Do you believe in Nibs altering to your writing?

[DRP]

Regardless of the reason, my handwriting, which tends to be poor, is a bit more legible when I use a good pen. Perhaps it's because I enjoy my fountain pens that I give a bit of extra care needed to make my writing better. I definitely enjoy using different nibs.

[Chris C]

I do believe that pens often need a "breaking in" period. I recently acquired a Pelikan M600 and when I first wrote with it the nib was quite stiff. Where was the vaunted Pelikan flexibility? But after writing with it for a week it started to become much more springy. I like it quite a bit now. The same goes for my fine Sheaffer Legacy. The nib was so sharp it could almost tear paper. I've had it for four years, writing with it only periodically, and it is much smoother now.

 

I remember how my Mom would get upset if she saw me cutting paper with her sewing scissors. Paper can dull metal. Friction takes its toll over time, but that can be a good thing.

[ConnallMac]

The reason most fountain pens are tipped with iridium is because of it's physical properties. Iridium is in the same family of elements as platinum, and like platinum it has a tendency to resist losing it's mass. You can move it around and reshape it, but it looses it's mass very slowly. It's the same reason jewelers use platinum to make the prongs that hold precious stones in settings in jewelry. Notice the pictures of the Phileas' above they are roughly the same size, but the one that has been used has been reshaped by the use. This is why steel nibs that are folded, rather than iridium tipped wear out relatively quickly. Eventually the iridium nib will wear out as well, but it will take much longer!

 

--J. Haney

[*david*]

Well, it isn't really real iridium that is used, but whatever it is has similar properties I guess.

[Sonnet]

I have proof that the nibs do change shape visibly within a reasonable amount of time.

 

Both pens seen below are Waterman Phileas Medium, bought at the same time. One was sitting in a desk, and the other one was used to write about 700-800 pages of lab notes over the course of around a year.

 

http://www.themeuge.com/misc/phileas_new.jpg

^ Note the round tip in the picture

 

 

http://www.themeuge.com/misc/phileas_used.jpg

^ Note the ball polished away into a nearly straight line

That 2nd picture describes my Pelikan Concorde to a T. I've used it every day for at least a few months [first purchased in May 2006] and the tip of the nib is no longer one round ball. Instead, it has that slant on it.

[Viseguy]

I'm in the nibs wear out camp. I suppose it's possible that the contours of the wear resulting from use may somehow conform to the user's writing habits, but that would be difficult or impossible to verify, I would think. In any case, the notion that any appreciable change could occur in the space of a week, or 10 days, or a month of normal use is derisory, IMO. Iridium is hard stuff.

[maryannemoll]

well, i suppose nib points do wear out, but the wearing is still dependent on the slant in which it is used. when consistent pressure is applied to a thin metal such as a nib, over time the metal conforms to that pressure. and not every fountain pen users' pressure is the same.

 

why else do we have the rule to never lend out our fountain pens?

[MYU]

The person who got my interest in fountain pens started said that she learned in school (France) about how to care for her fountain pen and it was sort of accepted that you resist lending out your pen for long periods of time. The reason why is that each person puts a different degree of pressure and angle to the nib and that it can create subtle changes in the nib alignment, to ultimately change how the pen writes. I believe it's true, although I'd say that a very firm nib would probably not show much of a difference compared to a soft, flexible nib.

[obilot]

My experience makes me think the nib does change with the writer -- although with a steel nib not necessarily very quickly. I think this based on my experience getting a Lamy nib assembly replaced, and just replacing Lamys. The nib-assembly replacement belonged to a pen I'd had for several years -- a Lamy Safari AL -- and when the replacement came back it felt like all Lamys do when new. Like 'not my pen'. I've had to 'wear in' a bunch of Lamys over the years. Broke one, lost one, broke another one, have one I hate and avoid, etc. Even if a particular pen is inexpensive, I hate losing or replacing, because it takes so *long* to acclimate the replacement if it has a steel nib.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Chris C...modern after '1998' Pelikan 400/600 are semi-nails....so one don't have the 'springy' true regular flex of the '80's-97 Pelikan. You need to try the semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex of the '50-65 pens or before to find that 'reputed' Pelikan 'flex'....

(It is not of course the flex of a superflex, but a semi^maxi-semi-flex, which are a 3X max tine spread. One should stay away from maxing a nib. )

 

The SS 200's 'true' regular flex nibs have the springiness of the old '80-97 400's 'true' regular flex.

 

The gold plated 200's perhaps not, in there is another layer of metal involved.That explains my confusion when others said a 200's nib was not all that springy as I call them. They were talking about gold plated and I about bare steel.

 

I keep saying 'true' regular flex, in many think modern nibs as regular flex, because that is what they get, but it ain't. It is semi-nail like an old P-75, that is harder to bend, so there are less repair costs.

True regular flex can be found in semi vintage and vintage pens, more often than in modern.

I am Japanese pen ignorant so can not comment on their modern nibs.

 

Folks use to nails may find semi-nail "springy". I don't....but then again, I chased semi&maxi-semi-flex for a long time. I had been snobbish ...me ....now I enjoy a true regular flex also. In fact I actually bought a new pen.........a Pelikan 215 in I really liked the stainless steel 'true' regular flex 200 nibs I trans-mailed to a pal in England. There are idiots in Germany that refuse to mail outside of Germany.

 

Yes a pen will 'wear' into ones Hand....but not quickly....in the old days of One Man, One Pen, a pen/nib was excepted to wear out in 7 to 10 years of 8 hour a day use. It would depend on if one held a pen at 45-40-or 35 degrees as part of you making a flat spot.

 

In I buy old used pens only, I have not noticed the wear/flat spots I would have expected from long use. No flat spot sweet spots....

I did use the brown paper bag trick to remover the drag caused by micro-corrosion or 'iridium' rust. It was once more used, back when micro mesh was harder to find. It is less damaging or nib changing than micro-mesh, if one rotates the nib properly.

It could be I was 'removing' some one's set. In I was polishing only the drag away not wanting 'butter smooth' but the level under....good and smooth; and for 4-6 fifteen second sets; I was not grinding flat spots away that I was aware of. It is much less wearing on a nib than micro-mesh.

 

 

However today, with everyone micro-meshing every nib that comes along....of course a nib 'wears' into how you hold it....instantly.

Do buy two dirt cheap pens to ruin when learning to use micro-mesh.

 

 

Back in the '30's and before in that tipping was perfected in WW2, it was lumpy, chunks could fall off. If a lump/chunk was fine with the way you held the pen, and someone else attacked the paper from a slightly different angle, that chunk could jar loose and fall off, giving a big scratchy, to what was then accepted as 'smooth'.

 

In today with Ball Point Barbarians everywhere....to lend a pen is courting a sprung nib. So the old myth of I can't lend my pen, because it's written in to my Hand and will take for ever to get it back, is a great social white lie. (Even folks that once used a fountain pen a generation ago, are Born Again Ball Point Barbarians...and can bend your nib...especially if it's not a nail.)