Mabie Todd & Co. NY Eternal #6 Nib, 14k Gold, Manifold FM (Bock 380)

🥇 Grade: B+
🏠 Housing: Nikko Black Ebonite, Bock 380
🔱 Nib: Mabie Todd & Co. New York Eternal #6, 14k Gold
🖋️ Line Spec: FM | 0.40mm
🌡️ Flexibility Pressure: Manifold, no flex
📐 Dimensions: 49.77mm total nib length, 28.24mm overhang past housing
⚖️ Weight: 2.277g

Mabie Todd & Co. introduced the "Eternal" imprint in the early 1920s as the top-tier manifold nib in its catalog — a stiff, reinforced gold writer designed for clerical and carbon-copy work, sitting alongside the flexible Swan line rather than replacing it. The earliest Eternals were produced at the New York factory before Mabie Todd consolidated gold-nib manufacturing in Birmingham and Liverpool through the mid-1920s. New York Eternal nibs are markedly less common than their later English counterparts; surviving examples typically date to roughly 1920–1925, before the production shift across the Atlantic.

The #6 in the Eternal lineage is a substantial nib by any era's standard. At 49.77mm total length and 2.277g, it outscales most #6 nibs vintage and modern, sitting dimensionally closer to a contemporary #8. The proportions pair naturally with oversized modern bodies and Bock 380-class housings. Seated here in a Nikko black ebonite housing with a Bock 380 ebonite feed, ready to write. Fit note: nib clearance against the cap is tight on smaller hosts — verify with a chopstick check before committing the nib to a body for extended carry.

Manifold by design — built to lay the same line under any pressure. The character lives in the tip and how the nib responds to writing angle. The 0.40mm FM tipping lays a wet, even FM line that turns bolder and more saturated at a higher angle, finer and crisper at a lower one, without skipping or stuttering across the rotation. Soft-firm under the hand. Long writing sessions stay effortless and predictable, and the nib takes pressure cleanly on the downstroke without spread.

Best suited to writers who want a substantial vintage gold nib for confident, predictable daily writing, owners of oversized modern bodies looking for a proportionate gold front end, and collectors of early American Mabie Todd production where the New York Eternal lineage matters.

Tine alignment corrected, tipping smoothed, light burnish at the base to sharpen baseline contact. Heat-set into the Bock 380 housing with the matched ebonite feed for clean flow from the first stroke. Imprint legibility is crisp; structural integrity is full.

Tested on Rhodia 90gsm ivory with Diamine Imperial Purple.
*only nib unit, does not come with pen*