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bgray · Experienced

In Praise of Steel Nibs...

DWL · ***

I saw this one in your facebook link last night & I agree 100% with you. The difference between gold/steel is a little flex & while there is a difference, it's not as wide a span as many may think.

Excellent article man!

bphollin · Experienced

Thanks for sharing another really great article, Brian! I appreciate your insights.

Frank · Admin

Thank you for posting this link here Brian! I got to read it last night as well.
It's hard to beat a modern steel nib!

Also, I can tell you personally that Brian is a great nib tuner!
He saved one of my favorite workhorse steel nibs last year!

Frank

Mahutr · Seasoned

I would like to have a better explanation of the differences between 14k and 18k gold. I've read (somewhere. Not sure if FPN, Richard Binder's, PenHero, or somewhere else) that the most flexible nibs are the 14k ones, as the copper can't be lower than that. 18k ones are usually more flexible (according to this).

Besides the above, I absolutely agree with you. There is a very small difference indeed (if any) between a GOOD QUALITY steel nib and a gold one.

Rgds.

Martin

bgray · Experienced

14k is harder than 18k. Most unaltered 18k nibs are more flexible than 14k.

Nibs that are altered for flex are typically 14k due to it's springiness.

A 14k nib can be thinned on the back to make it a flexible nib (along with other methods). Due to the springiness, the 14k nib will return back to a nice unflexed state.

An 18k nib treated the same way will not return to a nice unflexed line, leaving it a rather wet nib all around.

So if you are referring to altered nibs, 14k is more flexible. If you are referring to right from the factory, 18k is generally more flexible.

Mahutr · Seasoned

Thanks. That's a great explanation. Yes: 18k is a softer material, so it must be thicker than 14k in order to obtain the same rigidness. Most vintage superflex nibs are 14k, but (as you very well say) they must be either factory thinned on the underside or altered by a "nibmeister" afterwords.

Rgds.

Martin

bgray · Experienced

Well, understand that I was referring to modern German nibs.

With vintage, lots of different things happened with steel and many different grades of gold.

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

18 K may be softer...but not as flexible as a 14 K can be made....from my reading. 18 K can not be made as flexible as a 14 k nib can be made. It is impossible, because it has too much gold, and not enough of another metal in it to make it more flexible.

I have a 18K Lamy Persona nail. There is no soft about the dammed thing, and it a modern oblique, made for folks that hold their pens crooked, and not to give shading like my 50's Obliques of which I have four.
No way will I ever buy an 18 K nib again. I'd been fat, dumb and happy...a 18 K OB...wonderful....oh, so wrong.

I like the nibs of the 50's...I really can't afford to go after the Flex nibs yet, being satisfied now with '50s German semi-flex nibs in 14 K or in good Steel; like an Osmia Supra. Second my hand writing is not good enough for flexible nibs.

I have a Cross Townsend...smooth stiff steel nail.
I don't have to work with carbon paper. I don't need a nail.

I have a couple of "modern" 14 K nibs, one on a Pelikan 400 (90-96- dated through the word change W. Germany to Germany)) and the other on a 605, they are OK... but don't dance like a semi-flex, from the fifties that I have in both 14 K and Steel.

What ever new pen you buy steel or 14 K, send it to some one that can add some semi-flex to the nib. You will not regret it. Stay away from 18 K nails. There might well be ok nibs in 18 K, but that's all they will be is OK, nothing special.
Semi-flex is something special.

-- Edited by Bo Bo Olson on Thursday 10th of June 2010 11:08:01 AM

Mahutr · Seasoned

The other metal is usually copper.

Rgds.

Martin

georges zaslavsky · Experienced

I have lot of vintage 18k nibs on my french made parkers and they are as flexible as my omas or my mb 18ct 149 or my pelikan 18ct nibs.

-- Edited by georges zaslavsky on Saturday 12th of June 2010 03:42:55 PM

RitaCarbon · Rookie

I love German steel nibs. They are the best - Kaweco, for example, or Rotring.

Some Italian steel nibs are pretty good - I highly appreciate Signum.

18K nails can be forgiven only if they extremely wet.

titivillus · Seasoned

I have a soft spot for Lamy steel nibs as moderns and Esterbrook nibs as vintage.

You can mess with metallurgy for awhile but it comes down to the working of the metal.

J M Pennifeather · Newbie

Yeah! must admit you cant beat the Lamy steel nibs though.

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

I have some Osmia nibs, three are Supra; two are steel and they are = to the gold Supra nib.

The Supra nib is/was one of the first class nibs of it's time, like a Soennecken or a MB.

I have three next level down Osmia steel nibs too, and they are very good.

I do admit to having many more gold nibs than steel, in that the gold nib has a better chance of being not corroded from sitting inked in a back drawer for 30 years, and more are offered.

I will when I have the money chase a steel Osmia nib, or Osmia-Farber-Castell nib.
I will chase a steel Supra nib, hard.

Flexnib · Newbie

All throughout my schooldays I have written with a Pelikan M150 that had a phantastic Steelnib.
I also have a Pelikano Steno Pen with a very fine and flexible Steelnib that I like very much.

liapuyat · Newbie

I find the steel nib of my Pelikan M215 rather springy. As a result, it's a pleasure to write with. In contrast, my M400's 14k nib is rigid, but as I'm not a flex writer, that gets a lot of use as well.