Nib Slits Peened Shut

[Paddler]

This is the third time I have seen this modification to a nib: the slit has been struck over and metal peened into the gap, nearly closing it off.

 

The first time was in a P51. It was rather clumsily struck with a chisel-like tool (I thought maybe side cutters) and just put it down to wanton destructiveness or a very strange accident. I used some 9um grit Mylar to remove the obstruction. The nib now works fine.

 

The next time, it was a Sheaffer Vigilant with a numbered nib-whose-bottom-profile-is-flat. The slit had been very carefully struck on the underside with a small, oblong drift. I didn't notice the imprint the drift made until I looked for it last night. The slit was nearly closed and I ground the obstruction out of it. The pen is my very best writer.

 

Just recently, I inherited a Sheaffer Balance Vac Fill. It has a numbered nib-whose-bottom-profile-is-flat. The pen was in very bad shape overall. The slit had been peened heavily enough to actually spread the tines a bit at the point. I ground the bulge out of there and did some major tweaking and now the pen writes very well, if a bit on the wet side.

 

I didn't notice this pattern until I found it in my pen journal. So what is going on? Is this a modification to make a nib write dryer?

 

Paddler

Edited April 22, 2009 by Paddler

[kirchh]

The next time, it was a Sheaffer Vigilant with a numbered Waverly nib.

I disapprove of the use of the term "Waverley" (note spelling) as a generic description for a turn-up nib. Waverley was the style name of a particular maker's product; that nib indeed had a turned up tip, but it also had a distinctive overall teardrop shape with a dramatic waist pinch. Here is a picture of one such nib, from The Pen Room (penroom.co.uk):

 

http://penroom.co.uk/images/waverley_1.jpg

 

I dislike the conversion of a specific maker's brand name for a product with a number of distinctive attributes into a generic term meaning just one of those attributes on any maker's product (with the added confusion of the proper-noun spelling -- who owns the term?). Bad enough we have the term "Flighter" being used for any maker's all-stainless pen (or for any all-white-metal Parker, even if not stainless steel -- see an example of this, and a proper admonishment, here), "Signet" is applied to any all-gold-filled pen, and so on. Next, we'll see "Feathertouch" for any maker's two-tone nib.

 

--Dnaiel

[Paddler]

Sorry, Dnaiel.

 

I didn't know the derivation of the name. I have corrected the post and have removed the W word from my fountain pen lexicon.

 

Paddler

 

[Ernst Bitterman]

I wonder if this has any affiliation to several Sheaffers I've seen with the tipping removed as though with side-cutters.

[publius]

I dislike the conversion of a specific maker's brand name for a product with a number of distinctive attributes into a generic term.

While you're at it, can you pass me the kleenex, & get a couple of cokes out of the frigidaire? :roflmho:

Edited April 23, 2009 by publius

[Paddler]

I wonder if this has any affiliation to several Sheaffers I've seen with the tipping removed as though with side-cutters.

 

I haven't seen any actually cut yet. From time to time I see third tier pens with plated steel nibs with cuts filed through the plating. Apparently someone has been looking for gold.

 

So what did I do here? Did I unwittingly remove an important and much-desired modification from these nibs?

 

Paddler

 

[donwinn]

I dislike the conversion of a specific maker's brand name for a product with a number of distinctive attributes into a generic term.

While you're at it, can you pass me the kleenex, & get a couple of cokes out of the frigidaire? :roflmho:

 

And don't forget to wash down your aspirin with the coke.

 

Donnie

[WendyNC]

Sorry to throw in another side note, but I'm trying to learn the lexicon. Peened? (I'm guessing a ball-peen hammer is involved.) Thanks!

[Ernst Bitterman]

Wikipaediea's rather over-long definition of "peen" here. I'm most familiar with it in its use to set solid rivets by smacking them with a ball-peen hammer.

[ZeissIkon]

Sorry to throw in another side note, but I'm trying to learn the lexicon. Peened? (I'm guessing a ball-peen hammer is involved.) Thanks!

 

Yep, a ball-peen hammer is a common peening tool. To simplify considerably over Wikipedia, peening is an operation in which metal worked cold is "upset" -- that is, compressed in one direction, expanded in the other two -- by a hammering method. As suggested, rivets are commonly peened (though hot rivets aren't correctly peened, they're forged in place). A blacksmith will typically have at least two or three peening hammers, none of which have a ball (cross peens, straight peens, and sometimes angle peens -- and often more than one weight of each), used for cold work from putting heads on cut nails to assembling ironwork like mortise locks, as well as for hot work.