Nail Buffer: Friend or Foe?

[QM2]

For the heck of it, I tried to smooth a bad 2.3mm italic Rotring Art Pen nib by writing with it upon a nail buffer. It worked!

 

Encouraged by my success, I next tried to sharpen a 1.5mm italic Lamy Joy nib, by quickly moving it back and forth on a rougher part of the same buffer to "sharpen" it. It worked again! The italic became crisper and not any less smooth. Looks like this nib-smoothing stuff is easy, huh?

 

Ok, so then... I took my precious, new, ebonite Stipula Saturno pen, which did not work quite well at the low angle I like to write, and... Yes, I took it to the nail buffer. Very quickly, I wrote several figure 8's with it, holding it at my usual low angle. Then I tested it, and it was indeed better. I wrote a few more figure 8's in the same manner and tested it again. Now it seems perfect! Perfect flow and no skipping, at any angle I want. And it does not seem to be any less smooth than it was prior to the nail buffer encounter.

 

So, should I be delighted? Or should I be worried that I may have removed the iridium and ruined a new gold-nibbed pen? I only wrote a total of maybe 8-10 figure 8's with the Stipula, on the smoothest part of the nail buffer, with the nib inked up for lubrication. To the naked eye, the iridium looks intact.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Edited August 16, 2008 by QM2

[jbb]

I've used a nail emery board for improving a few nibs and that seemed to work too. I've also used a nail file to get the kink out of a couple of old bent 14K nibs.

Edited August 16, 2008 by jbb

[kuno]

Wow! Maybe I should try the method. Do you know what grit the buffer would be? I always thought nail buffers were horribly abrasive...musta been wrong :hmm1:

[QM2]

Wow! Maybe I should try the method. Do you know what grit the buffer would be? I always thought nail buffers were horribly abrasive...musta been wrong :hmm1:

 

You must be thinking of a nail file. What I used was a buffer. A nail file feels like sandpaper to the touch. A nail buffer feels very soft, like a marshmallow -- but in fact is a very-very fine grit abrasive. It comes in the form of a wide, pink and white stick. The grit was not specified...

[Ron Z]

The ones sold for use in pen repair and smoothing nibs have 12,000 micro mesh on the back side.

[QM2]

The ones sold for use in pen repair and smoothing nibs have 12,000 micro mesh on the back side.

 

Could you advise where one can get those? Neither Richard Binder's kit, nor the Tryphon kit offers these -- unless I've missed them?

 

I find the stiffness and the wide stick shape of the nail buffers very useful, more so than a flexible micromesh sheet, or a curved stone.

 

Thanks!

QM2

[AllWriteNow]

Micro Mesh

 

Here's one in the States.

[QM2]

So for both italicising and smoothing nibs, you use the same 12000 grade micromesh but go over it different amounts of time? or are there different grades appropriate for each task?..

 

Sorry to keep returning to the nail buffer, but, for instance, this thing has 3 areas with different surface textures. One feels silky smooth; the other two a bit less so, to different extents. I would move from the rougher area, to the smoother, to the silky-smooth one, the end result being glass-smoothness.

[jicaino]

the 12000 grit it's "oversmoothing" for some nibs. I use micromesh in 8000 and 12000 for the final touch, but there's no substitute for a good translucent arkansas stone if you know how to work it. Nail buffers are indeed made with the same method as Micromesh... perhaps they dont bear the propietary mark but most of them are that kind of thing. Woodbin has them sticks (one side has 1500 and 4000 grits, the back has 12000 gri) at very convenient prices.

[TrevorML]

but there's no substitute for a good translucent arkansas stone if you know how to work it.

 

 

I have to agree with you Juan... I use my arkansas slip stone 98% of the time on nib smoothing work... they are excellent

[klangbogen]

but there's no substitute for a good translucent arkansas stone if you know how to work it.

 

 

I have to agree with you Juan... I use my arkansas slip stone 98% of the time on nib smoothing work... they are excellent

 

Are there various grades of the stones as in other sharpening stones used for knives? Is this the same as the curved stone mentioned by QM2?

[teej47]

Could you advise where one can get those? Neither Richard Binder's kit, nor the Tryphon kit offers these -- unless I've missed them?

 

I found them at a local hobby shop ("Hobbytown" I believe). They were with the model paints and brushes and set me back about $2.00.

 

I discovered, as jiciano points out, that you can oversmooth. When I really polished up my one and only broad nib (not coincidentally my favorite) with the 12000 grit, it barely wrote (just like Richard Binder said somewhere else I saw recently). I scuffed it a little with the 4500 grit and it was right back to it's buttery old self again.

 

Tim

(who just can't seem to leave nibs alone)

[Ron Z]

Arkansas stone may work for quick removal of material, but it's too coarse for the final detail smoothing that is needed for nib work.

 

12000 micromesh is still a little too rough in some cases, in which case we go to the 0.3 micron lapping film for the final touch up.

 

Note that it is quite easy to get baby bottom with the micromesh if you over do it.

[Gerry]

QM2 - I believe that the grits on the boards used for pen work are 1500, 4500, and 12,000.

 

These are available as Micromesh products from Wood Bin, among other suppliers.

 

http://www.simcom.on.ca/woodbin/MicroMeshProducts.htm

 

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.... ;-)

 

Regards

 

Gerry

 

PS: Some of the nail boards are not waterproof, and the abrasive comes off in water. I like to use the Micromesh ones wet, particularly for plastics restoration.

Edited August 19, 2008 by Gerry
Added PS

[Ron Z]

I like to use the Micromesh ones wet, particularly for plastics restoration.

 

Indeed, this is when it works best, as the water allows the removed material to float away instead of clogging the abrasive.

[jicaino]

ron I'm sure you know that there's several grades in arkansas stones... I mean the really glassy looking no veins prime quality units. You have to find a really good one to see what I mean. Actually, 12,000 micromesh looks and feels coarse compared to the stone I use for final touches. I don't like finer abrasives than that for finishing, the smoother you go (over certain point) the less satisfying performance you get (especially on medium and up grading)

[TrevorML]

you beat me to it again Juan

 

the little arkansas slip stone (see below... image from the linked site... no affiliation... just a googled find...picked mine up locally) I have... picked it up for next to nothing if not nothing ages ago from a woodworking tool supply place where I live... was a demo one that had chips on the edges and hence no good for its use for the sharpening of carving chisels and gouges but the flat surfaces were perfect... mine is considerable smaller (from memory... at work and it is at home ) than the one on the link... only around 60-70mm x 30mm x 5mm (at it's thickest point)

 

well... it is MUCH MUCH "smoother" than the 0.3 micron lapping film I use mainly for inter-tine work... it almost feels grainier than the film but in actual use it is MUCH better at getting a nicer tip-to-paper feel and I am VERY fussy about how that should be...

 

I am sure there is some of that metallurgy magic going on there of the movement of the coarse molecular structure of the surface of the tipping material... the lapping film/micromesh removes it and progressively finer grade remove progressively finer amounts such that one ends up with a smooth result...

 

but...

 

the stone just seems to do something different to the surface other than just remove material... it is almost like it acts as a strop like with the cut-throat/single-edge razors blades which does not really do any removing of material to any appreciable degree... I have so so many times thought I would go the film route but the tipping still usually feels ever slightly "grainy" and have to resort to the stone...

 

I first tried it out because I could not find any micromesh or film locally and desparately wanted to try smoothing some crappy tips I had picked up off the Bay so thought "why not... it is pretty smooth" and now I always use it...

 

another BUT though...

 

like with micromesh and film there are different grades of the stones and being a totally natural product even within the same "grouping" of hard, extra hard etc... so one has to pick and choose carefully... mine was just a lucky accidental find

 

again... concerning the natural product side of it... the Japanese sword and knife maker swears by the particular natural stones that they are willing to pay a small fortune for the special types... and these stones can in fact be VERY soft... they are actually meant to abrade away with use as the surface is reduced to a super super fine slurry that gives the edges of their knives and swords the more than mirror polish that they will only accept... and Japanese sword and knife making masters are well known as being at the highest point of the art

 

my stone is not one of these but I know I would be lost without my little hard arkasas slip stone... for sure!!!

Edited August 19, 2008 by TrevorML

[TrevorML]

but there's no substitute for a good translucent arkansas stone if you know how to work it.

 

 

I have to agree with you Juan... I use my arkansas slip stone 98% of the time on nib smoothing work... they are excellent

Is this the same as the curved stone mentioned by QM2?

 

I have no idea what the stone QM2 refers to.. maybe but I doubt it

[Pete]

Yeah, I get the best smoothing results with an old barber hone that I have, I'm not sure what the grit is, but its been estimated at around 4-8k. Oddly enough, I get very poor results from the lanksy sapphire and ulta fine hones that I bought for smoothing. They work fine on my knives, though.

 

I've actually noticed and wondered about that effect that Juan is talking about, I've encountered it before, but I haven't seen it mentioned here.

 

 

[TrevorML]

not sure what mine is... possibly a Smith's as that is what is commonly available around this neck of the woods...

 

that effect that Juan refers to... I think I have seen it mentioned somewhere here.... but hidden away somewhere within a thread rather than a thread in itself...

 

I know I have on one occassion "over" smoothed a nib and it just did not feel right... had no feel of the paper with it and felt wrong somehow... need to have something but not the same thing as a tooth to the nib as that in most cases is my pet peeve

Edited August 19, 2008 by TrevorML