Stub Grinding On Jinhao 159

[Pan_Welenty]

Did the 12000 grit pad smooth it enough, or would sub-micron Mylar paper just be overkill?

[sodul]

The 12000 grit is quite smooth. I'm not an expert in polishes and grits but by extrapolating the table from wikipedia, I would guess that 12000 is around the 1-2 micron range. According to Brian Goulet in his videos his 12000 micro mesh is about twice as big as the 1 micron Mylar. He also confirms that with the 12000 grit you would have similar smoothness to the Goulet nibs. I would not use Mylar until you are finding the nib very smooth already with 12000 grit and feel that you need a glass smooth nib.

 

Now I got to get my hands onto Mylar paper.

[Bill Wood]

The 12000 grit is quite smooth. I'm not an expert in polishes and grits but by extrapolating the table from wikipedia, I would guess that 12000 is around the 1-2 micron range. According to Brian Goulet in his videos his 12000 micro mesh is about twice as big as the 1 micron Mylar. He also confirms that with the 12000 grit you would have similar smoothness to the Goulet nibs. I would not use Mylar until you are finding the nib very smooth already with 12000 grit and feel that you need a glass smooth nib.

 

Now I got to get my hands onto Mylar paper.

Well good work either way Sodul. I enjoyed your posts, thanks for taking the time. I make my deeper cuts with a dremel, then smooth. Primarily with broad jowo nibs, and the 1.1 mm. I often take the 1.1 and trim it down to about to .8 mm. Fun stuff either way. I'm going to order a few disposable pilots and mess around a bit.

[sodul]

I'm glad you enjoyed them. I'm grinding a new stub after my wife claimed ownership of the 0.8 stub to use in her journal. It is still very scratchy so I have a lot of polishing still ahead of me. The main issue is that the upstroke is dry, any advice on how to fix that?

 

I did not see the Pilot Varsity pens as candidates for custom grinding. If they are anything like the european Pilot V-Pen I have from 20y ago the feed goes all the way to the tip with some felt material so there is not much room to make a stub. Since the tip is made by folding the tip vertically instead of having the traditional ball of hard metal I'm not sure you will be able to make any significant modification to the nib.

[dcwaites]

I'm glad you enjoyed them. I'm grinding a new stub after my wife claimed ownership of the 0.8 stub to use in her journal. It is still very scratchy so I have a lot of polishing still ahead of me. The main issue is that the upstroke is dry, any advice on how to fix that?

 

I did not see the Pilot Varsity pens as candidates for custom grinding. If they are anything like the european Pilot V-Pen I have from 20y ago the feed goes all the way to the tip with some felt material so there is not much room to make a stub. Since the tip is made by folding the tip vertically instead of having the traditional ball of hard metal I'm not sure you will be able to make any significant modification to the nib.

 

That is quite an old V-Pen you have. I have one the same.

However, the current V-Pen/Varsity pens have a normal tip.

[Bill Wood]

I'm glad you enjoyed them. I'm grinding a new stub after my wife claimed ownership of the 0.8 stub to use in her journal. It is still very scratchy so I have a lot of polishing still ahead of me. The main issue is that the upstroke is dry, any advice on how to fix that?

.

If the upstroke is scratchy I'd check that 45 degree gradient for a facet. Any stroke when smoothing I find has to be graduated in some fashion. I use the 6000 to 8000 pad for a rough smooth, then move to a 12000 pad for a polish. 12000 will not take out a facet, but a 6000 will. As you know a little goes a long way. I've had a couple of B nibs that took some time. Take a good look at a nib you've done a good job on and compare that to the nib you're working on.

[sodul]

It turns out that the main issue whit this nib is that tines were very very tight which caused the corners on the inside of the tip to not be polished and made the nib very scratchy. I had to get my .005 brass sheet and work at the nib for a while before I could flush the nib with the .001 sheet without it bending. In order to access the inside corners to polish them I crossed the tines (you know, when they overlap) exposing the edges and very gently used the edge of the 6000 pad to very gently smooth them. I still need to work that nib a bit. The up stroke is still much drier than the down stroke but I hope to get that fixed eventually. My other mistake was to work with a new ink rather than the ink I'm familiar with. I was attributing some of the dryness to the ink rather than the nib.

[lurcho]

I started out with grinding only and have seen no reason to change. Tried Nathan's wire-cutter-clip on a few cheap nibs and didn't like the result. Yes, I got an Italic nib out of the deal but the performance was poor. Too much metal comes off the tip and the length is not enough for my tastes. So I stick with grinding.

 

Converting a nib is best done in stages, I think. First, flatten top and bottom. Then square off tip. Next cut the 45 degree chamfer. Now smooth and test. How is the sweet spot? How much ink flows? Too wet? Too dry? If too wet, would a longer chamfer allow a slower, drier flow. Relationship of feed to nib? Too close to writing angle? Too far away? With practice, it is possible to convert a nib from ball to italic in about thirty minutes. Or less. And wind up with a nib that is smoother and writes better than the factory nib by far.

 

Enjoy,

 

I think I'm going to try your instructions out on my first grind. Thanks for the benefit of your experience. I'm especialy encouraged by your last sentence.

[Fairlight]

​What smashing close ups. Well done on those, let alone your grinding.

I bought a Pilot Plumix BB. This BB nib was too broad for my writing, so I tried to narrow it with a bench grinder.

I learned a lot. One breathlike touch and it ground a tine away in an instant. I now know that I should have ground it down by hand, on stone, like Randal6393.

If he reads this, I wish to say: "I sir, was an utter ass." In fact if anyone reads this I wish to say the same, or "I Ma'am," if applicable.

The nib is a mangled corpse. I lost it and my self respect on that bench grinder.