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A New One For Me - Nib Tip Question


gweimer1

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I'm working on a Lady Sheaffer, and this has a really nice, sturdy nib. It's almost what I'm guessing could be a stub, and seems to be a broad.

When I checked the tines under my loupe, I noticed that the very tip seems to have a little pinhole right at the tip. I'm guessing that this is adding to the ink flow. Is this a problem that I should fix, or is it something I can live with. There's nothing wrong with the pen, but it's definitely a commanding broad stroke, and really smooth.

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Picture?

 

--Daniel

"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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I'll see if I can get a decent picture posted, but my camera isn't very effective inside of about 4". If you imagine looking at the tip of the nib through the magnifier, it looks like a tiny hole running up into the feed between the tines. It's probably smaller than 1/4 of the tip size.

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Is it the tip of the nib that has the hole, or the tip of the feed?

 

--Daniel

"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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It's the very tip of the nib, where it meets the paper.

I'm still not sure where this hole is and what path it takes; you said it's "a tiny hole running up into the feed," but the feed is below the nib, isn't it?

 

--Daniel

"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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Yeah, I guess I am making this a little difficult. Let me try again...

 

The hole appears to be on the very tip of the nib, leading in between the tines. The only way you can really see it is from the tip, looking up the pen. As soon as I get a chance, I'll try to get a pic together.

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Occasionally I see a vintage nib where there is a tiny void in the tipping material. This tends to happen more often (though still rare) in older pens. As time went on, metallurgy improved and it was less common.

 

Nevertheless, I can remember a 1930s era Sheaffer Balance where I could see a tiny "pinhole" in the writing surface of one of the tips. When I decided I couldn't live with this defect, I decided to smooth the nib and remove some material to "remove" the hole. Imagine my surprise (as in an unhappy surprise) when the more tip I removed, the larger the hole got. In the end I think I removed enough tipping to eliminate the problem.

 

In your case it seems from your limited description that the hole is in both tines (??) Can you tell if 1. Its symmetric, as in the pen was manufactured that way, or 2. if it is a product of wear or damage to the pen.

 

Sometimes old pens were used in a way that wore a defect into the nib, like frequently running the nib against a ruler, which can put a "slot" in one side or the other.

 

Other times, somewhere in the pen's history the nib was damaged, or dropped, or used to open a beer can, or otherwise abused. Maybe what you see is the remainder of how the nib was abused, possibly as it happened or after someone tried to repair the damage.

 

When the ball pen came into use, old fountain pens were just worthless junk for many people, who couldn't wait to get rid of the old, antique item and move to the latest thing. Sometimes these pens weren't treated very well. Sometimes they were stuffed into the back of a desk drawer and forgotten for 50 years. Sometimes they were just thrown out.

 

 

.

Edited by markh

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"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

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