Types Of Pilot 18K Nibs From The 70S?

[Andrew H]

Often, you'll see inlaid nibs from this era plated with rhodium. Once in a while, you'll see a gold nib without the plating. Both seem to be marked "18K-WG". Does anyone have additional information on this? Are all Gold nibs just nibs that have lots their plating? Or did Pilot produce inlaid nibs without the plating? If the latter, were they cheaper or the same price as the plated ones?

 

Below is a random photo to show the nibs I'm talking about:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-frDSkaBumS0/VftuZNxBnDI/AAAAAAAACMA/3glfrRMimec/s1600/PILOT%2BCUSTOM%2BSILVER%2B032.jpg

[stan]

Where did you discover that WG - White Gold nibs are iridium plated? Is this your assumption?

If you were to see any nib with plating loss, it would not be on all exposed surfaces of the nib. Only where there was wear.

 

White Gold means white gold. There is such a thing.

[Andrew H]

Where did you discover that WG - White Gold nibs are iridium plated? Is this your assumption?

If you were to see any nib with plating loss, it would not be on all exposed surfaces of the nib. Only where there was wear.

 

White Gold means white gold. There is such a thing.

As you can see in the photo, there are two pilot nibs, both labeled "WG". One appears to be plated while the other is all gold. I am aware that White Gold is a thing. I'm asking if Pilot produced nibs in that way from the factory, and if so, where those nibs would fall in the "pecking order".

[stan]

I'm pretty certain that the Pilot Custom (two in your photo) came with 14K Yellow Gold nibs when the model began. The cisele model was not the first model produced. It was pretty close. As Pilot expanded their offerings in the model - silver, maple, black plastic, red plastic, makie, etc. nib selections matched the models. Red and black hiramakie models always came with yellow gold nibs. Maple always came with yellow gold nibs.

 

Where did 18K White Gold fall in the nib pecking order. It didn't.

 

Perhaps the question should be did the cisele models come with other than 18K WG nibs. Yes, but it was not hierachical.

 

If your question is whether your pen with an 18K WG nib is of higher value, rarer, or special. No, it is not but, a good salesperson could hype a few extra bucks out of it.

[Andrew H]

Awesome. That answers my question.

 

For context (should have probably provided this upfront), I am collecting Elites and I wanted to get a better sense of how Pilot produced nibs and whether the styles were considered "options" vs. "tiers". Specifically, I was considering if there was a difference between the plated or not-plated gold nibs.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Andrew H

[Nikolaos]

I have around 13 of these pens in my collection. I just checked and all the yellow gold nibs are marked 18K-750, while all the white gold ones are marked 18K-WG. I don't have any nibs that are yellow gold and are stamped 18K-WG

 

Nikolaos