Making Pilot Regular Steel Nibs Wetter Or Drier.

[Two-Legged-Kitten]

Hello, I have been trying to make a pilot prera's nib wetter, because it was so dry that it skipped the upstrokes and sidestrokes, and have also been tinkering with some pilot penmanship's EF nibs, but have realized that the method of pressing the tines to open them and increase ink flow works the opposite with this nibs. Whenever I press the nib to open the tines, it becomes drier, and when I do the opposite to make the slit narrower, the nib becomes wetter. This all seems to be the opposite to the tried and true method that works in other nibs. So, I wonder if anyone else has noticed this too and what could be the explanation? Maybe the shape of pilot nibs? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Jaspreet]

can you post the pictures of the nib? you have to apply just enough pressure to make the tine gap bigger. if it becomes too big, the tines become splayed and hence the dryness. also check for baby's bottom using a loupe.

[davyk]

Can you describe what you mean by "pressing the tines to open them"?.

 

One way to increase tine spacing is to gently raise one tine at a time followed by the other tine. Lowering each tine works to decrease tine spacing. A version of this technique using pliers was prescribed by Sheaffer and Parker in their old repair manuals. You can see this technique applied in the following Montblanc promotional video around the 1:04 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDHnp55_qZ4 (decreasing tine spacing in this case).

 

Before applying this technique, it would be better to inspect the nib tipping with a 10X loupe as there are multiple causes for the skipping issues you've described. You could look at Richard Binder's nib smoothing workshop notes for an in-depth explanation.