Nibs With Osmium, Ruthenium, Platinum Or Electrum?

[OMASsimo]

Whew! As a metallurgist who did a PhD on defects in platinum, I'm glad that you made your contribution in this discussion.

 

Since you are a specialist on platinum, obviously, do you have an explanation why it wasn't used for nibs except for some odd exceptions?

 

Here are some very interesting pages about the topic of nib materials and tipping alloys:

 

http://www.richardspens.com/ref/ttp/materials.htm

 

http://www.nibs.com/blog/nibster-writes/wheres-iridium

 

And a follow-up:

 

http://www.nibs.com/blog/nibster-writes/how-can-we-talk-about-iridium

 

One day, maybe once I'm retired, I shall research what was the content of the patent that Osmia held on it's special tipping material. For me it looks like most first tier companies used the naturally occurring osmiridium alloys before engineered alloys became available during the 1930s and 1940s. And once again, the US companies, especially Sheaffer, seemed to be ahead of the European ones.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some great links, especially the last two. Those I'd seen before and forgot....should put that in a link folder.