Two Sided Parker

[ozjourno]

Hello nibsters,

 

I have two daily workhorse pens a Parker VP with a number 63 nib which writes a very fine fine and a Parker 65 with a tip much larger than the VP but it writes a very similar line. I have been photographing my various pen nibs through a microscope to try to learn a bit about tip shape and the resulting line characteristics and noticed these two nibs, unlike my Parker 51s have noticeable tipping on the upper side of the nib as well as the lower. The VP upper side appears smaller but definitely shaped and polished, The 65 has a definite flat grind. Both write really well albeit with a hair-thin line when reversed. I know the Parker 180 was famously a tw sided pens and the vacs. Does anyone know if the VP and 65 nibs were designed to be double sided?

[ac12]

I think you are simply seeing the results of the tipping and grinding methods of the past.

[awa54]

A large tipping pellet can have tip geometry that allows for a fine line... Parker probably had just a few sizes of iridium* pellets that they would weld to nib bodies, then the final line width would be determined by how much of that tipping was ground away in the finishing steps.

 

* tipping is usually an alloy of hard metals like osmium, ruthenium, tungsten and even occasionally iridium.