Experiment: Is it possible, let alone practical, to quantify nib flex by measuring line width versus applied pressure?
My hypothesis going in was yes. Based on my range of pens, the ones I would call more flexy are the ones that require less pressure to produce a thicker line.
Why do I care? Because in the absence of measurement, personal experience, or comparison with known pens, there is no real way to know how flexy one pen is versus another.
To conduct the experiment, I used a low-cost, accurate, readily available 300g digital scale to measure applied pressure. I chose the following test pens, listed in order of expected flexiness from least to greatest:
- 19?? Esterbrook LJ, 2556 firm fine nib -- I feel it is not quite a nail, but awfully close
- 1948 Parker "51", gold nib -- I can get some line variation but have to press "hard"
- 1930's Sheaffer Balance Junior, gold nib -- it is springy and cushiony, with a little flex but not like the Wahl.
- 1920's Wahl Ringtop -- flexy without a doubt!
Rather than trying to use calipers, I also drew lines using the following:
- 1.1mm mechanical pencil
- 0.5mm mechanical pencil
- Prismacolor Premier fine line markers, 0.005 - 0.08 mm
I wrote lines on a small bit of Clairefontaine paper (and yes I zeroed the scale after placing the paper on it).
The results were basically what I expected in terms of subjective, relative feel.
Following this experiment, if someone were to measure flex of their pen, I can easily imagine how it flexes by comparing it to measurements of my own pens.
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