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DWL · ***

Favorite vintage nibs

Chthulhu · Rawr.

Best vintage nib for me has been the one on my Vacumatic, an EF in fact if not in markings. After that I have to go modern to the M nib on my Parker Reflex, the unmarked M on a BIC XPen, and an M italic on a Sheaffer Viewpoint. With come cheap brown ink, that BIC (probably Stypen) nib is one of the smoothest things I've ever felt, and the Reflex is a close second.

jar · Seasoned

Sticking with the definition of vintage = pre 1980... (I really have a problem with that. Things I bought new should not be considered vintage)

A Sheaffer OS Balance medium. Absolutely the smoothest nib I have ever found on an older pen. It had been my Grandfathers pen and also was an example of the strange stories in life.
Parker Senior Vacumatic fine. Yet another pen that seemed to come alive in my hand. It wrote the first few poems I actually sold for cash money.
A Waterman Concorde. Slimmer pen than I usually like yet another that surprised me.
Sheaffer Senior Flattop. Surprisingly it has more flex than expected. Also it is an almost perfect Jade green with only the slightest ambering beneath the cap near the section.
An American Pencil Company "Venus Hooded Nib". Many, this pen still is a wonder, smooth, reliable, responsive and subdued.

Chthulhu · Rawr.

For my money, "vintage" means "the year the grapes in this wine were pressed" and nothing else.

I divide my pens into "pens more than fifty years old" and "everything else."

diplomat · Experienced

Chthulhu wrote:

For my money, "vintage" means "the year the grapes in this wine were pressed" and nothing else.

I divide my pens into "pens more than fifty years old" and "everything else."

I think that this is a personal choice. But I like the 1980 as watershed. It should be a moving watershed however.

At the end of the day vintage reminds me vingt (20 in french) and age. So 20 years is ok to me ;)

�

Rlowenote · Newbie

"Vintage" is one of those words with many different meanings. I like Mike's idea pertaining to wine. My oldest vintage wine is 1974. My idea of vintage pens are "older than me", since I'm not "vintage" yet. In the bicycle world (road & track) it's usually pre 80's (in my small circle of friends). The word gets thrown around on ebay along with "rare", "mint" etc. Many different meanings.

Back on topic though, I haven't met a Sheaffer Triumph Nib I didn't like. Might be because they are harder to screw up.� I don't know enough about other nibs yet, but I'm sure I'll find out sooner or later.

Ralph

DWL · ***

Rlowenote wrote:

"Vintage" is one of those words with many different meanings. I like Mike's idea pertaining to wine. My oldest vintage wine is 1974. My idea of vintage pens are "older than me", since I'm not "vintage" yet. In the bicycle world (road & track) it's usually pre 80's (in my small circle of friends). The word gets thrown around on ebay along with "rare", "mint" etc. Many different meanings.

Back on topic though, I haven't met a Sheaffer Triumph Nib I didn't like. Might be because they are harder to screw up.� I don't know enough about other nibs yet, but I'm sure I'll find out sooner or later.

Ralph

What nibs besides triumphs have you tried? liked didnt like?

Rlowenote · Newbie

My biggest problem is that most older pens that I've acquired have nibs that are worn down and scratchy. I'm a leftie underwriter and many are worn from right hand usage. I can sometimes realign the nibs, but smoothing them is another area I've not got under control.

Many of the Wearever pens (especially cheapos) write pretty good, even when they have been sprung and massaged back into writing mode. I haven't tried any of my "moldy" NOS Pennants yet as I'm gearing up to clean them.

I have one (only) Parker 51 that is pretty nice and several P-45's as well that are ok. The Esterbrooks are handy with the Renew Point and I have some new nibs going too. The Phileas pens are not vintage, but smooth. Chinese pens are not vintage either, but no real complaints and are nice fine liners.

My New Banker nib (bulb fill) is pretty good and my Windsor (syringe) also, but I have to watch my pen angle with these. I'm really liking these two filling systems and want to get more of them. I've got a syringe filler I'm trying to take apart without much success. I'm waiting on an Ultrasonic machine with the hopes that it will help. Otherwise when I get up to sending something out (maybe a Sheaffer Vac-filler) I'll ship it along for disassembly as well.

But I always go back to the Triumphs since I don't need to mess around finding the "sweet spot".� Touchdowns are my favorite since I have better luck repairing them�since �they are simpler (and usually cheaper).

Ralph

Highbinder · Seasoned

From my limited experience, and my default, this Sheaffer gold lifetime F nib is awesome. Apart from that.. not much to go on. I keep watching esties on ebay, and have my eye on one with an oblique nib at the moment. Might bite the bullet and bid..

georges zaslavsky · Experienced

the 1924-1927 duofold nibs are some of the best nibs you can get they are large and came in a variety of sizes and flex grades
the 1936 sheaffer balance lifetime nibs who over time prove to be superb writers ideal for carbon copies and writing on rough surfaces as well
vintage french made parkers of the late 40's-early 50's, often monotone yellow gold nib written parker 18cts made in france very flexible nibs
1937-1947 parker vacumatic oversize and maxima nibs
1966-1979 MB 149 nibs especially the 14ct 585 or the 18ct 750 made for the french market
1971-1986 MB 146 nibs especially the 14ct 585 or the 18ct 750 made for the french market
1983-1989 waterman le man 100 first generation of nibs
1989-1994 waterman le man 100 second generation of nibs

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

I'm just starting to learn about nibs. I have a OB 14 K on a Pelikan 140 that I love writing with, how flexible it is I don't know. Lack of experence.

I have a Old black Merciedies Pen, 1950 perhaps, with a flexible nib, OF. It writes if used very light, any pressure it's scratchy....going to have it looked at...could be it can be adjusted by some one with experence. I'd like to make magic with it.

Got a steel nib on a 1928 pen coming that I have hopes for....it's from a time where flexible nibs were.

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

The "1928" which could be a few years later, did not have any even a semi-flex nib.

I now have a Soennecken 14 K wet noodle, that needs re-tipping....the pen it came with was not a Soennecken...so I got the pen at the price of the nib....@$26. It will cost me $60 for the re-tipping.

Since the last post I have learned the difference between semi-flex and flex. I have 7 or 8 semi flex.

The14 K OB Pelikan 140 is semi-flex.

I have a semi-flex MB 234 1/2 14 K KOB, semi-flex, nib wise those two are fighting it out with the Pel-OB for my number one. Pen wise, the MB is perhaps my best balanced.

I have a Pelikan 400NN semi-flex 14 K OF from 1956..the only year Pelikan was so dumb as to make friction feed.

Geha 790 semi-flex 14 KM.

A M semi-flex Steel Osmia Supra, on an Osmia-Farber-Castell 540...still needing piston repair.

I have a no name "Clipper" NOS that looks a bit like a Geha stripped rose and black. The pen has "Clipper" on it in gold and a "Clipper" air plane in a circle 14 K M semi-flex nib.

From the same no name manufacturer, I have a cheap cracked ice, black and gold with a either max-semi-flex, or grade one Flex. It has a the marking 14K 585, above a Lion's head in a circle with a small 57 in a circle under it, between three triangles left, right and down.
I don't know who made the nib. It too needs piston repair.

I have a steel Fine from a Pelikan 120 that is a joy to write with, and it not semi-flex.

That Mercedes OF still needs looking after...but on a budget one can buy or fix....and I'm still hooked on buying.

Sem · Newbie

I'm a fan of 1940s Swan nibs, especially the smaller sizes, #1 and #2. They vary from semi-flex to very flexible indeed. Some other manufacters' nibs are made flexible by thinning the metal greatly in front of the breather hole. That works well but does make them easy to spring or crack. Swan nibs are pretty robust. The flex arises - so far as I can see - from thinning the nib from side to side, rather than from front to back, so they put up with a little pressure better.

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

Thank you Sem, Swan nibs, #1 or #2....are now on a buy list....

Got any other tips on Swan nibs.....or Swan pens. I know absolutely nothing about Swans. Is there a Swan com, like there is an Esterbrook com?

Have started looking at Swan's on English Ebay...will have to look quite a while before I get an idea of what is what. There were some real fine looking ones.... But I'm only interested in Flexible nibs.

-- Edited by Bo Bo Olson on Friday 11th of June 2010 04:00:42 AM

Sem · Newbie

Sadly, there's no authoritative site that I know of devoted to Swan pens. One started a few years ago but it seems never to have been developed.

You can find good flex in any size of Swan nib but it is more common in the smaller sizes. If you want flex, avoid Swan Eternal nibs as they're rigid. You'll quite often find a Swan pen fitted with a Phillips nib. Phillips were an accredited Swan repairer who fitted their own nibs and they're mostly hard as nails too, though there is the occasional exception.

Some eBay sellers of restored pens include writing samples or descriptions of the writing qualities of the nibs. That removes the guess-work and possible disappointment. It's a pity more sellers don't do it.

It's easier to get me started talking about Mabie Todd pens than to get me stopped. As a restorer I'd rather work on a Swan or a Blackbird than anything else. The quality of manufacture is very high and it's consistent, so you always know what you're going to get when you disassemble a Swan. Right from the early New York-made eyedroppers all the way to the early fifties, they're superb pens. The very last ones made after the company was taken over by Biro show a falling off in quality but up to that point they're all good.

The Swan numbering system changed a couple of times, so it's easier to asses a Swan by description rather than number. The self-filling (lever) pens are reliable. Leverless pens are excellent if serviced properly but many aren't. Visofils are beautiful, expensive and a little fragile. Early Calligraphs are excellent pens but the later ones - among the last the company produced - can be disappointing.

That's a start for you. One of the many good things about Swan pens is that there are hundreds of different models and you can spend your whole life learning about them.

Regards,
Sem

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

Thank you Sem,
Copied to my Swan file.

Too bad I'd not gotten back to this com in such a long time.
I'd spent the last week looking for Swan pens.
A man had written up some work up to start of WW2, but had not done anything on the post war.

Having read how complicated the attempts to get around patents had made the pens, I'd tended to ignore the more complicated ones of the 30's.

I was looking for a middle Flexible, medium.

I got sniped by 20 cents on a pretty one I'd wanted. Don't remember now which one it was after all it was days ago. I think it was a Lever filler, still a pretty one, from right after the war. I'd lost another '38-40 one too, but that one didn't hurt so much, because I was beaten fair and square by a much bigger bid.

I had read up on Conway Stewart too, finding that they normally had normal nibs...how ever there was a beautiful 27 red Herringbone, I wanted enough to say The Nib could wait.

Soon even before the last day, the price had reached my border. It is on my pens to buy, now though. The price though for me high, was fair. A most beautiful and Gentlemanly pattern.

Going from My Ebay to Mein EBay, I needed to get out of My Ebay, into a search, and go down to the bottom of the page to change countries.

To my vast surprise having not even put Geha in search in either country like normal, there was a Geha Goldschwing, at still affordable prices with only 6 hours to go.

The Goldschwing goes for 99 Euro minor 'normal' thin cap crack to 150 if the cap is not cracked

37.85 pounds is some 45 Euro ($56)....and I got it by 20 cents with no sniping...For a second I thought I had it at 28 pounds, but I got Einstein'ed by a snipe program. The Longest Second, not involving physical pain.

So ended my week of hard looking at Swan's, Blackbirds, and Conway Stewart's....with another black and gold German piston filler.....one I never thought to own, a Rolled Gold trim, Geha GoldSchwing 14 K nib.
That was Geha's top of the line in the '70's. So I don't expect a semi-flex nib...but one can hope of course.
I didn't even have time to get an answer back of what size the nib was....Don't care for once.

I saw an ad from I think the late 60's or '70's, where they had a price of "DM 375" or so, which was very dammed Expensive for a German pen, the upper MB level. Price then at $90 real silver Dollars (late 60's), or $125 Nixon Inflation Dollars* ('72 or later)...back when minimum wage was $1.25-1.50.

* Same inflation dollars still being used now at a lesser worth...vs the Euro.

Thank god for World Cup Soccer, or there would have been more bidding.

-- Edited by Bo Bo Olson on Monday 12th of July 2010 03:40:23 PM

-- Edited by Bo Bo Olson on Monday 12th of July 2010 03:40:58 PM

Sem · Newbie

Hi Bo Bo,

Just a word about Conway Stewart nibs - you're right, most are firm or semi-flex. A quick look at my records tells me I've restored around 70 Conway Stewarts over the last year and of those only three had exceptional nibs. There was one broad oblique, one medium stub and one a fine full flex. The full flex was a pre-war 286.

That's a decided lack of variety compared with Swans. Perhaps the Swan buyer was more of a penman and more ready to demand a nib that suited his writing style. Perhaps Conway Stewart's marketing style was more "mass-market" and less accommodating to the individual user's preferences.

I don't mean that as an adverse comment on Conway Stewarts. They're lovely pens and great writers, just a bit less varied in nibs.

Mahutr · Seasoned

Hi Bo Bo,

I own both Swans (a thin overlayed HR ED with #2 nib, and a HR thick leverless with a bigger one, I don't remember the nib's specs) and CS (the pen was originally made out of Casein, but I learnt about no soaking that later, so I had to adapt the section to another pen). All of them are flexible, and work terribly well but I end up inking them just very seldom. I can't explain why, it just happens.

Rgds.

Martin

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

Since the last time I was here....I learned a lot.

I had a Rupp nib on a no name black and gold cracked ice. Needing a new cork...I have a 12 or so of them needing new corks...either no name -50's or 40's and late '30's pens.
That Rupp nib was maxi-semi-flex. biggrin

It fit one of my 'Clippper' piston pens.

Spread it's tines only three times like a hard pressed regular flex or the semi-flex when you put the half that pressure on to do the same spread. The Rupp did that with half the pressure of a semi-flex.

At first I called that Rupp nib a maxi-semi-flex.
Then doing a bit of reading found it to be Slightly Flexible.

Once one has the experience, one can see other nibs are also Slightly Flexible.
For me, Slightly Flexible gives still only three times the nib spread, but nice and easy. One can write with it normal, but the 'normal' writing also gives it good line variation. smile

My original pen that started my collecting (outside the Esterbrook), was an Osmia-Farber Castell 540 with a steel Supra M nib.(55?) I'd as noobie thought it a wet writer...then the cork died after six weeks.
After I got my first 'mythical' semi-flex the Pelikan 140 OB...I found the 540 to be a semi-flex.

After the decision that the Rupp was a Slightly Flexible nib....so was that 540.

So was a Pelikan '56 400NN OF.

There had been a couple of other Osmia nibs/pens and another German 'no name' pen or two I had needing corks, were also Slightly Flexible.
I think I have 7 of them now. In that I don't test my pens needing corks, just dip them...I'll go with think right now.

I have found out that a Full Flexible nib, that spreads 4-5 times it's start, can be easier than a Slightly Flexible to spread it's tines, or even just semi-flex in pressure needed.
I'd read what an expert said....and a dead cork pen had a harder to press Full Flexible Bock nib, but was Fully Flexible.

Fully Flexible is a step down from Wet Noodles, which I'm not ready for yet. I have one and some Dip pen nibs, in both Full Flexible and Wet Noodle.

Well, I'm now in the market 'when my money bush makes it's spring migration over the alps', for Swan Flexi nibs, and Swan Full Flex nibs.
That is the easiest pen for me in Europe to find those kind of nibs.
Waterman are a bit harder for me to find.

I read that MB had 'Flexi' nibs from 52-65.
I have one nice KOB semi-flex from '55 on a 234 1/2 Delux (52-55 only)

My two good Pelikans the 140 and 400NN are from '56-65.

I have a Geha 725 from '68-72 with a semi-flex nib...but it is my impression German pens stopped having the great nibs basicly in '65. I have two Geha 790's and a Geha OB nib from the early '60's.

So for German pens to me...Vintage is '65 and before.

I'd cut off Vintage no mater what pen company as soon as that company stopped making semi-flex nibs...and Modern Pelikan 1000 or 149's are springy, not semi-flex.

So I have a lot of work to go to say, Sheaffer stopped @ this year making good nibs...good nibs meaning semi-flex or better....or Parker or Waterman stopped at the end of this or that or middle of this or that decade.

Vinatage stopped when the good semi-flex nibs stopped. hmm

I will admit I'd take a '80's 800, that is a very nice springy nib...but it's not a 'vintage' pen.

Bo Bo Olson · Seasoned

That scratchy OF Mercedes is not scratchy...I just didn't have it cranked to 30 Degres. When I cranked it over a bit more, it worked just fine.

Since the last time I've added no nibs better than I have.

I have a Rusewe Spezial @1955 ...An Austrian pen a very attrative green and black stripped pen, with a nice semi-flex Fine. It was NOS and the cork needs to be soaked on such pens. A NOS dry cork can die too.
It did not die, but perhaps I should have soaked it in water before inking it.
Just in case you run into a NOS cork pen.

-- Edited by Bo Bo Olson on Wednesday 15th of June 2011 01:52:01 PM