I've been reading the forum for over a month now and i see things like paper bag test and flossing the nib. I know the parts of pens have never heard of these procedures or how to do them. I am particularly interested in paper bag as it seems to help scratchy nibs write more smoothly? A quick description or point me to a place here -tried search not much luck. Thanks in advance for any and all advice and info. Caz

Basically you just doodle on a brown paper bag -- loops and things in all directions. The brown paper has a very mild sandpaper effect. Sometimes there are teeny-tiny burrs on a nib you don't see and this will smooth them. The pen will either FEEL smoother after you do it or not... but it won't feel worse. My first Phileas (many years ago) wasn't smooth until I did this and it's been great ever since.

Oh, and welcome to FPN Caziopia.

I tried the brown paper & it took ages

Another method which is a lot quicker & means you only do a few strokes /test / do a few strokes / test again is to use a nail glosser stick ( I only use the finest face)

The nail glosser I got from a pharmacy for about £2.00 & its cushioned (useless for my nails btw)

I also used it to take some surface marks off pen barrels & polishing but careful does it

Here's the OldGriz paper bag method described.

The nail buffing sticks are effective. Just make sure you check your progress often with a 10x loupe, and that you are using the least abrasive portion of the stick.

Seems to me that using 600-grit or finer carborundum paper would do the same job, and probably be more predictable. I wouldn't try anything coarser than 600-grit, though, and I'd try to find something finer.

I think 600 grit is too coarse. The micromesh sticks you can buy at Tryphon or Woodbin are much finer, and they work very well.

No topic on nib smoothing should be without the usual warning....

Just make sure you check the alignment of the nibs with a loupe before doing any smoothing.

I think misalignment tends to be a more common cause of scratchy nibs.



- Mark

London is absolutely correct about misalignment causing roughness. Check that first.

***600 grit is TOO ROUGH*** Though manufacturers' grit sizes do not match across the spectrum, 600 is not suitable for polishing nibs. If you insist on trying 600, or 1000, or 1200 or 2400 and have no experience with those grits for this purpose, at least use a throw-away nib.

Or kick yourself for having been in a hurry.

I found a 6000-grit smoothing stick at a local hobby store. Having a terror of over-doing the job in this department, it suits me very well.

Thanks so much to all. I will be careful. And I copied the Ol Griz article on to my computer for future reference. Thanks to all. You are grand bunch of folks!!! Caz

And the other old adage goes, "better to use an abrasive too little and repeat than to use it too much--you can't easily put back what you've taken off". That is, unless you're someone like Greg Minuskin who is known for being quite skilled with retipping nibs.