Jump to content

How Often Should Nibs Be Replaced?


rumbleroar

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

In general, I'm pretty sure a fountain pen nib will often outlast its owner. Also, oftentimes if it is gold, it can then be retipped so that it's like new again.

 

When you lend out pens, you have to be careful since not everyone is really careful with your pens. I usually only lend pens with broader, stiffer nibs to people who I'm really good friends with and trust. Then I hover over their shoulder and show them how to use it. Some of my friends who know I use a fountain pen now really want one. I guess if they're lucky, they might find a new pen and some ink in the mail on their birthday. Since I don't really talk much about my pens outside of the pen world, I've noticed that a lot of people don't notice that I'm using a fountain pen, but they notice the ink colors I use for my notes.

 

Dillon

Stolen: Aurora Optima Demonstrator Red ends Medium nib. Serial number 1216 and Aurora 98 Cartridge/Converter Black bark finish (Archivi Storici) with gold cap. Reward if found. Please contact me if you have seen these pens.

Please send vial orders and other messages to fpninkvials funny-round-mark-thing gmail strange-mark-thing com. My shop is open once again if you need help with your pen.

Will someone with the name of "Jay" who emailed me through the email system provide me an email address? There was no email address provided, so I can't write back.

Dillon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 28
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • GabrielleDuVent

    2

  • rumbleroar

    2

  • georges zaslavsky

    1

  • dcwaites

    1

Yeah, this guy literally took it from my hands and then did that. Hillbilly for sure.

Just out of curiosity, have you spoken to this guy about what he did? Maybe shown him on a site like Jet Pens what a Lamy nib costs? $11 may not seem like much around here, but it's more than many people would think of spending on an entire pen. If he would snatch any pen out of your hand, the chances of getting even a sincere apology, let alone restitution, are pretty slim, but some people are pretty clueless about ordinary courtesy. You could give him a chance.

 

If he won't buy you a new nib, well, I don't know the full situation. If he's a fellow employee, for example, and this happened at work, then you could kick it up to the next layer of management and have them talk with him. In other situations, there may not be much you can do.

 

Either way, I'd follow the advice above for trying to fix your nib. If you succeed, then the next Lamy nib you buy could be something different, like an Italic.

 

By the way, the point has already been made by others, but my oldest pens are probably from before 1920, and certainly from before 1925. No way of being sure how many miles they have on them, but they're still going strong, and I'm not figuring on wearing them out.

Edited by ISW_Kaputnik

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."

 

- Benjamin Franklin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never...unless you drop the pen on its nib or otherwise abuse it.

 

I ink up my mother's WW II Parker 51 occasionally and it still writes fine. The nib hasn't worn out, but the vacumatic system has been overhauled.

 

She got it new in '41-'42 and used it daily through the mid-60s. Died in the mid-70s and the pen wasn't used for 15 years or so (luckily had been well flushed before storage). I started using it periodically in the early 90s and it's still going strong.

 

Long answer but you don't need to worry about wearing out a quality nib in your lifetime.

I always get a kick out of these "no affiliation" notations when it's blatantly obvious the poster has absolutely nothing to do with the brand, company, etc. beyond being a customer. It must be a feel-good/feel-important thing. So I'll note up front that nothing I write here on this forum is influenced by any financial-gain motivation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

If you are careful enough , your pen can last you a lifetime

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of Murphy's laws ( in my case ): when a FP falls it lands always on it's nb. Another of Murphy's laws: it always happens with the expensive or rare ones.

otherwise you can only have to change a nib if you play darts with your pen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the few occasions when someone's been rude enough to yank a fountain pen from my hand, I have emitted an involuntary yelping sound that's stopped them in their tracks before they can set it to paper. (Think outraged albatross, volume switch turned all the way up.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never lend pens to non-fp people, ever. I would consider trying to re-align the tines of the nib and if that doesn't work, I'd consider replacing the nib. As to normal usage, replace it when it no longer writes as its supposed to. That's why Fountain Pens last for years and decades, unlike RB and BP.

http://www.venganza.org/images/fsm.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if you only have one "good quality" fountain pen that you use everyday, it is unlikely that you will ever have to replace the nib. By "good quality", I mean that the nib has a proper wear resistant tip.

 

Also, I never lend my fountain pens to non-fountain pen users. How would I know . . . I just assume that they are non-users. I always go with the MC Hammer Rule . . . "U Can't Touch This".

I only have two pens - an Aurora Optima and others.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have never replaced a nib, but I did try my luck at rubbing one on sandpaper. Fortunately it works rather well right now. :D

 

So no, just try to push the nib together and you should be alright.

 

 

I know exactly one person who wore down his nib. He was a writer, and he wrote probably over 4,000,000 characters (so that'd be about 20,000,000 strokes) before the nib wore down completely.

 

As for HP Lovecraft... Maybe Cthulhu chewed his nibs up. :P Or he wrote over 10,000 pages.

 

 

He did write something like 10,000 letters in his life. One of them was like 30 pages, but most were two or three pages. :B

Edited by Hrafnsmerki
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...