Nibs with no tipping

[Ispriluc]

There`s a sale topic in this forum, including several customized nibs, some of them seem to have lost their tipping due to customization (from normal to italic). They look fine to me, i actually wish i had the money to buy one, but one user posed a question to the seller, regarding the missing tipping material, and from the way the question was formulated, i guess the user wanted to avoid any nib with no tipping.

Why would that be? What is the problem with a nib that is ground to an italic, for example, and looses the tipping?

I have one such nib, it`s on a parker 45 and it writes great. Also, the stadard Lamy joy 1,5 seems to have no tipping (i may be wrong; if so, my appologies) but it`s also a good writer.

So, why would anybody run away from such a nib? Is the nib going to wear off after loosing the tipping? Thanks!

[buffalowings]

simply put, a nib tipped w/ iridium will last many times longer than one without

[Joane]

Just as a side note, the factory Duofold italic nibs I have do have tipping. It is flat and from the side looks like a little hook, but it is there.

[watch_art]

from one of the links in the repair references section, one of the nib repair guys says that a lot of the steel nibs don't even come with tipping anymore. and he also goes on to note the metals that are actually in the different nibs that say iridium tipped and things like that. he and a buddy of his put the nibs into some kind of particle tester to see the actual percentage of the nib tips. even the iridium tipped ones had little to no iridium, especially the modern ones.

 

i wouldn't worry about tipping too much.

 

it was a cool article.

[Ispriluc]

thanks everyone.

 

i wouldn't worry about tipping too much.

 

 

 

Like i said, i have no problem with the lack of tipping, as such nibs write very well, in my experience. I was only curious to find out whether this was considered a bad thing or not.

I`ll get back here when my 45 nib will start showing signs of wear, if this will ever happen.

[Aysedasi]

The majority of the nibs I use have little or no tipping and that suits me fine.

[Columba Livia]

from one of the links in the repair references section, one of the nib repair guys says that a lot of the steel nibs don't even come with tipping anymore.

 

I was under the impression that all but a very few nibs (mostly italics) today come with hard-metal tipping, since I've seen even disposable FPs like the pilot varsity/v-pen have tipping, although I think the very first disposable fountain pens simply had the tip folded over.

 

he and a buddy of his put the nibs into some kind of particle tester to see the actual percentage of the nib tips. even the iridium tipped ones had little to no iridium, especially the modern ones.

 

"Iridium" is used as generic term for hard-metal tipping: "Although “iridium” is a common term for the tipping material, modern tipping materials rarely contain the actual element iridium; the most common element used is ruthenium, with admixture of such other metals as osmium and platinum."

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/T.htm#tipping_material

 

If you don't have a hard metal tipping, the nib will eventually wear out. My parents, who went to school when it was mandatory to use a FP both had platignums, so they've said to me, and those would have been untipped since they related that the nib would wear out after about a year or so. I suppose it depends how much you use them of course.

 

I wonder whether 14kt Gold and palladium nibs, without their tipping, would wear down quicker than stainless steel.

Edited May 9, 2010 by Columba Livia

[watch_art]

i thought the varsity had a folded tip?

[Ispriluc]

the nib would wear out after about a year or so. I suppose it depends how much you use them of course.

 

 

 

I rarely write more than a few lines a day, so i guess my nib will last many years from now. At least i hope so...

[OldGriz]

from one of the links in the repair references section, one of the nib repair guys says that a lot of the steel nibs don't even come with tipping anymore. and he also goes on to note the metals that are actually in the different nibs that say iridium tipped and things like that. he and a buddy of his put the nibs into some kind of particle tester to see the actual percentage of the nib tips. even the iridium tipped ones had little to no iridium, especially the modern ones.

 

i wouldn't worry about tipping too much.

 

it was a cool article.

 

I would suggest you re-read that reference and see what it really says....

Iridium has become a term similar to Xerox when referring to the item.... virtually EVERY pen is tipped.

I would worry VERY MUCH about a pen that does not come with tipping...

[dasmart]

so this is an old topic i know, but i was googling about tipping and came to this one. If i was purchasing a 14k gold nib that had no tipping what so ever, how long would that last? i'm a decent daily writer. with seeing the tip disappearing within a year.. that is VERY fast for a medal to errode, granted i knwo gold is soft, but would it really take only ayear b4 your nib is gone?

 

i know its relative on how often u use it, so lets say for arguments sake, one page of copperplate a day with a flexible untipped 14k tine

[OcalaFlGuy]

I cannot comment on a non-tip dip nib.

 

But for a fountian pen, the general answer I'd think is, you DON'T buy the pen with no tipping IF you intend on writing with it Without having the nib retipped (or replaced altogether).

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[dasmart]

oh okays, n yes it was for a fountain pen. what would be the consequences of writing with one without tipping? scratchy?

[ticoun]

oh okays, n yes it was for a fountain pen. what would be the consequences of writing with one without tipping? scratchy?

 

more like having your nib to grind away slowly on the paper, developping a flat spot which can cause scratchyness if not properly aligned on the paper, also getting your nib to write broader and broader with time.

[knitknitfrog]

oh okays, n yes it was for a fountain pen. what would be the consequences of writing with one without tipping? scratchy?

I bought a burnham buttonfiller on eBay that was stubbed and untapped. I suspect the stubbing was to fix a broken tine cheaply. It was buttery smooth, meltingly so, but as I loved the pen for it's balance and looks and as it was a relative bargain I sent it away to be retipped. I love the result but it is not buttery any more, it is a very fine fine, but I now use it knowing the nib can be used. And used and used

And no it wasn't cheap to retip - but I say worth it.

[Ernst Bitterman]

I may have missed the specification in my skim; is it a gold or a steel point? If gold, it will wear quickly, and be extremely smooth as the writing surface is perpetually polished by the paper. If steel, then the wearing will be slower and I personally wouldn't be too troubled about using it, as there are plenty of respectable untipped steel italic pens in the world. The caveat to that, though, is that the ones that were made untipped are cheap, designed from the beginning to be without tipping, or both, so the steel in use may be of a different grade.

[lowks]

The thing though, when buying pens from somewhere like Ebay where we can only see photos (usually blurry), it's hard to tell if there is tipping or not. This is especially true when you see Oblique Medium / Broads on vintage pens. It might have been one of the tines broken off and finally the nib was ground down to salvage the pen. Can more experienced users suggest how you can spot for situations like this ?

[pajaro]

If you are looking at something you find interesting, you might or might not be able to see a sufficiently magnified image of a nib to check for tipping. Most of the time with nibs that were made tipped, there will still be tipping. I have bought a few Parker 51s in lots of pens for sale where I knew the 51 nib had no tipping, but the price was so low that purchase at that time of a NOS 51 nib was still a good proposition. You have to evaluate each situation and all the projected costs. Sometimes you have to carefully scope out the items for sale. Sometimes online the images are not good enough to know what you are getting. (bleep) shoot.