Sheaffer Upturned Nibs

[TrinityTam]

I'm new to vintage FPs and I recently acquired two Sheaffer pens that have slightly "upturned" nibs. Meaning the tip of the pen that is past the feed curves slightly away from the feed. One of them is a Sheaffer Snorkel with a Triumph nib. The other is (I think) a Sheaffer Lady Balance with a lifetime two-tone nib. Both nibs write very smoothly so I'm inclined to think this is natural to the pens. The only slight problem is because of the upturn, the angle that I have to hold the pens is slightly different from the natural way I hold my pens. Do you think that getting the nibs adjusted to be more straight will ruin the smoothness of the writing experience?

[jar]

That is absolutely normal and one of the reasons those nibs are so consistently smooth.

[Ray-Vigo]

For a Triumph that is normal. For an open nib is can be normal, depending on the bend. From your description, I'm inclined to think it's normal for your nibs, but the description you provided is not very detailed.

[kirchh]

The only slight problem is because of the upturn, the angle that I have to hold the pens is slightly different from the natural way I hold my pens.

What happens when you hold these pens your natural way?

 

--Daniel

[OcalaFlGuy]

TT, do some forum and Google searches for Waverley nib. That was the original turned up (the technical term for the nib type) nib tip that Sheaffer later err..."borrowed" the design of.

 

The Waverley style nib may work better than a regular nib for those that write with a higher angle But if used in the normal range of writing angles would just be a very smooth nib.

 

The Sheaffer turned up nibs are recognized to be some of the smoothest stock nibs ever made.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[greenapogee]

As indicated by others, this is quite normal (and should not be adjusted), and is beneficial to the smoothness of the pen by altering the angle at which the pen meets the page.

 

For more information on why this is and other pens that have nibs shaped similarly, consult Mr. Binder here and here

Edited June 15, 2012 by greenapogee

[TrinityTam]

Thanks for all the info. I will just adjust my writing angle to suit the pens since these nibs are a pleasure to write with.

[georges zaslavsky]

These nibs are hard to beat and are fantastic writers

Edited June 16, 2012 by georges zaslavsky

[terim]

If anything I'd think the upturned nibs would be more forgiving for various writing angles ...

 

 

[Chi Town]

It would have been nice to see pictures of what you are talking about

[trauha]

A collection of pictures would be helpful. Contributions? So many do not photograph their nibs in side view on eBay etc so hard to learn more that way.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Bad:

http://ravensmarch.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/sheaffer-0409pb.jpg

 

Good:

http://ravensmarch.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/sheaffer-0409pa.jpg

 

...although I have slightly overdone the upturn in that one. The thing is that in most, the up-turn is only relative to the slope of the back of the point itself, so the tines are at the end pretty much perpendicular to the sides of the barrel. It still looks funny, which is why so many people try to "fix" it (see Bad). Here's some other pictures I've got on hand that give a reasonable sense of the profile, more or less chronologically arranged.

 

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Sheaffer-0042.jpg

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sheaffer-0200.jpg

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sheaffer-0043.jpg

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sheaffer-R137.jpg

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Sheaffer-R105.jpg