Is This Baby's Bottom?

[novarider]

Does this nib have baby's bottom? It's a Montblanc 149 B nib. I can draw circles and swirls for as long as I want to so it's not a flow problem. It hard starts/skips after I pause in writing for 5 seconds or more. Sometimes it skips an entire stroke but sometimes only the first half of the letter.

[vikrmbedi]

hi.

 

baby's bottom pretty much look like an adult bottom but smaller and are not made of metal, with ink coming out. this is a pen nib, not a baby' bottom.

 

the nib looks fine to me. it seems aligned and without a baby's bottom. but I am no nibmeister.

 

great picture by the way.

 

here is an article you might find helpful.

Edited May 10, 2014 by vikrmbedi

[jar]

Hard to tell from that picture but if so, certainly not extreme. And yup. MB B nibs will sometimes be a little hard start particularly if slightly rotated on initial stroke. Make sure it is not rotated when starting.

[RudyR]

It seems to me that you have no space separating the tine tips of the nib. You need that to fully induce capillary action to the paper's surface. Out of curiosity, what ink are you using?

[novarider]

Private reserve American Blue ink.

[Mickey]

I don't think I've seen it posted in a while, but it's important to understand that some BB is absolutely necessary for smooth writing. If the inside edges of the tines are not slightly radiussed, they will dig into the paper on sideways strokes. In other words, you end up with a scratchy nib which no amount of polishing will remedy. (In fact, the result of over energetic nib polishing can often be a scratchier pen.) Of course, smoothness comes at a price. The more you radius the inside edges, the smaller you make the sweet spot and the less tolerant the the pen will be of any 'finger writing.' The usual antidote for tiny sweet spots is increasing ink flow, but, if you like your pens set up dry (as I do), you have two choices, live with a little scratch or learn to quiet your fingers.

 

I just added a little more radius to the inside edges a modern Aurora 88 EF (my favorite writer). Voila, that tiny bit of Aurora tooth is gone, even with R&K Scabiosa in a pen set up dry. I don't recommend this sort of tweaking to the faint of heart nor will I go into the details here of what I did, but I will advise that the adjustment was exceedingly small and subtle.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Mickey

[WilsonCQB1911]

I don't think I've seen it posted in a while, but it's important to understand that some BB is absolutely necessary for smooth writing. If the inside edges of the tines are not slightly radiussed, they will dig into the paper on sideways strokes. In other words, you end up with a scratchy nib which no amount of polishing will remedy. (In fact, the result of over energetic nib polishing can often be a scratchier pen.) Of course, smoothness comes at a price. The more you radius the inside edges, the smaller you make the sweet spot and the less tolerant the the pen will be of any 'finger writing.' The usual antidote for tiny sweet spots is increasing ink flow, but, if you like your pens set up dry (as I do), you have two choices, live with a little scratch or learn to quiet your fingers.

 

I just added a little more radius to the inside edges a modern Aurora 88 EF (my favorite writer). Voila, that tiny bit of Aurora tooth is gone, even with R&K Scabiosa in a pen set up dry. I don't recommend this sort of tweaking to the faint of heart or will I go into the details here of what I did, but I will advise that the adjustment was exceedingly small and subtle.

Informative post. Thank you!

[novarider]

Here is a link to a video I took off the problem. Sorry about the background noise.

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-MpbRD30MlYMlhDc3Q5RTY4ZjA/edit?usp=docslist_api