Nib smoothing

[wimg]

Hi Gerry,

 

PenHobbs will ship anywhere, provided you pay for the extra postage due. It's 0.75 $ for postage in CONUS.

 

I can't get the finest mylar grit here, so he is sending me some, no problem. Just slightly pricier on the postage.

 

Send him an email, with whatever mylar selection and quantity you would like to receive, and your address, and he'll tell you what it wil set you back.

 

HTH,

Kind regards,

Wim

[cathyw]

Hi, I'm a newbie, but have been reading the information posted here for about a month. Thanks to everyone who has posted reviews and information about care of pens. Thanks to all of you I have a Phileas, Decimo, Sailor Sapporo, Sailor 1911, Lamy Demonstrator, Pelikan M600, Pelikano and waiting for a Pilot 823 to arrive from Japan. So far, the best writers are the Sapporo and the Phileas, both fines. The Sapporo is only very slightly better than the Phileas as far as a reliable writer.

 

I tried to email PenHobbs at the email posted, but my email was returned. Does anyone have current contact information. I need some sandpaper for several pens. After reading Wim's and Richard Binder's articles I'm going to try to fix a few problems. The Lamy and Pelikano are slow starters. And as nice as the Decimo Fine point is-it could me smoother. I tested one in a local store, a medium, and that wrote like butter, but not my fine. Also the M600 EF nib is very noisy. I've tried the brown paper bag and only succeeded in getting bits of paper in between the nib tines.

 

Thanks in advance for any information you have. CathyW

 

 

[Rapt]

Hi, I'm a newbie, but have been reading the information posted here for about a month. Thanks to everyone who has posted reviews and information about care of pens. Thanks to all of you I have a Phileas, Decimo, Sailor Sapporo, Sailor 1911, Lamy Demonstrator, Pelikan M600, Pelikano and waiting for a Pilot 823 to arrive from Japan. So far, the best writers are the Sapporo and the Phileas, both fines. The Sapporo is only very slightly better than the Phileas as far as a reliable writer.

 

I tried to email PenHobbs at the email posted, but my email was returned. Does anyone have current contact information. I need some sandpaper for several pens. After reading Wim's and Richard Binder's articles I'm going to try to fix a few problems. The Lamy and Pelikano are slow starters. And as nice as the Decimo Fine point is-it could me smoother. I tested one in a local store, a medium, and that wrote like butter, but not my fine. Also the M600 EF nib is very noisy. I've tried the brown paper bag and only succeeded in getting bits of paper in between the nib tines.

 

Thanks in advance for any information you have. CathyW

Richard Binder sells a nib smoothing "kit" and Lee valley (www.leevalley.com) sells very fine abrasives also (down to 0.5 micron.) Neither are the source you mentioned, but both are readily available online.

 

Welcome!

 

 

[SMG]

I have recently invested in 10 disks of 12000 grit Micromesh for my smoothing at home. Each one is a 5" disk with peel and stick adhesive on the back. I have these attached to a tempered glass disk, with a 6000 grit on the other side. At 500 rpm this is a perfect nib grinding and smoothing device for me. I do a final smooth on the 12000 with it not rotating, and if required use a pad of 12000 which is about 4mm thick so that I can more easily round the corners on stubs.

 

The disks were purchased from Micromesh directly in the US and took about a week to ship here. I think I paid $15 for shipping, but 10 disks should last me about 2 years at current use.

 

Cheers,

Sean

[Pete]

I have recently invested in 10 disks of 12000 grit Micromesh for my smoothing at home. Each one is a 5" disk with peel and stick adhesive on the back. I have these attached to a tempered glass disk, with a 6000 grit on the other side. At 500 rpm this is a perfect nib grinding and smoothing device for me. I do a final smooth on the 12000 with it not rotating, and if required use a pad of 12000 which is about 4mm thick so that I can more easily round the corners on stubs.

 

The disks were purchased from Micromesh directly in the US and took about a week to ship here. I think I paid $15 for shipping, but 10 disks should last me about 2 years at current use.

 

Cheers,

Sean

 

Do you have the contact information or a url for micromesh? Is there a reasonable minimum order?

[Tweel]

...you can, if you like, shape the top of the nib into a different tip, eg. a fine, or a stub... You can do this with any nib, provided ink flow is sufficient to the top of the nib, which is not always the case. This can be fixed, ofcourse, but is a story in itself.

I'd like to hear that story!

 

Also, I'm afraid I'm dense, because I can't quite picture the angles and motions you described here:

 

intertine smoothing

 

In the paragraph beginning "Next I insert the strip between the tines...". Has your camera-less status changed? Is there any chance that you can illustrate it?

 

Thanks,

Brian

 

[SMG]

I have recently invested in 10 disks of 12000 grit Micromesh for my smoothing at home. Each one is a 5" disk with peel and stick adhesive on the back. I have these attached to a tempered glass disk, with a 6000 grit on the other side. At 500 rpm this is a perfect nib grinding and smoothing device for me. I do a final smooth on the 12000 with it not rotating, and if required use a pad of 12000 which is about 4mm thick so that I can more easily round the corners on stubs.

 

The disks were purchased from Micromesh directly in the US and took about a week to ship here. I think I paid $15 for shipping, but 10 disks should last me about 2 years at current use.

 

Cheers,

Sean

 

Do you have the contact information or a url for micromesh? Is there a reasonable minimum order?

There was no minimum order, but economically you would want to order a few at that shipping price. Though, they were sending cross border to me so I would expect that it would be cheaper in the US.

 

I cannot recall the url, I would have to google them again. edit, https://www.micro-surface.com/default.cfm?page_id=200

 

Cheers,

Sean

Edited April 25, 2008 by SMG

[Pete]

I have recently invested in 10 disks of 12000 grit Micromesh for my smoothing at home. Each one is a 5" disk with peel and stick adhesive on the back. I have these attached to a tempered glass disk, with a 6000 grit on the other side. At 500 rpm this is a perfect nib grinding and smoothing device for me. I do a final smooth on the 12000 with it not rotating, and if required use a pad of 12000 which is about 4mm thick so that I can more easily round the corners on stubs.

 

The disks were purchased from Micromesh directly in the US and took about a week to ship here. I think I paid $15 for shipping, but 10 disks should last me about 2 years at current use.

 

Cheers,

Sean

 

Do you have the contact information or a url for micromesh? Is there a reasonable minimum order?

There was no minimum order, but economically you would want to order a few at that shipping price. Though, they were sending cross border to me so I would expect that it would be cheaper in the US.

 

I cannot recall the url, I would have to google them again. edit, https://www.micro-surface.com/default.cfm?page_id=200

 

Cheers,

Sean

 

Thanks Sean, that looks good. Nice prices on that site.

 

[Pete]

...you can, if you like, shape the top of the nib into a different tip, eg. a fine, or a stub... You can do this with any nib, provided ink flow is sufficient to the top of the nib, which is not always the case. This can be fixed, ofcourse, but is a story in itself.

I'd like to hear that story!

 

Also, I'm afraid I'm dense, because I can't quite picture the angles and motions you described here:

 

intertine smoothing

 

In the paragraph beginning "Next I insert the strip between the tines...". Has your camera-less status changed? Is there any chance that you can illustrate it?

 

Thanks,

Brian

 

If I may presume to put my interpretation on Wim's post, I believe what he's saying is to grasp the pen so that its facing away from you. Floss a strip of mylar between the tines. Twist the pen so that the inner tine of the side of the nib you want to smooth is in more forceful contact with the mylar strip. For example, if you wanted to smooth the right inner tine you would twist the pen so that the nib slit would be at a upward angle. Drag the pen away from you along the strip maintaining the angle. In this example you would want the abrasive side of the mylar upwards.

 

Imagine you had a really large nib with a 1 inch gap between the tines, and you were using a semi-flexible steel file to smooth it. If you were to drag it between the tines, you would drag the file at an angle to catch the sharp edge. Or if the file was fixed in position, you would twist the nib so that the inner tine you were smoothing would have its sharp edge in contact with the file, then you would push the nib along the file. A thick leather barbers strop may be better to imagine than a file in this example.

 

I'm sure Wim say if I'm right or not. Apologies if I'm not.

 

I've never personally had success with this method, though I believe it's the ones that most of the pros use. I use the method suggested by Psfred in the thread you referenced. I push one tine in front of the other then use a micromesh pad followed by a barbers hone to catch the sharp inner surface. It works wonderfully for me.

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Quick question (and maybe a dumb one?)

 

I got Mr. Binder's nib-smoothing kit and the 'papers' have a matte side and a shiny side.

 

Which side should you use for smoothing your nibs? O_o

 

Thanks.

[ZeissIkon]

Rub with a fingernail to confirm, but you should find the shiny side slick, the dull side "toothy" -- it'll be the dull side with the grit on it.

[Sailor Kenshin]

So it's the dull side you use for smoothing?

[ZeissIkon]

So it's the dull side you use for smoothing?

 

Should be. The shiny side should feel slick, the dull side won't.

[Tippet]

Does anyone have a current working link to the aforementioned article, Nib Grinding - Wim Geeraets?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIA

 

I really, really want to read this

 

I love you guys

 

 

[FarmBoy]

Try here:

 

http://www.newpentrace.net/penbase/Data_Returns/full_article87cf.html?id=403

[Intellidepth]

Try here:

 

http://www.newpentrace.net/penbase/Data_Returns/full_article87cf.html?id=403

Thanks. I'd been wondering about between the tines. Will give that a go on one of mine.