Chinese Pens Show And Tell.

[Ian the Jock]

Any chance of showing the underside of the nib please?

No Problem Ian

I tried to get the best pic I could but it's not the best.

The Baoer's on the left and the Huahong's on the right.

Cheers

Ian

 

 

[richila]

Richila, this page on the Mr. Pen website has a diagram of the various types of obliques. It's under the subhead "Nibs the definitive."

 

http://www.mrpen.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d184.html

Thank you, Bob.

[ian1964]

No Problem Ian

I tried to get the best pic I could but it's not the best.

The Baoer's on the left and the Huahong's on the right.

Cheers

Ian

 

 

Fantastic, thanks a lot Ian. I am really enjoying this thread and love the pictures.

Edited October 17, 2015 by ian1964

[penomania]

Hello,

anyone has any information on these pre WW2 pens, they are very high quality with nice gold nibs.

 

 

 

 

[Ian the Jock]

Another nib grinding experiment show and tell today, but this time (using the tutorial posted by bobjpage further back in the thread) I tried the "grind the tip" rather than "snip the tip" method of nib butchery tuning.

I again, chose one of my Huahong pens for this experiment and I chose the "Barleycorn cap" specifically as it had a fair bit of tipping to work with, as you can see from the pics.

 

 

As instructed by the tutorial, I ground down the bottom then top part of the "bulb" to get the shape that I was looking for.

I started this using a sharpening stone (one of those whetstone johnnies) then moved on to a smoothing/polishing stick.

This took a considerable amount of time and many squints through the loupe to get the nib to look like it did in the following pics.

 

 

The next step in the process was to "flatten" or "square off" the tip, which was another time consuming process which proved to be quite taxing as holding the nib at a constant angle while smoothing down the tip takes a steady hand.

Once "squared off" the tip then looked like this.

 

 

After a fair bit of smoothing, cleaning and general footering about with the nib I got to where I hoped to be.

The nib writes beautifully and due to the larger feed in the Huahong, there are no problems with the feed keeping up with the "heavier" flow of ink needed for the stub to "Do its' thang".

The following pics were taken immediately after I was done grinding, but I still had a bit of cleaning up to do do.

I've tried to show the nib from differing angles to give a view of the shape of the thing, with some success, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

I've even finished up with an "arty farty" profile shot just ...because.

 

 

So

All in all, a pretty successful venture.

I'm starting to gain a liking for these cursive stubs, although this method was pretty time consuming.

 

I'm off to see what other pens I have that have "Big Bulbs"

 

Ian

 

 

[bobje]

Fascinating documentation of the process, Ian. The labor shows -- final nib looks more elegant and finely crafted than with the other method.

[penrivers]

Ian, why not to use dremmels instead of stones?, you can save time and precision.

[richardandtracy]

Superb.

This is exactly what I did to a JoWo broad nib I put in my White with Black Stripe K316 last year. Made a wonderful broad italic.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[Ian the Jock]

Fascinating documentation of the process, Ian. The labor shows -- final nib looks more elegant and finely crafted than with the other method.

It does indeed Bob

I think it looks more like a fountain pen nib should.

I saw a vintage Parker nib with a stub, in the stub of the day thread, and it looked stunning, really impressive, and that was the shape I aimed for with mine.

Mine looks nowhere near as impressive but the shape is pretty much there.

The process itself was altogether more "civilised" and sort of suits this hobby if you know what I mean.

Fountain pens deserve care, time and attention and this way of doing it seems more fitting.

 

Ian, why not to use dremmels instead of stones?, you can save time and precision.

penrivers, I don't have a Dremel and would be wary of putting power tools near my precious pens.

To be honest, I quite enjoyed the whole experience, and when I say "time consuming" It took about maybe an hour, to an hour and a half from start to finish, which isn't really that bad.

I have ordered some new stones of varying grit though, as I don't think this will be the last.

 

Superb.

This is exactly what I did to a JoWo broad nib I put in my White with Black Stripe K316 last year. Made a wonderful broad italic.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

Richard

I still have the broad Laban/Bock nib that I bought in error last year, and I have been tempted on several occasions to put it into my K316 as you suggested at the time, but the pen is just so good as it is, and I adore the roo nib.

Once I get better at this nib grinding business It may be an option to get another K316 and grind the nib especially for it.

 

 

Ian

[brg5658]

Ian, great post and informative images to go along with the description of the process.

 

I have that same pen in three different colors (purple, silver, and blue), so maybe I'll have to "sacrifice" one to the learning process.

 

Best, Brandon

[Ian the Jock]

I didn't know they came in blue Brandon.

I did actually think I was buying a blue one a while back, but it turned out to be the blue belter and took me off on the "belters" track.

I have 2 silver and purple, but I gotta get a blue now that I know there is one.

 

Ian

[bobje]

The medium nib on this Hua Hong red lava is so juicy that it's enormously fun to write with, and Binder burgundy suits the pen well.

 

[richila]

I got new inks, journal and a new pen. I just can't get over how beautiful the X450 is. The Kurve surprised me with how much I like the design.

New journals, inks and a pen by Richila, on Flickr

[Ian the Jock]

The medium nib on this Hua Hong red lava is so juicy that it's enormously fun to write with, and Binder burgundy suits the pen well.

 

Bob

The Red Lava and the Binder Burgundy is an excellent combo.

Your pic makes the pen look very desirable.

 

I got new inks, journal and a new pen. I just can't get over how beautiful the X450 is. The Kurve surprised me with how much I like the design.

New journals, inks and a pen by Richila, on Flickr

 

The 450s are lovely pens richila, it won't be long before you have one in every colour.

I have the Kurve in wine/red and it too is lovely (my first fountain pen).

Great to see that you are really enjoying your pens.

 

Ian

[Dreamliner]

For the first red pen. what engraved on it is not a dragon but a horse.

[Ian the Jock]

For the first red pen. what engraved on it is not a dragon but a horse.

 

Thanks for that Dreamliner.

I just had a good look at it, and it is indeed a horse.

It's a lovely writing pen and I can now move it to my "pens with horses on" list.

 

Ian

[Ian the Jock]

Another nib grinding show and tell today.

This time I turned a Jinhao x250 with a fine-ish nib, into a Jinhao x250 with a big ol' italic nib.

On this occasion I used the "snip n' grind" method, for obvious reasons, as I wanted a big broad nib.

The x250 in itself is an excellent pen, and the nib was so good on mine that I swapped it out into one of my favourite non Chinese pens, where it resides to this day.

After the nib swap, the 250 had a standard medium IPG nib which was a bit fine for my taste so it made it the perfect candidate for this "mod" which would have me using the pen a lot more.

There's not as much detail in this show and tell as the process is the same as when I ground the Baoer nib earlier in the thread, and there's no point going over it all again.

What I will say though, is that I "sharpened" the tip a bit more into a chisel type shape as I wanted a nice sharp, crisp line on the cross stroke.

All in all, a successful venture.

 

Ian

 

[pwnrat]

I almost gave up on my Jinhao's until I saw the pictures in this thread. Very nice modifications, particularly the stubs.

[Ian the Jock]

A "Back to normal" S & T today.

2 Pens today. both of which could be put into the "Bling" category, but both completely different pens.

 

The Hero 9038 in purple marble, and The Hero 302 in black and gold

 

I'll start with the purple 9038.

This was one of those pens that you come across on ebay, raking around late on a Saturday night, and you think to yourself, "oh! that looks nice, I'll have a wee bid" so you do, and you win, then forget all about the pen until it drops onto the mat, or in my case, 2 pens drop onto the mat. (it came in 2 other colours, a kind of brown marble, and a claret marble, 1 of which I won).

The pen itself is a lovely colour, a nice dark purple marble, but is probably a bit gaudy for my own personal taste and could certainly be called "blingy". Lets just say, that it's not a pen I'd whip out in my local post office....but maybe you would.

It's quite a hefty pen, weighing in at 49g, but it is well balanced when writing. (posted of course)

And the main point...It writes astoundingly well. Nice and wet, with a medium line and it just flows.

The nib is lovely and smooth and the pen is a pleasure to write with, and if you like the slightly ott ornamentation, then it's well worth the paltry sum I paid for it.

 

The 302 was a kind of similar deal. spotted it while raking about and won one for a couple of quid.

At the time, I never even noticed that it had "blingy" faux sparklers in the clip.

The pen itself turned out to be a wee gem, if you'll pardon the pun, as it writes beautifully and is just a really nice pen.

The nib is tiny, but is supremely smooth and it flows away nicely with a steady fine line.

Now! here's where it falls down.

This pen was obviously designed and styled with the smaller, daintier hand in mind as it doesn't post.

This unfortunately is a deal breaker for me, as I always post my pens, due to chubby fingers and hands, and it's just a wee bit small for me to use un-posted, which is a shame, as it really is a nice wee pen.

I think a teenager looking to step up from a preppy, or a 599 would love this pen.

It is pretty sturdy and robust, has a cheeky wee nib, and has a bit of bling about it, which those young un's seem to go for.

Even Mrs the Jock was quite taken by the appearance of it (not enough to try it though ) so it may appeal more to members of the fairer sex........or folks who like to use a smaller un-posted pen.

 

So there we have it. 2 completely different "Blingy" Heros, both of which, like my other Heros, write very nicely indeed.

 

Cheers

Ian

 

 

[J_MM]

Another nib grinding show and tell today.

This time I turned a Jinhao x250 with a fine-ish nib, into a Jinhao x250 with a big ol' italic nib.

On this occasion I used the "snip n' grind" method, for obvious reasons, as I wanted a big broad nib.

The x250 in itself is an excellent pen, and the nib was so good on mine that I swapped it out into one of my favourite non Chinese pens, where it resides to this day.

After the nib swap, the 250 had a standard medium IPG nib which was a bit fine for my taste so it made it the perfect candidate for this "mod" which would have me using the pen a lot more.

There's not as much detail in this show and tell as the process is the same as when I ground the Baoer nib earlier in the thread, and there's no point going over it all again.......

 

I've done the exact same with my 250. Turned out really well. I think yours is a bit more crisp than mine though. I need practice.

Edited November 3, 2015 by J_MM