Emergency Nib Regrind On Inoxcrom Daisy

[firstpancake]

I recently returned to my happy life of writing with my fountain pens, and as these things go, the tipping on one of my favorite everyday writers pops off. I then put together this post about my first salvage regrind, and FPN goes down for several weeks.

 

The pen in question is an Inoxcrom Daisy pen. It's an inexpensive plastic bodied pen I bought at a bookshop in Boston several years ago. Before the "incident" this tip was on the extra-fine side of fine. A nice steady, smooth writer that occasionally dried up if left uncapped for a long time, but usually very reliable.It was one of my favorite pens, and I was not willing to let it go. And in my haste to try and save it, I did not take any pictures of the process.

 

First, I found Ludwig Tan's article on nib grinding at www.marcuslink.com. While I did not have all the requisite supplies, I thought I could improvise.

The first thing I did was take a pair of wire cutters and clip the other half of the tipping off the other tine.

 

The reshaping step of the regrind happened on the third step of my three-step knife sharpening stone.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-1-sharpening-stone-94396.html

 

The first thing I noticed was how soft the steel on the nib was. I accidentally wore down a little more of the remaining nib than I expected the first few passes. The shaping had to be done VERY gently, and no more than what it took to get the tines level and square.

 

I then deburred the edges with the grey side of a micro-mesh 3-way buff stick from richardspens.com

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=accessories/smoothing_kits.htm

Again, being surprised by how fast the metal was responding to the abrasives.

 

Not having anything to polish the nib further, I burnished it using the smooth insides of my ceramic sink.

 

For a hasty, panicy job, I'm quite happy with the result. I usually like fine nibs, but the expressiveness of this line, and the smooth, soft ride as it writes is really growing on me. It writes better than any italic nib I owned that was purchased as an italic.

 

Here is a picture of the finished regrind, next to an Inoxcrom Jordi Labanda pen, which until a last week, had an identical nib.

 

 

 

The writing sample is pelican 4001 blue on clairefontaine notebook paper. And I'm left handed.

[switchitt]

The pen certainly looks pretty, and your writing is awesome. Love the shading too. I think it's pretty good for your first regrind.

Hopefully, this pen will endear you to stubs!