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Goulet Vs Edison Vs Other Jowo Nibs


MadAsAHatter

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I know this has been discussed before so I apologize if I'm beating the proverbial deceased equine. I'm still unclear of the differences between JoWo nibs used by different companies. I see where Edison says they tune the nibs in house & Goulet says they inspect theirs, but I have not used either of these nibs before. I have several Conklin & Monteverde branded JoWo nibs which seem to span from smooth as glass to scratchy like a bad Christmas sweater. Most of them fall somewhere in the middle though. So is there any real difference between the different branded JoWo nibs? Or is a matter of quality control where a company like Edison pays more attention to ensure consistency or that a nib installed on a pen may have better QC than a loose nib? If it makes a difference I'm asking more toward EF & F nibs.

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It is not just quality control and inspection for Edison, it is also literally adjustment of the nib, by hand by Brian Gray or someone else with Edison Pens who knows how the nib is suppose to perform. In regard to his special order pens, Brian literally inks up the pens and tests the nibs in the pens and adjusts them accordingly. The others are dry tested and adjusted.

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I have literally dozens of pens with JoWo nibs. Most have italic nibs, since italic is my script of choice. There is a very substantial difference in how they write, depending on who tuned them. Now, some pen makers, like Brian Gray, have sought additional training in nib grinding and have improved in recent years.

 

For my admittedly non-typical demands, one pen maker stands above the others in italic nib tuning, and that is Ryan Krusac. Franklin-Christoph is kind of in a special category in that they carry JoWo nibs custom-ground for them by Michael Masuyama, than whom there is no better. This is not to take anything away from any others. And, again, my experience is almost entirely with italic JoWo nibs.

 

If you are super fussy, and I put myself in that category, you can always have a nib custom ground to your fussy preferences. You can even purchase a custom ground nib from a nib technician whose work you like.

 

Many options. But the answer to the OP's question is, "Yes. It makes a difference." But whether it matters depends on how picky you are.

 

Hope that helps.

 

David

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I think part of the answer is both. I get the impression that both Jowo and Bock supply nibs to a number of different clients. The nibs that Jowo supply to Edison could very well be manufactured to different specifications than the nibs supplied to Goulet. And then there is also the amount of work/inspection/testing that the Edisons, Goulets or whomever puts into the nib before being sent to the enduser.

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I think part of the answer is both. I get the impression that both Jowo and Bock supply nibs to a number of different clients. The nibs that Jowo supply to Edison could very well be manufactured to different specifications than the nibs supplied to Goulet. And then there is also the amount of work/inspection/testing that the Edisons, Goulets or whomever puts into the nib before being sent to the enduser.

 

This is true, but my understanding is that Goulets and Andersons (and *probably* Conklin / Monteverde?) source their JoWo nibs from Brian Gray of Edison (who are JoWo's American distributor - see http://meisternibs.com/). Can't speak to Monteverde, but Edison, Goulet and Anderson all use "standard" JoWo nibs, which are customised (1) by engraving or stamping with their own brand, and (2) by conducting their own QC in-house.

 

JoWo and Bock can and do supply more extensively customised nibs to other manufacturers, as @Gord K. is pointing out here [TWSBI being a notable example, and one I have direct experience with] - but the JoWo nibs I've sourced from Goulet, Edison, fpnibs.com in Spain and Ranga Pens in India all have an identical "form factor". The differences in writing experience come down primarily, if not exclusively, to the work done in-house by these companies.

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Loose Jowo nibs (that is, not in a screw-in nib unit) sold by Goulet have the Goulet logo, and probably have nothing to do with Edison. The complete Jowo nib units sold by Goulet do have Edison branding, but I would not necessarily assume they get the same attention from Edison that your nib would get if you bought a complete Edison pen.

This is something that Goulet or Edison would have to answer.

 

In my admittedly somewhat limited experience, the standard Jowo nibs are OK but not really interesting. I think of them more as good starting material for nibmeister tuning or modification (regrinding.) I am referring here to the #6 stainless steel nibs in various tip sizes, finishes and branding; I have not tried any Jowo gold nibs yet.

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Loose Jowo nibs (that is, not in a screw-in nib unit) sold by Goulet have the Goulet logo, and probably have nothing to do with Edison. The complete Jowo nib units sold by Goulet do have Edison branding, but I would not necessarily assume they get the same attention from Edison that your nib would get if you bought a complete Edison pen.

This is something that Goulet or Edison would have to answer.

 

In my admittedly somewhat limited experience, the standard Jowo nibs are OK but not really interesting. I think of them more as good starting material for nibmeister tuning or modification (regrinding.) I am referring here to the #6 stainless steel nibs in various tip sizes, finishes and branding; I have not tried any Jowo gold nibs yet.

 

Loose JoWo nibs sold by Goulet are purchased from meisternibs.com, which is a owned by (a sub-brand of?) Edison Pens - Brian Goulet has always been very open about this. I *believe* the logo is also added by Brian Gray / meisternibs (their website indicates they offer customised branding), but I don't know that for sure.

 

You're right, though, as far as I know Brian Gray doesn't specially tune the nibs he supplies to other companies on JoWo's behalf, only those he sells under his own (Edison Pens) brand. I know the Goulets have their own QC process for all the nibs they sell, though.

 

I like JoWo nibs - they're safe, reliable writers, without being particularly exciting. I've ordered several from fpnibs.com with custom grinds (fine stubs, italics, and especially Architect grinds) - which I *really* enjoy writing with. So yes, they're certainly good for that too!

Edited by Jamerelbe
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Jamelreibe,

I was unaware of (or had forgotten) the details of the relationship of Goulet, Meisternibs and Edison; thanks for clarifying that point. I suspect that the brand marks (Goulet, Edison or whatever) are engraved at the Jowo factory itself as requested by the distributor, in this context Edison. I don't know what Goulet's QC involves, but I have certainly never received anything defective from them.

 

I agree with your assessment of Jowo nibs and indeed have several from FPNibs and one from Dan Smith in stub, architect and oblique grinds, all excellent.

J

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Jamelreibe,

I was unaware of (or had forgotten) the details of the relationship of Goulet, Meisternibs and Edison; thanks for clarifying that point. I suspect that the brand marks (Goulet, Edison or whatever) are engraved at the Jowo factory itself as requested by the distributor, in this context Edison. I don't know what Goulet's QC involves, but I have certainly never received anything defective from them.

 

I agree with your assessment of Jowo nibs and indeed have several from FPNibs and one from Dan Smith in stub, architect and oblique grinds, all excellent.

J

 

I suspect the custom engraving is done by Meisternibs / Edison (they offer a custom service for orders of 50 nibs or more) - but you could be right, that for larger orders especially this is handled by JoWo. According to Brian Goulet they inspect every nib they receive - I don't know if this is a simple pass/fail, or if they adjust any under-performing nibs then sell them? Either way, my experience was similar to yours: the batch of Goulet nibs I purchased (a few years ago now) all performed admirably.

 

Every nib I've ordered from fpnibs.com, custom ground or not, has performed well - with the exception of some "Duopoint" nibs, which needed some tweaking at my end. I'd asked them to grind the nibs to a fine stub, and to grind the reverse side to an EF [they advertised this option via YouTube, a couple of years ago]. The fine stub grind was spectacular, juicy, smooth yet with decent line variation... but the EF grind on the back of the nib was scratchy and dry. Some judicious micromeshing solved the problem - but honestly, given the performance of the 'main' grind, I'd have forgiven it either way!

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I found a Q&A video from Brian Goulet and messaged Brian Gray concerning their respective nibs.

 

From one of Brian Goulet's Q&A videos he said that each of their nibs are inspected and hand tested for defects. He did not indicate that there was any additional tuning outside of what JoWo does in their factory beyond that.

 

Brian Gray said his Edison nibs get the same QC and tuning as the nibs that come installed on their production line pens; A dry tuning which includes Tine Alignment, Adjustment of tip & tine gap, General smoothing, feed alignment, and overall inspection

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In my experience Jowo nibs are generally good, but when buying loose nibs you can sometimes receive the less than perfect one...

When buying these nibs through Edison or Franklin Christoph, you get a finetuned nib which is notably better than the loose nibs. Even the unmodified nibs are polished, aligned and tested, and the result is immediately notable.

(I cannot say about Goulet as it is not convenient for me in EU to buy loose nibs from them.)

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I found a Q&A video from Brian Goulet and messaged Brian Gray concerning their respective nibs.

 

From one of Brian Goulet's Q&A videos he said that each of their nibs are inspected and hand tested for defects. He did not indicate that there was any additional tuning outside of what JoWo does in their factory beyond that.

 

Brian Gray said his Edison nibs get the same QC and tuning as the nibs that come installed on their production line pens; A dry tuning which includes Tine Alignment, Adjustment of tip & tine gap, General smoothing, feed alignment, and overall inspection

 

Yep, that sounds right, and thanks for the clarification: "inspecting" and "testing" at least means weeding out any defective nibs - but nothing (necessarily) more than that [i wonder if they do any adjusting of problematic nibs to make them saleable?]. "Tuning" means, well, exactly the kinds of things Brian Gray describes as quoted here - and is obviously a much more involved process to ensure the pen writes well.

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