Nib (pen)
The quill replaced the reed pen across Europe by the Early Middle Ages and remained the main writing tool of the West for nearly a thousand years until the 17th century.
Quills are fashioned by cutting a nib into the end of a feather obtained from a fairly large bird, such as a goose, traditionally from its left wing.
For business purposes, the quill was fairly quickly overtaken; however, it remains popular for personal use and for artistic work.
[4][5] In the early 1800s, Wise in Britain, and Peregrine Williamson[6] in the United States were the first recorded makers of steel pens as their primary occupation.
[7] It was not until the 1820s, when John Mitchell, Josiah Mason and others set up a factory in Birmingham, England to manufacture steel nibs, that their popularity took off.
[8][9] The metal nib retains a sharp point or edge much longer than the quill, which wears out more quickly and requires much skill to sharpen.
Many writing styles have developed over the centuries with the broad nib, including the medieval Uncial, Blackletter and Carolingian minuscule scripts (and their variants), the Italic Hand of the Renaissance, and more recently Edward Johnston's Foundational Hand, developed in the early 20th century.
One modern example of someone using a stub nib for rapid, and most certainly, extensive writing was the author Shelby Foote, the historian of the American Civil War.
[20] Gold and most steel and titanium nibs are tipped with a hard, wear-resistant alloy that typically includes metals from the platinum group.
[22] Untipped steel and titanium points will wear more rapidly due to abrasion by the paper.
The breather hole also acts as a stress relieving point, preventing the nib from cracking longitudinally from the end of the slit as a result of repeated flexing during use.
[26] Broader nibs are used for less precise emphasis, with the benefit of a greater level of ink shading and/or sheen on less absorbent paper.
Nibs can be pressed so that they are thinner at the tip and thicker at the feed to mitigate stiffness or to give a more controlled flex.
Fifth, the alloy used can affect stiffness: as mentioned before, gold is considered superior for its flex compared to steel.
[29] Furthermore, competition between the major pen brands such as Parker and Waterman, and the introduction of lifetime guarantees, meant that flexible nibs could no longer be supported profitably.
In countries where this rivalry was not present to the same degree, for example the UK and Germany, flexible nibs are more common.
[30] Nowadays, stiff nibs are the norm as people exchange between fountain pens and other writing modes.
[31] More flexible nibs can be easily damaged by ballpoint users who write with excessive pressure.
Ideally, a fountain pen's nib glides across the paper using the ink as a lubricant and requires no pressure.
[34] Users are often cautioned not to lend or borrow fountain pens as the nib "wears in" at an angle unique to each individual person.
