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Thought I would post my DIY home nib grind I did on my newly purchased Montblanc 149. I bought the pen on auction for a great price ($300 USD). It was a new old stock (W. Germany made so from 80s-early 90's) never used and in great condition. The nib was a fine & ran VERY dry. I wanted something unique and fun with this pen as I have (too) many fine nib pens. I fixed the flow issues first to get it to write wetter (not too wet as I have some of those too), but it was still just a plain fine nib and was a bit scratchy. I smoothed it to be nice and smooth every which way, but again nothing special. So wanted to make it a fine cursive italic but when I looked into getting it done, there really any places around Vancouver (Canada) that grind nibs. Also, there seems to be a big backlog of pens in the queue for any nibmeisters in the US so pondered doing it myself. I restore & sharpen straight razors as another hobby, and get kitchen knives shaving sharp (I have actually shaved with my Japanese Nakiri knife before). So I looked into how the nib is actually ground and as I have tools to remove material. After doing some reading and watching I thought I would first try it on an super cheap pen that I never used. First up was a Wingsun Hero 590 that I got on eBay for $3.31. The pen had a band fall off right away when I got it and was super cheap. It wrote but nothing special - what can you expect for $3 anyways. So I took it too my stones and within a couple minutes I had a very crisp italic. Then got rid of the smooth edges with a nail buffer and voila, the pen was super fun to write with and performed very well! So then I decided to give the Montblanc a go since this one turned out so well. I spent a little more time on the pen, made sure to go nice and slow and it tuned out great. I had to remove a bit more off the tip as the variation wasn't much at first. But it didn't take much to get it to where I wanted it. Did the same process as on the cheap pen, stones + nail buffer to remove sharpness, and it writes great! Check out the writing samples below of the Wingsun & Montblanc 149. You might not want to grind a high-end pen, but if you've been wanting to play around, order a few cheap pens and see what you can do. I just ordered a Jinhao X750 in broad that I'm going to grind to an italic to see how it goes! Wingsun Hero 590 Writing Sample Montblanc 149 Pen + Writing Sample Nib close up Writing close up

I've gotten a few more pens done and am working on a couple different custom orders, but thats not the good news. I have been trying to figure out this whole nib grinding thing for the past couple years. The past 3 or 4 months I've really cranked up my experimenting and (hopefully) learning. I am ready to offer a grind.... A grind. I feel pretty confident that I can do a cursive italic grind. I know I'm leaving out architect and left and right oblique and crisp italic... but baby steps are better than none at all. With all that being said here is my free offer. I am willing to offer a cursive italic grind to anyone who buys one of my current inventory pens for free www.jandjwooddesigns.net. You're probably thinking "yea, but what if it sucks?". I know, I was afraid of the same thing. So if you are willing to take me up on my offer I will grind the nib size of your choice F, M, B into a cursive italic and then send you a free regular not ground nib size of your choice just in case you find my grind terrible. You will still end up with a beautiful pen that works perfect, so there will be no risk to you, the customer. The only thing I ask is that you give me feedback. Please do tell me if its too scratchy, not italicy enough, or any other thing that you find I could improve on. I have been struggling with how to get into the nib customization and grinding side of the pen business without making the first few people mad and this is the best way I can come up with. This is limited to the first 6 people who take me up on it. Below you will see some of my recently finished work. I have a pair of sister pens in red and black acrylic. These were fun to make and really fixed the problem of always having too much material left over. Also pictured is an Emerald Ice Alumilite fatty pen that I just love. I begged my wife to let me keep it and she said no. I am just itching to put some Emerald of Chivoir in this one and see what happens. Finally pictured is a writing sample from a Broad Cursive Italic nib grind I did for myself. Hopefully this give you a good idea of what you can expect if you take me up on my offer for a custom grind. I would love to hear what everyone thinks both good and bad. I look forward to sending out some Cursive Italic grinds for people to sample. The website again is www.jandjwooddesigns.net

I am aware of the people online who will tune a nib, but I am kinda impatient and don't want to wait a month to get my pen back. I live close to the border of NY and Massachusetts so a drive to Boston would be about the same length as a drive to NYC.

I've got Moore's Maniflex nib with lost tipping on one of the tines. I could grind the nib into italic. But I wonder what other DIY alternatives to grinding are possible. I think of folding or clamping by the sides the tip to form it similar to ones on the early cheap nibs without tipping material (like some Esterbrook's, rolatip and 3d tiers). Or bend it to make kind of fude nib. I couldn't find the information about it. Does anybody tried to do it and was successful?

So, I was in a meeting yesterday, and wanted to annotate my notes. I have my trusty Parker Falcon loaded with Skrip Red, and it was dry. I checked the reservoir, no probs, and upside down the nib worked. After the meeting I had a look through the loupe and saw that the tines were spread a bit, and the tip was dry. I gently pressed the tines down and together to bring them closer. Suddenly there was a ping and a rattle somewhere on my desk, and the pen is as you see it. It seems the welding on half the tip was fatigued and failed cleanly at the ball. Ah, well I could invest in a new tipping op, but retippers are a dying breed, and I don't think the pen is worth it. I decided to turn it into a usable stub Italic. Here goes. 1st action is to level the tines, I did this on 800 grit wet/dry. Skrip acts like a stained glass window! 2nd was cutting the foot of the nib; normal Italic pens have a nib that widens out to present a slightly broad foot to the paper; A calligraphic Italic nib is much sharper. As this is a hack up, I need to do this gently. Started using orange mylar (coarse abrasive) on a mirror, gently cutting the bottom of the nib level, it looks a lot like a reed pen being worked on, for the same reason! Then cut the foot, blurry and dirty, but you get the idea. Tines misaligned, bent them in line and then on to polish. Tried to write and sharp and scratchy Used the yellow fine mylar abrasive sheet, first on the mirror, and then on a rubber pad on the mirror. This gives a little, and allows for a slight curve to form (incidentally this is exactly how the ends of optical fibres once glued into the plugs are given a slight radius and polish to allow a single point contact with the mating fibre, using the same mylar) Finished result, and a small sample. The pen is smooth in all directions, but I am fooling no-one that this was anything other than a hack-job. If I feel the need in later life, and am flush (and there is still someone prepared to do it) the remainder of the nib could be retipped with perhaps a bigger ball. This is a scratchy and smooth comparison (scatchy under the smooth) lastly, this is a pic of the yellow mylar, on the pad on the mirror, with the mixed inks of polishes past; rather fetching, I think!