The nibs of Imperial II Deluxe are probably not PdAg nibs, confirmed by EDS

[Boiling Black Coffee]

Result first: the nibs of Imperial II Deluxe are probably not PdAg nibs, at least some of them are confirmed to be stainless steel nibs.

 

The components of Sheaffer Snorkel PdAg nibs are about 50% silver, 30% palladium, 10% gold and 10% copper, in mass (maybe?), analyzed by a handheld alloy analyzer by a predecessor in a Chinese forum 10 years ago. However, the components of the nib of Imperial II Deluxe are still not clear and debatable. Authoritative Sheaffertarga declares it to be a PdAg nib, not only Imperial II Deluxe, but also normal Imperial II, while some others claim it to be a stainless steel nib. I bought three Imperial II Deluxes last year, so let me make an end of the argument.

 

Not touchdown Imperial II Deluxe, but cartridge edition, defined by the chalk mark "C" on the barrels and boxes. Deluxe is not marked, maybe the caps are not original, but three NOS-level pens are the same, so no "Deluxe" mark might be a common phenomenon. Anyway, no matter what my pens are, the result of stainless steel nib is contrary to the statement of Sheaffertarga, the provided information on PdAg nib could be wrong.

 

Screwed off the nibs and pasted them onto sample stage, and used an energy disperse spectroscopy installed Tescan Vega 3 scanning microscope to analyze the components.

It is worth noting that EDS is qualitative and semi-quantitive, the content of elements is not very accurate.

Three areas on each nib were detected, and the results are similar, typical one is presented above without any processing. The Chinese in the table are elements, atomicity, line, value, mass, normalized mass and atom, from left to right.

The nibs are mainly made of iron, chromium and nickel, typically elements of stainless steel, no palladium, no silver at all, so definitely not PdAg nibs. Maybe part of Imperial II Deluxes installed with PdAg nibs, but at least not all of them are PdAg nibs, and probably all of them are stainless steel nibs, in my opinion.

Certainly, the sample size is rather limited, more samples are welcomed.

However, I am in China, so just saying. I will examine some other nibs in the future, tell me if you are interested in any nib (Sheaffer only), maybe I have one.

 

BTW, the tips of nibs are made of ruthenium, tungsten and cobalt.

[Mr.Rene]

👍👏👏👏

Regards.