Grinding Vintage Fountain Pen Nibs

[Ash1]

Hello,

I am interested in fountain pens, primarily vintage fountain pens, and would like to know what people think about having the nibs on vintage pens ground to italics, finer etc. Would you have a nib ground on a vintage pen or would you leave them as they are and get a modern pen to have ground down?

[zaddick]

I'd have it ground of I wanted to keep it and use it. The tipping can be much lower quality on very old pens so sometimes it pays to have an expert do it and go slow so as to avoid it falling apart or removing too much.

[ac12]

It depends on WHAT you want done to the nib and as Z said, what the condition of the tipping is.

• I've seen tipping so thin that it looks like just a "thin" coat of tipping material on the nib. Once you penetrate the tipping material, the nib is destroyed (needs to be retipped at $$), because the exposed softer nib material will wear down.
• Some of the old tipping is also fragile, and could crack off the nib.
• The quality of some of the old tipping is pretty bad. Under magnification, you can see pores in the surface.

It is your nib to do as you please.

However, I would have an EXPERT nib meister give his opinion before starting to grind a vintage nib.

 

Note that in my book, not all nib meisters are really meisters/masters/experts. Anybody can hang a tile onto their name. There are various degrees of meisters, some better than others. And some specialize in certain types of nibs or grinds. So do your homework when choosing a nib meister.

[sidthecat]

It's purely a personal choice, but I like to keep the original character of the nib unless there's something really wrong with it, and if that's the case I'll try to find another nib.

An example: I recently bought a Montegrappa ringtop - a very pretty pen, but I don't like the steel nib. I may replace it with an Aiken Lambert nib of similar dimensions.

[Sasha Royale]

You mean "destroy the original nib, and re-shape it into something else". Why ?

[zaddick]

You mean "destroy the original nib, and re-shape it into something else". Why ?

Or is it "re-shape the original nib, and turn it into something pleasurable"?

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Before WW2, when tipping was perfected, often old tipping was lumpy and chunks would fall off...pores as AC mentioned was normal. Those nibs will not be 'butter smooth', they weren't the day they were sold.

Often enough 'good and smooth'. I have a few pre-war pens. I will accept some 'tooth' in such an old nib, and am not going to be doing more than run it very lightly across a mylar sheet...not even micro-mesh.

 

I read a good thread here where it linked to how often even one pen company changed nib composition, looking for better or cheaper or both. It appeared from my memory once a year or two...over a couple of decades. Going from even a little bit of too expensive iridium, to other rare earth rare earth compounds. . It was in The War, that the methods were perfected for attaching the tipping compounds, so it was no longer lumpy and chunky, but the smooth tipping we know today.

 

Why ruin a perfectly 'good' nib....when with any effort you can get the super skinny nib you want.

Semi-vintage and vintage nibs are 1/2 a width narrower than modern....so an EF is a narrow nib.

 

How narrow a nib writes is a combination of how heavy your Hand is, what paper and what ink you use. You can narrow up a nib by using a dry nib on a slick paper, and a very light Hand.

 

I've nothing against you sending any modern nib to be made super skinny.

 

Nibs with a bit of flex, like semi-flex or more, superflex I do have something against. They are not made any more...at least not at the level of days of yore.

 

Most noobies are Ham Fisted...they can't help it.... having been turned into Ball Point Barbarians.....at some point in their life.

I was one. It took me a long time to become lighter Handed...thanks to a semi-flex pen...that took three months. Then came the next step up, a maxi-semi-flex pen....three months later....well I was not real Light Handed, but was ready for a first stage Superflex; Easy Full Flex.

 

I am still not real light Handed even today. I did surprise my self yesterday, in one of the semi-flex pens I don't use much because it was a real EF....actually wrote to a EF....instead of an F. Somehow my Hand became lighter with out me noticing it.......took enough years.

 

Italics on modern Nail nibs can be found easily or made Italic with out damaging a good nib.

I believe nails and semi-nails (most modern pens) are good for that. I don't see the old 'true' regular flex (like a Pelikan 200) as an italic nib; too much tine bend and spread.

.

Would a '30's BB factory stub do....instead of making it a Italic?....I have a nail Parker Vac with that.

I'd not do it to a nice enough vintage wide factory stub..............when one can do a modern pen.

 

How far back do you start your 'vintage' definition? I start with 1970 and before.

 

How many modern Japanese EF (XXF in western) do you have? I think you can find Japanese XF too. I don't pay much attention to super narrow nibs.

 

Have you thought of Dip pen nibs? There are many that are super skinny, and there are various levels of flex to be had. From hard press through five layers of 1870 carbon paper to an Earthquake in California makes them flex in the pen cup. There are those nibs in stubs....there are many ornamental nibs also....lots of odd different ornamental nibs to be had.

 

Untipped English Osmiroid Italic nibs that will fit into a Esterbook is a very good way to go. I got a six nib set on English Ebay....BB, B, M, MF, F, EF. Once Osmiroid was The Big Name in Italic. They have a nice little book on Italic writing too..on English Ebay. The lever and the piston Osmiroid is sort of cheap...get a beautiful Esterbrook...and there were Esterbrooks made in England too.

 

Personally.....even though others will say it is your nib to ruin way you want; I think nibs with any flex at all....semi-flex, or various levels of Superflex; one is a Barbarian if one ruins an irreplaceable nib for a ill though out whim. Even with a well thought out whim. (God, I can remember the flinch I had even now someone with a BB semi-flex had it made into a EF or was that an XXF?)

If one hunts there are enough EF's in semi-flex or Superflex................those are 1/2 a width narrower than modern...........and those nibs will end up writing wider than EF unless you have a light Hand.

 

For spiderwebs and baby spiderwebs go Japanese....though there enough nibmeisters that can grind an XXXF. It will have to be a nail....in you wouldn't want any tine spread or it wouldn't be a baby spiderweb; now would it?....and you must use a vivid well lubricated ink..to see it......if you can find what is left of the sweet spot.

Edited June 8, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[bokchoy]

If the nib has nothing wrong with it, I'd rather preserve it as-is. Fine and extra-fine nibs are relatively common. Wider nibs can be made finer but this is usually irreversible. Broad vintage nibs are often worth more because they're rare. I wouldn't want to reduce the (finite) number of them, especially if they're out of production.

 

Besides, older nibs often have interesting characters. They don't feel like modern nibs. Vintage grinds are much more varied. For example, I've seen tipping that looks like a wire across the tines, a shaved cylinder, a thin "dipped" coating, etc. These are XF, F and M nibs. This variety of tipping shapes affects more than the writing feel. Occasionally they may have extremeeeely subtle line character too (that one is a factory EF). Sometimes monoline means roughly monoline. I love the quirkiness of unmodified vintage nibs, I hope enough remain so that people far in the future can enjoy them.

 

I doubt the tipping shapes above will reappear on newer pens. Tipping technology has changed and modern pens are ground for a very different market. Modern pens are more likely to have a generous blob of tipping, smooth through a wider range of angles and much easier to grind down.