Nib tweaking II

by Giovanni Abrate

 

Nib smoothing: tricks that really work and won’t damage your nibs.

 

I have been collecting pens for over 40 years and for the last twenty or so I have repaired many pens that were returned by my customers. Many people complain about the poor quality of modern pens... Not so, in my opinion! I have to say that the overwhelming majority of repairs were due to mishandling of the pens by their owners. Twisted sacs in button fill pens that were treated like cartridge pens, where the new owner unscrewed the barrel and damaged the filling mechanism, are very common. People trying to forcefully unscrew the section from the barrel in order to replace a refill in pens where the refill is actually changed from the top of the barrel, were also very common!  (..and some customers blamed the pen….).

The most common problems, however, were related to the nibs! Scratchy nibs, dry writing pens and, very often, nibs that had been damaged by a failed attempt at smoothing them! How many nibs are ruined by people looking for that glassy-smooth feeling! They do a first pass on some abrasive and they find that the nib feels, indeed, smoother! Looking for unattainable perfection, they grind some more, and then even more and…in the end, they have a nib with a large flat spot. It glides easily!!..but it has lost all character. The nib is ruined. One might as well write with a paintbrush! How often I have seen this!

I read on the various pen forums many posts by people who have just received a beautiful new pen and they all proceed to do the same: first they flush the pen ad infinitum with water and soapy dishwasher liquid to remove “manufacturing oils” and then they start working the nib on the Mylar abrasive or on MicroMesh or something similar. A nib that was carefully engineered, with a point made to provide smoothness, character, some welcome feedback; a good nib carefully mated to an advanced feed.

A word about those manufacturing oils: I have seldom seen them. Like:  never.

I am sure some pens are shipped with some crud inside them, but I don’t believe injection-molded pens use “oil”. Some piston fill pens may have lubricant in the reservoir, but they must be really poorly made, if the tolerances require lubrication of the piston.

I wrote in another Pentrace article that most dry-writing or scratchy nibs only need some simple adjustments. You can read my article here: http://www.newpentrace.net/articleGA04.html

That article condenses decades of experience in adjusting nibs: try it, you will be pleased. Go easy, the adjustments needed are tiny.

Still, there are some nibs out there that really need some smoothing! Sometimes the Iridium is improperly welded or sometimes the metal has some imperfections, some other times the nib shows an irregular slit (I see that on some Indian nibs). If the slit is badly executed, there is nothing you can do other than getting a replacement, but if the tip needs some polishing, I will reveal some old-timer tricks that will help you get a smooth nib without damaging  the hard metal pellet.

These tricks really work! In fact, I will even say that they work better than MicroMesh and they have the advantage of being subtle enough that damage to the nib is almost impossible!

So, what are these magic secrets?

As a smoothing media, use paper from a brown paper bag. Yes, get a few bags from the supermarket, cut them into squares with ten-inch sides; lay the paper flat and use it as you would a sheet of abrasive Mylar. Draw “S” shapes, write loops, etc.  I like to start from a point and move the nib radially in every direction, like the spokes of a wheel.  Gently tilt and rock the pen as you draw these shapes.  Check the results often on a good piece of paper and you will be surprised by the results. Most brown paper contains recycled material, small metal fragments and glass powder. It’s the perfect nib smoothing paper and the price can’t be beat!

The old penny trick. Again, this works extremely well! Take an old US One Cent coin, the one with the Lincoln Monument on the back. Some say the early cents from before the mid-1980s are best, because they were made of copper. In my experience, the more recent ones work quite well, anyway. The trick here is to rub the nib over the columns of the Lincoln Monument. The pen must be inked, as the ink acts as a lubricant while you pass the nib left to right and right to left over the columns. Do not press hard, go gently and finish off with a VERY light pass. The last pass should be done only with the weight of the pen on the coin, no pressing down at all. Try it and you won't believe how well it works! Again, if done properly, this little trick will result in a very smooth nib without risk of damage. You can even try rubbing the top side of the nib; in this instance the pressure has to be even lighter, but this will often give you a nib that can be used on both the bottom and the top sides. The top will give you a very fine line, useful for taking notes.

 

So, here you go: you now know two old secrets: used for years by many old timers like me!  Almost free, much safer than the stuff newbies use and very effective!

Before doing any smoothing, check the alignment of the tines, as explained in my previously referenced article. Get yourself a good loupe and hone those nibs to perfection! Have fun!

 

Read Nib Tweaking - Part I here

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