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Thread: Looking for a flex pen

  1. #41
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Heh, I'm just a rank amateur, but I do like to use them. I bought precisely one Spencerian #1 just to see what all the fuss was about. Frankly speaking I prefer the vintage Gillott 404. Mind you, I cannot afford those either!

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    Senior Member Anne's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Judging from your writing that I have seen, I would not consider that it came from an amateur Thank You for the input on the nib. I will also have to check out other dip nibs too!
    I know you and others have always said that they are really one of the best options for nibs that offer true flex.
    ( the holders are holding me back ...! )

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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    You are too kind (and probably need stronger prescription glasses, but I digress ). Straight and oblique holders can be found easily in the US. I got my first oblique at Paper & Ink Arts. Cost $36. I got a straight holder from Bill at Century Turners (or whatever they are called) for about $20. You can get them cheaper but these at least were quite nice materials.

  4. #44
    Senior Member SIR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Try a William Mitchell Post Office nib, it is perfect for 'English Roundhand' (aka copperplate, aka spencerian)
    http://www.dippennibs.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Post

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  6. #45
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Thanks SIR and Empty of Clouds - I will check both sites!

  7. #46
    Senior Member welch's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    As suggested above, try a flexible dip pen. Because:

    (1) Flex writing requires skill and practice. I have neither. I once gave away a "wet noodle" Senator, a West German pen from the early '50s, judging from the style. It did surprising things -- dazzling things -- but I was trained to write quickly and as clearly as I can. (that's how we were taught in the late '50s in the US).

    (2) Old-time dip nib will be less expensive than a vintage flex nib and you can try it without spending 100 EUR or USD.

    (3) Fountain pen companies quit making flex nibs in the '40s. The market seems to have evaporated. A flexible fountain pen requires a special nib -- one that bends and snaps back almost like elastic. Flex also requires some special work on the ink feed, because the nib wants more ink when flexed. Pen makers began having trouble competing with ballpoints sometime around 1956, and ballpoints are a rolling equivalent of a stiff nib. Flex fountain pens, I think, are about the opposite of a ballpoint: that made for a tiny market for flex fountain pens by about 1960.

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    Junior Member bgreenaker12's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Have you looked at Noodlers Neponset? It comes with a music nib which is supposed to be fairly flexible, but obviously not as flexible as a nib for a dip pen. I'm always looking for variety in nibs because I draw with my fountain pens I don't write with them a whole lot and I also use dip pens.
    Betsy

  10. #48
    Senior Member SIR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Quote Originally Posted by welch View Post
    Fountain pen companies quit making flex nibs in the '40s... Flex fountain pens, I think, are about the opposite of a ballpoint: that made for a tiny market for flex fountain pens by about 1960.
    Ballpoints made their impact in the fifties, I believe, and though the availability of flex nibs declined from then on, more than a few manufacturers still offered nibs with an appreciable amount of flex well into the seventies.

  11. #49
    Senior Member welch's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Quote Originally Posted by SIR View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by welch View Post
    Fountain pen companies quit making flex nibs in the '40s... Flex fountain pens, I think, are about the opposite of a ballpoint: that made for a tiny market for flex fountain pens by about 1960.
    Ballpoints made their impact in the fifties, I believe, and though the availability of flex nibs declined from then on, more than a few manufacturers still offered nibs with an appreciable amount of flex well into the seventies.
    I think flex nibs were very, very rare. The entire FP industry was dying; pen manufacturers offered their own ballpoints, but the margins were small. I know / remember Parker prices and Sheaffer PFM prices, as of 1961: P51 and P61 were about $12; P45 was $4.98; Parker Jotter was $1.98. Sheaffer's PFM was about $12. The P61, P51, and PFM could be more expensive if you wanted gold caps or similar. Someone wise (jar?) posted the price for a 1960 Mont Blanc 146: it was the West German equivalent of about $12.

    Tony Fischier's great Parker site mentions that Parker felt squeezed. They were selling many Parker 45s, but the margin was much lower than for a "gift pen" like the 61 or 51. That's one reason Parker offered the Parker 75. A new style of high-end pen. Tony or someone else quotes a former Parker manager as saying, "We could never figure out how to make money in the lower-price mass market".

    (Incidentally, Lih-tah Wang's P75 site lists many different P75 nibs, but none are flex.)

    Using myself as an example: my "get ready to start kindergarten" letter, 1953, was signed with a fountain pen...a bright blue ink that has not faded. I learned cursive writing with a pencil, but by 4th grade (1957 or '58?), we all used fountain pens. Sheaffer "school pens". I got an early Parker 45 and used it until I graduated high school. Got another and used it for a couple of years in college. I switched to a ballpoint -- a BiC "Clic", .025 USD -- when I had to write on bad paper. Up through the mid-'70s, it was not a shock to see someone else with a fountain pen, but more people used ballpoints and fiber-tipped pens.

    During that time, I never saw a flex pen. Maybe a few people had them in the UK or Germany, but my impression is that Mabie-Todd and Conway Stewart tried the same strategy as Parker and Sheaffer: sell ballpoints to "everyone" and hope to sell a few expensive fountain pens to be given as gifts.

  12. #50
    Senior Member Cob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    Mabie Todd & Co Ltd ceased to exist after 1952, the company having been taken over by BIRO to become Biro-Swan. This packed up about 1958 after various attempts to medernise with such dubious confections as The Warwick &c.

    Conway Stewart survived until 1975 but by that time, the company was producing inferior-quality plastics pens; one might say that the writing had been on the wall for a while...

    Cob

  13. #51
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    This is an inexpensive way to get a superflex fountain pen.



    It is a Wearever with an Imperial 101 nib.


  14. #52
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    Default Re: Looking for a flex pen

    This is another way to get a decent full flex fountain pen for a reasonable price.



    It is an Esterbrook J with a Banks #14 nib.


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