Fountain Pen Smoothing Gone Wrong?!

[SuperiorEagle]

I need help... I was attempting to smooth out the nib on my TWSBI ECO using the cardboard sleeve included in the packaging. I just drew a couple figure eights at first. I checked on some regular notebook paper and... it was now a lot scratchier! Desperately, I drew more and more figure eights until I realized I had been making it worse and worse. Any advice on how to revive the nib? It was fine at first; I was just a little ambitious with the smoothness.

[Tweel]

You may want to repost this question, and the other about gold-nibbed pens, in the appropriate parts of FPN, as they'll soon be deleted from "Members Helping Members" (see the text under this forum's title).

[OCArt]

I have strong suspicion that the tines of your nib are misaligned-- look at the nib head on with a 10 power loupe. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to align nibs. Good luck.

[wimg]

You may want to repost this question, and the other about gold-nibbed pens, in the appropriate parts of FPN, as they'll soon be deleted from "Members Helping Members" (see the text under this forum's title).

 

What we normally do, is move a topic to an appropriate forum, and a link in the forum where it was posted originally will stay up for a month, actually .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[PAKMAN]

Yes check the alignment before smoothing. A missaligned nib will often get worse rather than better when you smooth if the tines aren't aligned first.

[NT-Ned]

Without knowing too much and not seeing it, it could be possible that the nib has picked up some of the fibres from the cardboard and now need flossing, it's possible that would feel rough on paper afterwards. Just my newbie thoughts of course.

[Bo Bo Olson]

as mentioned in your other thread................95% of scratchy is misaligned tines and holding a fountain pen before the big index knuckle like a ball point instead of behind it.

You need a good glass 10X or cheap Chinese 40X equivalent loupe to see if your tines are aligned.

 

Stop 'smoothing' until you get a loupe....and no, a honking big thick magnifying glass will not do, not even one 1 1/4 inch thick (2.7mm).

 

Don't confuse real 10-12X about max for what you need with a good coated glass triplex and Chinese. 40X Chinese = @ 10X so getting a 20-30X Chinese loupe is a waste of money.

BelOMO 10x Triplet costs @ $30-32, on Amazon. That is not expensive................the worlds best similar glass costs $70-100. Nikon, Zeiss and so on. Are they that much better...I doubt it, but are better and one pays for top of the line glass, and the 3-5% better.

 

 

You will need a good coated glass loupe....sooner or later you must buy a good one....one good for your life time and your grand kids life too........BelOMO is good enough...............buy cheap = buy again and often. Can also look at hallmarks of jewelry, coin and stamp conditions; besides fixing fountain pens.

 

It is easy to jar a fountain pen out of alignment by one's self and even easier for that to happen in the mail.....It is just about 'normal' for a mailed pen to be out of alignment.

 

It is easy to align a nib.....from the breather hole press down the up tine to under the low tine, 2-3 seconds 2-3 times. Hey Presto!!!! An aligned nib.

But you need the 10X loupe to see that..............15 X would be a max....some like that much power, others say it is too much.

I get by fine with a 10X, but would like to compare a 10&12 X loupe. Others have said 15 X is a bit much.

 

In your reading take care if someone is talking about a 20-30-40 X loupe, in that might well be Chinese.............and much less than the power marked. Chinese 40X really = 10X in real power.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson