Visconti Palladium Nibs

[delvecchio]

Or, to put it in plain words, stop making it so hard for people to spend money on your pens!

 

??

Gost say in other words I cannot catch you

 

People who would like to spend money on your pens have a hard time getting information from your site. Or even those who DO buy, find misinformation on how to fill the pens or even use them. You really need something similar to this: http://www.gouletpens.com/Fountain_of_Knowledge_s/1130.htm

Only it needs to be specific to YOUR pens.

 

Then set up the website so that it shows each pen available as well as all the nibs available for that pen. Do NOT take information about your older pens off the site, as many of us are only able to obtain some models when the pens are 10 years old or more.

 

Make it VERY easy for people to find and buy your pens. Make sure they learn what sets them apart and makes them innovative. Then show them how wonderful they are. Once we see them, understand them, and appreciate them, we fall in love and BUY.

 

Those beautiful nibs and ALL the wonderful sizes they come in are a huge selling point for Visconti.

 

Even though I used fountain pens my entire life, I never collected them until I bought a B nibbed Pericle. It was YOUR pens that became an addiction. But I not because I walked into a pen store. They don't exist here! I had to order one off the internet and use it for myself. THAT is the reality of most sales here in the U.S.

 

Not every person who uses a Visconti will buy 40 or more. :embarrassed_smile: But until you convince them to try one, they will not buy the higher end pens. I own 6 Ripples today. And all because of that one decision to try a Pericle, which was the most expensive pen I'd ever bought until then.

 

I bought your pens in spite of the lack of marketing once I tried one. But it took me years to track them down and learn what nibs were available and what size I preferred. If I had more information about your pens earlier [these were the years before Ken Jones and Bryant Greer], I would have even more.

 

Don't make it so difficult!

 

Gost I promise you that your words will not be wasted, give me some time.

 

In the last few yers , notwithstanding the international crises and the disappear of so many pen dealers our business increased. The roblem is the fragmentation of the markets and manage 5/6 languages and at least 4 religions.

Is not easy to keep under control all these.

But you are right , the world business is turning into internet with all advantages and problems connected.

Edited June 8, 2012 by delvecchio

[simp]

 

As I mentioned in the Did Visconti Really Stop Making Gold Nibs? thread, I've tried almost every Pd nib -- in a Homo Sapiens calligraphy kit. While almost all were soft, I find them "mushy" soft -- the tines open and close easily but slowly. They lack the quick close -- the quick recoil -- of vintage flex nibs. Nonetheless that's true of all the current nibs I've tried marketed (or not) as "flexible", i.e. Visconti Pd, Stipula Ti, Sailor (I think on a Falcon), Omas Extra Flessible 14K, Omas Emotica Ti, and Omas T2 Ti.

 

On the other hand almost all the Visconti Pd EF nibs I tried were very rigid, and the F and EFs wrote as nearly wide as the M. (The only EF Pd nib I tried that was super rigid and wrote like a old Visconti EF was at the showroom in Florence.)

I tried F nibs Pilot Falcon, Stipula Ti, Delta Ti, and the small version of the HS steel.

 

The last one was the more flexible of the set. But it was also a lot more a medium like other "italian" version, if compared with the Pilot one.

 

 

-----

Simone, the best modern nibs I've tried and own that come close to vintage flex and semi-flex nibs are the old inhouse Omas 14K nibs before they switched to 18K -- I suspect they 1980s-early 1990s production. Comparible, but just a bit short, of the Extra Lucens nibs. Dai, al prossimo penshow ACPS a BO, se mi ricordo, porterò una.

I just saw that nib, but it was unmounted and I could not test it. I'll wait for Bologna!

 

Simone

[Ghost Plane]

Dante, we'll help all we can. It's lovely that you're here to learn what we love about your pens and what could be improved.

 

And I think you're under counting religions - Baha'i, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Zorastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan...I'm forgetting a few :hmm1:

 

That's the great thing about FPN - we have a little of everything! There's always someone from the country you need who can read and write the language you want.

[eric47]

-----

Simone, the best modern nibs I've tried and own that come close to vintage flex and semi-flex nibs are the old inhouse Omas 14K nibs before they switched to 18K -- I suspect they 1980s-early 1990s production. Comparible, but just a bit short, of the Extra Lucens nibs. Dai, al prossimo penshow ACPS a BO, se mi ricordo, porterò una.

I just saw that nib, but it was unmounted and I could not test it. I'll wait for Bologna!

Simone

 

There was an unmounted 14K for sale?!? Next time, you have to tell me these things, rather than inspecting Dorics with a loupe while Fabio and I watch and puff away. That one isn't mine. The best one I have came on an Omas Alma Mater; I have another good one on a Milord.

 

Usually the 14Ks on the Omas Italia 90 are good semi-flex/flex nibs, and you can usually find the green ones easily. I only a blue (azzurro) Italia 90, and for some reason I'm not inking it. :roflmho:

Edited June 9, 2012 by eric47

[fabrimedeiros]

I have two Visconti Pd 1.3mm stub and I love the way them write.

 

For people that dont know Visconti Pd nibs and want to try, I cant say Pd stub as flexible. If we use the flex scale: stiff - soft- semiflex- flex- wetnoodle , I can say the Pd stub is something between stiff and soft, but never semi-flex. I cant say so much about other Pd sizes if they are more flexible, however I tried once a friend's F pen (Homo Sapiens) and I think it was not so different.

[simp]

There was an unmounted 14K for sale?!? Next time, you have to tell me these things, rather than inspecting Dorics with a loupe while Fabio and I watch and puff away. That one isn't mine. The best one I have came on an Omas Alma Mater; I have another good one on a Milord.

No, I saw it many years ago, Vittorio showed me. I think it was when Omas started producing them... but I cannot remember.

 

Simone

 

PS I still prefer Dorics...

[eric47]

PS I still prefer Dorics...

 

Nobody's perfect. :roflmho:

[bizhe]

I would echo Ghost Plane's remarks about the value of a virtual internet presence. Many fountain pen customers are well, geeks.

[pilotheinrich]

+++ To Ghost Plane's suggestions and a big THANKS to Dante for posting on this site.

 

To elaborate more on GP's request: I am fortunate to live in a big city in the States with at least three brick and mortar pen shops nearby. But to find anything other than the Homo Sapiens or the entry-level Van Goghs or Rembrants is near impossible.

 

To make matter worse, the staff and even owners of these shops know little about brands other than MB, Pelikan, and some others. And good luck getting anything in a pen other than a fine or medium nib in these places. Yes they are friendly and let you try the various pens, which is very nice. But I have had to educate THEM about Visconti's line, fill technology, the Pd nibs, the stubs, etc. Even though in this economy they are offering good deals, I often have to go back to Susanna's or Bryant's sites to get the information I need about the pens, have a good selection of nibs, and then make my purchase.

 

I know Visconti is going to get a new web site, and I can't wait for that!

[toes]

I tried several palladium nibs which are far to be truely flexible as were and are nibs from the older mb 149 nibs from the 50's-late 70's or m 1000 or omas paragon extra flessible nibs. The palladium nib is soft but it can't be used as a flex nib. The only palladium nibbed model that got close to my older vintage 149s was the very very limited arachnis made for Mr Mora's shop to 5 examples.

 

Of course the palladium nibs are not really flexible nibs, they were not designed to be flexible, the opening and closing of the tines is solely related to the malleable properties of 23k palladium. It is only a consequence of the material used in the nib. This is soft material is very undesireable in an EF size as the tipping keeps opening up and you wind up writing a heavier line over time. Well designed flexible nibs have heavier material towards the tiping and thinner material along about 2/3 of the slot length, the breather hole, and the shoulder of the nib. Where the material is thinner can be seen on the bottom of the nib in front of the feed. The shape of this swage mark was very important to the operation of the flex nib. It radiates the force of the kinetic energy stored in the nib when writing on the down stroke tangentially to the shoulder of the nib causing it rotate, or fold inward toward the feed. This causes the outside of bottom of the nib to rotate inward and the center line along the slot to rotate outward on the topside. So as this transpires the tippiing on the bottom, or writing side rolls slightly inward getting the tipping off of it's edges. At the same time the top of the tines are rolling outwards. Modern nibs are not swaged the way older nibs were so if you just just remove material with a grinder from the underside of the nib, the tipping may not rotate causing EF nibs to write scatchy. So if someone grinds your nib and then tells you that flex nibs are just scratchy because they are flex nibs you may want to consider what is happening mechanically in a flex nib. I have a few dozen antique pens with flex nibs and they write without being scratchy and hold their shape. I have never seen these details on modern nibs. Don't get me wrong you can overdive a flex nib and spring it. But on a palladium nib as pure as these it will just happen. I have bought seven of these so far in EF because I can't get gold anymore and have just decided to give up on them. I have 3 Viscontis that write great, 2 have 18k EEF nibs and one now has a size 18 Watermans 100 year nib on it.

[mhphoto]

This thread is a very interesting read!

[TheDutchGuy]

This thread is a very interesting read!

And six years later it still is. Very informative.