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How To Adjust 14K Nibs?

beanbag

By beanbag
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beanbag Rare

beanbag

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How does one adjust the tine spacing on 14K gold nibs? The material is very springy, so you can lean on it, but then it will spring right back. I've gotten pretty reasonable at adjusting my steel nibs with thin pieces of sheet metal, but in this case, I don't need to bend very far in the desired direction.

 

Some of my vintage pens that I bought off ebay seem to have a very tight tine spacing, and often it appears that one tine is (barely) bent a little towards the other. I dunno, maybe the original owner pressed on the side of the nib, or dropped it on the side, or whatever. Ideally, I would like to take the last few mm of that individual tine and bend it back out, but I would also be willing to just increase the tine spacing a little bit (in the case where the slit is simply too narrow).

 

On the nibs.com website, they have a procedure where you pull apart the shoulders while pushing down on the top of the nib. Wouldn't that also give you the problem of "inverted Grand Canyon", where the bottom of the iridium is open more than the top? Well, I tried that procedure on one of my too-dry nibs, and it did successfully increase the wetness a bit. Although it did create a very very small amount of this "inverted grand canyon" effect. How can I simply increase the tine spacing without creating this tilt also?

 

 

 

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kirchh Antique

kirchh

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You say the material is very springy; are these flexible nibs?

 

--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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Frank C

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How does one adjust the tine spacing on 14K gold nibs? The material is very springy, so you can lean on it, but then it will spring right back. I've gotten pretty reasonable at adjusting my steel nibs with thin pieces of sheet metal, but in this case, I don't need to bend very far in the desired direction.

 

Some of my vintage pens that I bought off ebay seem to have a very tight tine spacing, and often it appears that one tine is (barely) bent a little towards the other. I dunno, maybe the original owner pressed on the side of the nib, or dropped it on the side, or whatever. Ideally, I would like to take the last few mm of that individual tine and bend it back out, but I would also be willing to just increase the tine spacing a little bit (in the case where the slit is simply too narrow).

 

On the nibs.com website, they have a procedure where you pull apart the shoulders while pushing down on the top of the nib. Wouldn't that also give you the problem of "inverted Grand Canyon", where the bottom of the iridium is open more than the top? Well, I tried that procedure on one of my too-dry nibs, and it did successfully increase the wetness a bit. Although it did create a very very small amount of this "inverted grand canyon" effect. How can I simply increase the tine spacing without creating this tilt also?

 

 

 

People usually use brass shims for this. They are available from Goulet Pens or Anderson Pens.

"One can not waste time worrying about small minds . . . If we were normal, we'd still be using free ball point pens." —Bo Bo Olson

 

"I already own more ink than a rational person can use in a lifetime." —Waski_the_Squirrel

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to list all my pens down here.

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beanbag Rare

beanbag

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You say the material is very springy; are these flexible nibs?

 

--Daniel

 

no

 

 

People usually use brass shims for this. They are available from Goulet Pens or Anderson Pens.

 

What procedure are you referring to with the shims? If it simply involves jamming them between the tines, it doesn't work for me.

 

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kirchh Antique

kirchh

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Got pictures? A typical nib's slit does narrow as it approaches the tip; penmakers gave the nib a "set" as one of the steps in forming the nib. The extent of this generally varies with the flexibility of the nib. Are you having serious flow problems with a lot of vintage nibs?

 

--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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beanbag Rare

beanbag

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Next time I am in lab with my pen I will take a pic under the microscope to explain.

The flow problems are not "serious", but more like "too dry", or "dry on initial upstrokes".

 

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kirchh Antique

kirchh

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Might be due to the feed rather than the nib tine spacing.

 

--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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beanbag Rare

beanbag

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I don't think it's a feed issue because if I put down some slight pressure to spread the tines a little bit, I can draw long vertical lines with no problem.

 

OK, so for one of my non-flex 14K nibs:

I was finally able to open up the tines (without creating inverse grand canyon) by first jamming in a .002" piece of sheet metal. Then another .002 piece. Then a .005" piece between the two other pieces. Plus wriggle this around a little bit. (I DON'T do that procedure by SBRE on youtube where he takes shims and rapidly slides them in and out.)

 

OK, fine, but then when I put the nib back in the pen, the feed must be pushing on it slightly because the tines opened up even more.

 

Should I try a heat set on the feed? (The feed looks plastic and not ebonite) Or should the nib have been adjusted where the tines press against each other when the nib is off the pen, and then you expect the feed to open up the tines a little when you install the nib?

 

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