Pen/Shaving analogy

[KneeChee]

Are you ready for this? I must say, I am pretty proud of myself for this one...


steel nibs:gold nibs::boar brushes:badger brushes


Who else agrees?

 

[Eeyore]

Interesting analogy ... but I don't see it yet really. If only because the difference between gold and steel is much less than between the different brush hairs.

There are flexy steel nibs, flexy 14K nibs, and also steel and gold (14 & 18K) nails. Besides, the feed in a nib unit is much more important for the performance of a pen than the handle in a brush.
Moreover, you don't actually put the steel or gold to the paper. Good nibs have a pellet of very hard material (traditionally iridium / osmium) at the business end.

Gold nibs were once needed because of the very corrosive inks. Nowadays the metal composition matters much less, with the remark that 18K gold is not ideal for very flexy nibs.

But maybe I am too much a pen nut to answer the question

 

[jzuzphreek]

Are you ready for this? I must say, I am pretty proud of myself for this one...


steel nibs:gold nibs::boar brushes:badger brushes


Who else agrees?

if you're suggesting that Boar < Badger and Steel < Gold, then I think you might be a little off base. Certainly some prefer certain configurations over others, but making blanket statements regarding better and worse is pretty disingenuous to the materials. Johant summed up the nib aspect of this pretty well, I think. And although I really want a high quality badger brush, I'll never be without my boar.

 

[Snargle]

Here's my take on equivalencies:

Crayon::Electric Razor
Pencil::Multi-blade Cartridge "System" Razor with Canned Goop
Ballpoint Pen::Cartridge Razor with Brush-applied Lather
Conventional Fountain Pen::Single-Blade Safety Razor, Brush-applied Lather
Calligraphy Pen::Straight Razor

 

[Eeyore]

The Visconti Van Gogh is available with a steel nib.

It is a great writer, and I was very tempted to buy one ... alas, my budget constraints hold me back (I bought too many pens lately)

Edit: I deleted my further reasoning on steel versus gold nibs, because I realized you posted this in "The Nib", so you are obviously "in the know" already on writing characteristics of different pens.

 

[KneeChee]

Nope, not saying any one thing is better than the other.

I am someone that believes they both get the job done perfectly fine. And, we all know that steel and boar are much cheaper. So it was the "cheap, but still works perfectly fine" similarity I was trying to draw between the two subjects.

 

[jzuzphreek]

Nope, not saying any one thing is better than the other.

I am someone that believes they both get the job done perfectly fine. And, we all know that steel and boar are much cheaper. So it was the "cheap, but still works perfectly fine" similarity I was trying to draw between the two subjects.

Ah! Then please forgive my rant. I apologize for misunderstanding your intention.

 

[Eeyore]

Nope, not saying any one thing is better than the other.

I am someone that believes they both get the job done perfectly fine. And, we all know that steel and boar are much cheaper. So it was the "cheap, but still works perfectly fine" similarity I was trying to draw between the two subjects.

Ah, that makes sense.

Still I am not sure about the analogy; the difference between boar (once broken in) and badger can be substantial, while you could create basically the same writing characteristics with nibs using different metals (like the PdAg nibs of the past).

 

[celestino]

Here's my take on equivalencies:

Crayon::Electric Razor
Pencil::Multi-blade Cartridge "System" Razor with Canned Goop
Ballpoint Pen::Cartridge Razor with Brush-applied Lather
Conventional Fountain Pen::Single-Blade Safety Razor, Brush-applied Lather
Calligraphy Pen::Straight Razor

* I like this analogy, Larry!

 

[Slivovitz]

...steel nibs:gold nibs::boar brushes:badger brushes


Who else agrees?

Can't quite make that work for me. I've been face lathering with a boar brush for quite a while now. Not sure when I last touched one of my badgers. On the other hand, both my steel and gold nibs get regular use. I do have some gold nibs with noticeable flex, but others aren't any more flexy than the steel ones, in case the comparison was about "softness". Or I see you said above, "cheap but works perfectly fine." Only by going vintage, I've gotten a number of excellent gold nibs for less than modern steel ones.

Here's my take on equivalencies:

Crayon::Electric Razor
Pencil::Multi-blade Cartridge "System" Razor with Canned Goop
Ballpoint Pen::Cartridge Razor with Brush-applied Lather
Conventional Fountain Pen::Single-Blade Safety Razor, Brush-applied Lather
Calligraphy Pen::Straight Razor

Well, would you consider swapping out pencil and ballpoint in the above list? And I don't know that an electric razor would be a crayon. Maybe it would be the notepad program on a smart phone. Much more high-tech than a pen, but hardly better.