doing my own nib grinding - good idea or bad??

[I like mango pudding]

I have a couple of pens that I really don't want to have much association with anymore. What better way to revive them by regrinding their nibs. I have pretty much most of the tools available and am thinking of stubbing them.

They aren't worth much to me anymore and I would like to try my hand at it. This way I can resurrect them from the dead. They aren't vintage pens or anything and probably aren't worth much. I can give them away, but perhaps try a grind here and there first. They are not worth sending out to a professional nib grinder either.

Good or bad idea?

[AndyT]

Good in my opinion. You stand to learn something new and it's an enjoyable activity - well I think so. Chances are you'll like the pens a lot more too, that's always the way it's worked out for me.

[tandaina]

If they aren't expensive, or vintage I'd say go for it, learn on them and you may discover a whole new part to the hobby!

[earthdawn]

Without hesitation I would go for it.


I agree that you can learn a lot and find another side to the hobby.

[Tony Rex]

I also heartily suggest you go ahead. Take your time. Do it in stages so you can make the most out of one nib. Perhaps try manually first before using power tool. Make note of the geometry and grit in relation to smoothness, do things in stages. Again, take your time. Waste lots of paper and (cheap) ink

And just ask if you're stuck.

Tony

[I like mango pudding]

Okay, then. It's a go.

I think I might try to take some pics along the way. The macro on my camera is pretty bad. I'll try to get some good shots with my loupe attached to the lens.

[KrazyIvan]

Do it. Here is one suggestion. Have one of your pens ground professionally so you can use it as a guide. If you have one already then you are set.

[drgoretex]

I'll add to the (so far unanimous) suggestion to go for it. Read a bit, think through the exact 3-D shape you want, and above all, go slow, with fine abrasive, and use a loupe to examine your nib.

Once you get the hang of it, you will love it. Doing a cool stub grind on an old boring M or B nib does indeed kick a load of new life into a pen. Great fun!

Ken

[Moxoftritonytes]

I have started with the cheap and easily replacable M nibs on my Lamy Safaris and turned them into stubs and crisp italics later. It is no rocket science and much fun along the way. Now besides collecting whole fountain pens I have a new hobby - collecting nibs and grinding them.

[I like mango pudding]

well, after some time thinking about it and actually getting the nerve to sacrifice a pen to this, I did it.

Here is the first sacrificial nib. I practised on my two "throw away" pens. I decided to use my dremel as I had more types of grinding surfaces to work with than my grinder. My first pen was a bit of a disaster. It was a perfect storm for a disaster. First, the grinding surface was too coarse, second, the dremel speed was too fast and third, I put too much pressure on the nib. What happened? I saw lots of sparks as I was grinding. Not good. I checked my work and I ground it right down to the feed. That nib is a write off. As you can see, it did not survive.










My second pen was a Pilot B stub that I inadvertently used as a screwdriver for my eyeglasses a couple of years ago. It totally ruined the nib. Plus, my eyeglasses screw was still loose! I decided to change the grinding material to something softer, plus lower the speed and use gentle pressure. After several passes and a touch up with some 400 grit silicon carbide wet sand paper, it now writes like a BB cursive italic. It measures about 1.2 - 1.3mm on the digital calipers but lays down a 1mm line. It is not as smooth as my factory stub TWSBI 1.1 and is much wider, but it does write quite well. A bit of road feel if you hold the pen incorrectly, but once you are in the groove, the pen sings!




As you can see in the above pic, the nib is still scarred from the ghetto screwdriver attempt at my glasses.





My last pen was a pen that I got about 15 years ago. I never really liked it because it was green and because the cap kept falling off. Here it is with a M nib in its unaltered state with a writing sample.







I ground it to a 1mm cursive italic. Here are the results:









As you can see in the pic above, I was a bet zealous with the removal of the iridium point as one tine has a bit more removed than the other



[

[KrazyIvan]

400 grit for the final pass is a bit course. That's what you are feeling. You need something above 1000 grit for a final polish to get it smooth. That other pen still looks salvageable. My first Dremel ground stub, I had to cut the tip of the feed off to get it right. I will tell you this, my first attempt at grinding, I stayed away from the Dremel and used those nail file buffing sticks. More power to ya.

[I like mango pudding]

The above pic shows how much I actually ground off the nib. A bit too much, but it really doesn't seem to be noticeable in the writing.

[I like mango pudding]

400 grit for the final pass is a bit course. That's what you are feeling. You need something above 1000 grit for a final polish to get it smooth. That other pen still looks salvageable. My first Dremel ground stub, I had to cut the tip of the feed off to get it right. I will tell you this, my first attempt at grinding, I stayed away from the Dremel and used those nail file buffing sticks. More power to ya.

yes, I know. That's all I had at home. I should have used something finer as you suggest. There is a bit of road feel to it, but with a higher grit, I'm sure it'll feel much better.

[I like mango pudding]

I have a $4 FPR pen coming that I'm going to practise on as well. If that goes well, then it'll be onto the $10 Jinhao 159 that I bought but never inked.

[I like mango pudding]

[elderberry]

Great thread! Since a lot of my nibs and nearly all of the broader ones are reground - though not by me - I've always been interested in trying it myself. I have a few cheap pens lying around as well. I wonder...

I don't have any power tools though, only some micromesh nail buffing blocks with different grits. Are those suitable for starting off as well?

[AndyT]

I don't have any power tools though, only some micromesh nail buffing blocks with different grits. Are those suitable for starting off as well?

I've never bothered with power tools for this. For initial reshaping a 600 grit diamond plate does the job in no time flat, then it's a matter of refining the surface by moving on to successively finer grades finishing up with a razor hone. I have a lot of that sort of gear to hand though.

The nail buffing sticks are popular and will definitely give a usable surface, but turning a standard tip into a stub might be a long, wearisome job. You might do well to supplement them with a couple of sheets of good quality wet and dry paper (3M is way better than the stuff you'll find DIY stores) at say 600 and 1200 grit, and maybe a piece of Micromesh at around the 2k mark. For crisp italics in particular a hard surface is best for shaping: wetting the paper and using it on top of a piece of glass will work.

[manoeuver]

great work- the FPR pens are fantastic for practice, and you can get extra nibs for a coupla bucks!

keep at it!

[john]

I grind all my stiff steel nibs into stub or Italic, they write very well now.

[fncll]

I'm with Andy. While I'm far from an expert, power tools + fountain pen nibs are a combination I don't trust my hands for! Coarse sand paper does the job fast enough where needed and I find something zen in the process. When I stop feeling that I stop grinding because the number one advice for grinding (other than a piece of advice I wish I'd been given: don't start with your gold Sonnet nib as your first attempt) is be SLOW and PATIENT.