Cracked nib repair

[Simian devotee]

Hello everyone.

 

I have a question concerning repairing cracked nibs. 

I have a vintage nib cracked at the breather hole, c.a. 1 mm along the width of the nib.

 

I don't think this is safe to keep using, so it has sat on my drawer for a while. I contacted Greg M recently to have it fixed. I love the nib, but i live in EU and the cost does not fit on the pocket right now.

 

I have, however, quite an extensive experience in building thermocouples and micro contacts for semiconductors. 

 

Can anyone with experience in fixing nibs explain to me why techniques used for microsoldering in electronics would not work on a nib?

 

I am not saying about using lead, or even solder. But why wouldn't point welding with gold wire (the ones used on wedging stations) work? I routinely weld 60 um wires on various metal surfaces without any problem. I can imagine how using these could be useful to stabilize and fill the crack on my nib.

 

I would like to try my hand on it, but i have no test subjects atm. I am trying to find busted gold nibs on ebay for less than 10 bucks now. No luck so far.

 

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

Attached is my nib. You can see the crack on the right side of the breathing hole

[mizgeorge]

I have to braze cracked nibs (which works fine, but I wouldn't recommend for the inexperienced), but the best repairs I've seen are those done with a jewellers' laser' welding setup. However spot welding should work fine, especially on smaller cracks. You would need to try, if possible, to use 14k wire to match as closely as possible to the original material. 

 

Don't look for broken nibs alone - your best bet for sacrificial practice is capless pens, which often have broken nibs and tend to sell pretty cheaply - often less than the scrap value of the gold.

 

You do have another option in Europe, though, and that's fpnibs.com - though I think that with their admin fees etc they've become very expensive for anything other than the most cherished nibs. 

 

 

[Seney724]

51 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

 

You do have another option in Europe, though, and that's fpnibs.com - though I think that with their admin fees etc they've become very expensive for anything other than the most cherished nibs. 

 

 

Fees indeed!! 

 

• Check out their "Administrative & Logistics" fee. 
• And their charge to get your item released from Customs...which is in addition to whatever fees are charged by Customs, themselves.

https://fpnibs.com/pages/nib-repair

 

They've got more "nickel & dime" fees than my bank!!

No thanks!!!!

[fabri00]

From Poland to Spain there are no Customs.

[como]

It’s usually too expensive to get a cracked nib fixed (sending back and forth plus the repair), unless it has sentimental value or is a very sought-after nib. I would just use it until it’s unusable. For me, it’s not worth investing the equipment to learn how to solder a gold nib, as I never would intentionally buy a cracked nib.

[Simian devotee]

In all fairness, I have most of the tools on my job. I do not have a laser welder, but I do have 99.9999% gold wires, and I have the instruments to make a simple point welding station. That's why I do not see a lot of issues with trying to fix it by myself.

 

I guess I can always take to a jeweler as well.

[como]

6 minutes ago, Simian devotee said:

In all fairness, I have most of the tools on my job. I do not have a laser welder, but I do have 99.9999% gold wires, and I have the instruments to make a simple point welding station. That's why I do not see a lot of issues with trying to fix it by myself.

 

I guess I can always take to a jeweler as well.

All the better if you have the tools to make an attempt, why not! You have nothing to lose, and you will certainly gain valuable experience. I don’t have the equipment nor experience to do that, but I am curious! Good luck! 

[OMASsimo]

I had a local jeweller (a very good one) point welder a few cracked nibs for me and it all worked out very well. It cost me 15 € and absolutely was worth it. I see no reason why it shouldn‘t work in your case and I‘d be very interested to see your results and learn from you. 

A somewhat unorthodox way to get a test piece would be to buy a cheap gold-nibbled pen on evil bay and break it deliberately. Once in awhile you find this 1 € pen that nobody wants. 

[Addertooth]

I will jump in and agree a laser is the best way, with 14k donor material for the fill.   Keep in mind that gold is a nearly flawless reflector for infrared, so a shorter wavelength laser is better suited.   You might be surprised what 10 watts at 450nm will do.  At this low level of power, it takes a G2 optics (narrow-fine close optics) to get the job done.  I have cut steel ballpoint pen springs in half. 

[BamaPen]

I have had a local jeweler weld a crack in a vintage Conklin nib, with good results. He had not welded a nib before, and in this case the crack was stable and closed.

 

[Ron Z]

The problem here is the location of the crack.  I have both repaired cracks, and had cracks in this location laser welded.  Its a tough spot to do, and because of the stress on the area when writing, especially on a flex nib, it usually breaks again.  I won't say that it is certain that the crack will appear again, but the probability is very high.