Gold Nibs Vs. Steel Nibs

[Scribblesoften]

If I have read it correctly elsewhere on the forum and internet, the nib material is essentially irrelevant - the tip of the nib will be made from a high quality metal from the platinum family, which is the bit that will actually be doing the writing, and as such the gold or steel used is entirely to support that tip and feed it ink, of which any effect on the writing experience is so dependent on all the other factors of the nib (size, flex, etc...) that no clear conclusion can be made.

 

There are obviously aesthetic differences - whether you prefer gold or steel in colouring, and I believe steel may stain slightly more than gold from the ink, but this is purely aesthetic and has no difference on the writing.

 

The notable exception to this would be in nibs manufactured like the Esterbrook 1XXX and 2XXX series. Nibs of this type were made with steel, some with rolled tips and some without. So, you are actually writing on the steel. Many of the Esterbrook nibs are still smooth writers. This again indicates that quality control is key. I have to wonder if the German and French nibs produced preceding and during the second world war are tipped with rare metals or are all steel as well. Does anyone know?

[79spitfire]

Having read all the comments, (mostly) on occasion you will find an 'inexpensive' pen with a truly great nib from time to time. So don't be afraid to try. This is where a B&M has an advantage, you can test drive a pen and see if you like it!

 

I have a cheap 'Tropen' that was made in Bogota that has a smooth, somewhat flexy steel nib. It's fun to use, a piston filler and cheap enough that I'll not loose too much sleep if it gets lost or stolen. I will miss how it writes, however, if that happens!

[Bo Bo Olson]

"""Plus, where am I gonna get a true flex nib (on a fountain pen) that is not made of gold?""

 

Andy, my Soennecken wet noodle is steel...and I'm talking about a fountain pen nib, not a Soennecken dip nib; which are also steel.

 

I'm still sort of deprived, my easy full flex/ supra flex nibs are them cheap Bock and Degussa steel nibs.....sigh.

[Mickey]

A question for any metallurgists out there regarding this topic: wouldn't the softer (e.g., 18K, 21K), noble metal nibs be less prone to ringing than steel nibs, and thus provide more "pleasant" (damped) feedback?" Mightn't this account for the preference stated by some?

 

A separate observation: my 18K nails are considerably less prone to nib misalignment than my steel and 14K nibs, the 14K nibs requiring the most tweaking. Of course, I don't try to flex the 18K nibs.

[Dave the brew guy]

IMHO

A bad gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good steel nib is better than a bad gold nib.

A good gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good gold nib is better than a good steel nib.

The 2nd and 3rd lines are pretty obvoius, a good nib is better than a bad nib. The 1st and last lines are hogwash. How is one bad nib better than another bad nib? Is it because they are both junk but one might be worth a few bucks as scrap metal? Likewise, what makes a good gold nib better than a good steel nib? Using the example of the bad nibs, it would be logical to say that a good steel nib is better than a good gold nib because a good steel nib can be a great writer but a good gold nib is worth more as scrap, so you should melt down your gold nibs and write with the steel ones.

I'm sure many of us have a decent assortment of pens, and that many of us have pens with gold nibs, steel nibs and even a couple nibs made from other substances. If anyone has a collection in which all the gold nibs write better than all the steel, I think we would have heard from them by now. I'm not talking about the collector who's 30 gold nibs are better than their 2 inexpensive, steel nibbed pens, but rather the person with a dozen or more of each. Is there anyone here willing to say that "I have 15-20 pens with steel nibs and they're pretty good, but my dozen or so pens with gold nibs are all better?"

In my own humble collection there are steel nibs and gold, vintage pens and modern, great writers and not so great, there are a few standouts but there is no evident pattern. Of those 3 dozen or so pens, the best 3 writers include one 14k gold nib, one palladium nib and one steel nib. Now that I'm thinking about it, my next 3 would include an 18k gold nib, another steel nib and maybe a titanium nib. My worst writers include both steel and gold, the worst steel nibs are untipped, my worst tipped nib is 14k gold.

Clearly, my own experience is that nib material alone means nothing, good nibs can be made from a number of materials and it's equally possible to produce bad nids from those same materials. One important thing to consider is price, you still need to compare "apples to apples." Those top 3 writers I mentioned earlier include a gold nib and a steel nib, the retail prices of those 2 pens aren't that far apart. OTOH, it may be true that someone's MB 146 is a better writer then their Safari, but how much difference can be attributed to the nib material and how much is due to the design and finishing of that nib?

[kcoen52]

A question for any metallurgists out there regarding this topic: wouldn't the softer (e.g., 18K, 21K), noble metal nibs be less prone to ringing than steel nibs, and thus provide more "pleasant" (damped) feedback?" Mightn't this account for the preference stated by some?

 

Via my materials science background the difference felt would not really be based on the material. Though they are different and gold is a softer material (it has a lower modulus of elasticity) the nibs are so small and the amount of force put on them is so low that this factor should not come into play. The real reason people will have a softer feed back in nibs would be the length of them; a longer nib will absorb more vibrations and give less feedback; the microstructures of gold may assist with this, but once again this cannot be confirmed as true because every nib will have a slightly different microstructure as it will be changed during the actual formation of the nib.

 

So, with all of this information taken into account I would theorize that since every nib will go through a slightly, though enough to change microstructure, different creation process these factors cannot create a physically noticeable difference. The only factors that will create a truly observable difference are macrostructure designs such as nib length, width (IE. medium nib vs. Extrafine), and feeder systems. In addition to that the construction quality will obviously play are role; a design only goes as far as the time and quality put into its construction.

 

Any other opinions are welcome, I am still a student and can only learn from those who disagree with me

 

Thanks

-Kyle

[Glenn-SC]

IMHO

A bad gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good steel nib is better than a bad gold nib.

A good gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good gold nib is better than a good steel nib.

The 2nd and 3rd lines are pretty obvoius(siv), a good nib is better than a bad nib. The 1st and last lines are hogwash.

I a polite society one would say, "My opinion/experience is different than yours."

We would not insult each others opinions.

[Mickey]

A question for any metallurgists out there regarding this topic: wouldn't the softer (e.g., 18K, 21K), noble metal nibs be less prone to ringing than steel nibs, and thus provide more "pleasant" (damped) feedback?" Mightn't this account for the preference stated by some?

 

Via my materials science background the difference felt would not really be based on the material. Though they are different and gold is a softer material (it has a lower modulus of elasticity) the nibs are so small and the amount of force put on them is so low that this factor should not come into play. The real reason people will have a softer feed back in nibs would be the length of them; a longer nib will absorb more vibrations and give less feedback;

 

Not necessarily. Unless the material is inherently highly self-damping, length will mostly determine the frequencies at which the material will efficiently excite and transmit. If the tuning of the nib, literally its musical pitch, places its resonant band outside the range normally excited by writing (velocity and surface condition being major factors) the feedback provided will be different than from a nib which resonates and or transmits readily in that band. Mass per unit volume and stiffness to weight would have a similar effect. (All other factors being equal, heavier tines will resonate at a lower pitch.) For now, lets overlook the damping applied by the feed, ink, etc.

 

As for size, the cantilevers of high-end phonograph cartridges have been made of sapphire and other such materials to take advantage of the high stiffness to weight ratios. Nib feedback, I believe, falls roughly into about the same frequency range. Considers also, the force put on a record by the stylus is rather low, but back in the days of unamplified playback, soft needles were made from sharpened bamboo. Loud needles were made from steel. A soft needle could be excited sufficiently by the grooves of the record to 'fill' a small parlor. So...

Edited January 29, 2012 by Mickey

[professionaldilettante]

IMHO

A bad gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good steel nib is better than a bad gold nib.

A good gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good gold nib is better than a good steel nib.

The 2nd and 3rd lines are pretty obvoius(siv), a good nib is better than a bad nib. The 1st and last lines are hogwash.

I a polite society one would say, "My opinion/experience is different than yours."

We would not insult each others opinions.

In a polite society, we don't point out each others faults to correct them. Oops. Did I just do that? :roflmho: If you've seen enough pens, I would think you'd see this as the truth, without the glint of gold in your eyes.

[lapis]

A. The steel nib on my M215 writes better than any gold nib on any of my pens which cost less.

B. A gold nib on my M215 looks weird. So, I didn't exchange the nib here.

 

Mike

[kcoen52]

@ Mickey

 

I have minimal experience with waves; which seems to be the basis of your example, but I will do my best to defend my conclusion using your examples as evidence. I will start by agreeing with portions of you statement, those being:

length will mostly determine the frequencies at which the material will efficiently excite and transmit. and,

 

All other factors being equal, heavier tines will resonate at a lower pitch.

 

The first thing I will need to compare is the weight of a gold nib vs. the weight of a steel nib; as this is very difficult and I have no way of doing this I will have to provide assumptions based off of scientific calculation.

First I present the molar mass of gold (this is assuming a nib is made of pure gold; which I know it is not, otherwise it would be labeled as 24K); 196.96655 g/mol.

Next the molar mass of iron (the basis of steel; I have no way of knowing what concentration is used in a typical nib so iron is as close as I can get); 55.845 g/mol.

This example displays that given the same amount of each substance (one mole) gold weighs almost four times more; it is much heavier.

 

Theoretically, based off of your statement a gold nib of the same size with the same amount of material should resonate much lower than a steel nib; this will be important later as I will point out how this means theoretically a gold nib should be smoother than a steel one; though I do not necessarily believe that to be the case (ahh science, making people disbelieve their own theories).

 

More simply, I can assume that a nib of longer length that was not thinned or changed in any way other than length (IE more material was added) will create a nib that weighs more than the shorter nib; will resonate at a lower pitch.

 

Now I have to display a relation between pitch and frequency to unite the statements you provided (quoted earlier in this post)

 

First I will define frequency as the number of cycles (in this case vibrations) per unit time; in addition I will assume a lower frequency (less vibration) will be beneficial to smoother writing.

Now I will explain pitch; first I must explain that pitch is not a scientific unit; it is what the human ear sounds; IE two people can be listening to the same thing and hear a different pitch. I continue to inform that there is however a very close relation to pitch and frequency (this is of course sound frequency). It has been excepted that a lower frequency will produce a lower pitch, and a higher frequency will produce a higher pitch.

 

That being said an object with a lower pitch will have a lower frequency. So for our example of a pen nib, a nib with a lower pitch (which has been stated by Mickey as a heavier nib) will produce less frequency and therefor be a smoother writer. Further more that means a nib that is longer (IE heavier yet) will be smoother than its counterpart.

 

Now back to the weights of material I listed previously. If following the same conclusion that was described above (A heavier nib will be a smoother writer) a gold nib of the same size with the same amount of material should be smoother than a steel nib. Now remember that the numbers used for this conclusion were very roughly estimated and I cannot take them as scientific evidence.

 

 

I can go on to attempt to explain the reason a bamboo stylus worked as well as a steel stylus in a record player too. This will have to do with the transfer of waves through a material as well, however we are looking at a much larger system. The stylus only had to transfer the waves from the record to the steel arm where it would then continue to the phone which really determined the volume that was projected. I would guess, though I am not certain, that a stiffer stylus would however produce a higher quality sound; I am not positive as I have no experience with record players. A simple experiment to test this hypothesis would be to knock on a wall and observe what you hear. Afterwards put your ear on the wall and knock again, now that the sound is transferring from the wall straight to your ear instead of from the wall to the air to your ear the sound should be much clearer. I would relate the air to a soft bamboo stylus and your head a steel one (this is however inaccurate and the example is more analogous to removing the stylus all together which would not work as nothing would get to the grooves of the record).

 

 

*Disclaimer*

The information provided does not prove whether a steel nib or a gold nib is better; that is still a matter of opinion as everyone wants something different from their nib. The purpose of this post was to defend my thought that a longer nib will produce a smoother writer than shorter counterpart and is backed up by scientific facts and definitions. However, one must note, science does not prove anything, the only facts that are always excepted, even in science, are those that occur and are observed in nature. Hence all answers should be presented in a form that explains the results were obtain within a specific scenario with certain constraints in place.

 

 

edited for spelling

Edited January 29, 2012 by kcoen52

[ethernautrix]

The only warning using steel nibs is that iron-gall ink eventually might damage them.

 

I'm using Montblanc Midnight Blue in my Pelikan Toledo, fitted with a steel B nib. Since the nibs are inexpensive to replace, I'm not so concerned (although I do flush the pen thoroughly when changing inks, and I seldom keep MbMB in rotation for a long enough time for it to pose a serious threat).

 

The P. Toledo came with an 18kt nib. I'd had the pen for about twenty years and hardly used it. Finally, by happenstance, I tried a fabulous Pelikan steel nib at a pen fair (for my M215), and the penny finally dropped: the steel nib for my M215 would fit my Toledo...! Since then, the Toledo has been in rotation more or less regularly, and I've used it more in the past couple of months than in the entire time I've owned the pen before switching out the 18kt gold nib (which I still have).

 

Which is to illustrate what Ricky said:

It's not worth over thinking the issue.

 

 

If the nib writes the way you like it, and you don't mind a steel nib on a pen with gold vermeil (for instance), then... go for it.

 

Some people want the nib to match the trim, which I understand, and for most of my pens, I'd agree off the cuff. But sometimes... if a steel nib gets me to use the pen more often, then I'll override my inclination to match the nib color to the trim. I'd rather use the pen. As always, YMMV.

[ethernautrix]

I was at Pulse in Downtown LA. I think it was called Pulse anyways...

 

I had a lot to drink, and was signing the receipt for the rum I had just ordered. The flow was getting inconsistent, and, in my inebriated state, I believed that the ink might have needed to be warmed up a little, so I stuck it into a nearby candle. The place was dimly lit and full of candles and drunk people. I was one of them.

 

Anyways, the nib caught fire and the plastic feed pretty much disintegrated. Maybe it turned into part of the candle. I don't really remember. What I do remember is waking up next to a korean girl, the heavy and pounding headache I had in the morning, and how much sunlight hurt. On the brightside, I had some of the best coffee that morning from a place called "Urth Cafe."

 

When I was to sign my bill, my pen wasn't flowing and I realized that all I had was the body and the nib. The feed was no longer there.

 

D'oh!

 

 

I've been reading Barry Eisler novels lately, and he mentions Urth Cafe.

 

That is quite the story. All of my pen damage and loss occurred while I was completely sober. Being drunk would have been a nice explanation. Hee.

[bizhe]

I remember reading somewhere (yeah, real useful) that gold nibs had better capillary action.

 

Brian Gray of Edison pens, who was mentioned way up, said that the only difference between the steel and gold nibs that he sells is that gold nibs have more flex. If you're not a flexy (i.e. slow, more calligraphic) writer, then it won't matter, is what he said.

Edited January 29, 2012 by bizhe

[Mickey]

@ Mickey

 

I have minimal experience with waves; which seems to be the basis of your example, but I will do my best to defend my conclusion using your examples as evidence. I will start by agreeing with portions of you statement, those being:

 

"length will mostly determine the frequencies at which the material will efficiently excite and transmit." and,

 

"All other factors being equal, heavier tines will resonate at a lower pitch."

 

The first thing I will need to compare is the weight of a gold nib vs. the weight of a steel nib; as this is very difficult and I have no way of doing this I will have to provide assumptions based off of scientific calculation.

First I present the molar mass of gold (this is assuming a nib is made of pure gold; which I know it is not, otherwise it would be labeled as 24K); 196.96655 g/mol.

Next the molar mass of iron (the basis of steel; I have no way of knowing what concentration is used in a typical nib so iron is as close as I can get); 55.845 g/mol.

This example displays that given the same amount of each substance (one mole) gold weighs almost four times more; it is much heavier.

 

Theoretically, based off of your statement a gold nib of the same size with the same amount of material should resonate much lower than a steel nib; this will be important later as I will point out how this means theoretically a gold nib should be smoother than a steel one; though I do not necessarily believe that to be the case (ahh science, making people disbelieve their own theories).

 

More simply, I can assume that a nib of longer length that was not thinned or changed in any way other than length (IE more material was added) will create a nib that weighs more than the shorter nib; will resonate at a lower pitch.

 

Now I have to display a relation between pitch and frequency to unite the statements you provided (quoted earlier in this post)

 

First of all, this is fun. Now, I need to challenge a few of your assumptions. Let's start with the assumption that a low frequency tuned nib is necessarily desirable, (I frankly don't know). I suspect having a low Q is much more important.

 

First I will define frequency as the number of cycles (in this case vibrations) per unit time; in addition I will assume a lower frequency (less vibration) will be beneficial to smoother writing.

Now I will explain pitch; first I must explain that pitch is not a scientific unit; it is what the human ear sounds; IE two people can be listening to the same thing and hear a different pitch. I continue to inform that there is however a very close relation to pitch and frequency (this is of course sound frequency). It has been excepted that a lower frequency will produce a lower pitch, and a higher frequency will produce a higher pitch.

 

That being said an object with a lower pitch will have a lower frequency. So for our example of a pen nib, a nib with a lower pitch (which has been stated by Mickey as a heavier nib) will produce less frequency and therefor be a smoother writer. Further more that means a nib that is longer (IE heavier yet) will be smoother than its counterpart.

 

 

Again you assume low resonant peak is desirable. Part of this argument also ignores the effect of temper and alloy. (IOW, the problem is much hairier. For example, the dominant moving mass in many nibs is the tipping, since it is concentrated maximally distant from the tie down point (in the feed collar). Then, of course, there is the question of collar design, feed material... ADDED: Much, much hairier. Compare the resonanceS and damping of the nib when it is above the page to the same nib in light contact with the page to that same nib jammed into the page by my idiot 3rd cousin.

 

I can go on to attempt to explain the reason a bamboo stylus worked as well as a steel stylus in a record player too.

 

Actually, the bamboo stylus did not work as well if volume is your goal, which was part of my point (the other being the amount of energy that can be produced by dragging a stylus over relatively small surface features). Bamboo is inherently better damped (relatively high isothermic conversion) than steel. The softer, more highly damped stylus transferred less energy to the horn. They played soft. In my limited experience, they also played more accurately. (They also didn't wear out the grooves as quickly.) If one wants a 'soft' nib, the material which can provide greater damping should be superior.

 

This will have to do with the transfer of waves through a material as well, however we are looking at a much larger system. The stylus only had to transfer the waves from the record to the steel arm where it would then continue to the phone which really determined the volume that was projected. I would guess, though I am not certain, that a stiffer stylus would however produce a higher quality sound; I am not positive as I have no experience with record players. A simple experiment to test this hypothesis would be to knock on a wall and observe what you hear. Afterwards put your ear on the wall and knock again, now that the sound is transferring from the wall straight to your ear instead of from the wall to the air to your ear the sound should be much clearer. I would relate the air to a soft bamboo stylus and your head a steel one (this is however inaccurate and the example is more analogous to removing the stylus all together which would not work as nothing would get to the grooves of the record).

 

 

Stiffer was not necessarily more faithful. You can't ignore Q unless the resonance is well above or below the pass band and or is of exceedingly low value, i.e., the resonance is well damped. Techno-Nirvana for those early phonographs (and modern designs, as well) was to put stylus resonance (hopefully low Q) several octaves higher than the highest frequency to be reproduced. (The LF resonance of the stylus suspension in modern cartridges is a separate issue related to the resonant frequency of the tone arm.)

 

Back to nibs, the real question, I believe, is whether you like your feedback in a lot of small chunks (high pitched nib, toothy nail?) or a few larger chunks (lower pitched nib, flexy stutterer), assuming equal Q for the two nibs. My instinct tell me that the more desirable material is the one which provides the desired tuning with the highest inherent damping. Where flex seems to be dominated by nib geometry, it's quite possible that feel is dominated by nib material.

 

As a daily user of dip pens, I can tell you long, low frequency tines do not make for smooth writers. I love 'em, but they ain't no picnic on anything much rougher than Clairefontaine. My little Merlin 33 is glassy smooth by comparison.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Mickey

[Dave the brew guy]

IMHO

A bad gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good steel nib is better than a bad gold nib.

A good gold nib is better than a bad steel nib.

A good gold nib is better than a good steel nib.

The 2nd and 3rd lines are pretty obvoius(siv), a good nib is better than a bad nib. The 1st and last lines are hogwash.

I a polite society one would say, "My opinion/experience is different than yours."

We would not insult each others opinions.

I am sorry if you feel insulted, it was not my intention to cause you any grief. Perhaps I could have worded my statement differently.

It is my experience that bad is bad and that good is good. Could you explain why one bad nib is worse than another bad nib based only on the material from which it is made and why a good nib is automatically better than another good nib, again, based only on the material from which it is made? It is my opinion that a nib that writes well is a good nib, and that a nib that writes poorly is a bad nib. You obviously feel differently and while that makes no sense to me, I'd like to hear the reasoning behind this opinion.

[kcoen52]

@Mickey

 

I full heartedly agree that this is fun, it almost deserves its own topic, but I feel that we are coming to an end in our discussion as we are getting to the point where just like the record player we need to take into account the whole system rather than just one part; given our case the nib. I also want to thank you right away for giving me this practice in defending my science; that is extremely important to me because it means I have a reason and basis to what I am saying and I understand the topics under discussion (being only a sophomore, and just barely getting into this part of mechanical engineering I find this very important).

 

But I will leave some closing remarks, the first being that the whole basis of my hypothesis was that a lower frequency meaning less vibrations would be beneficial in smooth writer; I did not even take into account the concentration of those vibrations.

 

"Part of this argument also ignores the effect of temper and alloy. (IOW, the problem is much hairier. For example, the dominant moving mass in many nibs is the tipping, since it is concentrated maximally distant from the tie down point (in the feed collar). Then, of course, there is the question of collar design, feed material... ADDED: Much, much hairier. Compare the resonanceS and damping of the nib when it is above the page to the same nib in light contact with the page to that same nib jammed into the page by my idiot 3rd cousin."

 

This is very true as it was my goal to only take into account the nib as that was my defined system; I even left out the concept of the nib tipping because this is a fairly similar material in all nibs. The only way to truly test our hypothesis' would to be design an experiment with pens identical in every way except nib material and find a way to measure the minuscule vibrations caused by writing, and then define our answer restricted to only our situation. To prove one way or the other we would have to test every single pen in a manner that covers how every single person writes... Daunting...

 

"As a daily user of dip pens, I can tell you long, low frequency tines do not make for smooth writers. I love 'em, but they ain't no picnic on anything much rougher than Clairefontaine. My little Merlin 33 is glassy smooth by comparison."

 

To this I have two comments; one being that a dip pen is a totally different beast then a fountain pen and its results should not be compared in any way shape or form to the discussion of nibs on a fountain pen. The second being that because they are simpler they may be better suited for the made up experiment that I presented above; their result should be less variable dependent and could even be more dramatic.

 

And the final thing I have left to say is in adoration of you and science.

You said, "it's quite possible that feel is dominated by nib material" and I have a different opinion. I love that despite this we are able to have a civil discussion with supporting statements and if in the end one of us is proven wrong we will respect that and congratulate the other on their brilliant mind (even if we continue to work on a theory the proves us right)!

Edited January 30, 2012 by kcoen52

[Zaphodbeeblebrox]

Here is my personal experience.

 

The cheap disposable Pilot Pen Varsity Fountain Pen has a steel nib = it is terrible, I mean awful.

The Lamy Al-Star has a Steel nib = it is alright but it is far from smooth.

The Montblanc Boheme Duo Gold, plated with rhodium I think = just about perfect (to me) the best, buttery smooth.

The Visonti Rembrandt has a steel nib = probably smoother than some gold nibs (no data to back this up)

 

Try out pens that had steel nibs and gold nibs and choose one that you like in your price range and you will be happy. You can not try out nibs via the web that is why it is so important to support your local pen botique, I just wish there was one near me.

 

Cramer

[max dog]

Steel nibs can be as good as gold nibs, but gold nibs are often made with better care and attention because more cost goes into making it for the higher end pen lines. There is only so much the market will bear for a good steel nibbed fountain pen. If the cost of a pen with a steel nib is too high, no matter how good it is, people will generally go for a gold nibbed pen for the same price. Hence steel nibs get a bad rap, and their true potential is not realized.

Edited January 30, 2012 by max dog

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some very good steel nibs are as good as some very good gold nibs.

I have both vintage Osmia Supra nibs and their regular nibs in gold and steel and both are equally as good. The Supra are 'flexi', one of the regular nibs is 'flexi' also, the rest of the regular nibs are semi-flex.

 

Osmia made very good nibs. Osmia was once one of the big 5 German pen companies. Soennecken, Kaweco, MB, Osmia and Pelikan. My Osmia steel nibs are as good as anything I have.

 

I can see that with modern nibs, gold could well make a difference. I don't see how it could make a difference in nails though.

Edited January 30, 2012 by Bo Bo Olson