Sharpen A Rotring Art Pen?

[Maurizio]

After several years of on and off practice, my italic hand is starting to get respectable. I have found Elenor Winter's book "Calligraphy in 10 Easy Lessons" to be a great guide. I have Brause nibs and nib holders, but do most of my practicing with a 2.3 Rotring Art Pen, an old English Osmiroid, and Pilot Parallel Pens.

My question is can someone give me some guidance on how I can "sharpen up" my Rotring Pen? I'd like to make it just a bit sharper so it draws a more distinct line. Is this possible? Could I use micromesh or mylar sheets to do it? Can someone point me to a post or an online instruction in how to sharpen an italic fountain pen? I'd like NOT to ruin my pen, but would like to just sharpen it a bit.

 

Any guidance or advice welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

[smk]

Yup - these nibs can (and should) be sharpened. Some Rotring Italic pen sets even included an Arkansas stone for this purpose.

 

Here is an excellent article on how to grind Italic nibs (you only need the sharpening part i.e. step 5): http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/aboutpens/ludwig-tan.html

 

Here's a video of how a dip nib is sharpened (just to give you an idea of the movement required.)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5MrU-5jf_U

 

Best of luck - and remember to go slow.

 

Salman

[Maurizio]

Thank you Salman. Good resources. First step, I'm ordering an Arkansas stone and a jewler's loupe.

 

 

(I can't locate the precise quote right now, and this is only the end of it:)

 

"He who practices calligraphy will never be bored"

Herman Zapf

[Maurizio]

Despite appearances, I actually do know how to spell "jeweler's" so please forgive the typo above!

[smk]

You are most welcome Maurizio.

 

BTW an Arkansas stone is not absolutely necessary. A 2000 grit or finer sandpaper works well too. I use a combination of the sandpaper (for shaping) and nail buffing foam thingies (that have 4 sides of different grades) for smoothing and getting rid of burrs.

 

A loupe is very useful and helps a lot with smaller nibs.

 

S.

[Maurizio]

Thank you again Salman.

 

I found my full Herman Zapf quote:

 

"Calligraphy is the most intimate, personal, spontaneous form of expression. But the lifelong satisfaction is in the discipline, the constant practice, the repetition of exercises, the perfection of a skill and in the challenge of measuring one's work against the great historic forms. Anyone who is fascinated by and practices calligraphy will never be bored with life"

Herman Zapf

 

I got this from an article on the internet about 4 years ago. I can't relocate the source to cite or link, but it's an authentic quote. If anyone can supply the source, I'd be grateful.

[Tasmith]

Yup - these nibs can (and should) be sharpened. Some Rotring Italic pen sets even included an Arkansas stone for this purpose.

 

Here is an excellent article on how to grind Italic nibs (you only need the sharpening part i.e. step 5): http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/aboutpens/ludwig-tan.html

 

Here's a video of how a dip nib is sharpened (just to give you an idea of the movement required.)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5MrU-5jf_U

 

Best of luck - and remember to go slow.

 

Salman

Thank you. I now have a use for my grandfather's Arkansas HS 4 or hard 4 stone.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Tasmith

[smk]

Thank you. I now have a use for my grandfather's Arkansas HS 4 or hard 4 stone.

 

That sounds great. Are you planning on using it for dip pens or fountain?

 

S.

[Tasmith]

 

That sounds great. Are you planning on using it for dip pens or fountain?

 

S.

Fountain, Rotring Artpens: 1.1mm; 1.5mm; 1.9mm; 2.3mm. I have two 1.5mm, so I'll practice on one of those first.

 

Question, do I do this on a dry stone or do I use oil?

Edited December 16, 2014 by Tasmith

[smk]

Don't use oil. The oil is used to remove swarf - very little of which is produced in grinding a nib. Also, the oil will need to be cleaned up from the nib and where it has climbed up into the feed. Rotring Art pens are easy to take apart but it can be a problem in other pens.

 

You need to be sure that you have a very hard (i.e. fine) Arkansas stone. I think it'll work better for grinding nibs if the stone has not previously been used with oil.

 

These pens have a nice grind to begin with. It takes a lot of writing to dull the edge - so a little grinding goes a long way :-)

 

Salman

[Tasmith]

Don't use oil. The oil is used to remove swarf - very little of which is produced in grinding a nib. Also, the oil will need to be cleaned up from the nib and where it has climbed up into the feed. Rotring Art pens are easy to take apart but it can be a problem in other pens.

 

You need to be sure that you have a very hard (i.e. fine) Arkansas stone. I think it'll work better for grinding nibs if the stone has not previously been used with oil.

 

These pens have a nice grind to begin with. It takes a lot of writing to dull the edge - so a little grinding goes a long way :-)

 

Salman

Thank you Salman.

 

My stone is very, very fine and feels smooth to the touch. The stone feels dry as it hasn't been used in decades.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Tasmith

[Tasmith]

Just sharpened my Rotring 1.9mm. Did a few strokes, checked nib, a few strokes, checked nib, repeat until I got it where I wanted. Much improved, more crisp lines, although I still need to tweak it by making the leading edge a bit more straight (has the slightest curve) and polish smoother with Mylar paper. My 14x Bausch & Lomb triplet works better than my 12x Goulet loupe for seeing the nib close up. Wouldn't have thought a mere 2x would make such a difference.

 

ETA: Tweaked leading edge, nice ant flat, a bit on the buffing pad, a bit on the Mylar paper and now it writes great!

 

ETA: Just sharpened my 1.5mm Rotring. What an improvement in line sharpness and variation.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Tasmith

[Maurizio]

Thanks for that report Tasmith. I'm waiting for my stone and Bausch & Lomb loupe to arrive from Amazon. You're just making that anticipation better.

[Tasmith]

 

"He who practices calligraphy will never be bored"

Herman Zapf

True!