Paying Off: "breaking In" The Nib

[YoungPenmanship]

You know that feeling you get when you get a new pen, write with it, and cringe a little?

 

That toothiness you thought would not exist, the flow not being as good as you see in reviews. The pen, in contradiction of the praise it receives, just does not pay off.

 

But then you realize that the pen gets so much better over time, so much so you can't stop writing with it.

That was me when I first received my Pilot Custom Heritage 912, asking myself: "Did I really pay more than $150 for this?"

Now, it's so smooth and flows so heavenly that I get carried away just writing the alphabet with it.

 

Have you guys experienced this with any of your pens and never looked back? I'd like to know what it was like break in the sole of the nib.

Edited January 10, 2014 by YoungPenmanship

[Inkling13]

You know that feeling you get when you get a new pen, write with it, and cringe a little?

 

That toothiness you thought would not exist, the flow not being as good as you see in reviews. The pen, in contradiction of the praise it receives, just does not pay off.

 

But then you realize that the pen gets so much better over time, so much so you can't stop writing with it.

That was me when I first received my Pilot Custom Heritage 912, asking myself: "Did I really pay more than $150 for this?"

Now, it's so smooth and flows so heavenly that I get carried away just writing the alphabet with it.

 

Have you guys experienced this with any of your pens and never looked back? I'd like to know what it was like break in the sole of the nib.

 

Edited by Moderator to match OPs edit

HURT!! The hammer shall be brought down upon thee with great vengence! Comon man! this is a family place... don't say things you wouldn't say around the dinner table....

[Brioche]

I'm a female, my cat is too. We cringed.

[Sasha Royale]

Yeah ! I get that.

Think -- Somewhere in the world, a man is writing with a ballpoint pen. Poor #@(+!*$ .

 

I find that it is not the nib that needs to be "broken in", but the feed system needs to be cleared

of stuff, so ink flows smoothly. Eventually, the ink will take care of it. However, good prep might

be to flush the system with soapy water and rinse before first ink.

 

I scribble a little with an exceptional pen. Then, I grab a sheet of stationery. "Dear Pamela,

You won't believe how smooth the writing is, with this new Pelikan . . . . . . . "

 

Write with joy.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Sasha Royale

[Lyander0012]

I'm a guy. I cringed. Keep things SFSW as much as possible on the board, please XD

That aside, what you're experiencing is really rather common. It's almost a guaranteed thing that any fountain pen you get will write better after a few months of regular use. Well, that's unless it was adjusted by a nibmeister beforehand, anyway. A pen's not working perfectly OOTB could be due to any of a variety of factors like manufacturing debris clogging up the insides, irregularly shaped tipping material, or just that the tines were too tightly squeezed together, but whatever the case, it's nothing a little exercise won't fix.

 

 

Cheers!

 

Kevin

 

P.S.

And yeah, it's happened with most of my pens to date, with the effect being most noticeable on my Lamy 2k

[YoungPenmanship]

Edited.

[YoungPenmanship]

.

Edited January 10, 2014 by YoungPenmanship

[YoungPenmanship]

 

 

I'm a guy. I cringed. Keep things SFSW as much as possible on the board, please XD

 

 

 

I'm a female, my cat is too. We cringed.

 

 

HURT!! The hammer shall be brought down upon thee with great vengence! Comon man! this is a family place... don't say things you wouldn't say around the dinner table....

 

Edited, my friends. Sorry for that TT.TT

Edited January 10, 2014 by YoungPenmanship

[RooBeans]

Having only seen the edited version, I'm incredibly curious about what in the original post was so cringe-worthy! Maybe what's going through my imagination is close to, or better than the original (;

 

Anyway.... I've never caught that one moment where a pen starts writing perfectly- it's usually a gradual change for me until I finally snap to and have to take a moment to appreciate how well it's all flowing. Regardless, it's a great feeling.

[YoungPenmanship]

Having only seen the edited version, I'm incredibly curious about what in the original post was so cringe-worthy! Maybe what's going through my imagination is close to, or better than the original (;

 

Anyway.... I've never caught that one moment where a pen starts writing perfectly- it's usually a gradual change for me until I finally snap to and have to take a moment to appreciate how well it's all flowing. Regardless, it's a great feeling.

 

LOL. I'll keep it SFW. You probably would not want to know what the original post was.

 

However, yeah, I can agree with that as well but once you start writing more and pushing the pen, you start to notice small details. Small enough that it might irritate you or make you overjoyed.