Vintage Conway Stewart Nibs

[Phroneo]

Greetings All,

 

Before I start this conversation, please let me make it clear that this has not been my history with all of my Conway Stewart nibs. Most of the nibs write butter smooth and are a joy to use. This problem has raised its head on a lot of pens that I had put aside some time ago for work at a future date.

 

I have run across a lot of vintage Conway Stewart nibs that are as scratchy as can be. This seems to run across the models and years. For example, CS 388, 12, 15, 27, 28 475, 85L, 759, 60 Duro, 58, and 55 nibs have been scratchy.

 

Let me make clear that these nibs are on pens that must be refurbished, but I seem to have a few too many -- about a dozen or so pens.

 

As I work on these pens, I notice that the nibs appear to be in good condition; no bent tines, tines are close together, and the iridium is in good shape. The nibs just scratch, almost grab, the paper and this is distressing to me. As I look on the nibs through a 10X loupe, I see no discernable sharp edges or misalignment of the tines so I am at a loss as to the why of this problem.

 

Anyone have suggestions as to why or how I might fix this problem?

 

Ink2pen

[doctorcornelius]

Hi Ink2pen

 

I was interested by your post, but believe the answer may lie in your phrase "Let me make clear that these nibs are on pens that must be refurbished". For instance, I have a CS 55 and it writes like butter - probably because it has been recently refurbished!

 

I'm not an expert, but I understand that, as long as the tines are the correct distance apart for a correct flow of ink, and as long as the feed is adjusted properly, then all that's left to consider is the iridium. I believe you can get greater smoothness by drawing figures of eight on VERY fine sandpaper.

 

Have a look at Peter Twydle's excellent essays at 'penmuseum.co.uk'.

 

Regards,

 

Nick