Unusual Nib Tips - Pignib

[sodul]

Today I received my #5 nibs after waiting 5 weeks. They were only $1.49 shipped for 5 of them so I knew I should not expect the nibs to write well without a bit of work, but I got them to grind some stubs for JinHao pens such as the 599A, 886 and 250 so as long as they fit and the stainless steel does not corrode I'm not asking for much more.

 

The surprise was not that the nibs are quite different than the pictures on the posting as seen here:

 

The surprise is that the tip is a little like a pyramid and the writing area is the base of it rather than the apex. Yes, the writing area is the wider part of the tip. I've put a JinHao #5 nib for reference:

 

The design of the nib itself is simple with some vertical stripes and stamped "<F>", a crown, and "22 KGP" with the P barely visible. Obviously not Gold Plated, but that's common with Chinese nibs:

 

 

 

This nib is a hint longer than the JinHao #5 nib but other than that seems to fit well, at least in my 886.

 

After aligning the tines it writes pretty smoothly with a broad line a little over 0.7mm when holding it normally, with a 45% degree angle. The reverse is quite smooth as well. It does have a lot of feedback like writing with a pencil probably because the surface area is so large, but it is not grabby at all. Pretty wet on the normal side and dry on the reverse. The metal seems

 

Here is a writing sample at different angles on Rhodia Dot Pad; excuse the poor handwriting, especially at 90 and 30 degrees. The odd angles, 90 and 30 degrees, are very uncomfortable to write with and are not as smooth. I'm not saying the nib is intended to be used at various angle, but since this makes me think of an inverted architect nib I wanted to try that.

 

I tried to flex the nib but the metal is too soft for that and needs to be bended back. I'm actually surprise it writes at all but seems to perform well and I'm hoping this will be decent raw material for custom grinds.

[sodul]

So 50 minutes of grinding, my fifth grind, and I have a reversible 0.7/0.5 stub due to the original bevel on both sides of the tip. I think the grind might have been faster than usual because the metal is likely not as hard as the JinHao nibs that I usually work on. It definitely feels like it grinds faster but bends much more easily as well.

 

 

And a writing sample:

 

It will go in one of my wife's pens tomorrow.

[thegrasshopperliesheavy]

Wow, that is unexpected...

[escribo]

Very nice work.

Must get myself some sharpening stones.

 

esc

[Croma]

Hello:

Nice work. I like stub nibs. You could try an architec nib with another one like that.

Regards

[Randal6393]

Very good, consistent grind, sodul. Glad to see you are doing well and having fun. Lots of luck to you,

[sodul]

Thanks for the praises from everyone.

It seems that the pig snout nib is copying the stamped design from Duke nibs:

 

I'm not sure yet if I will like the custom nibs, but at the very least they are awesome as training material. Only $0.3 each, fits the JinHao #5 pens, a big fat tip to work with, and metal that is easy to grind. Two concerns I have at the moment is that the nib is juicy wet and will get wetter because of the soft metal, and I don't know if the metal in the tip will handle much wear.

 

BTW anyone who wants to start grinding, do it on a super cheap pen that you don't really care about. The 2 pens I use to grind have their sections falling apart. Nothing is really broken, just unglued. I'm ordering shellac flakes to fix them.

[sodul]

An update on the grind. I eventually grounded the top to help reduce the ink flow to the regular side. It made a big difference and a much more enjoyable tip to write with. Reversible stub ... not such a good idea.

[stephanos]

Really good to know this. Excellent information - both about the availability of the 'training nibs' and what you did with them. Thank you.

[sodul]

I grounded one of the chinese nibs in about 30 mins to do a stub that I used to 'restore' a vintage American (brand) pen. It had a broken spoon nib that was beyond salvage. Since I had these nib available I tried one and it made this pen a very nice writer. I used the bladder from a very cheap chinese pen I did not like.