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firstpancake
May 6th, 2013, 06:15 PM
I recently returned to my happy life of writing with my fountain pens, and as these things go, the tipping on one of my favorite everyday writers pops off. I then put together this post about my first salvage regrind, and FPN goes down for several weeks. I kept myself occupied by visiting FPgeeks forum, watching PFgeeksTV and listenting to the podcasts. Now that FPN is back up and running, I posted a piece on a nib regrind that I wrote with the intention of posting before FPN went down. However, it felt weird to just be posting stuff there since I spent so much time on this fabulous forum, so I'm cross-posting this one here.

The pen in question is an Inoxcrom Daisy pen. It's an inexpensive plastic bodied pen I bought at a bookshop in Boston several years ago. Before the "incident" this tip was on the extra-fine side of fine. A nice steady, smooth writer that occasionally dried up if left uncapped for a long time, but usually very reliable.It was one of my favorite pens, and I was not willing to let it go. And in my haste to try and save it, I did not take any pictures of the process.

First, I found Ludwig Tan's article on nib grinding at www.marcuslink.com. While I did not have all the requisite supplies, I thought I could improvise.
The first thing I did was take a pair of wire cutters and clip the other half of the tipping off the other tine.

The reshaping step of the regrind happened on the third step of my three-step knife sharpening stone.
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-1-sharpening-stone-94396.html

The first thing I noticed was how soft the steel on the nib was. I accidentally wore down a little more of the remaining nib than I expected the first few passes. The shaping had to be done VERY gently, and no more than what it took to get the tines level and square.

I then deburred the edges with the grey side of a micro-mesh 3-way buff stick from richardspens.com
http://www.richardspens.com/?page=accessories/smoothing_kits.htm
Again, being surprised by how fast the metal was responding to the abrasives.

Not having anything to polish the nib further, I burnished it using the smooth insides of my ceramic sink.

For a hasty, panicy job, I'm quite happy with the result. I usually like fine nibs, but the expressiveness of this line, and the smooth, soft ride as it writes is really growing on me. It writes better than any italic nib I owned that was purchased as an italic.

Here is a picture of the finished regrind, next to an Inoxcrom Jordi Labanda pen, which until a last week, had an identical nib.

2456


The writing sample is pelican 4001 blue on clairefontaine notebook paper. And I'm left handed.

2455

KrazyIvan
May 6th, 2013, 06:19 PM
Nice. They are fun to use and you get a feeling of accomplishment after rescuing a pen. Keep it up.

cwent2
May 6th, 2013, 08:32 PM
thanks for the post.

jacksterp
May 7th, 2013, 12:41 AM
Terrific job.

That's something I've yet to try - need more courage.

Annie
May 7th, 2013, 01:28 AM
Well done. Nib rescue is fun when it works (not so much when it doesn't.) I love your improvisation, especially your ceramic sink. I'm going to try that, next time there's a need.

Pelikan-Vera
May 7th, 2013, 11:47 AM
Nice job looks great.

KrazyIvan
May 7th, 2013, 02:23 PM
Maybe you are interested in a couple I did with a Dremel (rough shape) then smoothed with micromesh.

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/1844-My-first-mechanically-ground-stub-nib

I sent the pen to manouever for review and he reviewed it here:

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/1989-KI-Stub-Handwritten-Review

I later ground a Platinum Glamour to a stub because it had a chipped tine. Don't really have a review on it yet but here are some pictures:

Before

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8394/8685490530_4aed57fb80_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivan_romero/8685490530/)
The next nib grind. Platinum Glamour that has a chip on the right tine. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivan_romero/8685490530/) by IvanRomero (http://www.flickr.com/people/ivan_romero/), on Flickr

After:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8265/8686418821_b3c7d78e3e_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivan_romero/8686418821/)
Platinum Glamour with the chipped slit now fully operational with a ~1.2-1.5 mm stub. Freshly ground nib. Writing sample to follow (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivan_romero/8686418821/) by IvanRomero (http://www.flickr.com/people/ivan_romero/), on Flickr

firstpancake
May 7th, 2013, 04:05 PM
Thanks!
I was in the "need courage" category before this happened, it's easier when there's nothing to lose. When the tipping popped of and I got over my "OHHHH NO NO NO NO!!!!" moment, there was only one thing to be done if I wanted to continue to write with the pen. Not that I'm hoping that day should come for you, since it's an awful feeling to see a pen go down, but should a pen with a broken tine ever come your way, the path is not as rough or scary.

firstpancake
May 7th, 2013, 04:10 PM
great post!
I'm not sure how I would have done with my dremel. The steel on this nib was so soft just the hand grinding was taking material off at an alarming rate. Plus, being left-handed makes dremel handling a very clumsy effort.
I'm thinking about eventually getting some lapping film for further smoothing, but i'm not sure just how much of a difference it will make since I've never worked with the stuff. The sink burnishing thing worked rather well here, but I feel like I'm one rough patch of ceramic sink away from ruining a future pen.

UK Mike
May 7th, 2013, 05:11 PM
Firstpancake: Sounds (and looks) like you did a fine job in rescuing your nib and leading you onto creating a very expressive stub. Well done - they say that first cut is the deepest!
Brave move but a great result.

Laura N
May 7th, 2013, 08:32 PM
What a helpful thread, thank you!