience with the gold nib better?

 

Also is the tipping material better on the jowo gold nibs compared to their steel nibs?

 

what's your overall experience with these nibs comparatively ?

 

Thanks

[Kuscer]

I'm not sure if I've used JoWo nibs, but one thing that I can tell you is that generally gold nibs will have more flex&flow and less tooth, at least from my experience. I'm not sure which pens use JoWo nibs... can you give me a hint? I might be able to say more then.

[a_m]

I'm not sure if I've used JoWo nibs, but one thing that I can tell you is that generally gold nibs will have more flex&flow and less tooth, at least from my experience. I'm not sure which pens use JoWo nibs... can you give me a hint? I might be able to say more then.

 

Edison and Newton pens use JoWo. They use both Steel and Gold nibs.

 

http://edisonpen.com

http://newtonpens.wordpress.com

 

 

Nibs sold/marked Goulet are jowo steel nibs.

[4lex]

Contrary to the popular belief gold is less springy then steel. Steel is hard but has a very high yield strength. This allows steel to return to the original shape despite significant bending. Nib made of pure gold would be very soft but once you would flex it it wouldn't return to original shape.

Manufacturers use steel alloys and gold alloys and they can have whatever properties they want to achieve. I prefer gold nibs because they look nice. Any other reason would be imaginary.

[watch_art]

The tipping is fine on both types. Some need a bit if tuning or smoothing and some don't. I like the gold nibs quite a bit based on feel though. They're softer and the 14k nibs take modifications well.

[4lex]

They may be softer but not because of gold

[Ceit]

Does anyone have any writing samples of the Jowo Gold.. Sorry I am a newbie.

[welch]

Whether the nib is gold or steel (alloy), the tip should be a hard material we still call "irridium", even though nib makers probably use something else now. Same tipping.

 

A gold nib ought to be slightly softer, but can be as hard as the nib-maker wants. Flexibility is a different issue: a Sailor gold nib is usually shaped to be nail-hard, even if it is 22 carat gold (or finer). The Parker 51 is hard, and would have snapped its hood if it had much flex. The 51 is slightly softer than the "octanium" nibbed 51 Special, but not much. Biggest difference between the two will be from the tuning: re-tuned or mis-aligned tines, for instance.

 

Long ago -- in the '30s, roughly -- pen makers used gold on their good pens because old old inks had a tendency to eat steel. Has not been a problem for many years.

 

Brian Gray has a nice essay on gold / steel nibs: http://edisonpen.com/in-praise-of-steel-nibs-2

[Joe in Seattle]

Brian's essay sums it up. I have around three dozen pens with a third of them having steel nibs. If anything, the steel nibs perform better for me.

[proton007]

Jowo gold nibs tend to write wetter. Not sure if it's the tuning, but I've found gold nibs are generous with ink.

 

The same goes for Lamy.

[tinta]

I have a couple of JoWo stainless (untipped) 1.1 Jowo italics & two JoWo 18K 1.1 factory stubs. In my experience, the 18K stubs have a very slight springy feel, while the stainless nibs are very firm.

[lurcho]

Contrary to the popular belief gold is less springy then steel. Steel is hard but has a very high yield strength. This allows steel to return to the original shape despite significant bending. Nib made of pure gold would be very soft but once you would flex it it wouldn't return to original shape.

Manufacturers use steel alloys and gold alloys and they can have whatever properties they want to achieve. I prefer gold nibs because they look nice. Any other reason would be imaginary.

 

You posted this nearly a year ago, but - gosh! - how brave it is.

 

To paraphrase: "Any reason to prefer gold nibs over steel, other than for looks, is imaginary."

 

You're my man.

[DerTiefster]

Sorry to wander from JoWo, but it seems advisable for the moment. My own smoothest nib experiences have been with the broadest nibs. Those ball-end nibs can be shaped quite spherically and glide over the paper. Parker 75 broad, medium stub, and even broad italic nibs have been very smooth gold nibs for me. My wife recently bought a new, 50% marked-down Cross FP with a "medium" (but still quite large) tip which glides across the paper like a ball-bearing on ice. Almost slippery. Well, it _is_ slippery. Could be addictive. A recently acquired Waterman #2 flex nib is quite scratchy, although gold. It's also fairly fine. You'll hear many folks say, for such reasons, that it's not the nib material that determines smoothness. It's not the body of the nib that's in contact with the paper, anyway. At least not in general.

 

Addedum: I need to learn to look at the dates of threads before adding comments.

Edited October 20, 2015 by DerTiefster

[J85909266]

Smoothness has nothing to do with nib material and everything to do with the tipping, which is the same on standard gold and steel nibs. Steel nibs can be just as smooth and write just as well as gold.

 

In my experience, my gold nibbed pens are sometimes softer and springer to write with. My Lamy 2K in 14k and Parker Sonnet in 18k are both softer, with the Sonnet (an early 1990s model) being soft to the point of semi-flex. However, my Parker 51 and S.T. Dupont Olmpio XL are both gold, (14k and 18k, respectively) and they have no flex or spring whatsoever.

 

Honestly, gold nibs seem to be a pure luxury, for the most part. That is, unless you are buying a gold-nibbed pen that is vintage or made soft for flex writing.

[FeuBleu]

Hopping onto this thread to avoid starting a new one on essentially the same topic..

 

I have a Franklin-Christoph pen with a fine cursive italic (steel), and am considering the gold needlepoint nib. I love super fine nibs, but expect the steel needlepoint to be too much of a nail for general cursive writing. A gold needlepoint, I assume, would be a perfect marriage between a wetter & smoother nib whilst still giving an extra-fine line.

 

I've read a few threads on this topic on here and am still torn however between coughing up the enormous $150 tag for the 18kt needlepoint, or simply paying $25 for a steel EF nib! Whilst the latter may still be a touch wider than the gold needlepoint, many people have posted that the gold JoWo is not so different a writing experience to the steel.

 

What would you recommend? Steel EF or needlepoint, or is a gold needlepoint really amazing?

[lurcho]

This is no doubt an utterly redundant comment, but here we go. If I were you (and in a way I am, since I'm weighing up similar steel/gold nib options), I'd get the steel one.

 

Then I'd save up, in a half-arsed manner, for the gold.

 

There is a difference in feel between steel and gold, but Brian Gray nails it (no pun intended) in his famous article on the steel/gold debate.

 

JoWo steel nibs are very highly-regarded by Brian Gray (Edison Pens), Brian Goulet, Shawn Newton (watch_art), and also used by Monteverde,and many small penturners.

 

My view keeps changing, but that little bit of give or softness in the gold nibs is a very, very expensive extra, when every other component of a high-quality writing experience is served by a stainless steel nib.

 

This is merely my opinion, and the whole thing is a matter of taste, of course,

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a nail 'modern' 1990's Lamy Persona....18K, steel will do as a nail, just as well.

 

I have a 18 K, springy MB Woolf....that lies between true regular flex and semi-flex...more tine bend and less tine spread than true regular flex. About as much tine bend as on a semi-flex but less tine spread. 2X vs 3X.

The steel Pelikan 200's nib is @ as good.

 

I don't have a 1000 or any other vintage 18K in semi-flex.

Lots of 14 K though.

 

I do have vintage in I don't by modern much....a 605 14 K semi-nail. A P-75 semi-nail....bought in the '70's as new also....Back when I and no one I ever talked to knew a thing about flex, semi-flex, regular flex, or semi-nails. Rigid...yep the P-51.

 

Pre internet, most folks were rather ignorant...clean your pen...WHAT? Why?...How? Ha....You were on the most part only using one color of ink....perhaps you liked Parker more than Sheaffer or Pelikan was cheaper. So it didn't matter that there was still a drop of written dry ink of some other companies blue.

Girls might have known about that in they had all those girly colors.***

 

Stub??. ??...no, that was stuff from the '30's... not that anyone knew of it, at least in late '50's-70's the America I was in...then.

 

I have been lucky with getting gold and some steel nibs that are =. Osmia/Osmia-Faber-Castell nibs are just as good in steel as in gold...be that semi-flex or maxi-semi-flex.

I have run into other real good semi-flex steel nibs also.

 

***real into odd girly color inks now....

Edited October 27, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[lurcho]

Bo Bo: Reading between the lines, and I may be going out on a limb here, I reckon you like the M200 steel nib.

 

But I don't think I've ever asked you one particular question that you could answer better than anyone. You and I have had dialogues in the past about the blobby tipping on the post-1997/200 (or whatever) Souverans.

 

However: Would you say that Peilkan have left the tipping on the M200s alone in the last 15-20 years? Ruined the gold ones, spared the steel ones...?

[Phonz]

Steel vs gold, what about titanium?

[Karmachanic]

Titanium? Definitely not a nail. Soft, bouncy and wet. Shows lots of shading and slight line variation with normal writing. Needs a light hand to get the most out of it.