Flex Manufacturing

[PithyProlix]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Numerous Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese companies.

 

Ah, but none of those countries would normally be considered to be part of SE Asia. No worries. 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, PithyProlix said:

Ah, but none of those countries would normally be considered to be part of SE Asia.

 

Very well, my mistake. Let's make it from the Far East, then. I was trying to make the distinction so as to exclude India, that's all; as far as I'm concerned, India is not there yet when it comes to either precision and consistency of nib work or large-scale production to really challenge well-established brands (whether we're talking Parker, Pilot or Jinhao), but I'm open to be convinced otherwise. For now, I don't think they're the ones I'd count on to squeeze the life out of Parker, Cross, etc. just by hard competition.

[PithyProlix]

19 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Very well, my mistake. Let's make it from the Far East, then. I was trying to make the distinction so as to exclude India, that's all; as far as I'm concerned, India is not there yet when it comes to either precision and consistency of nib work or large-scale production to really challenge well-established brands (whether we're talking Parker, Pilot or Jinhao), but I'm open to be convinced otherwise. For now, I don't think they're the ones I'd count on to squeeze the life out of Parker, Cross, etc. just by hard competition.

 

I tend to agree. But I wonder if they are interested in competing outside India, which is a huge market in itself.

 

Years ago, when I got back into fountain pens, I bought quite a few Indian pens. IMHO the nibs were no better than 'meh'. (I do have my eyes on an FPR ultraflex nib - or whatever it is called - though.) In retrospect I wish I had bought the inexpensive models from the Japanese 'Big Three' instead, even though they still tend to be significantly more expensive than Indian pens. Sorry, Indian pen fans but, for me, the nibs in even the least expensive Pilot - the Varsity, a disposable pen, even - are preferable to any Indian nib I have experienced. (One plus for Indian pens is that many have ebonite feeds. Those feeds are proving useful in some of my frankenpens.) 

[A Smug Dill]

17 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

(I do have my eyes on an FPR ultraflex nib - or whatever it is called - though.) ...‹snip›... for me, the nibs in even the least expensive Pilot - the Varsity, a disposable pen, even - are preferable to any Indian nib I have experienced.

 

I would truly be delighted, though, if instead of — or as well as, in a two-pronged approach — specialising and trying to corner the market (or at least maintain prime position) in ‘handmade’ or ‘artisan’ ebonite pens and feeds, Indian pen makers rise to become the world's foremost producers of nibs that are closest to ‘vintage flex’ nibs made in ye olde way but then, once having established themselves as such, start working to their own ‘standards’ (in the way ‘international standard’ for cartridges/converters doesn't really apply to Chinese products when the pseudo-standards for the Chinese fountain pen industry are 2.6mm-bore and 3.4mm-bore, and don't even bother talking about getting Sailor, Platinum or Pilot to play ball) so that their nibs aren't replacements for (or at least compatible with) JoWo or Bock; so, to get that Indian-made vintage flex goodness in a fountain pen nib, one has to go the whole hog and get an Indian pen, unless he/she employs an adaptor that small Western entrepreneurs start making to bridge that gap for individual users.

[es9]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:24 AM, txomsy said:

Me, I've gone the DIY way, modifying FPR or Noodler's flex nibs myself to get what I want.

 

How exactly do you modify them?

 

 

On 3/6/2021 at 2:56 PM, Detman101 said:

I don't know if he will ever make more for sale, but if you get the chance to try "Blue Dew" nibs...you won't be disappointed.
They are steel nibs that flex like a zebra-g without all the scratchiness and no rusting!!!

 

They are untipped, right?

[txomsy]

11 hours ago, es9 said:

How exactly do you modify them?

Simply look for the Ease My Flex modification here on FPN. There are various threads discussing it. E.g.

or

 

Actually that is what the FPR does with their "ultra-flex" nibs.

[Detman101]

12 hours ago, es9 said:

 

How exactly do you modify them?

 

 

 

They are untipped, right?

I have seen reviews of these nibs saying they are untipped but I believe that they ARE indeed tipped!
I've used dip pen nibs that were untipped and they were all scratchy and not smooth in the least.
The Blue Dew nibs are smooth as teflon....IF...you polish them after receipt. I do not believe that Mr Lim polishes a single one of them before they leave his factory.
My two nibs arrived in the shape of a weird hybrid needlepoint-crisp-italic and wrote like one too! Downstrokes were like ultraglide, but any other direction was like sandpaper.
So I took some micromesh to the nib and used the loupe to inspect while smoothing off all the sharp edges...this thing writes like a friggin dream now.
I CAN NOT stop writing with it! I put one of them in my new Opus-88 with the FNF Ebonite Jowo unit and it's what I've always dreamed of. I'm like Gollum with "The One Ring" now...
These nibs put my modded FPR nibs to absolute dearthful shame and the CustomNibStudio 14k Needlepoint-Flex nib is a sad sack compared to this nib.
I dont' know how he pulled off needlepoint that doesn't stick into the page, AND has super-soft dip nib performance, AND doesn't rust!!!!
In fact, if he ever sells the nibs again I'm buying more and passing my modded FPR ultraflex nibs on to my son for him to practice with.
If he never sells the nibs again, I guess I'll be buying his pens at the rate of once a month til I have a collection.
I get the distinct feeling that these nibs are going to become hard-to-find collectors items very soon...

[mizgeorge]

13 hours ago, es9 said:

They are untipped, right?

According to their own website, they are not tipped. He's obviously managed to come up with a steel alloy that is less prone to corrosion than the generally available dip nibs. 

[Detman101]

On 3/11/2021 at 10:09 AM, mizgeorge said:

According to their own website, they are not tipped. He's obviously managed to come up with a steel alloy that is less prone to corrosion than the generally available dip nibs. 

They're untipped...but whoooo boy, if you don't use a lubricated ink it's like writing with a sharp italic nib. Scritch-Scritch-Scritch-Scritch-Scritch-Scratch.
What a mess...