Comment by ralph | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ralph | Hacker News Reader

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Thanks snogglethorpe, that reinforces an opinion I read a while ago when I last looked into this; modern manufactured nibs are steel with little yield and an old gold one can be a better buy for the price. Also, only the Japanese still bother with making old-quality nibs but at a huge price, e.g. the top ones tailor it after having seen you writing. :-)

I've seen nibs for dip pens in the local art-supplies shop, including drawing and map-making nibs, but it's just not practical so I haven't even tried them to see if they're what I want. If they were, I'm puzzled why they have to be dip-only, presumably a fountain nib works differently?

Having searched a little it seems 14K gold alloy is best, but modern rules mean it can't be labelled gold so isn't manufactured any more. http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/ttp/materials.htm

I'm no expert, but this is my impression based on seeing and using lots of nibs :):

Most drawing / calligraphy nibs only work well when you're pulling the pen (e.g. try pushing with a pointed nib, and you'll quickly tear up the paper or break the nib). Because of this, they can be of fairly simple construction, made of flat uniformly thin metal (generally just steel AFAICT). As they're relatively cheap and easily replaceable, it's not a huge deal if a nib breaks, you just put in a new one, and you're not out too much money.

Fountain pens, on the other hand, have to work reasonably well when pushing the pen too, so you can't really make them entirely out of thin flexible metal. Together with a more complex ink delivery mechanism, the nibs seem inherently more expensive, and so tend to be part of the pen rather than a disposable part (I imagine the average person who just wants to write his stuff wouldn't be very happy if they had to constantly replace the nib either). By making them out of relatively stiff metal, you can sort of avoid some of the problems while still using cheapish construction. I don't know why gold is better offhand, but I imagine it may be better able to put up with the forces involved when the nib is thinner and more fleixble, without breaking.

Ah, the "pulling" issue hadn't occurred to me.

Gold is good because it's flexible but pure gold is too soft and wears too easily so an alloy is used. 14K gold alloy seems to be the sweet spot between flexing and durability, modern 18K loses the former.

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