Mabie Todd Swan #4 England, 14ct Gold, 330g Butterflex

🥇 Grade: B+
🏠 Housing: Nikko Red Ebonite, JOWO #6
🔱 Nib: Mabie Todd Swan #4 England, 14ct Gold
🖋️ Line Spec: EEF/B – 4B | 0.15mm / 0.80mm – 1.54mm (10.27x)
🌡️ Flexibility Pressure: 330g Butterflex
📐 Dimensions: 22.32mm Nib Length
⚖️ Weight: 1.992g

📜 History & Provenance

Mabie Todd's "Swan Self-Filling Pen" — the lever-filler that anchored the company's modern catalog — was patented in 1920 with a self-locking mechanism intended to prevent the filler arm from being accidentally tripped in pocket carry. Across the 1920s, the #4 nib became the larger flex size in the core Swan lineup, fitted to the standard Swan 44, the larger Swan 54, and their Eternal siblings. It is the larger size most associated with the Swan flex reputation (where the smaller #2 nibs are commonly found).

The English "Swan" imprint places this nib after the mid-1920s production shift from New York to the Birmingham and Liverpool factories. Because the flexible Swan and Eternal manifold lines ran concurrently through the late 1920s and into the 1930s, precise dating within that window is difficult — but the imprint style suggests likely after 1925/26.

Fitted into a Nikko red ebonite housing with a JOWO #6 ebonite feed for a ready-to-write nib unit.

🧪 QA & Recommendation

The flex multiplier is a grail level 10.27x, driven by an extraordinarily fine EEF horizontal profile. At 0.15mm, the cross strokes land finer than what most dedicated needlepoint nibs can deliver, and that range carries cleanly to a 1.54mm full flex under 330g of pressure — butterflex, not superflex, with enough structure to write as a daily pen.

At rest the tipping lays down EEF horizontal by B vertical (0.15mm / 0.80mm) — firmly in crisp flexible stub territory. Moderate pressure opens the tines smoothly into a solid 4B, with well-defined swell-to-hairline transitions and snapback that returns to hairline without hesitation or drift. Flexible stubs and oblique grinds sit among the most expressive vintage nib profiles because the unflexed character and the flexed behavior each contribute an independent range, and this #4 balances both in unusual measure. This is definitely one of the best nibs that I kept from any Swan 4 series for these characteristics haha.

Tine alignment and heat-setting were addressed before the nib was seated into the JOWO housing. B+ reflects honest writing wear with crisp imprint legibility.

A natural fit for experienced flex writers, calligraphers drawn to flexible stubs with true hairline cross strokes, and collectors after a top-tier Mabie Todd flex example. Will show off ink characteristics extremely well from hairlines to broad lines and flourishes.

Tested on Rhodia 80 gsm, inked with Waterman Serenity Blue.