How a Fountain Pen Nib Is Made: Gold, Tipping, Slit

How a gold fountain pen nib is made, from rolled gold strip to the finished slit nib with its tipping ball — Five stages of a gold nib, from rolled strip to slit and ground point. Not to scale; figures from Sailor's and Montblanc's own pages.

Key takeaways

14K gold is 58.5% gold, 18K is 75.0% and Sailor's 21K is 87.5%; Sailor has made 21K nibs since 1969 and Platinum sold a 23K nib in 1970.
Sailor rolls its alloy about 20 times in two stages and Pilot about 100 times; Montblanc stamps its nib outlines under up to 18 tonnes.
Montblanc counts 35 steps to make a nib and 70 more to assemble and test the pen.
Pilot makes its own tipping balls from iridosmine powder and says only a few companies in the world make them; Platinum melts iridium and osmium powder into balls.
Peter Bock (Heidelberg, founded 1939) became part of Schneider on January 1, 2025; JoWo (Berlin) was registered on September 7, 1994 and supplies nibs for 5, 6 and 8 mm feeds.

How is a fountain pen nib made?

A fountain pen nib is punched out of a rolled strip of gold or steel, embossed, curved, tipped with a welded ball of hard alloy, slit, ground, polished and tuned by hand. Sailor’s Japanese “how a fountain pen is made” page lists the steps in order, and Pilot, Platinum, Montblanc and the German nib maker Peter Bock describe the same sequence with their own figures.

Step	What happens	Figures, by source
1. Alloy	Gold melted with other metals for springiness and corrosion resistance	14K = 58.5% gold (Pilot, Platinum); 21K = 87.5% (Sailor)
2. Roll	Ingot rolled into a long, thin strip	About 20 passes in two stages (Sailor); about 100 (Pilot)
3. Blank	Nib outline punched from the strip	Up to 18 tonnes, about 39,700 lb (Montblanc)
4. Hole, imprint	Breather hole punched, logo and size stamped	Sailor’s “heart hole” is the air inlet
5. Curve	Flat blank pressed into a curve	Sailor calls it 背曲げ, “back bending”
6. Tip	Ball of hard alloy welded to the point, rough-ground to width	Electric welding (Sailor, Pilot)
7. Slit	Thin grinding wheel cuts the ink channel	Sailor: 鋸割, “saw cutting”
8. Grind, polish	Tip shaped, nib buffed or tumbled	Cloth rollers (Sailor); granulate (Bock)
9. Tune, test	Nib fitted to feed, aligned, test-written	Under a microscope, thin ink (Sailor); by ear (Montblanc)

When did each nib maker start?

Japan’s three big pen makers all made gold nibs within a few years of each other, starting with Pilot’s first Japanese 14K nib in 1916. The two German suppliers are younger as companies, though JoWo traces its steel-pen roots to 1849.

Date	Event	Source
1849	Heintze & Blanckertz founded in Berlin; from 1852 the “first German steel-pen factory”	JoWo
1911	Sailor founded in Kure, Hiroshima	Sailor
1916	Ryosuke Namiki completes Japan’s first domestically made 14K fountain pen nib	Pilot
1918	Namiki Manufacturing (now Pilot) founded; “Pilot Pen” with a 14K nib launched	Pilot
February 1919	Shunichi Nakata founds Platinum	Platinum
1939	Peter Bock founds his nib business in Heidelberg; Sailor starts its Ten’o factory in Kure	Bock, Sailor
1948	Pilot opens its Hiratsuka factory	Pilot
1953	Platinum welds iridium tipping to stainless-steel nibs	Platinum
1963	Pilot’s Capless uses stainless-steel deep drawing developed with a hydrogen furnace	Pilot
1967	Platinum’s “Platinum Platinum,” which it calls the first pen with a platinum nib	Platinum
1969	Sailor launches its 21K nib	Sailor
1970	Platinum’s PK23, which it calls the world’s first 23K nib	Platinum
September 7, 1994	JoWo Berliner Schreibfeder GmbH registered	JoWo
2019	Montblanc adds a flexible nib to its calligraphy range	Montblanc
November 5, 2024	Schneider’s purchase of Peter Bock AG notarized	Schneider
January 1, 2025	Peter Bock joins Schneider and becomes Peter Bock GmbH	Schneider, Bock

What do 14K, 18K and 21K (585, 750, 875) mean?

The karat is the share of gold by weight in 24ths: 14K is 58.5% gold, 18K is 75.0% and 21K is 87.5%, which German makers stamp as 585, 750 and 875. Platinum’s Japanese site says its 14K alloy adds silver, copper and nickel to pure gold, and that gold alloys are used because they resist the acid in ink and give the right hardness for writing.

Pilot casts its 14K alloy from 24K gold with silver and copper, and says 14K is firmer and springier than 18K or 24K, the hardness said to suit a nib best. Sailor takes the opposite view: its 21K site says purer gold is more supple but too soft to work easily, that its own alloy solves this, and that it is now the only maker of 21K nibs. Our Sailor Pro Gear Slim guide covers the 14K and 21K versions of one pen.

Montblanc and Pelikan both use 14K or 18K, and Pelikan’s FAQ says each nib is tested by hand. Karat changes feel, not line width; for that, see our nib sizes guide.

How is the gold rolled and the nib blanked?

The ingot goes through a rolling mill dozens of times until it is a thin strip, thicker along the middle, and nib outlines are punched out of it. Sailor rolls about 20 times in two stages, to a thickness set for each nib type; Pilot repeats about 100 passes for its long strip.

Both Pilot and Platinum roll the strip with a raised centre. Pilot calls its machine a “mountain-shaped rolling mill” and says the extra thickness is how it varies feel: its soft nibs, such as the Elabo’s, are rolled differently from its standard ones. Pilot also slits the strip before the last rolling, so the cuts open up into shapes that can be blanked with little waste.

Montblanc stamps the nib’s outline under up to 18 tonnes and then presses it into shape. Its Hamburg Manufacture counts 35 steps to make a nib and another 70 to assemble and test the pen.

Why is there a hole in the nib, and when is it stamped?

The breather hole is punched at the same stage as the imprint, while the blank is still flat. Sailor calls it the “heart hole” and describes it as the air inlet; the slit later runs from it to the point.

The blank is then curved. Sailor credits its own hardening (焼入れ) technique for the slight springiness in its nibs. Bock’s photo series of its handwork starts with embossing a nib under a stamping die.

What is the “iridium” tip made of?

The tip is a tiny ball of hard platinum-group alloy welded onto the gold, because gold alone would wear away on paper. Pilot’s Japanese site says it makes its own tipping material: iridosmine powder (iridium plus other platinum-group metals) is made, formed into balls and sorted, then each ball is welded on electrically in an instant and ground one by one. Pilot says only a few companies in the world make these pen points.

Platinum says its pen point comes from mixed iridium and osmium powder, heated so quickly that surface tension pulls the melt into a ball. Sailor only says the alloy is chosen to resist wear over long use, and Bock and Montblanc speak of an “iridium grain” and “iridium tip”.

None of these pages gives a composition in percent, so we can’t say how much iridium a modern tip contains. After welding, Sailor rough-grinds the tip to the size set for each nib width.

How is the slit cut and the nib ground, polished and tuned?

A thin grinding wheel cuts the slit through the ball, the tip is shaped on grindstones, and the nib is polished and then adjusted by hand. Sailor finishes the tip on stones and buffs the nib on cloth rollers to bring up the shine and remove marks. Bock polishes its nibs by tumbling them in granulate.

Sailor then fits the nib to its feed, dips the unit in hot water so the feed sits tight against the nib, and adjusts the tine height and gap under a microscope with the fingertips. Each pen is test-written with a pale ink before cleaning and assembly. Platinum says each pen is hand-finished to suit Japanese characters before it ships.

Montblanc grinds the tip by hand to its width and says trained grinders listen to each nib on paper; nibs that scratch, snag or sound uneven fail. Bock’s last steps are an inspection under a loupe and a writing test.

How are steel nibs different?

Steel nibs follow the same steps, from a stainless-steel strip instead of gold. JoWo makes stainless-steel nibs alongside 14K and 18K gold ones, and Bock lists gold, platinum, palladium, titanium and stainless steel.

Platinum’s history dates its first iridium-tipped stainless nib to 1953 and says it sold it as a “10-year pen” with a 10-year nib guarantee. Pilot developed stainless-steel deep drawing for its 1963 Capless, and in 1971 its Myu 701 made the section’s tip into the nib itself. Today’s Pilot steel nibs include the Kakuno’s smiley-face nib, and Pelikan describes the M200’s nib as gold-plated steel.

Which pen makers make their own nibs?

Pilot, Sailor, Platinum and Montblanc describe making their gold nibs themselves; many other brands buy from specialist suppliers. Pelikan’s site says its nibs are crafted from 14K or 18K gold and tested by hand, but the pages we could load don’t say where they are made.

Maker	Where nibs are made	What it says
Pilot	Japan	Makes every nib part, including the tipping balls
Sailor	Own factory in Kure, Hiroshima	21K and 14K nibs
Platinum	Koshigaya Center, Saitama	14K nibs, iridium-osmium points
Montblanc	Hamburg Manufacture	14K or 18K, 35 steps
Pelikan	Not stated on its current site	14K or 18K, each tested by hand
Peter Bock	Heidelberg	Supplies other brands
JoWo	Berlin	Supplies other brands

Pilot’s Japanese site goes further, claiming it is the only maker in the world that handles every step from nib parts to the finished pen. Our guides to the Pilot Custom 74 and Platinum #3776 Century cover two of these 14K nibs in detail.

Who are Bock and JoWo?

Peter Bock in Heidelberg and JoWo in Berlin are German nib makers that supply other pen brands rather than selling pens of their own. Bock’s history says Peter Bock founded the business in 1939, his son Otto joined in 1951 and designed its special nib-making machines, and Wolfgang Bock took over in 2011 as the third generation. It added ink feeds in 2003 and became Peter Bock AG in 2004.

Schneider Schreibgeräte’s release says it agreed to buy Peter Bock AG on November 5, 2024, effective January 1, 2025, to make its own nibs instead of buying them; the price was not disclosed.

Bock then had 30 to 40 staff and about 3,000 m² (about 32,000 sq ft) of space with its own toolmaking. Bock’s reference list names Faber-Castell, Sheaffer, Schwan-Stabilo, Pineider, Onoto, Levenger and Schneider, and says other customers can’t be named.

JoWo’s history says the business began as Heintze & Blanckertz in 1849 and became a state-owned works in East Berlin. Its successor, Berliner Schreibfeder GmbH, ended in insolvency on September 30, 1994, by JoWo’s account.

Two of its former managers, Joachim Hildebrand and Wolfgang Lemme, registered JoWo on September 7, 1994, bought machines from the insolvent estate and restarted with 23 staff; the name joins their first names. Joachim’s son Jan Hildebrand has been sole owner since May 2021. JoWo sells standard nibs for 5, 6 and 8 mm (0.20, 0.24 and 0.31 in) feeds, in EF to BB and italic widths, and makes custom series from 100,000 pieces.

Are any of these facts disputed?

Three claims come from the makers alone, and one history is told two ways. Pilot’s “only maker of every part” and Sailor’s “only maker of 21K nibs” are their own claims, which we can’t check independently; Platinum’s history shows it sold a 23K nib in 1970.

JoWo’s own history dates Heintze & Blanckertz to 1849, while a version widely repeated in pen glossaries starts in 1852 and gives other details that JoWo’s page doesn’t mention. We use JoWo’s version. The tip alloy is also loosely named: makers say “iridium,” but Pilot and Platinum describe mixed platinum-group metals, and no maker publishes the recipe.

Frequently asked questions

Is a fountain pen nib tip really iridium?

Makers still say "iridium", but the tip is a platinum-group alloy. Pilot's Japanese site calls its material iridosmine powder (iridium plus other platinum-group metals), Platinum names iridium and osmium, and Sailor only says a wear-resistant alloy; none of them publishes the exact mix.

What does 585 or 750 mean on a nib?

It is the gold content in thousandths: 585 is 14K (58.5% gold) and 750 is 18K (75.0%). Sailor's 21K is 875, or 87.5% gold. Platinum's Japanese site says its 14K alloy adds silver, copper and nickel to the gold.

What is the hole in a fountain pen nib for?

Sailor's Japanese site calls it the heart hole and describes it as the inlet for air. It is punched with the imprint, before the nib is curved, and the slit runs from it to the tip.

Is a 21K gold nib better than 14K?

It is softer, not automatically better. Sailor says higher-purity gold is more supple but harder to work, and that its 21K alloy gives a springy feel; Pilot says 14K has the hardness best suited to a nib. Line width depends on the grind, not the karat.

Who makes nibs for other pen brands?

The two best-known German suppliers are Peter Bock in Heidelberg and JoWo in Berlin. Bock's reference list names Faber-Castell, Sheaffer, Schwan-Stabilo, Pineider and Onoto among its customers; JoWo sells standard #5, #6 and #8 nibs but doesn't publish a customer list.

Does Pilot make its own nibs?

Yes. Pilot's Japanese site says it makes every nib part itself, including the tipping balls, and claims to be the only maker in the world that handles every step from nib parts to the finished pen.

Are steel nibs made the same way as gold nibs?

The steps are the same: blank, emboss, tip, slit, grind and polish. JoWo and Bock both make stainless-steel nibs alongside gold ones, and Platinum's history says it first welded iridium tipping to stainless-steel nibs in 1953.

How many steps does it take to make a nib?

Montblanc says 35 steps for the nib and 70 more to assemble and test the pen. Sailor describes its gold-nib process in 10 steps up to the writing test, plus assembly and packing.

Sources (21)

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