Noodlers Flex Nib Needlepoint Regrind

[sheldon1936]

Oh man! I love threads like this! I'm working on a low cost option for terrific flex right now, and it would really help me out if you could take a few minutes to give me some insight on your flex pen thoughts. That's a link to a survey that will help me guide my parameters. I think you'll all like the results once I'm done.

Wow, that survey seriously covered everything I can imagine as regards to a potentially ideal modern flex pen. One thing you forgot to ask though, is whether people would prefer to pay extra for a 14k nib, or to save money and use a well set up steel nib like the one I modified. > Personally, I would be happy to pay the extra for gold, but an ideal pen would have an option for steel variants as well so that it could stay, as you mentioned, a low cost option. Good luck in your endeavors!

[zzbr76]

Your an example....

[jelly]

So I bought that sanding stick and ground it down - it was far, far easier than I thought! The whole grinding thing was practically done in 5 minutes using the 1800 grit side, and the smoothing using the rest of the grades took virtually no time

 

had a minor scare when I forgot to grind down the foot, it was behaving like an architect's (sideways italic) nib, but after that it's working like a dream, although I haven't done the ease my flex thing yet

 

also did on the 14ct gold nib and wow, it writes even more beautifully now! I can actually feel the sharp fine point directing the nib across the paper, and the line variation is far more dramatic than before

 

much easier than I expected, and surprisingly fast considering that I was doing it by hand with a £4 sanding stick thing

 

in fact, the only thing I'd have done differently was de-ink the pens, so I didn't spray ink all over myself whilst grinding them down!

Edited April 1, 2014 by jelly

[Silvire]

Pretty nice!

This is my modified Noodler's Konrad nib. It flexes from a F to a BB+.http://i.imgur.com/nlZyhNv.jpg

[balson]

in a couple places in the repair q&a section richard binder advises not using power tools on gold nibs because they are too soft and strange things happen. 2000 grit sandpaper will be plenty to quickly reshape tipping and give you the control you want in the final shape.

 

i think dremels are good for reshaping the shape of the nibs themselves but gold nibs are so soft some 2000 grit sandpaper will wear them down and reshape them very quickly and give you a lot more control over the shape of the nib.

[Shimmershadow]

You should sell these. I'd buy one.

 

Another vote (plea?) for this. I can do fine needlework, lace knitting, and general household handywork, but ask me to do something with fine tools like a dremel and I turn into a chimp with a rock.

[penrivers]

 

Another vote (plea?) for this. I can do fine needlework, lace knitting, and general household handywork, but ask me to do something with fine tools like a dremel and I turn into a chimp with a rock.

Dremmels are extremely easy to work with, last year 2013 they were around 10 dollars in walmart complete with a set of some diferent grinders for diferent purposes, I used it with pilot varsities and finest sand paper from local hardware. It works.

Edited May 15, 2014 by penrivers

[Fabienne]

yes, there is nothing like feeling the grit in your own teeth! ahhhh...the feeling of accomplishment!

[ThegreatandpowerfullR]

How do you make the line smaller?

[Muncle]

Wow...Seeing this makes me want to get a pen and some flex nibs to try this out (I wasn't sold on them before). Where are some tips for grinding the size of the nib smaller?

[Bivouac]

Pretty nice!

 

This is my modified Noodler's Konrad nib. It flexes from a F to a BB+.http://i.imgur.com/nlZyhNv.jpg

This is amazing!

[chas0039]

I don't have a grinding wheel, would it be infeasible to just use something like this? 1800 -> 2400 -> 4000 -> 12000 grit sanding stick

I prefer not to use power. I do exactly what you want to do all the time. I get the 1500 grit at the local hardware as it is much cheaper and I found that it is single use. One pass and the grit is gone. While all the different grits of micromesh are probably good for something, after the 1500, I jump to the last 3-4 finest for touch up and polish. I have seen 2- passes on a 6000 grit take the edge right off a sharp point and there is no way anything other than hand work would work. I am just not in that much of a hurry, and there is some pride in getting the horizontal line just right on an ilalic.

Edited August 21, 2014 by chas0039

[holgalee]

For those of you not using power tools, how do you grind down to a finer round point, without creating an arabic nib? I've tried targetting the back part of the tipping with a round file and that seems to work provided the feed and nib can be seperated so that the latter doesn't get in the way of the file.

[Pensaregood]

I also need advice on making the nib finer

[lpanades]

What a joy. The only problem I see is that a needly point needs a extremelly flex nib to not drag into paper. So, I recommend you to use a grinder to take out some thickeness of the nib metal. A thinner metal flex easier. Another mesure is to cut the sides of the nib. It is too commom to see this kind of modification nowadays: you can see it on pilot FA nibs; I think this is the easyest way of doing it: less metal means easy flex (again).
I do not recomment take out the thickness of the nib because it interact with the feed.

This way your flex needle nib will work fine.
For business penmanship you will not need a wet nib. The flexing on spencerian is enough to clean the tines of paper fibers that tend to clog it when using finner nibs. But if you wanna a pen for ornamental penmanship the extra wetness is desirable. I personally like more drier nibs and thicker inks. Remember that the fountain pen ink is not good for business penmanship because when you flex the nib you raise the temporary wetness of the nib. So, if your ink flows strongly you will not have the right thickening lines, the thickening will extend to the next letters without your will. This is why a thicken ink works better. And you will not have problems with flow because everytime you thicken the lines on spencerian you raise the flow and clean the tines. This little raise in the flow will tame the ink raised thickeness. 

Conclusion: if you are writing without thickening the lines you will need a thinner ink (palmer method, don't ask for any flex nib). If you are thickening the ink you will need a flex nib and it will work together to an perfect spencerian handwriting.