virgiliopoeta wrote:

If you will reread my post, the figures I gave
are for medium, open nibs, not small, hooded
nibs.

Verge... Jon weighed six of his Waterman #2 nibs and reported the
results. By saying "...the figures I gave are for medium, open nibs,
not small, hooded nibs," you seem to be implying that Waterman #2 nibs
are small, hooded nibs. Have you ever seen a Waterman #2 nib?

At all periods, even before the advent of the
stainless steel nib, the vast majority of nibs
have been made of steel, not gold. Anyone so
ignorant of pens as to dispute this need not be
taken seriously.

Jon mentioned, and you elected to ignore, some verifiable facts (this
appears to be one of your modi operandorum). I, too, have in front of
me Andreas Lambrou's Fountain Pens of World published in 1995 by
Classic Pens (London). As Jon mentioned, the following appears on page
39: "Waterman had dominated the market at the turn of century, when
seven out of ten fountain pens bore the company's trademark."

I'm sitting here with copies of old catalogs, Verge. Anyone can buy or
borrow copies (or dig up originals) and verify the following:

Number of steel-nibbed pens offered by Waterman in 1895, 1925, and
1933 = 0

Number of steel-nibbed pens offered by Conklin in 1909 and 1913 = 0

Number of steel-nibbed pens offered by Parker in 1921, 1938, 1939,
1940, and 1941 = 0

Number of steel-nibbed pens offered by Sheaffer in 1941 = 0

Number of steel-nibbed pens offered by Wahl in 1925 and 1929 = 0

And here's and excerpt from an article by Floyd Stuart that appears on
Richard Binder's site:

"As the world moved inexorably toward the next global conflict, an
irony appears involving fountain pens and gold. Today one rarely finds
a Japanese fountain pen made in the late 1930s or the 1940s that has
its original gold nib, even though during this period throughout the
world most nibs were made of a gold alloy."

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=re...war_and_fp.htm

Mr. Stuart's e-mail address is available in a link preceding the
article. You might want to contact him and let him know that he has
his facts wrong.

Seriously, Verge, the evidence is mounting and it ain't tilting in
your favor. Surely you must have some verifiable evidence of your own
to back up your claim that "At all periods ... the vast majority of
nibs have been made of steel, not gold." Now, I've provided verifiable
evidence that the company that dominated the fountain pen market at
the turn of the century didn't make steel-nibbed pens. Neither did
Conklin, Sheaffer, Parker, or Eversharp. Please tell us who was making
steel nibbed fountain pens during the late 1800s - early 1900s?

I make it a practice of replying only _once_ to
aggressive, ignorant or insulting correspondants.
I make an exception only when the fellow seems to
have something to contribute, or when I am in a
fey mood. You deserve _one_ reply merely for your
endless - although somewhat unreliable - weighing
of nibs.

You know, Verge, if you keep this up, we're going to have to start
charging you tuition. -- Cheers! B