Why No Breather Hole On Fc Loom?

[Lovely_Pen]

I received a beautiful Faber Castell Loom for Christmas and I was just wondering why the nib doesn't have a breather hole? It's a beautiful and unique looking nib, but I just thought the lack of a hole was interesting. Anyone know??

 

I have noticed that when I remove the cap (to write), that there's little to no nib creep from the air pressure change--which I LOVE! My Safaris and Metropolitans have pretty substantial leakage whenever I remove the caps.

 

Thanks!

 

Sorry for the poor quality pic.

[rwilsonedn]

The quick answer is that there is no breather hole because there is no such thing as a breather hole. Vintage nibs have a hole drilled at the end of the slit as a stress relief, to prevent cracks from starting at the end of the slit and spreading into the nib. But there is no breathing involved. The hole has nothing to do with the capillary action that draws ink through the feed and into the slit on the nib. Some modern nibs still have the hole, either for stress relief or for decoration. But many modern pens, if they use nib materials that do not crack easily, have no hole drilled in them. A few have many holes, but purely for decoration.

ron

[jar]

"Breather holes" have never really been all that related to breathing or controlling air flow. The actual reason they existed was to decrease the chances of the nib splitting when used.

 

Nibs were split using a saw which generally left sharp corners at the end of the cut and the hole served the purpose of relieving stress.

 

Modern nibs are cut using a laser beam and so end in a semicircle naturally.

 

http://www.fototime.com/CFAB578D726599C/large.jpg

[Lovely_Pen]

Thanks, that's very interesting.. All my other pens have the hole, so I guess I just assumed that they needed one...

[Tweel]

I agree with the above regarding stress cracking. But didn't the breather hole actually serve as the system's air inlet on earlier, pre-c/c feeds (e.g. lining up with the larger feed channel, at the bottom of which were two or three ink fissures)?

[jar]

I agree with the above regarding stress cracking. But didn't the breather hole actually serve as the system's air inlet on earlier, pre-c/c feeds (e.g. lining up with the larger feed channel, at the bottom of which were two or three ink fissures)?

 

Remember that you are talking air when discussing "breather" and so a large hole is just not essential.

[Tweel]

True, although going in the other direction, I doubt that an old lever-filler (for example) without other air inlets would have worked very well with a hole-less nib slit. Seems like it would more prone to "glugging" air in through the slit, nib creep and dripping.

[Algester]

"Breather holes" have never really been all that related to breathing or controlling air flow. The actual reason they existed was to decrease the chances of the nib splitting when used.

 

Nibs were split using a saw which generally left sharp corners at the end of the cut and the hole served the purpose of relieving stress.

 

Modern nibs are cut using a laser beam and so end in a semicircle naturally.

 

http://www.fototime.com/CFAB578D726599C/large.jpg

 

actually the nibs still go under the saw to make the slit of course getting a saw with a microns thick for a kerf is already in the specialty zone, of course laser cutting also works but I'm not sure who uses them but F-C nibs are made by Schmidt as far as I know

and some people still like a breather hole in their nibs normally used when adding more flex especially if the feed is known to be dry

Edited December 30, 2014 by Algester

[kirchh]

The quick answer is that there is no breather hole because there is no such thing as a breather hole.

 

Do you have some sort of reference for this assertion?

 

--Daniel