Modifying A Lamy Xf Nib To Be "finer?"

[ThomD]

Hi all, I have a Lamy Safari with an XF nib that writes as though it were a medium nib. My two other XF nibs don't have this issue. I'm sure that it's not the pen itself, because I swapped out one of the other XF's to this pen body and it writes just the same as my other working safaris.

 

I was wondering if it's possible to modify the nib myself (pinching the tines or something) to narrow the line? It's so broad that something like a half-way reduction would be great...so accuracy isn't too critical. I'm well aware that I might totally screw up my nib trying this, so I have a Fine nib as well in case things go awry. I know I could probably send the nib to Lamy, but it's already been inked and for the cost of a new nib ($11-ish), and with the shipping and wait times, if there's something I can try myself, I don't think I'll lose out even if I wreck it.

 

Any advice? I don't have access to grinding equipment, so if it would take that, this is probably out, too. I've heard of widening tines with a razor blade, but didn't know if pinching them somehow had a hope of working. I've very small tweezers and tools I could use.

 

Thanks!

 

Edit: And if anyone's interested and I go through with this, I'd be happy to post before/after pictures so in case anybody else wants to try this it might be useful.

Edited September 19, 2011 by ThomD

[MarekLew]

Hi all, I have a Lamy Safari with an XF nib that writes as though it were a medium nib. My two other XF nibs don't have this issue.

 

Then you have two exceptions and one regular ;P

 

I just opened FPN to post about my success in tweaking Lamy EF...

 

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7933/scan1109190001.jpg

 

Tools used:

 

- Micromesh 4-field file

- Fingernail file from Wilkinson Sword (used for final buffing with pen inked, as it is available at my corner store for little money)

- buffing felt wheel on my Dremel and a fine polishing compound (NOT the red thing from Dremel). Dremel is too fast for this job, but I have nothing else at hand.

 

Don't consider it a how-to!

This was my first attempt at grinding a nib and the nib writes fine now, but I'm sure there's a lot to do better.

Also, I did it only because Lamy nibs at 4.75€ are pretty much disposable. I wouldn't try doing it with a 'real' nib

 

Marek

[dot]

Marek, vielen Dank for your illustrations and layout of your process! I've also contemplated "editing" an XF nib, and this will be a helpful reference if I decide to go for that.

[ThomD]

Agreed ... thanks so much Marek for posting this! SUPER helpful (and entertaining to read). You also have very nice handwriting. I don't have all the materials but I plan to go out and get them this week. I'll take some pictures and post the results in case anyone else is interested in trying (and can either learn from my success or ... hopefully not ... failure).

[MarekLew]

Here you can see, how does my result look like:

 

Tip from the side:

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7725/201109201856052406.jpg
click to open full-size

 

Tip from the top:

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/705/201109201859192412.jpg
click to open full-size

 

The whole nib:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6307/201109201910312418.jpg
click to open full-size

 

My tools:

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4601/201109201914102420lkh.jpg
click to open full-size

 

As you can see, the toolset differs from what I have described in the previous post. I found out the buffing wheel step to be superfluous in terms of writing results (of course, you may still want to polish the nib after you scratch it so badly as I did, but I just don't care and I'd hate to damage the feeding slit in the process. Better ugly and working than pretty and useless).

 

The nail file is rather obvious, the backside is very smooth buffing abrasive (grey), while the pink side is rather harsh and can be used for general shaping of the nib. The white surface is something in-between.

 

The grey wheel is Dremel grinding stone from the polishing set. It is very fine grinding stone made with strong binding compound. I used it for both, the rough grind and for the final 'scratch' (sic!), more on it later.

 

The copper thing is a book dart, which is made of rather fine springy brass (0.1mm = 0.004in). The 'raw' Book Dart has rough edges, so you need to polish them all smooth first. This is used to clean the nib slit after grinding and polishing. Don't use razor blades or similar, the point is to have a tool made of SOFTER material than the nib, yet stiff enough to push all the gunk out from between the tines. The tool needs to be soft, so that you don't nick the slit's edges. Looking at my nib you might say 'who cares', but if you look close you'll notice, that the filing scratches are around the edges of the nib, while the feed gap is intact. The pen does not suffer nib creep now! I was made aware of the problem through a note on Richard Binder's website and found this tool to be harmless on steel nib (can't vouch for plated or solid gold).

 

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1154/201109201953502423.jpg

 

Not to forget: a magnifying glass. I use a CCTV Fujinon 16mm/1.4 lens, but anything will do as long as you can see the tip well.

 

Now, if you try to play with a Lamy nib as I did and you arrive at a nib that's writing fine but is scratchy or buries itself in paper every now and then, this is what I stumbled upon when filing my first nib:

- filing and polishing the writing surface will easily lead to a sharp edge between the bottom and top of the nib. You need to invert the nib and make sure this corner is rounded. It may seem that this part does not touch paper when writing, but that's not exactly true, it will catch loose fibres and encourage digging into the paper.

 

Edit: see this image:

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/412/writingtip.jpg

 

- after final polishing and buffing you may find the nib writes like on sand, or like there was some grit in the ink. While it may be so (you do have to clean the grit out of the slit...) the feeling might be actually the nib being TOO smooth. If ink does not wet the underside of the tip it will feel a bit like pulling long eraser stick over the paper - it will jump, then stick, then jump, then stick, only very fast, so it feels like writing on grit. What does the trick is to take the pen, put it at a low angle on a fine hard smooth grinding stone (my dremel wheel) and while pulling it across stonerise the angle till the pen stands on the tip. 0° to 90° across 1" stone. Only writing pressure, you don't really GRIND anything, just de-burr the edges and scratch the surface a little so that the ink creeps all over it.

- Lamy nibs are easy to play with, but they are really, really thick. You will not get a buttery smooth ultra-thin nib out of them, because there's absolutely no 'give' in the nib and the tip angle (when looked from above) is rather blunt, so it's a bit like sharpening a nail. After a lot of tweaking my nib writes with a noticeable feedback on the upstroke ('into' the paper), but no scratching even on poor quality paper. To remove the strong feedback I'd have to either make the nib broad again (so that you can't feel the ride on paper fibres because the nib is wider than them) or make the nib somehow springy (not flex, just like your car suspension) - which is not really possible with steel that thick and just a nail file to play.

 

Enjoy,

Marek

Edited September 20, 2011 by MarekLew

[fenriz]

Mareklew, I just received a dremel from my wife for Christmas, and this is the first thing I did with it. I followed your general outline and had success! I used the conical grinding tool, then smoothed with various grades of micromesh, finishing with 12k grit. I think I've still got a little sharp point where you say it needs to be smoothed, but I did smooth in that direction. It may take a little fine tuning, but it writes a fine line about like my Platinum 3776 F, and does so pretty smoothly. Thanks for sharing!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Be easier to get more smaller than marked Japanese pens.

[MarekLew]

So surprisingly, after a couple of years, I got a PN with a request to reupload my photos ;-)

here you are

 

 

Here you can see, how does my result look like:

Tip from the side:
http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2018-56-05%202406.jpg

Tip from the top:
http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2018-59-19%202412.jpg


The whole nib:
http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2019-10-31%202418.jpg


My tools:
http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2019-14-10%202420.jpg


As you can see, the toolset differs from what I have described in the previous post. I found out the buffing wheel step to be superfluous in terms of writing results (of course, you may still want to polish the nib after you scratch it so badly as I did, but I just don't care and I'd hate to damage the feeding slit in the process. Better ugly and working than pretty and useless).

The nail file is rather obvious, the backside is very smooth buffing abrasive (grey), while the pink side is rather harsh and can be used for general shaping of the nib. The white surface is something in-between.

The grey wheel is Dremel grinding stone from the polishing set. It is very fine grinding stone made with strong binding compound. I used it for both, the rough grind and for the final 'scratch' (sic!), more on it later.

The copper thing is a book dart, which is made of rather fine springy brass (0.1mm = 0.004in). The 'raw' Book Dart has rough edges, so you need to polish them all smooth first. This is used to clean the nib slit after grinding and polishing. Don't use razor blades or similar, the point is to have a tool made of SOFTER material than the nib, yet stiff enough to push all the gunk out from between the tines. The tool needs to be soft, so that you don't nick the slit's edges. Looking at my nib you might say 'who cares', but if you look close you'll notice, that the filing scratches are around the edges of the nib, while the feed gap is intact. The pen does not suffer nib creep now! I was made aware of the problem through a note on Richard Binder's website and found this tool to be harmless on steel nib (can't vouch for plated or solid gold).

http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2019-53-50%202423.jpg

Not to forget: a magnifying glass. I use a CCTV Fujinon 16mm/1.4 lens, but anything will do as long as you can see the tip well.

Now, if you try to play with a Lamy nib as I did and you arrive at a nib that's writing fine but is scratchy or buries itself in paper every now and then, this is what I stumbled upon when filing my first nib:
- filing and polishing the writing surface will easily lead to a sharp edge between the bottom and top of the nib. You need to invert the nib and make sure this corner is rounded. It may seem that this part does not touch paper when writing, but that's not exactly true, it will catch loose fibres and encourage digging into the paper.

Edit: see this image:
http://biasedlogic.com/files/fpn/2011-09-20%2018-56-05%202406%20-%20Copy2.jpg

- after final polishing and buffing you may find the nib writes like on sand, or like there was some grit in the ink. While it may be so (you do have to clean the grit out of the slit...) the feeling might be actually the nib being TOO smooth. If ink does not wet the underside of the tip it will feel a bit like pulling long eraser stick over the paper - it will jump, then stick, then jump, then stick, only very fast, so it feels like writing on grit. What does the trick is to take the pen, put it at a low angle on a fine hard smooth grinding stone (my dremel wheel) and while pulling it across stonerise the angle till the pen stands on the tip. 0° to 90° across 1" stone. Only writing pressure, you don't really GRIND anything, just de-burr the edges and scratch the surface a little so that the ink creeps all over it.
- Lamy nibs are easy to play with, but they are really, really thick. You will not get a buttery smooth ultra-thin nib out of them, because there's absolutely no 'give' in the nib and the tip angle (when looked from above) is rather blunt, so it's a bit like sharpening a nail. After a lot of tweaking my nib writes with a noticeable feedback on the upstroke ('into' the paper), but no scratching even on poor quality paper. To remove the strong feedback I'd have to either make the nib broad again (so that you can't feel the ride on paper fibres because the nib is wider than them) or make the nib somehow springy (not flex, just like your car suspension) - which is not really possible with steel that thick and just a nail file to play.

Enjoy,
Marek