Whitening (De-Plating) Knox Nibs

[Nomad]

Knox nibs from xfountainpens.com come in very handy when you want to customize a relatively cheap pen like a Jinhao or an Ahab to your liking.

 

I have a predilection for the #6 K35 nibs in Extra Fine.

 

There's just one problem: They only come in (faux?) yellow gold plate and in a particularly aggressive shade of gold to booth.

 

When putting them in pens that already sport gold trim, these gold-toned nibs sort of match.

 

When attached to chrome-trimmed pens, however, the mismatch is extreme and, to my eyes, painful. When customizing chrome-trimmed pens, I typically bite the bullet and order the more expensive #6 JoWo nibs from Goulet.

 

I like the JoWo nibs a lot, but at $15 a pop, I prefer to reserve them for the occasional Ahab or Indian ED pens. For the cheaper Chinese pens, I stick with Know nibs.

 

So I'm jazzed that I've figured out an easy, gentle way to take the thin yellow plating off these nibs and return them to their stainless steel color.

 

All it takes, it turns out, is some rubbing with a moistened jewelry polishing cloth normally used to take the tarnish off silver jewelry. Below is an image of the result.

 

 

I hope this information is useful to others in the FPN community.

[hot cocoa]

Definitely helpful! I'm hoping to do the same with a two-tone Hertance nib, and it'seems good to know I have a better-than-fair shot of not ruining it, so thanks!

[Nomad]

Definitely helpful! I'm hoping to do the same with a two-tone Hertance nib, and it'seems good to know I have a better-than-fair shot of not ruining it, so thanks!

Sunshine cloth should work nicely. Good luck.