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Hi, I have a Pilot 823 nib that had developed a scratchy angle. Turns out lending your favourite fountain pen to someone who's never used one before is a pretty dumb idea. On top of that, trying to smoothen an 823 nib when you have never done it before is dumber even. So here I am, with a M nib that writes like a B at some angles and still scratchy at lower angle of writing. I hope to get it fixed, so please recommend nib meisters or nib repair services in India, specifically Bangalore (but at this point I am desperate enough to post it to anywhere in the country). Thanks, and please do not make the mistakes I have made.

Hi all; I'm working on a recently acquired 1938 Parker Parkette Deluxe with a nice somewhat flexible stainless steel nib. I have the pen 90% "there" but have one small issue. The nib delivers a nice, somewhat wet flow with just the lightest pressure except on the up-stroke. If an up-stoke follows a down-stroke then there is flow but even then, it appears to be residual from ink already on the tip. If I press down a bit on an up-stroke, then there is flow of ink. This is not a serious issue as the pen writes quite nicely but it does go quite light of line if a line begins on the up-stroke. I'm almost of the opinion that the tines are touching and are less likely to spread a little on an up-stroke but are inclined to separate on an upward or sideways stroke. Could it be that I need to separate the tines slightly? Any input from your experiences would be appreciated. Cliff

So I came upon a wonderful article by Richard Binder on tuning nibs and for the most part, I understood everything quite well. But then he mentions something about 'ticking' a nib on 0.3 lapping film. Something regarding knocking off a micro mountain. Now I don't know if its my limited knowledge on nibs or the fact that English is my nth language, I couldn't make heads nor tails about this part. I'm really interested in learning from this article so can someone explain what he meant by that? -Adit Kamath

*english is not my first language so bear with me* Hello there, I have recently tried to restore the '50 pelikan 400 with a 14K EF nib from my grandfather and have in my opinion done a pretty good job. The nib however is something I am stuck on. It feels scratchy when held at certain angles and (although pretty rarely) catches on the paper on the upstoke. As you will see on the included pictures, the right tine is slightly bent but the tips of the tines come together ok-ish. I've tried to correct this bend but I couldn't do it since I couldn't separate the nib from the nibunit and the nib is very flexible, so just bending it a tiny bit doesn't have a lasting effect. I like it being an EF so regrinding is not really something I want to do. Does anyone know how I repair this or maybe know someone who can do this (I live in Belgium, so someone who lives in europe would be fantastic). I love this pen to bits and would like to bring this pen to its former glory, so to speak. A massive Thanks in advance!

When I got my Twsbi Eco with an extra-fine nib about 5 days ago and inked it up with Noodler's X-feather, the pen was so dry it wouldn't write without putting some weight on it while writing to flex the tines open a bit and when it would write it would skip like crazy. I then flushed the pen and inked it up with Parker Quink Blue-Black , the result was slightly better, it would somewhat write under it's own weight but would skip more often than it would put down a line. I heard Twsbi's EF nib should be a hair broader than Pilot's F nib but after comparing it to my Pilot Metropolitan, it seems to be a decent amount finer even though the tipping is bigger. I used a loupe to look at the nib and saw the tines were touching and very tight together so I tried to get the tines apart by following Pen Habit's video on the subject and flossing the nib with a post-it note and it worked to a degree. The pen doesn't skip anymore but still writes very dry making the ink look very light and hard to see with some colors. It seems to be a nib problem since I put in a juicy M nib and the feed kept up without issue. Any advice about how to fix the flow would be greatly appreciated. Here are some pictures comparing it to my Pilot Metropolitan :

Hey guys I am very lucky to be able to head out to Tokyo again at the end of the month. Having been there a couple times now and having a ball at all the different stores. I don't know how some of you are able to cover both Ginza and Marounochi in an afternoon when I would spend the entire afternoon just at one store trying and deciding which pen to buy. This time, I want to see whether I can take advantage of the strong dollar to buy more expensive pens that were out of my price range before, namely one of the more expensive Nakayas or even an Urushi Namiki. The last time I was there, I purchased a pen at K. Itoya that was then tuned by the resident nib meister that was there on the second floor. That time, I wanted to get a Nakaya and to have him swap a music nib. But the sales person said they did not have one and I had to wait a month to have that happen, which obviously would not work for me and I ended up not making the purchase.. My question is whether the guy would be able to stub a nib post purchase or is he there only to tune nibs. Does any one know???

I have been learning nib smoothing on a Jowo nib and I have gotten it to the point that the nib is way too smooth and my hand writing suffers from lack of control. None of the links from the pinned trhead mentions adding tooth. I can figure that I can make a nib rougher by using a lower grit micro mesh but that seems to me like a good way to rub off all the tipping material. Does anyone know of an article or have advice adding tooth to a nib in a crontrolled incremental manner?

Some of you may have read my post about a purchase in Singapore of an Omas pen that went less than expected with the pen skipping immediately when I got home. I found that Nibs.com had another Omas Vintage 360 (different color) and I started an online conversation with them to find out if other Omas customers were satisfied and if they felt confident I could get a wet, flexible nib writer. Well, these nice folks really know customer service as I received my gorgeous turquoise Omas 360 tuned perfectly and a day after I sent in the order. Thank you Nibs! It was a pleasure writing my council action notes and the pen writes as expected. It seems like I've had a bad run with the Italians (event though I'm Italian), with both Omas and Delta tied up in returns or repairs. Now I understand why so many folks here rely on nibmeisters (forgive me if I have misspelt), and it's pretty logical to get it done if available at a company like Nibs.com at the time of purchase.

I searched for similar threads, but most are too old and with too few comments. I'm thinking of having a general checklist to tune a scratchy nib, for those who just need some adjustment (smoothing etc). This is mostly the case when starting to use a pen/nib for the first time. Here's what I have, feel free to add more. 1) Use a Loupe to check for tine misalignment. 2) Align the tines, gently. Be careful to take note if a tine needs to be bent down, or the other bent up. 3) Test the nib after each adjustment. Repeat step 2 if required, else go to step 4. 4) Before going to Micromesh, CHANGE THE INK. Sometimes all the nib needs is wetter ink. This is especially the case with EF or Japanese Fine nibs. 5) Use the Micromesh ONLY if the above step doesn't solve the issue.