Calibrating The User

[ParkerDuofold]

Pen users need calibrating when they're 'breaking in' a nib, perhaps to make it smoother or seem softer. It's not the nib that changes, it's the perception of the user.

Hi Liz, Bluey, et al,

 

Interesting back story about the lab, Liz,... thanks.

 

Bluey raised the point I was going to... if you've ever seen the Britcom, Are You Being Served?; you'll know it will always "ride up with wear."

 

Some pens just seem to need a "breaking-in" period and then they smooth themselves out... of course, up until now, I always thought it was the nib getting broke-in... not me.

 

 

- Anthony

[Bo Bo Olson]

Where the pen 'rests' back of the big index knuckle helps 'smooth' the nib....folks that hold before the big index knuckle tend to have more scratch to deal with unless they have modern more blobby nibs; even then the nib is smoother if held behind the Index knuckle.

 

The lighter one grips a pen, the smoother it can be.

 

The lubrication of the ink, the smoothness of the slick papers....'smooths' a nib too.

[Bluey]

Hi Liz, Bluey, et al,

 

Interesting back story about the lab, Liz,... thanks.

 

Bluey raised the point I was going to... if you've ever seen the Britcom, Are You Being Served?; you'll know it will always "ride up with wear."

 

Some pens just seem to need a "breaking-in" period and then they smooth themselves out... of course, up until now, I always thought it was the nib getting broke-in... not me.

 

 

- Anthony

Ha yes that's going back some years. It's so old even the then young babe, Miss Brahms(aka Wendy Richards), is no longer with us.

 

My fountain pens ride up, down and sideways with wear. Even within the space of an hour and writing on the same piece of paper, the nib can somehow seem softer or harder or more/less feedbacky when I write something and then come back to write a mere 10 minutes later. It's a curious phenomenon.

[dcwaites]

Humans are programmable adaptable multi-purpose tools. Use it or lose it!

 

If you modify the user you can always reprogram it for some other task. Once you modify the pen it is pretty much a done deal.

 

My wife has been trying to re-program me for decades...

[Inkling13]

It always did strike me as odd that i see all these posts on align this, grind that, smooth this, wedge that, carve out channels, etc, in order to get pens that write... exactly what we have in our stables. Smooth, nearly identical nibs. Certainly there are nibs out there that take some fixing, but I'd say the majority of us are quick to jump on the change train, without letting us learn the particularities of a pen. However, it's your pen, do as you like. When you sell it, be honest... what did you do to it? I'd rather not find out that a certain somebody has deepened all the channels in all his feeds and flossed all his tines, to produce a fire hose nib for all the pens that pass through their fingers.

[Teacher Man]

I'm employed in the IT department of a microbiological lab. At one point, I learned that the intent of our micropipette verification log book was not to calibrate the device (unlike the balance logbook) but to calibrate the user - that is, ensure the user could consistently measure a specific amount correctly - sort of a warm-up before they started pipetting for real.

 

At some point last year (which was my second year of FP use), I decided that when I received a new pen, I would use at least 2 fills of ink before I even considered smoothing the tines (something I feel comfortable doing, and have done for a few pens). Depending on what I knew of the inks and nib, I might use more fills and a wider variety of ink before making that decision. During that time, I would use a variety of my usual papers.

 

In essence, I decided it would be wise to calibrate the user before deciding whether the nib needed adjustment.

 

So, out of curiosity, and perhaps to educate each other (or at least some of us who are newer), do you have ways in which you "calibrate the user" before deciding that the equipment may need adjustment? (And it could be pen, paper, ink, nib, converter / cartridge, writing surface, whatever).

 

This makes a lot of sense. Different pens feel different, they feel different on different paper, with different inks. So anything that strikes you as odd may very well be the reslut not of anything wrong with your pen or ink or paper or whatnot, but just a feeling of unfamiliarity. So, yeah, calibrating the user is a sensible idea.

[dcwaites]

I leave my 'specialist' nibs (Naginata Togi, Waverley, Sutabu) alone.

However a Medium or a Fine nib should write with the wetness that I require, and should be a smooth, silent writer. It not, it gets fixed.

[Noihvo]

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

I'm employed in the IT department of a microbiological lab. At one point, I learned that the intent of our micropipette verification log book was not to calibrate the device (unlike the balance logbook) but to calibrate the user - that is, ensure the user could consistently measure a specific amount correctly - sort of a warm-up before they started pipetting for real.

 

At some point last year (which was my second year of FP use), I decided that when I received a new pen, I would use at least 2 fills of ink before I even considered smoothing the tines (something I feel comfortable doing, and have done for a few pens). Depending on what I knew of the inks and nib, I might use more fills and a wider variety of ink before making that decision. During that time, I would use a variety of my usual papers.

 

In essence, I decided it would be wise to calibrate the user before deciding whether the nib needed adjustment.

 

So, out of curiosity, and perhaps to educate each other (or at least some of us who are newer), do you have ways in which you "calibrate the user" before deciding that the equipment may need adjustment? (And it could be pen, paper, ink, nib, converter / cartridge, writing surface, whatever).

I do not have that particular protocol, but I may adopt it now. Instead of buying pens willy-nilly and giving away tons of them, this getting-used-to process would have saved me time, trouble and money.

[displacermoose]

I typically use one fill as long as I am familiar with the ink, but I do fix obvious flaws such as misaligned tines right off. It works very well for me. I used to be only of the "smooth" camp, but have come to enjoy a wide variety of tipping shapes and degrees of feedback.

[OMASsimo]

I'm quite certain that it's both getting adapted to a certain pen and breaking in a new nib. I frequently switch between vintage and modern pens. The modern nails are usually quite easy to use and don't require much time to get used to. But writing with a vintage flex or semi-flex nib is quite different and might need a good while till being comfortable with it. But then it feels like heaven.

 

The other thing is the physical changes that nib and feed go through when used. I still remember the time when the use of fountain pens was ubiquitous. The golden rule was not to lend your pen to anybody because that was going to change the way it writes. Everybody knew that the pen and nib was personalized by the way only you yourself hold it and write with it. I don't think this has changed a bit but maybe the knowledge has gone.

 

Vintage collectors like me are often very enthusiastic about the smoothness, flexibility and ink flow of vintage pens. But if you have the chance to write with a NOS vintage pen you might be surprised. I had several cases where such pens did not feel anywhere close to their well used counterparts at first. Only after extended use they became similar in feel. And that's certainly not the user getting adapted to the pen because the gauge is another well-used pen.

[Bluey]

The golden rule was not to lend your pen to anybody because that was going to change the way it writes.

 

That's just a myth.

[ParkerDuofold]

OMASino: "I'm quite certain that it's both getting adapted to a certain pen and breaking in a new nib..."

 

Hi OMASino,

 

I think a case can be made for this... things are usually not mono-causal... but I think the break-in period for the nib is heavily influenced by the feed as well... until it's saturated; the pen is going to be a dry, scratchy writer.

 

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED to correct HTML error.

Edited January 8, 2018 by ParkerDuofold

[OMASsimo]

That's just a myth.

 

Today this might be a myth because most people wouldn't write much more than a signature a day with it. But it may not have been a myth in times when people wrote several pages a day. Inspecting the tipping of many vintage nibs with a strong magnifying glass shows how different people wrote and thus shaped the tip. Of course, a short period of writing will have almost no noticeable effect.

 

 

OMASino: "I'm quite certain that it's both getting adapted to a certain pen and breaking in a new nib..."

 

Hi OMASino,

 

I think a case can be made for this... things are usually not mono-causal... but I think the break-in period for the nib is heavily influenced by the feed as well... until it's saturated; the pen is going to be a dry, scratchy writer.

 

 

- Anthony

 

EDITED to correct HTML error.

 

Yes, the feed surely has a strong influence and changes too. The physical processes that happen in nib and feed while writing are more complex than many users are aware of. And abrasion as well as stress changes tipping and nib material over longer periods of time when used. Of course, this also depends a lot on the nib. A modern steel nail probably changes a lot less then a vintage 14K flex nib.

[Bluey]

Today this might be a myth because most people wouldn't write much more than a signature a day with it. But it may not have been a myth in times when people wrote several pages a day. Inspecting the tipping of many vintage nibs with a strong magnifying glass shows how different people wrote and thus shaped the tip. Of course, a short period of writing will have almost no noticeable effect.

 

That's not the reason. The alloys used in modern day tipping are ultra hard, and this means that even if you let someone else use your fountain pen for an entire year to write daily essays, it wouldn't change anything at all about your pen.

[OMASsimo]

The modern tipping material is the same used 70 years ago. And you are right that it is extremely hard and abrasion is minimal. But it's not zero. The important difference is the shape of the tip. Many if not most vintage nibs had edges and they got ground by the user in rather individual ways. Take a 10x magnifying glass and compare a NOS vintage nib to a well used one. The edges are broken in in not too long a time. After that the changes are small and may not be noticeable. Insofar, there was a bit of myth and a bit of truth in this.

[Bluey]

The modern tipping material is the same used 70 years ago.

 

No it's not.

[OMASsimo]

Can you enlighten me what is different?

[senzen]

Part of it is writing technique with a fountain pen, i.e. not pressing down or dragging the nib, no death grip; another part is expectations, what we are looking for, what's reasonable to expect.