Too Fussy About Nib Writing?

[yip yappin]

I recently bought a titanium EF #6 bock nib for my Karas Kustoms Ink.

 

The first nib I was delivered didn't write particularly well despite lots of flushing, lots of skipping and felt very scratchy. I reached out to the retailer and they were great, dispatched me a replacement no questions asked.

 

The replacement is much better and writes pretty nicely. Nowhere near as smoothly as the medium steel nibs I have been using recently but still feels OK. I get occasional skipping when writing very quickly, eg when signing things, and the occasional hard start but on the whole fine.

 

However, when I look through a loupe the tines appear to be slightly misaligned, as well as clearly different sizes. One tine is longer, wider and taller than the other.

 

My question is whether I'm being too fussy about this. It writes pretty well, is it realistic to expect it to feel properly smooth given that it's an EF?

 

I could try to adjust the tines alignment but as it's titanium i'm a bit nervous about that, and I'm not going to be able to change the different sizes of the tines.

 

Should I just get on with it or return it again for another replacement?

 

Pictures attached. They were difficult to take with my phone through a small loupe!

[Tas]

Yep. That looks wrong to me.

 

So sorry.

Please persevere. They are beautiful nibs when you get a good one.

[Karmachanic]

No. You're not being too fussy.

First look to make sure the nib is centered on the feed. Look in the breather hole. The nib slit should line up with the line in the feed. If these are lined up, then you need to adjust the tines. Gently and slowly.

 

Having done that, if it writes well I, for one, would not worry about the tine size mismatch.

 

Good luck!

[jekostas]

The nib is very clearly off-center based on the second picture. That needs to fixed first.