Anything I Need To Know Before Making My Own Stub Nib?

[calvin_0]

I been looking for a cheap way to try stub nib... but so far it seems to cost me around 10 bucks minimum... however someone suggest that I should buy jinhou nib and make it myself... well i dont have any Jinhou nib, but I do have a Wing Sung nib that come with my 698.. and it seems like making stub nib is as easy as cutting it with a side cutter and sanding it down...

 

so is there anything else I need to know before I start butchering my wing sung nib?

 

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG6_4GK8QCE&t

[Larry Barrieau]

If there is no iridium on the tip of the nib, you can make a horizontal snip for a stub. Or make a slanted snip for an oblilque. Make these cuts as close to the end as you can. That will give you a narrow nib. You can decide to make it broader by continuing to snip until it suits you. Nathan Tardiff has a good video on this.

 

If there is iridium, you can grind it into a stub or CI without expensive equipment.. There are a number of "grind your own nib' sites on line.

[displacermoose]

If you're sure you want to sacrifice your Wing Sung, I'd grind before I clip. Watch a video or three, get yourself a stone, sandpaper, and finishing material (micro mesh) and see how it goes. If you completely foul it up then clip.

 

If you are in the US, the Bulow nibs from Birmingham pens are 50 cents a piece. These are perfectly acceptable #6 nibs that will fit a wide variety of pens. They are perfect for practicing and you don't have to wait for months to get Jinhao nibs from China, which also work very well. Ebay is a great place to find sacrificial nibs.

[Inkling13]

Go slow, and dont rush it. You are looking at microns of difference at times, and much can be instantly ruined with over aggressive material removal.

[sidthecat]

It will end in tears.

[stephanos]

I'd agree with displacermoose: grind and sand before clipping (even if you start with a fine point and want to end up with a broad).

 

I have tried stubbing cheap nibs - the results can be pleasing. I have yet to do more to the tip of a pricey nib than smoothing, though.

 

Anyway, I have tried clipping a nib before and although the result was OK, I have had much better results by grinding.

 

For grinding, I've tried both the sandpaper approach and a rotary tool. To be clear, we're talking about sacrificial nibs here.

 

The last time I had some free time, I took the pack of ten cheap pens I had ordered via eBay and tried different things with the nibs. I feel like I learned quite a lot and it was quite fun. But you definitely need to take your time if you don't want to mess it up.

 

(Edited for typo)

Edited December 23, 2017 by stephanos

[calvin_0]

thanks, no worries, my 698 is actually using a pilot nib.. so i'm not using the wing sung nib.

[Arkanabar]

Ai yi yi.

 

The Pilot nib is likely to be a better nib than the Wing Sung. In your position, I'd sacrifice the Wing Sung nib and keep the Pilot nib, unless I found the Pilot to be mightily displeasing to me before I started.

[calvin_0]

Ai yi yi.

 

The Pilot nib is likely to be a better nib than the Wing Sung. In your position, I'd sacrifice the Wing Sung nib and keep the Pilot nib, unless I found the Pilot to be mightily displeasing to me before I started.

 

yeah, that is what i'm going to do... i'm not going to intentionally chop up my beloved pilot nib...

[calvin_0]

Success? i dont have mylar paper for smoothing but i do have a 1200 grit sand paper... after around 30 minutes loops of sanding and doodling, it's pretty smooth... however I couldn't get rid of the scratchiness that happen when I write circularly... but I assume a proper stub nib would not have that problem..

 

and the line variant isnt that great... i couldnt figure out how to make the horizontal line anymore thin

 

but still this nib isnt suppose to be my stub nib.. it was an experiment to see if i like stub nib.... so i'm going to continue to use it to see how i feel about stub nib... so far, i kinda like it..

 

[frankb3]

Success? i dont have mylar paper for smoothing but i do have a 1200 grit sand paper... after around 30 minutes loops of sanding and doodling, it's pretty smooth... however I couldn't get rid of the scratchiness that happen when I write circularly... but I assume a proper stub nib would not have that problem..

 

and the line variant isnt that great... i couldnt figure out how to make the horizontal line anymore thin

 

but still this nib isnt suppose to be my stub nib.. it was an experiment to see if i like stub nib.... so i'm going to continue to use it to see how i feel about stub nib... so far, i kinda like it..

 

 

 

1200 grit is pretty darned course for finishing a fountain pen nib. Anderson pens has micromesh pads in various grits upto 12,000, which makes a pretty smooth nib. Or you can get a "nail buffer" from Target or Walmart.

[calvin_0]

 

1200 grit is pretty darned course for finishing a fountain pen nib. Anderson pens has micromesh pads in various grits upto 12,000, which makes a pretty smooth nib. Or you can get a "nail buffer" from Target or Walmart.

 

thanks, I'll try to find a nail buffer later and do more smoothing..

[Chrissy]

It will end in tears.

 

Oh ye of little faith. Many have a first time at grinding a nib, and not all of them end in tears.

[Chrissy]

Success? i dont have mylar paper for smoothing but i do have a 1200 grit sand paper... after around 30 minutes loops of sanding and doodling, it's pretty smooth... however I couldn't get rid of the scratchiness that happen when I write circularly... but I assume a proper stub nib would not have that problem..

 

and the line variant isnt that great... i couldnt figure out how to make the horizontal line anymore thin

 

but still this nib isnt suppose to be my stub nib.. it was an experiment to see if i like stub nib.... so i'm going to continue to use it to see how i feel about stub nib... so far, i kinda like it..

 

1,200 grit sandpaper is far too coarse You will remove too much material too quickly. You shouldn't ever need to use anything more coarse than 3,000 or 4,000 sandpaper. Check out those pen sellers who sell special Micromesh nib buffing sticks they are so good for nibs, and not too coarse. You will need the very smooth side for polishing.

[sodul]

Ive grounded a few nibs to stub, and by a few I mean less than 10. Most of them are pretty smooth writers but the supper large one (1.3mm) does not get the filly width consistently. I do recommend that you get the proper equipment to grind, at least proper enough. For the coarse grinding I use a wet stone that I got for sharpening an axe blade, it has a very coarse and a finer side. You can get that from a regular hardware store. For the smoothing I use a set of polishing pads that go all the way to 12000 grits. I got that for about $11 on The auction site. For checking the work I have a 20x loupe, I also have a 10x and a 60x but the 20x works best for me. Thats the minimum before you can start grinding and expect half decent results. You could snip the tip with wire cutters and smooth on a nail file and just eyeball it, it should write and will probably tear a lot of paper fibres as well.

 

Rather than a pilot style nib I recommend you get a Jinhao pen with a #6 nib since they are bigger and so easier to work with (x450 or x750 can be had for about $1, nibs for real cheap as well). You could also get a noodler pen and some of their untipped nib, they are actually intended to be converted to stub by the users.

 

Things to remember:

- keep enough clearance from the feed, if the nub is too short then the feed will touch the paper, not a nice feeling when writing.

- the edge inside the times will be sharp, thats the hardest thing to smooth. Ive learned to smooth this first, but not too much and then smooth the nib normally.

- the more you smooth the nib, the more of a stub it becomes and the less variation you will get: horizontal line will be wider, vertical line less large. So you have to find the right balance.

- start with a fine italic grind first, move onto stub once you feel you have a good handle on that.

- test your grind with ink on paper as you go.

- be careful about not slanting you pen so your grind is as perfectly horizontal as possible. That mean checking you work with a loupe frequently.

 

The first grinding I did took me 3-4 hours, the most recent one was around 30m.

[amberleadavis]

It will end in tears.

 

Oh, that reminds me of Bartok.

 

https://youtu.be/jSJobyPywIA?t=68