Curious of the ceramic coated steel nibs.

I've never had (or held) a 'modern' skyline outside of a 1995 yellow cab edition (which isn't the same thing as what seems not be offered after 2003), and had several demi and standard skylines which I like. And I'm kind of on the fence between the Skyliner 50 Menthol cuz well, the inclusion of the car is cute, and the classic navy blue with the Palladium cap which is a really attractive color scheme that's not over the top.

Normally I wouldn't look at them given what I Feel about the price compared to a restored 1940s model with a 14K gold nib, but the 'semi-flex' nibs seems like it would be more up my ally since I've become accustomed to writing with a lighter touch and prefer some easy spring with the nib (and to find a vintage skyline with some nice semi-flex/flex gets close to the price of the moderns). I tend to write with a rather light touch, or at the very least start my strokes lightly, so it drives me nuts if the nib can't write on a glide/hover, especially when going left from the start of some characters like 's', 'f', 'c'.

The main deciding factor seems to be that nib as I'm not sure what is the main difference if any between the ceramic coated steel nib or the other one, especially for the $40 difference (which isn't that big a difference, and I prefer the Navy Blue Palladium look more).

I'm no expert on nibs but I've been very happy with my skyline. It's very smooth and has a soft touch to it. It's not springy like a Visconti. The nib glides across the paper. I haven't tried to flex it, so can't give an opinion there. http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07...11b1a2af86.jpg

I've had mine for a year. It is springy, and has a modest amount of flex, more to be able to put a little character into the script than full-on flexible writing. Has an interesting feedback feel and has performed very well for an entire year of use, and I *do* use this pen almost daily. Then again, you're pretty picky, Karl, so you might want to try before you buy, though I know that isn't easy.

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Originally Posted by Jon Szanto

I've had mine for a year. It is springy, and has a modest amount of flex, more to be able to put a little character into the script than full-on flexible writing. Has an interesting feedback feel and has performed very well for an entire year of use, and I *do* use this pen almost daily. Then again, you're pretty picky, Karl, so you might want to try before you buy, though I know that isn't easy.

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If the sizes are nearly identical to the 1940s Skyline Standard I'd imagine I'd use it daily as well, mainly curious as to the nib. I guess I am a bit picky, shame they can't just send me the pen to try out in exchange for some studio shots or something (though Syd has some rather good promos of them already).

I need to get out to a pen show... but knowing my own faults, chances are I'll probably end up biting on one the moment I manage to sell one of my other pens.

I have a pretty light hand, and found that it was difficult for me to flex the nib.
I write flex with a dip pen, so I am probably not the best to compare flex fountain pens.

With my light hand, the ink flow was not what I wanted, so I adjusted it to increase the ink flow to what I want, without flexing the nib.
And it is a beautiful writer :)

I wonder if there's any retailers of them that can sell them with the tuning done at the time of the order.

Maybe direct from Syd.

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Originally Posted by ac12

Maybe direct from Syd.

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Upon request perhaps? I wish they had the classic configured like the Technik's where it unscrews from the section, that's my main hangup on getting the pen is the rear insertion area for the cart/converter, makes it a little annoying compared to others (as I've experienced with the yellow cab skyline I had from the 90s).