Pens Use Nibs From Which Manufacturer

[Blue_Moon]

Can anyone tell me which pens use which nibs?

 

For example, Edisons use JoWo nibs, Lamy's make their own, etc. I'd appreciate it if you'd list several pen companies and the manufacturer of their nibs (JoWo, Bock, Schmidt - distributes JoWo and Bock nibs, propietary, or other of which I'm not aware). By the way, many Eastern pen manufacturers are proprietary, aren't they - Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, etc.?

 

Please include Danitrio, Franklin Christoph, Bexley, and Gate City in the list if you know them.

 

Thanks in advance!

[jar]

Remember, knowing who makes a nib often will not tell you much at all about the nib. While some companies may use a pretty much stock off the shelf nib, other companies will have list of very specific properties including the actual formula for the metals used and treatment for the nibs they buy.

 

Not all Bock (or any other supplier) nibs are the same. As an example consider Montegrappa. In addition to the factors mentioned above, Montegrappa (Bock nib) fits a nib to a hand made and adjusted ebonite feed and then writes in each pen.

 

Caran d'Ache, Graf von Faber Castell (Bock and JoWo), Yard-o-Led, Ferrari da Varese, OMAS, Visconti, Stipula and many other manufacturers have similar policies.

[The Good Captain]

As far as I know, Bock supply the nibs and Schmidt supply the converters, for two great British 'makes' of pens: Conway Stewart and Onoto.

[Florida Blue]

Remember, knowing who makes a nib often will not tell you much at all about the nib. While some companies may use a pretty much stock off the shelf nib, other companies will have list of very specific properties including the actual formula for the metals used and treatment for the nibs they buy.

+1 Sheaffer's inlaid nib is made by Bock, as is Visconti's palladium Dreamtouch nib.

 

They are capable of making just about any shape and alloy of metal for a nib. Gold, steel, palladium, titanium etc.

 

Also, the companies often will work the nibs after they receive them from Bock or JoWo, like Onoto.

Edited October 13, 2013 by Florida Blue

[UK Mike]

This is the page where Peter Bock Ag list some of the manufacturers for whom they make nibs. This does not mean that they make ALL the nibs for these companies or that all the nibs from these companies are from Bock.

 

You can add TWSBI to the list for the nibs on the 530/540/Mini - but as we know, the 580 and Vac 700 use JoWo nibs.

 

http://www.peter-bock.com/content/e417/e506/index_eng.html

Edited October 13, 2013 by UK Mike

[FranklinChristoph]

Here at F-C we start with JoWo nibs. We get them in disassembled. We do a proprietary treatment to the feeds and nibs, and assemble, test and tune -building them for each pen order, the parts going under the microscope 2-3 times in the process. That's for the factory nib options.

For the Masuyama nibs, he takes our factory nibs and custom grinds, tests and tune them. We review again before shipping.

 

Bock and JoWo are both high quality nib makers. But a lot of the performance depends on what else is done to them and how they are set and tuned (if at all) when matched with a pen.

 

Off the top of my head - Ancora in Italy used to make their own nibs, but not sure that they do now. The same for Aurora but I believe they recently stopped. Pelikan and Montblanc both make a show of making their own nibs - but I've seen the machines in the nib factories that also make theirs. MB may be making more than they used to now. Lamy makes their own nibs. Most of all other major European and American brands use JoWo or Bock. Many of them have custom designs, shapes, etc that are proprietary and have dedicated machines within the nib factories. Schmidt does not make nibs, but have the same specs and order from both JoWo and Bock, so it is impossible to tell from which manufacturer they came. The choice of feed matched well to a nib design is very important.

When you get over to Asia - Platinum, Pilot and Sailor all have nib making capabilities. Whether they outsource some to each other is kept quiet. Then of course there are some Chinese and Indian nib makers which you can find on lower end pens.

 

Nib making is complex and expensive to the point of being most feasible by a few companies that specialize in it.

 

Scott F.

Edited October 14, 2013 by FranklinChristoph

[Blue_Moon]

Here at F-C we start with JoWo nibs. We get them in disassembled. We do a proprietary treatment to the feeds and nibs, and assemble, test and tune -building them for each pen order, the parts going under the microscope 2-3 times in the process. That's for the factory nib options.

 

For the Masuyama nibs, he takes our factory nibs and custom grinds, tests and tune them. We review again before shipping.

 

Bock and JoWo are both high quality nib makers. But a lot of the performance depends on what else is done to them and how they are set and tuned (if at all) when matched with a pen.

 

Off the top of my head - Ancora in Italy used to make their own nibs, but not sure that they do now. The same for Aurora but I believe they recently stopped. Pelikan and Montblanc both make a show of making their own nibs - but I've seen the machines in the nib factories that also make theirs. MB may be making more than they used to now. Lamy makes their own nibs. Most of all other major European and American brands use JoWo or Bock. Many of them have custom designs, shapes, etc that are proprietary and have dedicated machines within the nib factories. Schmidt does not make nibs, but have the same specs and order from both JoWo and Bock, so it is impossible to tell from which manufacturer they came. The choice of feed matched well to a nib design is very important.

When you get over to Asia - Platinum, Pilot and Sailor all have nib making capabilities. Whether they outsource some to each other is kept quiet. Then of course there are some Chinese and Indian nib makers which you can find on lower end pens.

 

Nib making is complex and expensive to the point of being most feasible by a few companies that specialize in it.

 

Scott F.

 

Thanks for all the great info, Scott! I'm hoping to get a Model 19, Special Pendleton Edition sometime in the near future. I've also got my sites on Models 27 and 66 with Masuyama nibs.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Blue_Moon

[cybaea]

Here at F-C we start with JoWo nibs. We get them in disassembled. We do a proprietary treatment to the feeds and nibs, and assemble, test and tune -building them for each pen order, the parts going under the microscope 2-3 times in the process. That's for the factory nib options.

 

For the Masuyama nibs, he takes our factory nibs and custom grinds, tests and tune them. We review again before shipping.

 

Bock and JoWo are both high quality nib makers. But a lot of the performance depends on what else is done to them and how they are set and tuned (if at all) when matched with a pen.

 

Off the top of my head - Ancora in Italy used to make their own nibs, but not sure that they do now. The same for Aurora but I believe they recently stopped. Pelikan and Montblanc both make a show of making their own nibs - but I've seen the machines in the nib factories that also make theirs. MB may be making more than they used to now. Lamy makes their own nibs. Most of all other major European and American brands use JoWo or Bock. Many of them have custom designs, shapes, etc that are proprietary and have dedicated machines within the nib factories. Schmidt does not make nibs, but have the same specs and order from both JoWo and Bock, so it is impossible to tell from which manufacturer they came. The choice of feed matched well to a nib design is very important.

When you get over to Asia - Platinum, Pilot and Sailor all have nib making capabilities. Whether they outsource some to each other is kept quiet. Then of course there are some Chinese and Indian nib makers which you can find on lower end pens.

 

Nib making is complex and expensive to the point of being most feasible by a few companies that specialize in it.

 

Scott F.

 

+1 Thank you for this useful and very informative post, Scott!

[terminal]

This came up fairly recently and we ended up with a pretty good list:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/247288-who-make-their-own-nibs/

[Blue_Moon]

This came up fairly recently and we ended up with a pretty good list:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/247288-who-make-their-own-nibs/

 

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks much!