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On Apr 10, 10:42 pm, "Brian Ketterling" tweel6...@no-potted-meat-
products-peoplepc.com wrote:
,

LarryW wrote:
I keep wondering if the pen I am thinking of, I am confusing for
something else. I cetainly remember the name Wearever. It may be
the
other that cost a whole dollar. Maybe the 29¢ paper cutter has a
different name that eludes my mind. The pen you describe closely
resembles the dollar pen I often could not afford to replace. Any
ideas [names] of some popular cheapo brands sold from early to mid
50's?

I'm not sure, right off the bat. Wearever was kind of the "American
BiC" offountainpens-- they cranked out millions ofpens, and they were
inexpensive. They very well could have madepenslike you described,
that
I'm just not aware of. All of the lower-rangeRenew-Points that
Esterbrook
put on theirpenswere either untipped (like their "flexible" #2048)
or had
folded tips, but Esterbrooks are pretty goodpens(and they made a
"Dollar
Pen"). I don't know... maybe I'll stumble across a reference to a
29¢ pen.

BTW:

If you check out the nib tip, you will notice the absence
of sodder.

No one, to the best of my knowledge, ever tipped a pen with
solder... or was
that just an offhand term?

Brian
--

You are right! it is not solder. The tip is often referred to as
Iridium. But it is an alloy of several metals. Nowadays, they even
call it Rhodium. Each manufacturer will have his own formula. The tip
is welded on.
Solder won't stick for even a couple of minutes writing! In the
stainless steel nibs the steel itself seems to be quite hard; so they
can fold the steel and jamm it like a rivet. Then they grind it to a
round or oval point. In the Italic or stub nibs they don't make a
point at all; they make a wedge and the user can grind the square
corners to suit his hand writing.

The stainless steel nibs are inexpensive. They are even made of scrap
steel strips after re-rolling them to desired thickness. However,
consumers apparently love the golden look! So the nibs go through
enormous polishing routines and "flash gold plating" that is a few
decimal microns!!! So the "vanity" rules here too [Veblen was right]
and the recycling refinement in technology is offset by the waste in
gold. The flash Gold plating will come off if you rub the nib hard
while cleaning!!! So much for the glitter.

To provide some relative idea of costs, the stainsteel nib, as such,
about costs about $ 0.01; the flash gold plated one costs about $
0.10. The one with the Rhodium tip and flash gold plating costs about
$ 0.25 for the maker, ex-factory. These costs are for a large size
nib, such as what you would find in Shaeffer or Parker big size
pen.The rest are distribution costs and retailer margin. These are
figures from Indian nib makers.

Thanks; love to hear more on this topic. from Bangalore, India.

I was thinking "weld" when I stated solder. A lot is lost in
translatioon. Two weeks ago I knew very little about fountain pens.
I'd like to concentrate my effort to become fluent in this field.
Perhaps I can devote a weekend to reading and absorbing the contents
of nibs.com. Ask me anything about food, history, prep, nutrition
etc., I am expert, but fountain pens - I'm still in first
grade! -LarryW