Cheapest Pen You Would Have Nib Work Done On?

[ww2golfer]

Like the title says, what is the $ threshold for a pen that you would pay to have smoothed and or new grind? I recently jacked up a metropolitan quite a bit so am now using it to experiment on. The price of the pen doesn't warrant consideration of having a nibmeister work on it. However, I am torn about having some work done on a F-C Loom, where the work done to smooth and align the tines would likely matching the price of the pen. What is FPN thoughts on when to have work done vs buy new?

[jar]

$0.19.

 

Sorry but I don't understand what the initial; cost could possibly have to do with subsequent decisions.

[ww2golfer]

I guess in my mind I'd rather buy 3 metropolitans and roll the dice than pay a nibmeister and wait a month for a turn around. I very well could be in the minority, just how it seems to me. Granted I've never had nib work done so not sure what I'm missing out on yet.

[zaddick]

I have two different decicision criteria for pens - one for pens i plan to keep and another for pens i plan to sell.

 

For pens I plan to sell, I will pay to get a nib sorted if the $ increase in the pen price is at least double the cost of the work. For example, if I would have to pay $25 plus $15 shipping both ways to get a nib tuned, it would have to increase the value of the pen at resale by at least $80. So that pretty much rules out most lower end pens. Pens over say $500 in resale value are mostly worth sorting out. Much below that I would just discoubnt the price of the pen and be up front about any issues I have experienced. Some people can fix the pen themselves (like a "contractor's special" house) and others may want o pay for the work eventually (but it is up to them).

 

For pens I plan to keep, the value of the pen is not as important as if the work will create a pen that I am happier with and will enjoy using much more than before. I could have a $5 flea market find that I want to keep or a $40 off-brand pen I happen to really like the look of. In general, I tend to gravitate towards more expensive pens where the cost of nib work is a much lower percentage of the value than your Metropolitan example. But I would not let cost be the deciding factor - just use and if the work will make me enjoy the pen more.

 

Pens I plan to sell/trade that are writing fine I would never spend anything for nib work because what I might like could be a bad fit for the new owner. Let him/her find the best tuning for their new pen.

 

The final point is that for some people a nib grind decreasesd the value/collectability of the pen. For them, all the money you spent was a waste and then a multiplier has to be applied to find the decrease in value. For me, if the grind was done by someone I know and trust, it would add some to the value because it saves me time. Just adjusting the nib for smoothness or ink flow, however, does not add or subtract value for me.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Misaligned tine fixing is a simple DIY.....if you have a good glass 10X loupe or a cheap Chinese 40X loupe= same strength.

 

Using the loupe, see which is the up nib. Place your fingernail at the breather hole or end of slit and press the up tine down for 2-3 seconds under the down tine. Check....do that two or three times. Seldom do you need to do that 4 times.

 

95% of scratchy is that and holding a fountain pen like a ball point, before the big index knuckle...hold behind it.

 

As said, are you going to keep the pen....like buying a lever pen that needs a new sac...then the repair really don't come into question, in you will have the pen for many decades.

 

If you have a nail, and want some character making it a stub or CI, increases your pleasure.

 

If it's too junky for you to keep, try to get postage + out of it.

I could see keeping a pre/post war second tier Wearever a good enough pen.

A Venus......shrug....something to practice re-sacking on.

 

 

Or the pen could be kept with another cheapO, to practice nib smoothing. Folks like Richard Binder send two cheap pens to destroy while learning to smooth nibs..............often folks destroy at least one nib, learning to smooth a nib.

It 'must' be in alignment or you ruin a nib for nothing.....

Edited April 24, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[OCArt]

You might enjoy reading this article by John Mortishaw on smoothing scratchy nibs. https://www.nibs.com/blog/nibster-writes/smoothing-scratchy-nibs

[ReadyFireAim]

^{I once had $45.00 worth of work done on a $5.00 nib and didn't yet have a pen to put it in.}

 

(Grinding Creaper nib to XXF)

[NinthSphere]

I wouldn't pay anyone to smooth or realign tines. That's work I can do myself. Buy a decent loupe. Worth the cost for more than just nibs.

 

For a regrind, price of the pen doesn't matter to me if that's what I want to do.

Edited April 25, 2018 by NinthSphere

[old4570]

Aligning tines = tricky ..

 

polishing nibs is relatively easy ...

Just get some very fine ( Wet and dry ) Maybe around 5000 grit ..

INK the pen .. And then get out some paper and write .. Where is it scratchy - where does it bite the paper ?

Where the NIB is not to your liking , just move onto the wet and dry and gently polish at the angles the NIB irritated .. Just do a little ..

Then move back onto paper and see how it writes .

Keep doing it till the NIB smooths out ..

Check out Youtube , there are some video's ..

[Mech-for-i]

the only kind of work I would pay for is custom grinding and even that for really tricky, professional ones. most other tuning, adjustment, or even simple grinding I can do that myself. So I guess it had little to do with the pen but with the particular nib , if the nib is worthy of the o required then it goes

[minddance]

Platinum 3776 and Pilot 74. They are well made pens and if the nibs are not to my liking I would consider sending them to a nib technician to iron out issues for me. I wouldn't send a prera or metropolitan for two reasons, nib technician's fees are not proportionate to the pens and they are generally well tuned out of the box. The Pilot steel nibs write alot better, especially the fine and medium nibs out of the box than gold nibs.

 

 

I wouldn't inflict micromesh upon my nibs. Nib tuning is not a simple series of figure 8s on micromesh. This kind of instruction is rather irresponsible and dangerous. If the pen does not write well, and technically faulty, refund/exchange or send to nibmeister. Customers should not pay to be nibmeisters themselves, they pay for a good product to enjoy.

Edited April 25, 2018 by minddance

[Bo Bo Olson]

Aligning tines = tricky .. ....if it was tricky I'd not b able to do it so easily...

I do remember being :unsure: worried the first couple of times I tried it. Now no problem at all.

 

Dead easy...as explained...just the first time one is worried.....

 

It is seldom one has to lift the low tine, to above the up tine....a loupe will show you.

I tried it at first....before going over to 95% just pushing the up tine down.

I found I seldom had that problem with a tine too low.....but it's possible. That's why you have a life time buy of a loupe....good for jewelry hall marks, coins&stamps also.....works for splinter hunting too.

 

Go over to the Repair section, there are many who can tell you how to align the tines. Perhaps you can read a way that makes more sense.

 

You are pressing down just a bit from the breather hole or end of the slit.....Not Bending the Tip of the Nib.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[PAKMAN]

I'm with BoBo here, nib alignment is simple and smoothing not at all hard once you get the hang of either. Nib misters wouldn't be so behind if folks learned some simple tuning techniques. With vintage pens and your own pens that you accidently inflict damage to you can easily put more money in the pen than it is worth sending it off to be worked on. However, that said, sometimes you purchase nibs that you don't love when you purchase pens on the secondary market. Too wide, too wet, baby bottomed, rather have xf, rather have italic or stub, etc. In those cases If the pen is less than say $150 I would probably sell it and find another with a more suitable nib, if over that, I would probably consider having a nibmister grind / adjust it so suit my preferences.

[sidthecat]

I went the other way: I got a pen I wanted for cheap and put a fair bit of money into replacing the nib with something worthy of it. Fixing Waterman’s mistake, I like to think.

[migo984]

The Pilot steel nibs write alot better, especially the fine and medium nibs out of the box than gold nibs.

 

 

I absolutely agree with you. This has been my experience too, so I’ve always thought this, but never found anyone else with the same opinion :-)

[senzen]

The initial price doesn't enter much into the equation for me, it's how much I enjoy the pen, or would enjoy more if the nib was smoother; for an affordable fee I wouldn't mind getting all my 7 Lamy Vistas smoothed, since I have a couple of Lamy Studios and can appreciate what these nibs are capable of. I also have two or three Lamy nibs I tried to fix myself and only managed to mangle.

[jekostas]

Smoothing and tine alignment aren't difficult, they just require a good loupe and some practice.

 

If I want to get a nib ground and I don't want to do the work myself, the initial price of the pen or nib doesn't matter.

[Bo Bo Olson]

How good is the nib?

I have a good semi-flex Warranted 14K nib....some Warranted are very good, others are just warranted as gold....and are nothing special. That one was chopped to a BB 'stub' and the tipping is gone. I think semi-flex nibs to be grand....and really don't have that many BB's.

 

In....now I'm buying inks and papers, just have not been able to scrape up the E40 or so to get the nib retipped.....might have done that .... had I a pen for it.

The good pens I have have proper nibs on them.

Is that nib worth $/E40 to get it fixed....yes....but I could never sell it for that price.

If I had a pen for it, it would be well worth it.

Same with a grand old lower class pen.....it's a piece of history, something for you to cuddle....you nice little old pen you, let me scratch you behind the ears....like you just as much as that pedigreed pen. ....I don't have one like you.

 

If you go all hard $$$$ only.......you should not be collecting fountain pens. in they are not investment items.

A single malt bottle is not an investment item either.....but you will have the pen decades longer.

[gibbs]

It completely depends on the pen, for example, the cheapest pen purchase cost wise is also the one that holds the most value to me sentimentally so if I something was to happen to nib requiring it to need work I wouldn't hesitate. whereas I have other more expensive pens where I am more likely to just buy a replacement nib for then go to the hassle of sending them to someone

[alanshutko]

I have a Waterman Hemisphere which was given to me as a groomsman gift by my brother-in-law. It's not an expensive pen, but it's meaningful to me. The only reason I don't use it more is that the M nib is broader than the F nibs I prefer, so I'm probably going to get the nib ground at the STL Pen Show this year.