Do You Agree With This Statement: People Always Love Their First Gold Nib Better Than Other Pens That Work Better

[sandy101]

No, because I got a very well tuned fine steel nib on a Visconti(!)Van Gough that writes very, very well. 

 

It doesn't compete with some of my 18K nibs, that give a degree of flex - but it is better than some of my rigid 14K and 18K nibs.

 

If you can get a well tuned nib from someone who knows what they are doing, then it doesn't matter if the nib is steel or gold. 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex Osmia nibs in both gold and steel that are = and Great!

 

It depends on which era the steel nibs are from. And gold is not 'softer' than steel.....a gold nail is = to a steel nail, both are nails.

 

It comes down to the tipping. And IMO any tipping of a good Brand of pen has the same tipping on it's gold and steel nibs.

 

What pennies a bookkeeper could save by having a cheaper tipping compound would be lost to warehouse cost of having a separate lager space. ...Having two instead of one.

My cost is a bit out of date, but E100 a cubic meter per day was the normal cost a decade ago.

So having a cheaper compound by a few cents or dollars would cost E100 a day........even a bookkeeper can understand that.

 

Not that I have anything against bookkeeping, I had to do that when I was a bar manager. And everything runs through a bookkeeper or a bookkeeping program in the end.

But a bookkeeper can prove he's saved a penny, and you can't prove that penny costs $10.00.

[Nurmister]

Nay. My first gold nib was that of a Sailor 1911 Large, the lefty version. Turned me off Sailor nibs forever, though it took a few more tries for the message to hit home. Sailor nibs have many good qualities, and it was well made, but just not for me. Helped point me towards the kind of nib I actually like, buttery nails.

[TgeekB]

OP, I think you have your answer. 

[Teterman2005]

I’ll be the contrarian ..... YES

 

My first gold nib was a 1950s sheaffer feathertouch #5.  Fell in love with everything about it, particularly how smooth and dead reliable it was....although that’s probably as much a comment on the feed and the pen attached to the the nib as anything else.

 

The only steel nib that compares for me is my wife’s Pelikan m200, very smooth with slight line variation with a bit of pressure here and there.

 

That said, like 90% of my collection are vintage pens (and 90% of those are sheaffers....) so my comments could more appropriately be applied to a thread comparing vintage vs modern nibs (!)

 

My favorite nib (by far!) is a vintage Montblanc gold oblique.  I can imagine their wartime steel nibs are good, but this one is just sublime....using the same color ink, it put downs a darker/crisper line than any other pen I’ve got, and it has a similar feedback to my sailor 1911.

 

Another reason I prefer gold nibs?  More of them out there have “fancy” stampings.... I like that!  😜

[collectorofmanythings]

Wow! I guess Teterman2005 is the only one that agrees with me 😂! Thank you for the responses though! And those who are seeing this later, continue to post. I promise I will look at your response! And thank you to all for responding and making a very interesting conversation.

[collectorofmanythings]

5 minutes ago, Teterman2005 said:

I’ll be the contrarian ..... YES

 

My first gold nib was a 1950s sheaffer feathertouch #5.  Fell in love with everything about it, particularly how smooth and dead reliable it was....although that’s probably as much a comment on the feed and the pen attached to the the nib as anything else.

 

The only steel nib that compares for me is my wife’s Pelikan m200, very smooth with slight line variation with a bit of pressure here and there.

 

That said, like 90% of my collection are vintage pens (and 90% of those are sheaffers....) so my comments could more appropriately be applied to a thread comparing vintage vs modern nibs (!)

 

My favorite nib (by far!) is a vintage Montblanc gold oblique.  I can imagine their wartime steel nibs are good, but this one is just sublime....using the same color ink, it put downs a darker/crisper line than any other pen I’ve got, and it has a similar feedback to my sailor 1911.

 

Another reason I prefer gold nibs?  More of them out there have “fancy” stampings.... I like that!  😜

I agree especially about the fancy stamping! 😆

[Teterman2005]

2 minutes ago, collectorofmanythings said:

I agree especially about the fancy stamping! 😆

👍🤩

[A Smug Dill]

No. My first gold nib was, if I recall correctly, one of several Parker Sonnet fountain pens I bought in the mid-Nineties. Pieces of junk, in terms of the writing experience and cap seal performance, compared to my steel-nibbed Waterman Expert (from before) and Rotring Initial (from a couple of years later), or my gold-nibbed Pilot Capless and Sailor Professional Gear pens (from much later) … before I was deep into the rabbit hole of having hundreds of fountain pens with nibs of so many makes and types. Those early experiences with gold nibs put Parker and S.T.Dupont firmly in my bad books.

[collectorofmanythings]

11 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

No. My first gold nib was, if I recall correctly, one of several Parker Sonnet fountain pens I bought in the mid-Nineties. Pieces of junk, in terms of the writing experience and cap seal performance, compared to my steel-nibbed Waterman Expert (from before) and Rotring Initial (from a couple of years later), or my gold-nibbed Pilot Capless and Sailor Professional Gear pens (from much later) … before I was deep into the rabbit hole of having hundreds of fountain pens with nibs of so many makes and types. Those early experiences with gold nibs put Parker and S.T.Dupont firmly in my bad books.

So sorry that you had such a bad experience! Thank you for your response!

[Runnin_Ute]

No.

 

My first pen with a gold nib was a Parker 45 Flighter. I have four 45's with gold nibs, but my favorite gold nib came years later. It resides in my Pelikan 140 from the 1950's. Absolutely wonderful writer. 

 

I have a number of wonderful steel nibs as well. 

[bunnspecial]

I think this is a rather polarizing phrasing of a question, as it suggests that steel is always better.

 

My first gold nib was on a Lamy Studio Palladium, a pen I still like very much(although my first one remains my one and only FP that I have truly lost-it fell out of my pocket when I was walking across campus to teach one morning...and that was the end of carrying pens in my hip pocket). I liked it, and both that one and the nearly identical one I have now are very different from the Lamy steel nibs as you'd find on the Safari/Al-Star/lower trim Studios. The steel nibs are nails and very smooth, while I find the gold to be a bit "bouncy" for lack of a better term(albeit without line variation) and just a tiny pleasant about of feedback.

 

At the time, my favorite nib was a steel nib on my Pelikan 205. Funny enough, out of the box, I detested that nib, but kept using it. One day, it took a dive to the floor. I was ready to order a replacement(at the time I think the steel nibs for those pens were $30 or so) but figured I didn't have anything to lose by straightening it. The results were not the prettiest, but I was rewarded with a wonderfully writing smooth and springy nib. I used that pen daily for 4 or 5 years until it developed a crack in the section threads. I actually attempted a repair on that pen not too long ago, and surprisingly enough it was ink tight, so I'll put that pen back into rotation.

 

Now, virtually every pen I use regularly is gold. I don't seek out gold specifically, it's just that the pens I happen to like have gold nibs. Lately I've been looking for two things. The first is that I love obliques. The second is that I've been seeking out nibs with good "pencil" feedback. I have several nibs with decent feedback, but my two best I think are a Montblanc 14 in fine and a Parker Duofold Centennial Fine. In general, I find Montblanc nibs to have very good feedback(more so than Pelikans, which I find glassy smooth), but some are better than others. I have a 24 in OM(I think) that gives me good good feedback. My vintage 144, though, hits the superfecta of a stubby oblique with good feedback and a moderate amount of flex. It's a dream to write with, but I'd rather have a nib just like that on a 146 or 149.

[Driften]

No... First one was a pilot 74 and the second one was an 18k Bexley that was too soft and would go out of alignment. I don't have those pens anymore, but do have the Pelikan m200 I got before those two. I have many gold and steel nibs and enjoy them both. 

[Teterman2005]

31 minutes ago, bunnspecial said:

My vintage 144, though, hits the superfecta of a stubby oblique with good feedback and a moderate amount of flex. It's a dream to write with, but I'd rather have a nib just like that on a 146 or 149.

👍  

[Jerome Tarshis]

Not exactly. My first two gold-nib pens, back in the 1940s, were a Parker 51 and an Eversharp Skyline. I don't own pens that write better than those. I do own pens with either gold or non-gold nibs (I don't consider Parker's Octanium to be steel) that write very well. But the material isn't the thing, and the date when I acquired the pen also isn't the thing. I own enough pens so that the considerations all blur together, and are not simple. Or interesting, now that you ask.

[JakobS]

No for me as well. My first gold nib was on a Burnham 58 I believe, it’s a great nib, but did not replace my most used steel nibs. My second gold nib, a Medium Relief nib on an Esterbrook 2-L probably would of replaced my steel nibs, but an unfortunate accident damaged the original tipping, and the re-tipping didn’t bring back the same experience. Honestly, I have been chasing that nib for awhile, it’s unlikely I will be able to get it at the same price these days, so have been trying to get it through other left oblique nibs to no avail. My third gold nib was from a Wahl Eversharp Skyline, a great wet noodle, but not practical for long writing sessions.  My fourth gold nib was from a 50’s Sheaffer Craftsman, a great nib as well, but hasn’t been in my rotation for a year and a half at least. My pens are mostly vintage, and the nib quality is exceptional across the board, so I find it difficult to really have any stand out far more than any other, except compared to the handful of modern nibs I have. 

[maclink]

My favourite pens are mostly gold-nibbed.  My first gold-nibbed pens were a Lamy 2000 and a Pilot Custom 74.  I love those pens.  OTOH, I have lovely pens that have steel nibs too.  Another a Titanium nib.

 

However, I cannot honestly say that I love my gold-nibbed pens more than my non-gold nibbed pens that are better.  Not at all.  

[Bo Bo Olson]

8 hours ago, collectorofmanythings said:

Parker Sonnet fountain pens

were junk, must have been a hundred posters when I came on the com still complaining about them, a bit over a decade ago.....supposedly they finally got it to work............but why waste money to find out?

Buy a P-75 instead; it has perfect balance posted, and for metal is a light and nimble pen.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For oblique, real line variation the German vintage '50-70 era is the only one worth buying.

I've had two nail obliques, sold one, had the other made CI.....there was No Line Variation. Period.

Some 6-7 Pelikan regular flex obliques , '80's-90's, that fell into my lap, Have Loupe Will Find............really got to hunt for line variation......use imagination.

I have been spoiled by my semi&maxi-semi-flex obliques.

If one has been lucky with US made late '30's-40's or the rare '50's Shaffer semi-flex, good.

(Swan had a great range of flex.....up and including superflex.)

 

Sitting at the German well I chased German pens.........and I do hope you don't know how bloody expensive US mail is for overseas mail. They must sit the packages in a first class seat.

So adding $10 to a $15-20 pen was out of the question..........I was a cheap noobie..................still have nightmares about buying new......outside the Pelikan 200.

[Mr Bill]

Yes, my 14ct Scheaffer's Targa that I purchased back in the 80's

is a keeper. I would sell all others before parting with it.

After all these years, it is still writing as intended. Cheers.

[collectorofmanythings]

9 hours ago, bunnspecial said:

I think this is a rather polarizing phrasing of a question, as it suggests that steel is always better.

 

My first gold nib was on a Lamy Studio Palladium, a pen I still like very much(although my first one remains my one and only FP that I have truly lost-it fell out of my pocket when I was walking across campus to teach one morning...and that was the end of carrying pens in my hip pocket). I liked it, and both that one and the nearly identical one I have now are very different from the Lamy steel nibs as you'd find on the Safari/Al-Star/lower trim Studios. The steel nibs are nails and very smooth, while I find the gold to be a bit "bouncy" for lack of a better term(albeit without line variation) and just a tiny pleasant about of feedback.

 

At the time, my favorite nib was a steel nib on my Pelikan 205. Funny enough, out of the box, I detested that nib, but kept using it. One day, it took a dive to the floor. I was ready to order a replacement(at the time I think the steel nibs for those pens were $30 or so) but figured I didn't have anything to lose by straightening it. The results were not the prettiest, but I was rewarded with a wonderfully writing smooth and springy nib. I used that pen daily for 4 or 5 years until it developed a crack in the section threads. I actually attempted a repair on that pen not too long ago, and surprisingly enough it was ink tight, so I'll put that pen back into rotation.

 

Now, virtually every pen I use regularly is gold. I don't seek out gold specifically, it's just that the pens I happen to like have gold nibs. Lately I've been looking for two things. The first is that I love obliques. The second is that I've been seeking out nibs with good "pencil" feedback. I have several nibs with decent feedback, but my two best I think are a Montblanc 14 in fine and a Parker Duofold Centennial Fine. In general, I find Montblanc nibs to have very good feedback(more so than Pelikans, which I find glassy smooth), but some are better than others. I have a 24 in OM(I think) that gives me good good feedback. My vintage 144, though, hits the superfecta of a stubby oblique with good feedback and a moderate amount of flex. It's a dream to write with, but I'd rather have a nib just like that on a 146 or 149.

I am sorry if you found the phrasing of the question to make it seem that still nibs are always better (which they are most definitely not) and I prefer good nibs as well. I was wondering if people kept going back to their first gold nib more than other pens (which can be gold as well) more than other pens that write better. If you are looking for a nib with pencil-like feedback, have you tried a Sailor? If you like bouncy nibs, maybe try one of their 21k gold nibs.

I personally love all of my Sailors. Thank you for your response!