Pre-treatment of new dip nibs?

[Saintpaulia]

Did I read or see somewhere that when one gets new dip pen nibs they must be pre-treated with fire to burn off some substance peculiar to new dip nibs?

[KrazyIvan]

I do remember jbb and woosang mentioning that.

[AndyT]

Yep, there's a few ways to do it, the easiest being to pop it in your mouth and suck it for a few minutes.

Maybe that doesn't appeal? Okay, there are other ways, but as it happens there's a compound in saliva which helps ink to adhere to the nib, so don't dismiss it out of hand. A q-tip and toothpaste works fine (done that), and some people use acetone or similar solvents. Right at the bottom of my list of things to do would be running the nib through a flame, guaranteed to draw the temper given the thinness of the steel. Some people swear by it though.

I've linked to this article by Dr. Joe Vitolo somewhere else before, but it bears repeating:

http://www.iampeth.com/lessons/getti...ng_started.pdf

[MisterBoll]

Thanks to info I've gotten here I can tell you -
toothpaste works better than the flame routine (at least for me after scorching a nib)
and
saliva really does help with ink adherence.

[subramaniyam]

I dipped mine in some hot water for some time... worked OK...

[jbb]

If your ink is blobbing you have to do something: wash the nibs, burn the coating off.... something.... Some nibs write fine right out of the box.

[fncll]

I recently discovered that the surest way, for me, was to brush the nibs and then give them the treatment in some boiling water. I had a few nibs that the flame thing didn't work well with...and I poked a good hole in my tongue with another!

[MisterBoll]

I recently discovered that the surest way, for me, was to brush the nibs and then give them the treatment in some boiling water. I had a few nibs that the flame thing didn't work well with...and I poked a good hole in my tongue with another!

I spit onto a paper towel and then rub the nib with it. Avoids mishaps.

[Saintpaulia]

I recently discovered that the surest way, for me, was to brush the nibs and then give them the treatment in some boiling water. I had a few nibs that the flame thing didn't work well with...and I poked a good hole in my tongue with another!

Brush with what? I also got info on the boiling water method from my supplier.

[fncll]

I use an old toothbrush (which comes in handy for all kinds of pen-related things, so I have a few in my little box of pen tools) and plain toothpaste. Toothpaste is a gentle polish as well.

[Mod_wolves]

I was told your supposed to suck on the nib to get the waxy residue off the nib but I don't feel comfortable putting it in my mouth as god knows what's happened to it before it got to me... I was told the other way was to use a lighter and lightly burn it off. It's worked brilliantly so far but the whole hot water idea is good as I could do multiple nibs at once!

[AndyT]

To be fair, burning the lacquer off a big sturdy nib (like a Brause Bandzug for instance) may well not do much harm if you're quick about it. Pointed flexible nibs, especially modern ones, are far too delicate to risk it in my opinion.