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Jerome Tarshis
December 25th, 2013, 02:33 PM
Only one of my pens skips, and it doesn't skip flamboyantly. Not every other word. Every few lines, on a downstroke. If I weren't being perhaps too demanding, I could live with the way the pen writes.

However. I have received advice from at least two people who work on nibs with some effect. I'm told that the tines are too close together, the nib will become starved of ink from time to time, and it is inadvisable to perform surgery. With a gold nib, yes: if one separates the tines too far, a gold nib will tolerate pushing them back together and getting just the right interval. With a steel nib, I am told, pushing the tines too far apart is not so easily compensated for.

On a pen forum like this one there will be at least a few stories of how one's new pen, skipping at first, stopped skipping after days or weeks or months of writing. The nib adjusted itself from repeated use and mild pressure, it seems.

Does the collective wisdom tell us that this happens as easily with steel nibs as with gold nibs? Or only with gold nibs? Any hope from mere repeated use? I myself don't do nib surgery (or expand-the-feed-channels surgery) of the kind that would be required for quick results.

TimGirdler
December 25th, 2013, 04:11 PM
Jerome,

Don't expand the feed channel (ever, actually). Really.

Steel nibs respond very well to being widened properly. And, they respond well to being narrowed properly, too. As long as the slit walls remain straight, the tip remains straight-in-line with the slit walls, and as long as there's a proper taper to the slit overall, yes, a steel nib can withstand all these things--and withstand them quite well.

First thing to try: Lay the pen on its back (breather hole facing the table). Brace the feed with your two middle fingers (somewhere in the area of the breather hole). GENTLY push up (but only to counteract the force of the next step). Then, take your thumbs and hook them under the shoulders of the nib. With your now-hooked thumbs pull outward (while applying gentle counter-acting force with your middle fingers).

This should serve to widen the gap just enough. If more of a gap is needed, we might consider some things that the uninitiated shouldn't do themselves.

Also, it will be important to check the tine alignment after this exercise, as this procedure can misalign the tines.

If you go to far and want to narrow the slit again. Hold the tip of the feed with your index finger. Take your thumb (NOT at the tip of the nib, but at approximately the same place as the tip of your finger on the end of the feed) and force one tine under the other. You'll hear a click and the nib will likely snap back to place. This will narrow the slit and it will almost certainly misalign the nib. You'll need to check the alignment and adjust accordingly.

Good luck!

Blessings,

Tim

Mike Hungerford
December 25th, 2013, 05:53 PM
I've found TWSBI's nib adjustment video to be helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0pNht6vsfE

Jerome Tarshis
December 25th, 2013, 08:21 PM
I myself don't do nib surgery (or expand-the-feed-channels surgery) of the kind that would be required for quick results.

I thank Tim Girdler and Mike Hungerford for their replies, which may be helpful to someone else with a too-tight nib. Mine isn't unique in that respect. To my regret, the sentence I've quoted from my own post is important in thinking about my problem.

mhosea
December 25th, 2013, 08:51 PM
If I understand you correctly (vis-a-vis "nib surgery"), you don't do any sort of nib adjustment. That's fine.

To answer your question both directly and bluntly, both of the "at least two people" who told you that it was inadvisable to have the nib adjusted are wrong. One can adjust steel nibs, no problem. I've done it myself 100 times, and I'm an amateur. Many times I have overshot the desired separation and dialed it in using the technique that Tim describes. Since you don't want to attempt these maneuvers, just find a nib man who knows what he is talking about and knows how to do it right. Send it to Tim if you like. He was trained by Richard Binder, who has himself adjusted thousands of steel nibs. I'm sure fixing it would be routine for Tim.

Farmboy
December 25th, 2013, 09:49 PM
Let us play a game. I can tweak that nib at Peters Cafe before LSmith42 can eat eggs over easy, hash browns (extra crispy), a home made sausage patty (spicy), and pancakes.

FarmBoy

Jerome Tarshis
December 26th, 2013, 03:10 AM
I may be under some misapprehension as to why the nib in question is still as it was. It has been in let's say knowledgeable hands.

mhosea
December 26th, 2013, 08:01 AM
If the pen skips on the downstroke after a pause in writing, it may have a "baby's bottom". That phenomenon is quite common, and I might add that I have more than once received new pens from a famous and revered nibmeister with this problem. Such nibs are very smooth, BTW, or tend to be.

The feed may be ill-fitted to the nib. Plastic feeds can be reshaped a little.

The feed may have some other issue, which could be as subtle as being too smooth.

Usually problems can be fixed. The tine separation should be easy and safe (it won't change on its own unless you mash on it, and then they will likely need adjustment to rebalance them). Other things FarmBoy *might* not finish during breakfast, though for the tines alone I thought the pancakes were just insurance. OTOH, I don't know how fast LSmith42 eats. :)

Jerome Tarshis
December 26th, 2013, 12:57 PM
Let us leave it at this: I consider that the ball is still in play. Apart from the two counselors I referred to, there is a third, temporarily not working on pens, who has strong motivation to help me: he has an exalted opinion of the Waterman Laureat, the pen in question, and a not-exalted opinion of my own fave, the Parker 51, and would like to broaden my horizons. FarmBoy is not, I have reason to believe, eager to wean me away from admiring the Aero 51. So we have a variety of possible problems and even a variety of reasons to help.

"Famous and revered nibmeister" seems richly expressive, whether or not that is the writer's intention. It does take all kinds of people to make a world, and all kinds of understanding to make a language.

Jerome Tarshis
December 28th, 2013, 09:02 PM
Preliminary follow-up: FarmBoy did the nib adjustment. The pen writes better. Time will tell whether or not it still skips. On the subject of time, however, I feel compelled to report that lsmith42 had finished his pancakes before FarmBoy finished his nib adjustment.

Jerome Tarshis
December 31st, 2013, 11:16 AM
[Time will tell whether or not it still skips..]

I've gotten through a long international cartridge without any skipping. Time has told, I think. When Farmboy proposes a game, it may well be worth playing.