Restoring a bent nib

[JimStrutton]

This tale sort of brings a truth to this topic about pens adapting to a persons hand. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...?showtopic=8976

 

I recently bought a couple of pens from Carrie, very pleased with them both. Carrie said in her description that the "51" was not a smooth as she would like and the nib could do with some smoothing. On trying the pen I agreed it was nearly there but just enough to be not quite.

 

So I took a good look at the nib and saw that it seemed to be tilted up at the end and had a definite lean to the left. So off came the hood so I could get a better look. Sure enough the nib was bent upwards and was bent off line to the left. Now I can only assume, that with a fine nib and this pen being a mid 50's Aero, the user had a heavy hand and over time the nib had deformed upwards and had dragged, for want of a better word, to the left.

 

I felt that all the smoothing in the World was not going to fix this, unless I could get it straight. So here is how I set about it. I had the nib completely out at this stage, so my aim was to reform it back to the original shape. Hard tools I felt were a non-starter so I adapted like this. I held the nib between double folded sheets of heavy cartridge paper, pressed on the edge of my wooden desk with a heavy plastic ruler on the top that I could press it down with. So with the nib held upside down like this I then flexed the end of the nib up, firmly but repeatedly as I moved the nib further out of my clamp. This meant that the force was applied to the part of the nib bearing against the ruler. All the time I was flexing a bit and checking with a loupe to see what result I was getting.

 

The art I feel is slowly, slowly, and check, check, check. Eventually I got the nib back to a straight profile but still with the left bias. To cure that I used basically the same technique, but flexed the end of the nib right as I held it as tight as I could by pressing down with the ruler. Again I used the loupe at every stage to check.

 

The downside of the process was although I got it back straight, the slit had opened up and was far too wide and the tines were not aligned too well, but the nib was back to the basic shape. The rest has been flexing and crossing the tines to get them aligned and to close up the slit. The pen now writes better but is not yet perfect. Is writes a nice wet line and is smoother than it was. I am finding that if left for a day or so the tines are not as well aligned, so there is some 'memory' there that I need to flex to eradicate. I will get that right before I try any smoothing, but I suspect that apart from brown paper it won't need much, once I get it aligned.

 

So that is about it, I set out to do this mainly because I wanted to cure the problem if I could. Six months ago I would have just bought a new nib, eighteen months ago I would not have taken the hood off, so I am happy that I am learning more.

 

Don't ask how long this has taken It is an ongoing process. If you are desperate to get a pen to write, then a new nib would have been quicker, cheaper and have more guarantee. However, this has been fun and satisfying. I think that this process could work for any nib that is a bit deformed rather than totally mangled.

 

Jim

http://www.strutton.free-online.co.uk/Pictures/Pens/51aerofine.jpg

Picture added

Edited June 12, 2006 by JimStrutton

[Ray]

Nice one, Jim. Nib work, a little like Windows scripting, is one of the last dark arts, isn't it?

 

Ray

[JimStrutton]

Nice one, Jim. Nib work, a little like Windows scripting, is one of the last dark arts, isn't it?

 

Ray

I prefer to think of it like CGI/Perl Ray :roflmho:

 

What is all this with Windows anyway, I am trying to wean myself off the stuff.

 

Added a piccy showing the work to date, nib is nearly there.

 

Jim

[kissing]

hahaha~~nice job!!!

 

truly inspired

Edited June 12, 2006 by kissing

[Slush99]

Nice job!!!

[RonB]

Congratulations, Jim! And you even avoided disaster, which I did not on my nib work.

 

That is a beautiful 51, by the way.

 

Ron

[Carrie]

I feel guilty now for not realising the nib was bent! Very interesting to read about the work you've been doing on the pen and I know what you mean about it being satisfying to put a pen back into full working order, I was busy straightening a CS15 nib at the weekend. I hope you've now got a nicely working pen.

[JimStrutton]

I feel guilty now for not realising the nib was bent! Very interesting to read about the work you've been doing on the pen and I know what you mean about it being satisfying to put a pen back into full working order, I was busy straightening a CS15 nib at the weekend. I hope you've now got a nicely working pen.

Hey Carrie,

 

I am just grateful you sold me the pen! To be fair I only realised what the real problem was when I took the hood off and got the nib right out, under a good light and through a loupe.

 

I have had a great deal of fun, it has been a great learning process and I get a nice pen out of it at the end of the day. Plus it has extended my knowledge and ability. Like I said in the piece, six months ago I would not have attempted it, today I am brave!

 

The pen is about 98% of the way there, just a few more tweaks and I will be happy, about a month then

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

 

PS I think it says something about the way a nib deforms with a persons hand though, as this was a very gentle bend if you get my drift and the left hand bend says volumes to me.

[Carrie]

Like I said in the piece, six months ago I would not have attempted it, today I am brave!

Maybe one day I'll get brave, but for now I'll just stick at the stage you were at 18 months ago. Hmm, maybe I need more P51s in my life so that I can get brave

[Carrie]

Oops, double post. Keep having trouble with the forum timing out on me tonight.

Edited June 12, 2006 by Carrie