Ruined Nib?!

I think I've ruined the nib on my newest pen. A while back I posted about it
being scratchy, ect... and tried to fix the problem myself rather than take
it to a repairman. I tried to polish the nib on a penny and have made it
incredibly worse, now it's scratchy and it skips! I guess I shouldn't even
ask, but is there a right way to polish on the penny? I should have known
better than try myself!
Thanks


--
H-S-F



Cut your hair to respond.

help-slip-franklin wrote
I think I've ruined the nib on my newest pen. A
while back I posted about it being scratchy, ect...
and tried to fix the problem myself rather than
take it to a repairman. I tried to polish the nib
on a penny and have made it incredibly worse, now
it's scratchy and it skips! I guess I shouldn't
even ask, but is there a right way to polish on the
penny? I should have known better than try myself!
Thanks

There are great ways to smoothen a nib, but none of those involve a
penny. I'd never heard anyone espouse this "copper penny method" before
I read a post here by an anonymous poster describing it (and,
incidentally, also recommending the use of nail clippers to align tines!
.... a job better entrusted to one's fingers ... easier and less likely
to leave ugly marks in soft metal). The copper penny method of nib
smoothing may be making its rounds to other newsgroups/listservs/boards
but, AFAIK, the method can be traced to a single source. Old pen repair
manuals don't mention it. Frank Dubiel never espoused it. None of the
dozen or so pen repair people I know personally or those who post to the
various forums use such a method. However, these observations don't help
you... Sooooo....

If you want to do it yourself, start with the following instructions by
John Mottishaw:

http://www.nibs.com/Article6SmoothingAdjusting.htm

Most people in the business use some variation of this approach.
Although smoothing your own nibs can be very satisfying, one can easily
ruin a nib trying to smoothen it. Mylar disks (aka: lapping film) will
take iridium down in no time flat (sorry the pun) if you're not careful.
Also, many novices end up creating a smooth flat spot that works for
them and the way they hold the pen but for no one else. This isn't a
problem as long as they keep the pen, but if they sell it or pass it
along to someone else, the next user may find the nib draggy or
scratchy.

Learning how to smoothen a nib takes experience. Start with good, solid
information (such as that found on John Mottishaw's site) and then
experiment with inexpensive, replaceable nibs. Learn how to spot
misaligned tines and align them before you start sanding away. Smoothing
is a destructive method in that it removes material from the nib's tip.
Once removed that material can't be put back (unless you have the nib
retipped, and that's very expensive).

Sorry about your nib. If it's a valuable one, have a pro do it. If it's
something you don't mind sacrificing to your education, try the
instructions on John's site. -- Take care, B

"help-slip-franklin" wrote in message
news:4lAmg.6$Yk.2@trnddc06...
...I tried to polish the nib on a penny and have made it
incredibly worse, now it's scratchy and it skips! I guess I shouldn't even
ask, but is there a right way to polish on the penny?...

There's a description of the technique in a January post by "Virgiliopoeta".
I do this myself, and it works great for me, but:

A) That's just me, playing with my own pens. I'm not a nib technician and
can't make any sort of "professional" recommendation.
B) It's a relatively subtle method for smoothing a mostly-OK point (it does
seem to be a good way to debur a flossed slit). If the nib is _really_
scratchy, you may have to align the tines, and/or resort to sanding (e.g. on
mylar);
C) If you're not careful, you could "hook" the pellet at the split on one of
those Lincoln Memorial columns and pull that tine out of alignment. You
have to be gentle -- don't press down so that the tines spread, don't push
the tip into the columns -- and just feel how the tip is riding over the
copper. Check the point on paper periodically: if it feels better, stop.
More penny-rubbing will just start grinding down the pellet.

Also, I don't simply hold the pen at my preferred writing angle -- to keep
the pellet rounded, I roll the pen as I go.

Brian
--

help-slip-franklin a écrit :

I think I've ruined the nib on my newest pen. A while back I posted aboutit
being scratchy, ect... and tried to fix the problem myself rather than take
it to a repairman. I tried to polish the nib on a penny and have made it
incredibly worse, now it's scratchy and it skips! I guess I shouldn't even
ask, but is there a right way to polish on the penny? I should have known
better than try myself!
Thanks


--
H-S-F



Cut your hair to respond.

Well, I, virgiliopoeta, the horse's mouth, am indeed the only known
source for this method. I always take care to remind beginners to use a
junk nib ONLY until they have a lot of experience using this or any
other nib-smoothing method. You may very well 'ruin' several nibs
before you get the hang of it. However... it is actually pretty
difficult to permanently ruin a nib, short of breaking one of the
tines, or severely splaying them. Even the latter problem is usually
fixable.

I repeat, a beginner should always consult a good repairman when a
valued pen is at stake.

Polishing with mylar, while quite effective, is much MORE likely to
ruin a nib if you're a beginner. Even pros sometimes ruin nibs with
this method.

You should ignore this BL fellow; he seems to have some sort of animus
against me, heaven knows why. I never reply to such fellows, at least
not directly - best of luck to him!

Did you read all my posts on the copper-penny polishing method? They
are quite explicit. Run the nib along the columns of the Lincoln
memorial perpendicularly, using NO PRESSURE. You will have to practice
for several hours at least before you are comfortable with polishing.
There are many possible routines.

If the pen now skips where it wrote well before, you probably splayed
the tines slightly, or got them out of alignment. Use almost no
pressure when polishing. Gently play around with the tines with some
tweezers until you have the tines in alignment. See my posts on this.

Try holding the nib slit up to the light. A good nib slit should let a
fine but discernable sliver of light through. If you see no light, the
pen will usually write too dry, if you see a wide line of light, the
nib will either write too wet - or not at all, or will be
hard-starting, or will skip.

virgiliopoeta

You should ignore this BL fellow; he seems to have
some sort of animus against me, heaven knows why. I
never reply to such fellows, at least not directly
- best of luck to him!

Virgilio-- My response to your post was never intended to be taken
personally. You're not the problem; the information you've posted (i.e.,
your advice) is. You continue to suggest that people use metal tools
such as tweezers to align tines when a fingernail will do and is much
less likely to mar soft metal (such as 14k, 18k, and 21k gold). Ever see
a nib with tool marks? There is simply no good reason to use a metal
tool when aligning tines. I'm glad you've abandoned your previous
suggestion to use nail clippers. Yikes! I'm also glad you've begun to
suggest that individuals examine their problem nibs under magnification
to diagnose the source of the scratchiness rather than willy nilly
smoothing them.
BTW, a 10x loupe really isn't powerful enough to see imperfections on
the surfaces of the tipping material. Regarding the copper penny method
of nib smoothing, I do think those considering using it should ask
themselves why they should use a copper penny when extraordinarily fine
sandpapers (e.g., micromesh), rouge cloth, and other materials exist? A
penny's surface is very rough and could easily misalign tines (at the
very least). Well, I'm not going to suggest that the OP ignore your
posts, although that would have saved his nib. I will, however, suggest
that folks considering working on their own pens check a variety of
sources including Frank Dubiel's pen repair manual, John Mottishaw's
website (www.nibs.com, see the great article on smoothing scratchy
nibs), David Nishimura's website (www.vintagepens.com), posting queries
to Lion & Pen (http://kamakurapens.invisionzone.com/ ), posting
queries to the Zoss list (http://www.zoss.com/pens/index.html, posting
queries to Pentrace (www.pentrace.com, see also ), checking out PCA's
library, etc. -- B




















Did you read all my posts on the copper-penny polishing method? They
are quite explicit. Run the nib along the columns of the Lincoln
memorial perpendicularly, using NO PRESSURE. You will have to practice
for several hours at least before you are comfortable with polishing.
There are many possible routines.

If the pen now skips where it wrote well before, you probably splayed
the tines slightly, or got them out of alignment. Use almost no
pressure when polishing. Gently play around with the tines with some
tweezers until you have the tines in alignment. See my posts on this.

Try holding the nib slit up to the light. A good nib slit should let a
fine but discernable sliver of light through. If you see no light, the
pen will usually write too dry, if you see a wide line of light, the
nib will either write too wet - or not at all, or will be
hard-starting, or will skip.