The Myth Of Iridium Tips

[@longqwf001]

Gold nibs before 1993 in China use type 617 Iridium point, it contains Osmium, Iridium, and slightly Platinum. The produce of this type tip was suspended due to the process of production produces poison gas, and it is harmful to workers. Gold nibs of Chinese fountain pen produced after 1993 are using type 601 iridium point, it contains 74% Ruthenium , 20% Tungsten, 6% Cobalt. Steel nibs in high end Chinese pens may use type 601 point, normally they use type 188 point, it contains 90% Chromium, 10% Nickel.

[@HeadbangerTomcat]

Interesting video. When I was a kid in the early 70s, pretty much all of the fountain pens I used had Iridium stamped on them, and I never questioned the authenticity. I didn’t even know iridium was that expensive! With regard to the really cheap Chinese pens, I think (based on nothing more than gut feeling) that the tips would all be stainless steel because it’s cheap and easier to work with. One reason I think this works with today’s fountain pen users is that compared to say users in the early half of the 20th Century, users now are more likely to own “collections” which get rotated regularly and so never really get a chance to wear out. By contrast, back in the days before ballpoints were reliable enough for cheap mass production and fountain pens were still the most practical writing instrument choice, people owned far fewer but better quality pens which would be used daily for years at a time, so quality and wear issues would be more noticeable, so it was more important to have better tipping material.

[@artsyneko8504]

How old are you now ?

[@-a13x-75]

If fountain pen tips were made out of tungsten carbide, micro mesh and 3M aluminum oxide mylar papers (the green and white stuff) would never be able to smooth them. Tungsten carbide is far too hard to be abraded by aluminum oxide which is about 7 while tungsten carbide is closer to a 9-9.5. This means practically only diamond would be able to grind, smooth, and polish nibs. Also tungsten carbide is actually a ceramic so I'm not sure how it would weld.

[@nikthegreek4223]

Chinese nibs probably use hardened steel .

[@welchianachi7707]

Do the math. price of iridium is 1460,00usd/oz =46,94usd/g, a ball of radius of 1mm have volume equal 0,5235988mm3, volume of 1g of iridium is 44,603033mm3, ((volume of 1g of iridium))/(volume of ball radius 1mm))=85,185514, ((price per gram of iridium)/85,185514~~85)=0,5522353usd/ball made from iridium of 1mm radius. Giving that the amount of iridium in tip is typically half or less than in 1mm radius ball, then the price per irydium in one nib would warry from 0,55-0,275usd or less.

[@thekeddi]

That was a very interesting video. It’s good to hear more about pens than just reviews. Thanks so much for doing the leg work for us!

[@augustpriest6945]

Consumer fraud is always interesting when well researched, and you certainly did that..another great presentation. Thankyou. wellbeing

[@normm7764]

Thanks for your reviews and research. I have no doubt that there are modern techniques and alternatives. The history with vintage pens is interesting. In wider use, the words Iridium, Osmiridium and Osmium were often interchangeable. In the first half of the 20th century, there were only 2-3 places in the world mining it. One being in remote bush camps in Tasmania, Australia. The mineral was more expensive than gold and was often panned for in rivers / streams. I suggest you read “On the Ossie” by Nick Haygarth - a recently released book on prospecting for that mineral in Tasmania. I have not finished reading it yet, nor am I a Geologist, but it is worth it for pictures alone ( costs about $50AU). Also, do a search on “iridium mining tasmania” you will find a lot. It was exported to America and England. I know nothing about production in other parts of the world.

[@kapirk2244]

Interesting. I had heard the tips were not actually Iridium, but I didn’t know that iridium was so incredibly expensive. No wonder no one can use it. Very interesting post.

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

Has anyone worn out a fountain pen nib? I have not. I have had other mechanical problems, but not the tip of the nib. I have written with fountain pens for decades, some individual pens being used constantly.

[@jpl2475]

I wouldn't think so, I have an untipped sheaffer pen from the 1950's and it still writes like a fine nib

[@joaov.m.oliveira9903]

What a nice well researched video. Congratulations for it.

[@-a13x-75]

I did the calculations and based on the assuming each nib has a iridium sphere of 0.5mm diameter, the volume of the sphere would be 0.065mm^3 or 0.0065cm^3, the tip would weight 0.1466g if it were pure iridium. Given the density of iridium is 22.56 g/cm^3 and the current price for iridium is approximately $1480 USD per troy oz or per 32.103g, the tip on the nib would cost $6.98 based on the value of iridium alone plus manufacturing costs. However, in practice the tip is not pure iridium and doesn't need to be to have the metallurgical properties of iridium. It might be the case that iridium is added as a trace element to improve the other metals properties. Let's say if only 1% iridium was added to the alloy the price of the iridium content would only be around 7 cents which is more plausible. I definitely think it's pretty likely larger companies use a bit of iridium in their tips but it's highly unlikely for those Chinese companies to be doing that and still me making a decent profit.

[@hetshah7470]

Eye opening! Can you make a video on the same line about The Myth of Celluloid. Because I think that a lot of Chinese pens are advertised falsely as made of Celluloid.

[@acrophobe]

I always knew that "iridium point" stuff was about as reliable as Jinhao's clearly all stainless steel "18kgp" nibs.

[@jpl2475]

Yep, the worlds cheapest 18kgp, very cheap gold XD

[@acrophobe]

little did anyone know that 18kgp actually stands for 18 koala gallantry points

[@josephf151]

Interesting, I expected it to be a osmium and iridium in their naturally occurring mix (osmiridium) Have you considered that they electroplated a few nm worth of iridium on? because that would explain the trace values found in the testing.

[@Rubedo777]

Hiya Handsome... Well done. I've seen/heard someone else I forget who, give a decent explanation of nib tips recently , it could have been Brian Goulet I can't remember, but this research went the extra mile for me. I knew from my engineering background about tungsten carbide but I couldn't really see anyone going to the trouble of machining a nib tip out of the stuff as its the next hardest thing I used to cut metals apart from industrial diamond cutting tools. Sticking little balls of some high grade stainless steel sounds like a good explanation.... Can you imagine some little guy doing it with a soldering iron...! ! ! Just kidding. SO... Well done Josh, thanks for the review and explanation.

[@padpadparadscha]

In the next weeks I will be able to test the "Iridium Point" of the moonman m2 with in my chemistry analytic practical training. I will write the result here when I have it!

[@padpadparadscha]

I probably will also test a Lamy steel nib,a Jinhao X750 nib, a Twsbi 580 nib and -if a get it in before I get to test all these- a Lamy 2000 gold nib.

[@padpadparadscha]

As I expected the "iridium point" was no tipping at all. It was the same as the nib itself which was made of mostly iron, manganese and chromium (traces of copper). Unfortunally I didn't had a Lamy gold nib on hand so I couldn't test it.

[@gristlevonraben]

@@padpadparadscha so basically a stainless steel. Thank you.

[@bobsaffron8284]

Tungsten and tungsten carbide are a lot more expensive that $45/kg in any usable form. Thanks for the exposition.

[@g-r-a-e-m-e-]

An excellent and very interesting video. Thanks.

[@gristlevonraben]

I suspect lead free solder, like for plumbing. I've shaped a few nibs now, and sand paper just eats them up, but oddly, so does iron gall inks, which I stopped using.

[@eronavbj]

I started using fountain pens in third or fourth grade (Wearever Supreme at 29 cents in 1954.) Only the richer kids had Parker 51s or Sheaffer Snorkels. Through the years, I managed to acquire both at yard sales. Although both are still smooth writers, I'm amazed that my Pilot Metropolitan writes just as smoothly. I doubt the Chinese factories are giving us anything that's up to the quality of the Japanese. Terrific video by the way.

[@vwood2]

Wow - surprising! Thank you for such an excellent and informative video. Very interesting!

[@user-gr3rk6ur2p]

good investigative report thankyou JPL

[@kohakuaiko]

Thank you. Very informative.

[@jpl2475]

Thanks for watching

[@Rahul-ef2ou]

5:10 19th century mate

[@padpadparadscha]

Iridium and Osmium alloys are much harder than their pure conterparts. And it was easier to handle than some stuff we have today (like Thungstencarbide which is incredible hard to process after reaction of Thungsten with Carbon)

[@AAwArchie]

Some people who use fountain pens hate ballpoints. It's funny that some fountain pens may have a ballpoint ball on the end of them. Amazing video by the way I don't know why I have seen one of yours before!

[@Michael.Chapman]

Great video :-) I own Parker "51"s and many spare nibs from the early-1940s to mid 1960s. At 2:00 you say the "nib" analyzed had 2.6% iridium--do you mean the tip? As I understand it, the "51" nib tip is carefully shaped 14K gold with a thin layer of Ruthenium, 'Plathenium' or various proprietary names for tipping alloys that Parker used over the years in the "51", to obtain a smooth, wear and corrosive ink resistant tip. "51" nibs can have imprints like RU, PL etc. depending on the era produced. I may be wrong, but my notion is that the element iridium came to Earth mostly as a component of meteorites. Due to its high density, it is thought to be more prevalent in the core and mantle, rather than in Earth's crust. The Visconti Homo Sapiens Maxi Bronze original edition is interesting in being a contemporary fountain pen that was first to employ the entire nib itself manufactured from Palladium.

[@oupwo7468]

I am left handed. Meaning that the use of a ball point pen has always lead me to pain. It lead me to always use fountain pens. I always accidentally bought "iridium" point fountain pens and they have always been a disappointment with poor ink flow.

[@MelindaSordinoIsLiterallyMe]

Wow, small and very clean researched and perfect made video though it would really fit over half a million atleast.

[@ruilacerdamagalhaes4976]

thank you so much! That scratched a veeeeery specific itch!

[@lennoliu7245]

I must disagree with the idea that cheap chinese fountain pen tips are made of tungsten carbide: I don't think it's easy to weld tungsten carbide onto the end of a fountain pen tip, and once it is welded on, how do they saw through it to create the ink channel? It's far from easy to machine (you'd need diamond tools, and it's quite brittle).

[@jpl2475]

Ah fair enough, I know that tungsten carbide can (sort of) be welded . I had to do it once while making my fountain pen when I had to weld a carbide insert into a DIY lathe tool holder made of mild steel (which is a very unsafe thing to do... oh well) and that worked so it can be done. But practically speaking, you are probably right.

[@Rubedo777]

JPL Josh, we used to make our own tungsten carbide lathe tools in house and I think the method of sticking the tip to the mild steel shaft was called... Sintering, I think. When we got them just made the weld which looked like two strips of brass / brase wasn't melted like a weld proper and it had a load of solidified white snot coating it which was the flux. I know from making tungsten carbide tools that they were a finicky total bastard to make and easily broken in the grinding / shaping of the cutting edges. Hmmmm to cut a slit through tungsten carbide for the ink would take some doing, it can be done but.... awkward. Anyway budddeeee there you go.... Keep up with yer Uni work.

[@tomasgimenez3199]

As for the Chinese nibs, I would not exclude the possibility of some soviet time radioactive leftovers. They write well, though, at least the most recent versions of Wing Sung & the like.

[@jpl2475]

time to break out the Geiger counter, if it is radioactive, time to make a fountain pen nib powered nuclear reactor

[@DD-d6d3]

Awesome video as always.

[@rbslammed6163]

“2 specs of iridium” = “100% iridium tip”

[@Julian-bq9qv]

I am ordering a special pen from china, made with a nib hybrid of Unobtanium and Adamantium! I just had to give teh guy my bank account number and credit card number and I feel sure he is trustworthy!!

[@chinochimp]

That's sick, I have a vibranium tipped nib so top that😎

[@frankvars7925]

Your video is very interesting. Bravo! But there are not problems for chinese and other engineering to produce the point ( attention! only the point) of the nib's pen in iridium. Thanks for your attention.

[@creativewatercolor]

So when you write with Chinese fountain pens you are basically using ballpoints. Great vid, thanks.

[@daniellau7313]

First,iridium isn't a rare earth metal,Second,iridium is rare but though they put it in the tip of the pen is for the luxurious feel and iridium is a Nobel metal so that I won't oxidise.So pens have a iridium tip.

[@jpl2475]

OK the rare earth is a mistake on my part, but no one uses iridium now

[@hmApollo101]

Mont Blanc next?

[@jpl2475]

I dont know, I hadnt used it for a month after I made my first MB video since I had a ton of uni work, and upon using it a few days ago I discovered that this pen skips like crazy, so ill probably have to take it back to montblanc on monday.

[@YoustruckGold]

Interesting

[@Tridd666]

BRB gonna buy fake iridium nibs from eBay and enact claims against the seller

[@StopFear]

I don’t think children should be trying to sound like know it alls.

[@shadowmihaiu]

Well duh.

[@sachakahn2052]

Nice insights. Towards the end it becomes very speculative though. It would be interesting to have a bunch of modern nibs, at different price points, tested.

[@jpl2475]

All I can do at the moment is speculate, the cost to have it properly tested is a little pricey, but something I will look into doing in the future.

[@sachakahn2052]

I understand. It would be most interesting though...

[@YOLO-ri8od]

🤛🤛

[@rbslammed6163]

Who doesn’t understand that when something is labeled as iridium tip it isn’t implying the entire tip is iridium, only that it contains iridium in its matrix. I feel like this is more about you not understanding something that is commonly understood. That’s not to say the modern tips who make the claim and are being intentionally dishonest are in the same category but those which actually contain iridium and are labeled as such are exactly what most people understand to be the case. Also, your cost claim breaks down when you look at the cost of rhodium so it’s kind of odd you left that out when you went over the components that made up the rhodium nibbed example.

[@colinmurphy2214]

Iridium is my favorite element so this sucks to hear.

[@irishguy13]

You're talking about fraud.

[@dp8460]

so thats why sailor custom nagahara nibs is freaking expensive is because of the expensive cost of tipping and labor. 😊

[@jpl2475]

Worth it though, those are beautiful truly pens

[@offrampt]

5:10 NINEteenth century.

[@jpl2475]

SMH must have used the wrong take :(