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Bock make Loom nibs. Are Bock's own nibs as bad as nibs they make for Faber?


EntonCorquhoy

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Greetings.

 

The medium nib on my Faber Loom is the worst nib I've ever used. And I've used some of Alibaba's nastiest shrapnel. But the Loom makes a noise like a metal pencil with a tinny high frequency hiss over it. Worse still, the feel of it on the page is like the sound of it in the ear and it goes straight through me. Clawed-blackboard-style. Certain types of felt tips used to have a similar effect on me. But this is the only fountain pen nib to ever do it.

 

So I want to replace it, and friends recommended Bock. Except today I've read that the nib which makes my Loom misery for me is also made by Bock.

 

Bock's-own users out there, can you tell me if the pencilly sensation sounds about right for your steel Bock nib?

 

Thanks very much.

 

Enton

 

 

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Maybe there's something wrong with your Loom. I have several, as well as other models with that style nib and really like them. They're particularly good for drawing because the pen can be laid almost flat to create a wash or shading with the back of the nib. They don't hard start either cos FCs seal well - that's notable because here in Western Australia it's particularly hot and dry so most pens don't.

Will work for pens... :unsure:

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Anecdotally, I haven't had that problem (or any other) with any Bock nib that I have ordered (usually from FPNibs in Spain) nor with the nib in the Loom pen that I used to own (sold for practical reasons not related to the nib). I know things change, but Faber Castell steel-nibbed pens have had an excellent reputation for smoothness. 

 

Of course, nibs should always work perfectly out of the box, but that doesn't always happen even with the best manufacturers. Before condemning two companies (Faber Castell and Bock) based on one nib, it might be fair to have someone with experience look at it with a loupe. Perhaps it will turn out to be something that is relatively easy to fix, like the tines out of alignment. 

 

 

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From what I remember, the nibs on these pens are made by Jowo. 

 

It is the nibs on the Graf von Faber Castell pens that are made by Bock. 

 

In any case, my loom nibs also whistle and I enjoy it. 

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You must have been unlucky. I have a Faber-Castell Ambition and its nib is exceptionally good. I have tried another Ambition from a friend and I say the same thing. But then there are numerous reviews that say the same thing. 
I really like the Bock, but they are in no way better than the Faber-Castell ones (I think they are Jowo). All the Jowo nibs I own (Kaweco Perkeo, Online College, Hörner Terra, Diplomat Traveller and Faber-Castell Ambition) are above average, no matter if they are cheap or expensive pens.

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34 minutes ago, Azulado said:

All the Jowo nibs I own (Kaweco Perkeo, Online College, Hörner Terra, Diplomat Traveller and Faber-Castell Ambition) are above average, no matter if they are cheap or expensive pens.

 

Anything Kaweco and anything Faber-Castell is certainly made by Bock, as can be attested by just examining the feeds and housings.

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21 hours ago, AmandaW said:

They don't hard start either cos FCs seal well

 

The Faber-Castell Loom fountain pens do. The Faber-Castell Ambition (and, from what I read, the Under) fountain pens don't.

 

23 hours ago, EntonCorquhoy said:

I've read that the nib which makes my Loom misery for me is also made by Bock.

 

Not that I'm aware. I thought the steel nibs on Faber-Castell fountain pens are manufactured by JoWo, while the nibs on higher-end Graf von Faber-Castell models are manufactured by Bock.

 

23 hours ago, EntonCorquhoy said:

Bock's-own users out there, can you tell me if the pencilly sensation sounds about right for your steel Bock nib?

 

Let's see.

  • Bock nib factory-fitted on my first-generation Leonardo Momento Zero: tipping material was cut asymmetrically, and the tips of the tines pressed hard against each other, so the tine with the larger (in both width and height) ‘half’ of the tipping would touch the paper surface first, then get pushed up by the reaction to the pen being pressed down, causing the walls of the tipping material along the nib slit to grate against each other and finally pop. No, that didn't feel ‘pencilly’.
  • Bock nib on my Moonman 800: wrote smoothly out-of-the-box, not ‘pencilly’, but too broadly for what I would expect of an F nib
  • Bock 1.1 nib on my Ranga model 8B: nothing to complain about, but being a a broad-edged nib, not ‘pencilly’.
  • Bock EF nib on my Admok J800: didn't write properly out-of-the-box, with retarded ink flow, and was scratchy to the point of lacerating the paper surface. No, I wouldn't call that ‘pencilly’ either.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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13 minutes ago, lamarax said:

Todo lo que es de Kaweco o de Faber-Castell está ciertamente fabricado por Bock, como se puede comprobar simplemente examinando los alimentadores y las carcasas.

The housings and feeds do not have any engraved markings. How do you know? Actually, Faber-Castell is on Bock's customer list. But many, many pen aficionados claim that Jowo equips Faber-Castell. There is a list from 2015 that says FC uses Jowo and GVFC Bock. To my knowledge, Faber-Castell has not disclosed this issue. It is all pure conjecture. 

 

https://danielpi.com/fountain-pens/2015/12/1/nibs-and-who-makes-them

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13 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Let's see.

  • Bock nib factory-fitted on my first-generation Leonardo Momento Zero: tipping material was cut asymmetrically, and the tips of the tines pressed hard against each other, so the tine with the larger (in both width and height) ‘half’ of the tipping would touch the paper surface first, then get pushed up by the reaction to the pen being pressed down, causing the walls of the tipping material along the nib slit to grate against each other and finally pop. No, that didn't feel ‘pencilly’.
  • Bock nib on my Moonman 800: wrote smoothly out-of-the-box, not ‘pencilly’, but too broadly for what I would expect of an F nib
  • Bock 1.1 nib on my Ranga model 8B: nothing to complain about, but being a a broad-edged nib, not ‘pencilly’.
  • Bock EF nib on my Admok J800: didn't write properly out-of-the-box, with retarded ink flow, and was scratchy to the point of lacerating the paper surface. No, I wouldn't call that ‘pencilly’ either.

 

Many thanks, A Smug Dill (clearly misnamed). Exactly the kind of info I was looking for. The other thing I've drawn from this thread and from MKE's digest (thanks MKE!), Azulado's comment also, is that no-one has a clue who is responsible for the Faber Loom's nib. Thanks to Muddy Waters as well for confirming the whistling is a standard characteristic of Faber Loom nibs, not a rogue dud.

 

The logical thing to do now isn't to hire a nibmeister. Sorry Paul in SF, but I'm not inhibited by any similar reverence for this brand. When something is bad I trash it. And for someone who can't put up with tin whistling, the Loom nib is as bad as they get. Instead, I'll buy Bock, put it to the test, and report back.

 

Cheers everyone.

 

Enton

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Your case reminded me that something similar happened to me with a Jinhao X-750. I'm not bothered by the noises, most of them only noticeable in the silence of the early morning, but it did catch my attention that, when I put a short cartridge in the pen, the nib started to whistle strangely. The sound was mitigated by putting in a converter. The Loom has a large aluminium body. With a short cartridge, there is a very large gap which can contribute to the noise. 
I suggest you do some tests in order to find out what is causing the noise. As a test, I would put a very fine cotton gauze around the cartridge or the magazine. This is not a definitive solution, but to see to what extent the body cavity influences the noise. 
Also, there is another aspect you should take into account. You say the nib is noisy, but does it write well? If you put in a Bock nib, you are not going to enjoy the uniqueness of the Faber-Castell nib. It will be a common nib like many others. For that there was no point in buying a Faber-Castell.

I noticed that the polishing of the contact surface of the Ambition had a special feature, there are pores that optimise the flow. At first I feared it was corrosion, but a friend who also has an Ambition confirmed that his nib also had pores. Not only that, he told me that he had observed this feature in high-end nibs. 

Before you put a Bock and standardise the writing behaviour, I suggest you analyse all the factors that can cause the pen to whistle when writing. Have you tried different inks and papers? Maybe extracting the nib and feed from the housing will have a positive effect. I have a Kaweco DIA2 with a 1.1 nib which is louder on some papers than others. The ink also influences the noise. 
I am hypersensitive to very low frequencies, like those of an air conditioner. I know how the problem of acoustic frequencies can affect me. Noise can be neutralised by active control, using waves that neutralise the nuisance wave. Sometimes, in the early morning, when an air conditioner bothers me, the distant noise of a motorbike neutralises it. The normal ambient noise of the day should be enough to mask the whistling of the pen. However, if you write in the early hours of the morning or in a very quiet room, it is different. 

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