The Shape Of The Hole

[Inky.Fingers]

Is it also known as a gravity well?

[AAAndrew]

Is it also known as a gravity well?

 

It has been called that, but there's no evidence it's ever been called that by anyone who made or used them 100 years ago. It also doesn't really make any sense to me since it's not a well, nor does it have anything to do with gravity. Central Pierce is what I'm sticking with. It's accurate, and has contemporary precedent on its side. Gravity Well is also a term from physics that is well neigh the exact opposite of a hole.

[Honeybadgers]

the hole CAN assist in flexibility if that's the intent. Pablo's keyhole breather flex nib is noticeably softer than a standard round hole flex nib.

 

I'm just a big fan of ornamental breather holes. I wish more manufacturers did ornamental/decorative breathers.

 

That axe shape breather is neat.

[GBAllison]

On 3/10/2019 at 10:04 AM, AAAndrew said:

The one Im talking about is on the left. It is by Blanzy Poure, who made a number of styles with his same shape in various levels of flexibility.

Hi AAAndrew! How would you describe the style of the Blanzy Poure hole on the left?  To me it looks like it mimics the design of a wooden pole or scrollwork turned on a lathe.  The Perry un-numbered Universal School Pen has a similar shape. Thanks!

[AAAndrew]

I agree, it looks like a turned, wooden chair leg or pole. 

[GBAllison]

I agree. So I started looking up spindle designs, for chair legs, table legs and finials. The one term that kept repeating was the "spindle." So that's what I think I'll go with.

 

By the way AAAndrew ... do you have any idea why Perry & Co. had so many pen designs that were identified with just a number, and no name?  Or why the Universal School Pen had a name but no number?  I'm aware of lots of different custom-made or one-off nibs with no number, but for a major manufacturer like Perry or Mason to assign no number on such a foundational pen--like a basic School Pen--just seems really surprising.

[Daosus]

The hole shape on the safety razor blade is to help locate the razor on various types of handle.  Some have 2 or 3 posts, some have a central bar, some have 4 crossbars.  The blade is plenty flexible to conform to the shape of the razor without the central hole. 

 

For fountain pen nibs, a hole WILL reduce stress at the end of the slit.  This isn't large-scale stress across the whole nib, it is very localized stress (called a "stress concentration").  It will thus increase the fatigue life of the nib.  That's probably not very important with untipped nibs, as they will wear out from other factors before fatigue becomes an issue.  

 

The double holes in some pens are likely because the breather hole does actually serve to provide air back into the ink reservoir on some feed designs.  Waterman's original feed design, for example, uses three very thin channels to pull ink to the nib.  These little capillaries are cut into a larger channel that provides air into the reservoir to equalize pressure.  You'd need to have an air hole somewhere along that larger channel for everything to work.  

[AAAndrew]

On 2/24/2021 at 11:33 PM, GBAllison said:

I agree. So I started looking up spindle designs, for chair legs, table legs and finials. The one term that kept repeating was the "spindle." So that's what I think I'll go with.

 

By the way AAAndrew ... do you have any idea why Perry & Co. had so many pen designs that were identified with just a number, and no name?  Or why the Universal School Pen had a name but no number?  I'm aware of lots of different custom-made or one-off nibs with no number, but for a major manufacturer like Perry or Mason to assign no number on such a foundational pen--like a basic School Pen--just seems really surprising.

 

Sorry, I was away from this site for a bit. 

 

Naming and numbering for most manufacturers do not seem to follow any perceivable rules. In my upcoming article in The Pennant on how steel pens were made, I quote an article from the 1850's that one factory already, by that date, had over 3000 different dies for stamping different impressions, names, numbers, etc... Sometimes the early pens only had names, or only had numbers. Later ones were given both. But that's also not consistent.  Esterbrook was notorious for keeping numbers but changing names on some models. The #556 was, at various times, named "Vertical Writer," "Advanced School," "School Medium Firm," "556 Pen," and just "556." 

 

I suspect, from looking at early advertisements, that many manufacturers started with just using names. Once the number of their pen models grew past a certain point, they added numbers for better record keeping as well as easier ordering by customers. Sometimes the pen may have kept the same impression, with no number, even though it actually had one in the catalogs. 

 

One example of this is Esterbrook's Colorado pens which I was just talking about on another thread. The pen itself is marked:

    Esterbrook & Co. (or R. Esterbrook & Co's, or one of several Esterbrook company names)

    Colorado #2 

But the pen actually appears in the catalogs as "#304 Colorado #2" They then added a "#305 Colorado #1" and later a #3. The "304" appears on no examples I've seen in life or in photos, just in the catalog and in one drawing from the 1876 catalog. 

 

So, sorry to say that trying to make sense of pen manufacturer's naming or numbering schemes will only end in tears and sorrow. 

[Aelfattrum]

On 3/10/2019 at 8:31 AM, Carrau said:

The nib on the far left reminded me of the opening seen on many double edge razor blades. Ive often wondered what the purpose was on the blades, and now I wonder if that had to do with flexibility as well.

The purpose here is to be able to fit on to many different types/generations of razors.