Sailor TIGP nibs

[Bobby Check]

There has been debate in the past as to what Sailor means when it stamps "TIGP" on its nibs.

 

So I emailed Michael Masuyama (who worked at Sailor on its nibs for years) and asked him. Here is his reply:

"It is a Sailor steel nib with "titanium gold color " plating. (There is no gold used here.)

 

TIGP stands for Titanium Iron Gold Plating. "Iron Plating" is a plating method widely applied in wrist industry to plate watch band, casing, etc because it is very strong against wear. Titanium is ionized in a closed gas chamber and ionized titanium particles are shot onto the plating surface and plant them, making the "bond" of plating much more stronger. Sailor was the first to apply this plating method in the industry and that they decided to stamp TIGP to show it for their marketing purpose.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ion_plating"

 

 

 

Hopefully this is of assistance.

 

Bobby

Edited April 5, 2010 by Bobby Check

[czar]

There has been debate in the past as to what Sailor means when it stamps "TIGP" on its nibs.

 

So I emailed Michael Masuyama (who worked at Sailor on its nibs for years) and asked him. Here is his reply:

"It is a Sailor steel nib with "titanium gold color " plating. (There is no gold used here.)

 

TIGP stands for Titanium Iron Gold Plating. "Iron Plating" is a plating method widely applied in wrist industry to plate watch band, casing, etc because it is very strong against wear. Titanium is ionized in a closed gas chamber and ionized titanium particles are shot onto the plating surface and plant them, making the "bond" of plating much more stronger. Sailor was the first to apply this plating method in the industry and that they decided to stamp TIGP to show it for their marketing purpose.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Ion_plating"

 

 

 

Hopefully this is of assistance.

 

Bobby

Dear Bobby,

many thanks. I am going to buy a sailor and it is a useful information.

 

Yours

Cesare

[Bobby Check]

I just received a Sailor Somiko FP with a "broad" (medium) TIGP nib and hence I was curious.

 

The nib has a bit of spring when it touches the paper. It is a very smooth writer out of the box and requires no adjustments!

 

I really like this elegant pen even though it is too thin for my hand.

 

Therefore I will sell it soon, but for now I will enjoy its first fill.

 

Bobby

 

 

[DeScribe]

Hi Bobby. This is indeed very useful information. I have been trying to guess what it actually meant and there you are explaining it to us in such details. Thanks for sharing.

[roger3]

Thanks for the info! BobbyCheck you are the man!

[dwong]

Thanks! I just bought a Sailor Procolor 500 that I think comes with this nib.

[1000km]

This is very helpful - I had incorrectly assumed that it was gold-plated titanium.