Vintage Pens With Their Nibs, And A Brief Writing Sample

[christof]

SWAN Leverless, flex nib:

 

[SchaumburgSwan]

SWAN Leverless, flex nib:

 

 

Christof,

 

it is always a joy to see Your wonderful photos of nice pens. :-)

What model is this Swan? It looks like my 0160 but with a different cap...

 

Best

Jens

[fountainpen51]

Waterman 7 Pink without clip

[cunim]

SWAN Leverless, flex nib:

 

 

Great series of posts, Christof. Love this writing sample.

[cunim]

Waterman 7 Pink without clip

 

see so many conflicting reports about the pink. How about providing the writing sample, and telling us how it writes?

[AL01]

Lookin' good!!!

 

Keep on rolling 'em in!

[penwash]

I do one of this every week with different vintage pens

 

[cunim]

Here's a Gen 1 Doric, nice #5 Flexible nib, with a case of Doric rot that has caused the tip of the cap to shatter. Ink is MB Toffee Brown.

 

The quote? It's what I try to convince myself of while looking at the cap.

 

 

[fountainpen51]

 

see so many conflicting reports about the pink. How about providing the writing sample, and telling us how it writes?

For me he writes perfect, I suppose it all depends on the expectations you have about him. Of all I read, I just needed to read "write only", but there are no two seeds and Pink is not synonymous with Wet Noodle, this may be the confusion you refer to, so I'm talking about the nib that I have. It has a nice enough flexibility, it is not the softest I have, I would leave it in superflex, and it has a very good snapback. I do not like to take the flex to more than 1mm-1.2mm.

This was written by dipping the nib in the ink, Waterman Intense Black, so it is slightly wetter than normal.

[christof]

...another Swan with.....not a writing sample but a drawing sample:

 

 

C.

[markiv]

Christof, amazing assortment of nibs you shared here. I am intrigued by the drawing sample - what is the backstory?

 

...another Swan with.....not a writing sample but a drawing sample:

 

 

C.

[markiv]

If a genie grants me 3 wishes curing the rot would be one of my wishes.

 

Here's a Gen 1 Doric, nice #5 Flexible nib, with a case of Doric rot that has caused the tip of the cap to shatter. Ink is MB Toffee Brown.

 

The quote? It's what I try to convince myself of while looking at the cap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is mine...

[christof]

Christof, amazing assortment of nibs you shared here. I am intrigued by the drawing sample - what is the backstory?

 

There is no great story behind it, except my admiration for AD, the fascination for his work "Rhinocervs" and my obsession for Post-it sheets...

That's why I reduced the original wood cut print by AD (sized about about DINA3) to a sketch in the size of a Post-it. Just for fun, that's all.

c.

[77kath]

A relatively new acquisition

[77kath]

A relatively new acquisition

[cunim]

Staid and sober Waterman's 92 with another Victorian admonition from Kipling. I like to think of these phrases being drilled into certain politicians.

 

Kissinger said "Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad name". Hard to believe that little bon mot is from a Nixon confidant.

 

This nib is a decent semiflex, with fine hairlines, good snap back and enough line variation to add a bit of character. Its weakness is a tendency to railroad, but that could probably be tuned out. I give it a B.

 

As I keep playing with vintage nibs, I find many of them flex well but are mushy (soft and without much snap). It is the property of snapping back from flex that is the distinguishing feature of vintage vs modern flex, so many superflex or wet noodle vintage nibs are not really of much use. I place smooth tipping, snap and fine hairlines above softness and line variation in grading a flex nib.

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by cunim

[SchaumburgSwan]

Hi,

 

what about a 103-year-old Mabie Todd Swan? This old beauty found its way and arrived last weekend. It is a great pen!!!

 

First a writing sample:

 

 

 

The nib (not cleaned...)

 

 

 

Best

Jens

[cunim]

Wonderful pen, Jens.

[CS388]

Wow, that's some writer! Great pen!.

 

Fantastic nib. I wouldn't bother cleaning it, it looks good as it is.

If you do clean it and decide you want it to look like it did before, you'd have to wait the best part of 100 years!

 

Enjoy.

[penwash]