I'm a nibster!

[KendallJ]

Ok, first it was changing sacks in Esterbrooks, then repairing broken nib units. Now, I've ground a nib. 5 to be exact.

 

If you've ever written with a 1550 XF nib, it is just a pain. Almost always scratchy. I have 5 and all of them scratchy. I've been trying to use sub micron mylar abrasives to smooth them (works great on my other nibs) and frankly there was just such a small point, and the steel nib is softer, and I wasn't getting nowhere.

 

Soooo, I says to my self, "Self, I need more tip area. What about turning these babies into stubs?" So I go downstairs to my shop and my dremel (which I now have an unnatural relationship with), and take about an 1/8th inch off the tip. Bevel the tip for stubbing, shape the way I want it, and then upstairs to the mylar again.

 

In about 10 minutes, Voila! 1550 "KJ" Fine Stub. Smooth as silk!

 

Emboldened by my success, I went down and ground the other 4 straight away, and 30 minutes later. 5 1550KJ's!

 

[Mike]

Congratulations on taking the plunge. One of my two pens in daily use is a gray J with a 1550. Yes, they all seem to be scratchy out-of-the-box, but I managed to get a buttery smooth nib without anything so drastic as your method, just with polishing on mylar sheets. I almost overdid it; it's not the second smoothest pen I own.

 

I draw the line at "adjusting", though; I've never been willing to go beyond that. A shame, really, because I'd love my Pelikan Go to be a fine, instead of a very wet medium. Maybe someday...

[Guest Denis Richard]

Congrats Kendall ! Nib work is very fun.

[Keith with a capital K]

A Pelikan M75 with a fine nib... hmmm.

 

Those wet medium nibs make great stubs but one could go the other way.

 

With the capacity of the M75 fills would only have to be done quarterly...

[Maja]

Bravo, Kendall!

You're braver than I am...I still haven't even tried the most basic nib smoothing...but I will one of these days; Wim's article makes it seem possible even for a newbie like me to do it

[wimg]

Hi Kendall!

 

Great news! Another one joins the crowd! You are aware you can never go back now, do you?

 

Next thing is to try this, without taking the tipping material completely off, on Pel 200 or VP nibs, you do realize that too, don´t you?

 

Kind regards,

Wim

[wimg]

Hi Maja,

 

Honestly, it is easy to do. I was a newbie myself, when I did it the first time, and when I wrote the article... And my Saphire is still one of the smoothest writing instruments I own, only the LE is smoother...

 

Kind regards,

Wim

[Stompy]

Well done KJ - you've given me hope that I can do it as well. And, reminded me that I need to order some pen repair supplies.

[KendallJ]

Bravo, Kendall!

You're braver than I am...I still haven't even tried the most basic nib smoothing...but I will one of these days; Wim's article makes it seem possible even for a newbie like me to do it

I tell you what Maja, I was worried about even basic smoothing too, but I picked up some sub micron mylar sheets, (0.3u 0.05u) and with a 10x loupe, it's not that hard.

 

PM me your address and I'll toss a couple of sheets in the mail to you. Will be enough to get you started on steel nibs at least.

[KendallJ]

Next thing is to try this, without taking the tipping material completely off, on Pel 200 or VP nibs, you do realize that too, don´t you?

It is an addiction. I have yet to try to work on any of my personal modern pens though. I'll probably start with some smoothing, and then, then, well maybe we'll see

[KendallJ]

Congratulations on taking the plunge. One of my two pens in daily use is a gray J with a 1550. Yes, they all seem to be scratchy out-of-the-box, but I managed to get a buttery smooth nib without anything so drastic as your method, just with polishing on mylar sheets. I almost overdid it; it's not the second smoothest pen I own.

 

I draw the line at "adjusting", though; I've never been willing to go beyond that. A shame, really, because I'd love my Pelikan Go to be a fine, instead of a very wet medium. Maybe someday...

Allright, tell me your secret. I thought I was getting pretty good at smoothing. All my other Esties smoothed out beautifully. I spent at least an hour on SEVERAL 1550's and had 0 luck.

 

I think a lot getting past adjusting is knowing what the rough ground shape should look like. The finished shape will have smooth curved surfaces, but the ground shape I started with is faceted. I had some idea of what I wanted for a stub, and using a 10x loupe, it was pretty easy to get the ground shape right.

 

I have no idea what the shape would end up like for other types of grinding, and so I'm reluctant to start like you are.

[Keith with a capital K]

I don't like it when anyone says something is easy without clarifying that it was easy for them to do...

 

I can make multi facetted nibs that perform like a Sailor Zoom nib and although it's time consuming I don't find this work too difficult and might even make it sound easy.

 

One of the secrets to getting a wickedly smooth nib, (if that's your cup of tea), is to start with a pen that has tipping of outstanding quality. Poorer grades of tipping or imperfections in otherwise good tipping will make getting a really smooth nib a very difficult task.

 

I don't want to put anyone off learning or trying new things but I dread seeing or hearing of nibs that have ben ruined due to incorrectly applied techniques.

 

Having a good quality loupe and studying you existing nibs will give you a great idea of what certain nib shapes should be like.

[Leslie J.]

One of the secrets to getting a wickedly smooth nib, (if that's your cup of tea), is to start with a pen that has tipping of outstanding quality. Poorer grades of tipping or imperfections in otherwise good tipping will make getting a really smooth nib a very difficult task.

 

Having a good quality loupe and studying you existing nibs will give you a great idea of what certain nib shapes should be like.

Keith, how can a person tell whether the tipping material is good or not? This isn't something I'd thought about before.

 

I've just become semi-confident with fingernail adjustments, so I think smoothing is a long way off for me. I have the mylar film. I've tried to study nibs, but don't readily see "problems". I've seen pics of baby-bottom nibs, but don't know how to fix them exactly. I'm a scaredy- :meow: .

 

One thing I also hear about is scratchiness from the inside of the tines. Wouldn't know what that looked like or how to fix it although I bet I have a couple of pens with the problem.

 

I had a beautiful stub nib on my M75. Alas, that is the one that nose-dived into the floor a while ago.

[Keith with a capital K]

I think most of what I know about nibs just comes from working on so many... you start to notice that certain pen and nib makers just use a higher quality tipping and these pens take to custom work and smoothing much better than others.

 

I love working on Pelikans as throughout their range, the quality of the tipping is consistently great and better base materials make a nib-meister's work a lot easier. I have stubbed quite a few M75's and the results have been amazingly good while the finest custom nib I use is a .4mm cursive italic on a Pelikan Future. It is so smooth and forgiving I can hand it to nearly anyone without expecting them to find this nib to be temperamental. A lesser nib would probably not provide such a good base to work on and the results would not be quite as good.

 

Imperfections on the inner surfaces of the tipping are something I find by touch as some of these are virtually microscopic in nature and much of the finishing work I do is more dependent on tactile input than it is visual. It is a sense of knowing where the imperfection lies as you write test the pen and then using the careful application of the finest mylar sheets and .002 brass shim to gently remove these toothy little edges.

 

The smoothest of nibs can still be scratchy if the inner edges of the tipping aren't properly smoothed out and I don't think I could ever adapt to using any kind of powered tool on nibs, as I would lose that feedback. Hand finishing takes longer but I think the results are worth it.

 

I think I am pretty picky when it comes to how a nib performs on paper and being very tactile I think that when I describe a nib as having a little tooth others have described that same nib as being very smooth. It's like the Princess and the pea... it's either a gift or curse that I can detect such small imperfections in nibs and I am never without my mini nib kit in case an on the spot adjustment is needed.

 

Modern Sheaffer nibs are excellent candidates for custom work and I have lost track of how many sharpie like broad Balance nibs have become well behaved stubs here in the shop. With the little bit of flex they possess they really become amazing nibs.

 

I am on a mission to find more suitable pens that can have their nibs reworked so that I might be able to offer more affordable yet exotic writers. Some might consider those M75’s hideous but in the hand, they can outperform pens costing 10 times as much and to me, the writing is what it's all about.

[KendallJ]

I don't like it when anyone says something is easy without clarifying that it was easy for them to do...

 

I can make multi facetted nibs that perform like a Sailor Zoom nib and although it's time consuming I don't find this work too difficult and might even make it sound easy.

 

One of the secrets to getting a wickedly smooth nib, (if that's your cup of tea), is to start with a pen that has tipping of outstanding quality. Poorer grades of tipping or imperfections in otherwise good tipping will make getting a really smooth nib a very difficult task.

 

I don't want to put anyone off learning or trying new things but I dread seeing or hearing of nibs that have ben ruined due to incorrectly applied techniques.

 

Having a good quality loupe and studying you existing nibs will give you a great idea of what certain nib shapes should be like.

Thanks "mom" , we know you are worried about us ruining our nibs, but I think we are all big boys and girls here.

 

So, let me be clear in my disclaimer and maybe I won't have to put 3 pages of fine print in my sig so Keith will stop following me around

 

Any (from baking cookies to building $50M chemical plants, both of which I've done) job is easy IF you:

1. study it

2. break it down into its basic steps

3. Take it one step at a time

4. Don't put more at risk at each step than you're willing to lose

5. ask around

6. show your work so others can give you feedback

7. Be patient and take your time

 

Even the simplest job will be maddenly frustrating if you don't do these things.

 

That said, where Keith and I disagree is that I believe there is one other way that tough jobs will seem forever frustrating and risky:

 

That is if you never TRY to learn them.

 

It is good to be cautious. However, it is WORSE to be so cautious that you never take the first step toward something you want. Carpe Diem darnit.

 

Keith is worried that you will make a mistake that you will come to regret. I on the other hand, know that you will make mistakes, but if you follow 1-7, none will ever be so horrible as to cause you to regret the first decision to try!

 

That said, I would highly recommend that the first nib you try to grind is NOT that xtra flexible, extra fine nib on your $700 Nakaya. Other than that "Go for it!"

 

Kendall "I'm now going to put a permanent link to this post in my sig so you can consider yourself warned" J.

[KendallJ]

By the way, just so you know Keith, I put this whole post here becuase I am practicing steps 5, and 6. So, your description of what you value and do is exceedingly helpful and will help me become a better nib grinder.

 

I've just learned a ton by tossing out this inflamatory idea that "it's easy", and guess what, you've taught me more than I knew before.

 

But then we'd never have had this conversation if I had never at least tried to do it once, even with my limited knowledge.

 

So thanks!

[Keith with a capital K]

Kendall...I don't think we disagree at all and you give great advice.

 

If I hadn't picked up a pen some twenty years ago and thought... "this could be so much better" and had the confidence to start working on it I might be doing something else.

 

In these days of free and easily shared information, many people have what I did not and that was someone to exchange ideas with.

 

I always encourage people to try new things but think that things like this should come with a warning like you posted and I try to be cautious about making anything sound like it's easy enough for anyone to do.

 

I am pretty thrilled to see the work you have been doing and agree that most new things can be achieved if you follow steps 1-7 with #7 being really important.

 

Cheers!

[Guest Denis Richard]

If I may add, the mistakes I made on nibs were not on my first few ones. It came, as classic, at the moment where I gained confidence and forgot about being extra careful.

 

That's part of the learning process though. As long as you remember Kendall's #4, you're fine.

 

Kendall, you're mind is definitely the one of an artist. I would have synthesized your list in

 

1 - Be Cartesian (1-3)

2 - Use common sense (4-7)

 

Denis.

[Mike]

Allright, tell me your secret. I thought I was getting pretty good at smoothing. All my other Esties smoothed out beautifully. I spent at least an hour on SEVERAL 1550's and had 0 luck.

 

Maybe I was just luckier than you are.

 

Seriously, though, this is what I did, and what I used. I started with a new or nearly-new 1550 tip, a hard arkansas whetstone, and a 4x4" mylar abrasive sheet, the finest I could get (no idea what the size is... it's dark green, if that's any help.).

 

Looking at the tip thru a 100x microscope I just happened to have laying around, the tines were correctly aligned, and the tip was very harshly faceted - the "tip" being at a right-angle to the top and bottom of the nib (ther being no tipping on a 1550, of course). Happily, there were no pits or other problems. When writing with it (or trying to), it was horribly scratchy, and tended to catch on paper in all four directions.

 

Keeping the tip on a Pelikan 75 in mind as a sort of guide, that being the smoothest-writing pen I own (if only it had a fine nib... sigh), I roughly shaped the nib on a wet whetstone. Using the absolute minimum pressure, I laid the nib on the end of the stone, as close to parallell as I could get it, and *gently* pulled it the length of the stone, increasing the angle as I went until it was perhaps 80 degrees from the stone by the time it reached the other end of the stone (which is about 6" long). I did this about six times, checking it each time under the microscope to see if I'd gotten the desired curved shape.

 

After six passes or so, it was pretty much a perfect quarter-circle shape from the side, as I wanted. I tried it out on paper, sans ink, and it was fairly smooth on the up- and down-stroke, but still caught on both sides.

 

I went to the polishing sheet next. Using the sheet dry, I began drawing the pen across the sheet, much like I had the arkansas stone, only I rotated the pen around it's axis about 140 degrees or so on each pass, starting from very nearly on it's side (both tines not even touching the sheet) all the way through "normal" to rotated the other direction. I checked the shape after every couple of passes (the mylar sheet being much, much less aggressive than the arkansas stone). The steel wears away fairly quickly, so a dozen or so passes later the tip was VERY gently rounded side-to-side as well.

 

I tried it out on paper, and it was pretty tolerably smooth, certainly a great improvement over what it had started as. I then covered the polishing sheet with water, and doodled large (4" across) "figure eights", being sure to "roll" the pen from side to side a bit as I did so. When wet, the polishing sheets are even less abrasive, so this was well and truly "polishing". After every minute (perhaps 30 figure eights) I dried the nib and tried it on paper. After three or four minutes it glided fairly effortlessly over the paper at all angles and in all directions. I inked it (blue Skrip) and it wrote (and writes) like a dream.

 

I gave similar treatment to a scratchy steel nib in a Wearever that I'm particularly fond of, with equally good results. Zero line variation, so not nearly as sexy as the stubs and italics and things you and others aim for, but my intent - especially with the 1550, which is just too fine to ever really give appreciable line variation - was a nib for day-in, day-out notetaking, one with which I could scribble at speed without having to go pulling bits of paper out from between the tines (been there, done that, right?).

 

I think a lot getting past adjusting is knowing what the rough ground shape should look like. The finished shape will have smooth curved surfaces, but the ground shape I started with is faceted. I had some idea of what I wanted for a stub, and using a 10x loupe, it was pretty easy to get the ground shape right.

 

Indeed. I have no FPs that don't have round or ball points on them, so I've nothing to really copy. Hopefully that will soon be rectified... I'm hoping to have two nibs reground, one as an italic, and one as a cursive-italic. After studying them under a microscope, well, we'll see. I understand the general idea behind an italic or a stub, but I'm hesitant to put put that understanding to the test, as it were, being as I don't really have any truly expendable pens or nibs (in fact, sadly, I have more pens than nibs, due to a series of supposed eBay bargains with busted nibs... should really sell some of the bodies for parts one of these days...)

 

<disclaimer>

Anyway, that's what worked for me. As always, your mileage may vary. If I'd screwed up, I'd have been out a $10 renew point. Don't go trying this for the first time on a Mont Blah or some kind of $2K piece of pocket jewelry... let alone a vintage treasure you happen to care about. Those $5 "Iridium Point Germany" cartridge pens make great tools to practice on. No, wait, I lie, because the best-case scenario is you wind up with a badly-made yet beautifully smooth nib attached to a cheaply-made, poorly-working feed and section, screwed into a couple of poorly-fitting pieces of injection-molded plastic... and where's the fun in that? Well, at least you won't care if you screw it up, right? Right.

</disclaimer>

 

[Maja]

Bravo, Kendall!

You're braver than I am...I still haven't even tried the most basic nib smoothing...but I will one of these days; Wim's article makes it seem possible even for a newbie like me to do it

I tell you what Maja, I was worried about even basic smoothing too, but I picked up some sub micron mylar sheets, (0.3u 0.05u) and with a 10x loupe, it's not that hard.

 

PM me your address and I'll toss a couple of sheets in the mail to you. Will be enough to get you started on steel nibs at least.

Kendall,

You are too kind but thank you, I will take you up on your offer, and I will definitely let you know how I fare!

A couple of pens with IPG (Iridium Point Germany) nibs on them will be my first patients/guinea pigs (I have Wim's nib smoothing article bookmarked/saved, so I will use that as a guide...that and your Seven Steps to a Successful Project) My father gave me his 30X power loupe when he retired from geology so I will put it to good use in my little project, as well.

 

Many thanks,

Maja