$10 vs $150 Pelikan: You Get What You Don't Pay For

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 21:03:12 -0400, "marlinspike" said:

marlinspike wrote in message
marlinspike ...
Totally wrong. No basis for such an idea on earth. But some
NIBS do write smoother than others. What they are made of
hasn't a thing to do with it. Frank

marlinspike I always understood why smoothness has nothing to do
marlinspike with it, but does a gold nib have inherently more
marlinspike flex or no? Thanks, Richard

'gold' is a big category. there's all sorts of gold alloys with
different properties. in general, the 14k gold nibs do seem more
flexible than the new 18k nibs. of course, a lot depends on what you
do with the material. sheaffer's triumph nibs or the parker 51 nibs
have next to no flexibility despite being 14k gold. in my experience,
some steel nibs (the pelikan 200 nib for example) have more spring
than many gold ones.


--


I'm having a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE ... and I don't take any DRUGS

marlinspike wrote:

wrote in message ...
Totally wrong. No basis for such an idea on earth. But some NIBS do
write smoother than others. What they are made of hasn't a thing to do
with it. Frank

I always understood why smoothness has nothing to do with it, but does a
gold nib have inherently more flex or no?


NO!!!! I have probably covered this several times here in just the
last months. No way does gold have the slightest thing to do with
flex. Gold is weaker than steel and gold CANNOT flex without breaking
within minutes. Its SOFT. In fact gold can NEVER be made to flex as
much as steel. Its all in the alloy and design. The only reason any
gold nib can flex is because of the non gold metals in the gold alloy to
give it some strength. The higher the gold content the LESS possible
flex and weaker the nib will be. Frank

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 23:11:39 +0200, "Ko van den Boom"
wrote:

Am I wrong thinking golden nibs writer smoother than steel ones?


The portion of the nib which comes in contact with the paper is
neither gold nor steel. It is euphemistically called iridium. I'm not
sure what the actual range of tipping materials is.

There is nothing intrinsically inferior about steel nibs.

marlinspike wrote:
wrote in message ...

Totally wrong. No basis for such an idea on earth. But some NIBS do
write smoother than others. What they are made of hasn't a thing to do
with it. Frank


I always understood why smoothness has nothing to do with it, but does a
gold nib have inherently more flex or no?
Thanks,
Richard




The material of a nib can have consequences for its behavior,
but other design parameters have much more impact.


--
Tom Morley | Same roads
| Same rights
| Same rules
AIM: DocTDM

What happened to the days when all the tough guys were named Bruce and
Lance?
Richard
"PENMART01" wrote in message
...
Flex is all in your limp wristedness, or in your case your sigmoid
flexure,
Bruce.

"marlinspike" writes:

penmart01 wrote:
Flex is all in your limp wristedness, or in your case your sigmoid
flexure, S Bruce /S Spikey.

What happened to the days when all the tough guys
were named Bruce?

Better?
---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
Sheldon
````````````
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

(David Meale) wrote in message . com...
I know I'm not breaking new ground here, but I have to add more fuel
to the fire about cheap pens being made to write well and more
expensive pens made to look pretty...

I just received a Pelikan 75 (Pelikan GO!) pen today. Cost me $10.
Writes beautifully.

By contrast, my Pelikan 600, which cost around $150 is unreliable,
even after doing all of the Da Book tricks.

Glad to hear that the Pelikan Go is working out for you. I've seen a
number of them on eBay the past few months and wondered if they were
any good. Ten dollars for piston filler which works well is pretty
rare indeed. There was an article about this pen in this month's
Stylophiles. Here's the link:

http://www.penlovers.com/stylophiles/july03/07go.htm

There's a lot of truth to what you say about inexpensive pens. Two of
the best writing and best flowing pens I own are the cheapest I own.
One is the Parker Reflex with a medium steel nib. It cost me $6.00 at
the local office store. I've always had good luck with Parkers.
Their medium nibs are on the wide side and tend to run wet. The
Reflex is no exception. It's a nice size for my hand and comfortable
to use. The clip looks a little cheap, but other than that, it looks
OK despite being very light.

The other pen I love to use is a rOtring Rivette. It's made out of
translucent teal green plastic with a polished steel nib. A simple
strip of metal comes out of the top and is bent over the side to form
a clip. It's as cheap and minimal as a pen can be and still be a pen.
And yet it is one of the nicest writing pens I've ever used.

There's a joy in using a simple, well made tool which does what it is
supposed to without a lot of cost, fuss or maintenance. Reminds me of
my first car, a third hand VW Beetle I bought for $900. Cheap to own
and operate. Highly reliable and one of the most enjoyable cars I
ever owned.

It seems to me that after you reach a certain price point in a pen –
say $150 or $200 – what you are paying for is decoration and / or
exclusivity. But, there's a place for that. Just as I loved my VW, I
can also appreciate the lines of a Jaguar XK8 or a Maserati Spyder.
They may be impossibly over-engineered, over-powered and over-priced
for a bumper to bumper daily commute or a short trip to the mini-mart
for a quart of milk. But they are beautiful and need no other reason
to exist. I'll never own one, but that's OK.

I guess as long as we aren't so blinded by glitzy, expensive limited
edition pens that we can appreciate a well made daily writer, there's
room for both in the market.

David
Who is cheap by nature.

Let's forget flex and smoothness for a second.

I am not a specialist in different types of metals, but I have always
learned that gold is a soft metal (as you say yourself in your mail: "Its
SOFT") and steel is a hard metal.

Ko


schreef in bericht ...
Ko van den Boom wrote:

Am I wrong thinking golden nibs writer smoother than steel ones?

Totally wrong. No basis for such an idea on earth. But some NIBS do
write smoother than others. What they are made of hasn't a thing to do
with it. Frank

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 03:37:04 GMT, William Bosner
wrote:

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 23:11:39 +0200, "Ko van den Boom"
wrote:

Am I wrong thinking golden nibs writer smoother than steel ones?


The portion of the nib which comes in contact with the paper is
neither gold nor steel. It is euphemistically called iridium. I'm not
sure what the actual range of tipping materials is.

There is nothing intrinsically inferior about steel nibs.

unless of course it's a tipless pen such as the Rotring Artpen. Then
steel contacts paper. But, IME, such pens can be just as smooth.
Also some of the cheaper pens are "rolled" tips with no tipping
material. These can range from as smooth as any "iridium" tipped nib
to horridly scratchy.

Dave wrote:
Ko van den Boom wrote:


I am not a specialist in different types of metals, but I have always
learned that gold is a soft metal (as you say yourself in your mail: "Its
SOFT") and steel is a hard metal.


Gold is really soft. Like mashed potatoes. You could never write with
pure gold if it was the size and shape of a regular nib - it would bend
and crush very quickly.

Steel can spring back. Gold stays bent when you bend it.

David


Therefore it's all about the alloy.

--
Tom Morley | Same roads
| Same rights
| Same rules
AIM: DocTDM