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Nib Slits Peened Shut


Paddler

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This is the third time I have seen this modification to a nib: the slit has been struck over and metal peened into the gap, nearly closing it off.

 

The first time was in a P51. It was rather clumsily struck with a chisel-like tool (I thought maybe side cutters) and just put it down to wanton destructiveness or a very strange accident. I used some 9um grit Mylar to remove the obstruction. The nib now works fine.

 

The next time, it was a Sheaffer Vigilant with a numbered nib-whose-bottom-profile-is-flat. The slit had been very carefully struck on the underside with a small, oblong drift. I didn't notice the imprint the drift made until I looked for it last night. The slit was nearly closed and I ground the obstruction out of it. The pen is my very best writer.

 

Just recently, I inherited a Sheaffer Balance Vac Fill. It has a numbered nib-whose-bottom-profile-is-flat. The pen was in very bad shape overall. The slit had been peened heavily enough to actually spread the tines a bit at the point. I ground the bulge out of there and did some major tweaking and now the pen writes very well, if a bit on the wet side.

 

I didn't notice this pattern until I found it in my pen journal. So what is going on? Is this a modification to make a nib write dryer?

 

Paddler

Edited by Paddler

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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The next time, it was a Sheaffer Vigilant with a numbered Waverly nib.

I disapprove of the use of the term "Waverley" (note spelling) as a generic description for a turn-up nib. Waverley was the style name of a particular maker's product; that nib indeed had a turned up tip, but it also had a distinctive overall teardrop shape with a dramatic waist pinch. Here is a picture of one such nib, from The Pen Room (penroom.co.uk):

 

http://penroom.co.uk/images/waverley_1.jpg

 

I dislike the conversion of a specific maker's brand name for a product with a number of distinctive attributes into a generic term meaning just one of those attributes on any maker's product (with the added confusion of the proper-noun spelling -- who owns the term?). Bad enough we have the term "Flighter" being used for any maker's all-stainless pen (or for any all-white-metal Parker, even if not stainless steel -- see an example of this, and a proper admonishment, here), "Signet" is applied to any all-gold-filled pen, and so on. Next, we'll see "Feathertouch" for any maker's two-tone nib.

 

--Dnaiel

"The greatest mental derangement is to believe things because we want them to be true, not because we observe that they are in effect." --Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Daniel Kirchheimer
Specialty Pen Restoration
Authorized Sheaffer/Parker/Waterman Vintage Repair Center
Purveyor of the iCroScope digital loupe

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Sorry, Dnaiel.

 

I didn't know the derivation of the name. I have corrected the post and have removed the W word from my fountain pen lexicon.

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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I wonder if this has any affiliation to several Sheaffers I've seen with the tipping removed as though with side-cutters.

Ravensmarch Pens & Books
It's mainly pens, just now....

Oh, good heavens. He's got a blog now, too.

 

fpn_1465330536__hwabutton.jpg

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I wonder if this has any affiliation to several Sheaffers I've seen with the tipping removed as though with side-cutters.

 

I haven't seen any actually cut yet. From time to time I see third tier pens with plated steel nibs with cuts filed through the plating. Apparently someone has been looking for gold.

 

So what did I do here? Did I unwittingly remove an important and much-desired modification from these nibs?

 

Paddler

 

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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I dislike the conversion of a specific maker's brand name for a product with a number of distinctive attributes into a generic term.

While you're at it, can you pass me the kleenex, & get a couple of cokes out of the frigidaire? :roflmho:

 

And don't forget to wash down your aspirin with the coke.

 

Donnie

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

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Sorry to throw in another side note, but I'm trying to learn the lexicon. Peened? (I'm guessing a ball-peen hammer is involved.) Thanks!

I came here for the pictures and stayed for the conversation.

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Wikipaediea's rather over-long definition of "peen" here. I'm most familiar with it in its use to set solid rivets by smacking them with a ball-peen hammer.

Ravensmarch Pens & Books
It's mainly pens, just now....

Oh, good heavens. He's got a blog now, too.

 

fpn_1465330536__hwabutton.jpg

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Sorry to throw in another side note, but I'm trying to learn the lexicon. Peened? (I'm guessing a ball-peen hammer is involved.) Thanks!

 

Yep, a ball-peen hammer is a common peening tool. To simplify considerably over Wikipedia, peening is an operation in which metal worked cold is "upset" -- that is, compressed in one direction, expanded in the other two -- by a hammering method. As suggested, rivets are commonly peened (though hot rivets aren't correctly peened, they're forged in place). A blacksmith will typically have at least two or three peening hammers, none of which have a ball (cross peens, straight peens, and sometimes angle peens -- and often more than one weight of each), used for cold work from putting heads on cut nails to assembling ironwork like mortise locks, as well as for hot work.

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

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