"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
grainweevil (September 12th, 2020)
grainweevil (September 12th, 2020)
But we are not talking about Webster's definition here, are we?
The term springy here *in this discussion* is used within the context of a fountain pen nib, specifically when it's being used to write on paper.
Are we then supposed to expect a nib to be able to leap before we can call it springy?
Use the term bouncy, use the term soft, use the term springy. If the person asking or the one you try to explain don't get it, explain it in a sentence instead of a single term. Or better yet, show them a nail nib, and then a springy nib. That will avoid any confusion.
dneal (September 15th, 2020)
"Springy" means something happens when one applies some undetermined amount of pressure, but one doesn't understand what is happening.
it's a weasel word.
Weasel Word.....ha ha
When we talk about four wheel drive vehicles, trail rigs, we talk a lot about flex. Of the springs.
Flex allows for the suspension to articulate over obstacles by keeping three or four tires in contact with the ground. More flex is better.
And we measure it using a flex ramp. Either a 20° or 28°.
The farther up the ramp you can travel, the better. RTI, Ramp Travel Index, is calculated by ramp travel divided by wheelbase x 10. Few stock rigs can score more than about 500 which isn't bad.
But scoring 1000 or more takes some special coil springs, special suspension, usually on extreme built rock crawler trail rigs.
But a few stock rigs can do it...
As you can imagine, all springs flex but it is a question of spring rate—how much they flex.
In Moab during Easter Jeep Safari you'll often see some insanely built rigs with really soft rate, extremely long travel springs. Great for off road but on the street they have to take the corners kinda easy. Never quite saw one this extreme though!
Last edited by azkid; September 12th, 2020 at 07:38 PM.
AzJon (September 13th, 2020), eachan (September 13th, 2020), ethernautrix (September 13th, 2020), Jon Szanto (September 13th, 2020), manoeuver (September 13th, 2020), penwash (September 13th, 2020), SchaumburgSwan (September 12th, 2020)
Hi Azkid,
aha, interesting - newer looked at that before!
But I don't know much about off road cars...
Thare have been some standard cars with flex, but that was imo more a bug than a feature - think of Mercedes-Benz cars of the 50s to 70s (in german called Pendelachse here).
Best wishes
Jens
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/136145166@N02/albums
As a person who is selling pens from time to time, I know that it is impossible to describe the grade of the elasticity of a nib in a scientific way. The best option to communicate about that is to post a writing sample.
ps: I rather noticed that the word flexible is often heavily misused.
C.
AzJon (September 13th, 2020), carlos.q (September 13th, 2020), eachan (September 13th, 2020), Empty_of_Clouds (September 13th, 2020), SchaumburgSwan (September 13th, 2020)
Flex is not something I understand the attraction?!
I guess it all depends what you use your fountain pens for. When I'm taking rapid notes during a meeting I don't need, nor want, any kind of flex. In fact, a very nice and smooth nail is what I need. For that purpose I use a Parker 51 or a vintage Pelikan with a DF nib. A "springy" M200 nib is as far as I can use. On other occasions I like to write slower, without pressure, and for that a semi flex pen is great. Also for signatures. Most of my vintage Pelikans are great for this purpose.
Finally, I have no use for flex, super flex or wet noodles but I can understand that some folks like to use these nibs to write slowly and very deliberately. Spencerian anyone?
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
unique touch by Ptero Ptero, auf Flickr
(Noodlers Ahab - flex EMF ..... Mystery Ink #31 provided by junglejim)
Don´t get me wrong, I also can appreciate a nail FP and I think also a nail is a superior writing instrument compared to other writing devices.
But a special nib (oblique, italic/stub, flex (in different degrees)) adds that certain something on top.
Jon Szanto (September 13th, 2020), manoeuver (September 14th, 2020), Ole Juul (September 13th, 2020)
Someone a while back suggested measuring how much force it takes to open the tines X amount of space. I thought that maybe it could be done by flexing the nib on a digital scale and measuring that in grams per mm of open tines. Less grams equals a softer nib. Just an idea.
Fountain Pen Sith Lord | Daakusaido | Everything in one spot
David Nishimura: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...ty-a-proposal/
AzJon (September 16th, 2020), Jon Szanto (September 14th, 2020), KrazyIvan (September 18th, 2020)
To some extent, I'm in the same boat. At my desk in the office, anything from nail to semi-flex is fine for me. I usually have a little time to pace myself. I usually have a firm or semi-flex old Sheaffer or Waterman in my hand (sometimes an old Pelikan too).
At a hearing or at trial taking notes of live testimony, a smooth, fine nail of a nib is what i use because I'm writing in a hurry and my writing in that environment is pretty damned sloppy. I have a couple pens I reserve for this use because they have very forgiving nibs so I can write on a table, on a pad on my lap, etc. (old Sheaffer Lifetimes and Eversharp Skylines mostly).
When I was into fountain pens I was so comfused by these terms.
Butterry
Nails
"Springy"
Wet Noodle pens
semi-flex. full flexible
wet, Dry
So it is after some times I leart the whole language and I can speak that too.
Last edited by Cyril; September 14th, 2020 at 03:10 PM.
KrazyIvan (September 18th, 2020)
I tried measuring a few of mine with digital scale, writing various size lines and graphing the result. It was kind of interesting and fun (for me at least).
https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php?p=242121
Last edited by azkid; September 15th, 2020 at 06:23 PM.
Ole Juul (September 15th, 2020)
I do understand the attraction. In fact for a long time all I had were flexible pens but in the end I came to the conclusion that I didn't use them particularly well. There is a particular skill in using flexible nibs. I don't have it and don't really wish to put the effort in to learning it, when most of the writing I do is practical and fast. I enjoy my fine nails so much more!
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