Nib re-tipping

[de_pen_dent]

Folks -

Any suggestions on someone who does nib re-tipping? I have a limited edition Sailor Creatures of the Deep pen which i love but which i would love even more if it could be made into a medium stub.

Goldnibs had re-tipped a Visconti Homo Sapiens for me a long, long time ago - but they are no longer operating, i believe. I know Greg Minuskin is one option - are there any others?

TIA!

[Jon Szanto]

Greg is the only one I am aware of at the present time, at least in the US.

[fountainpenkid]

Brad Torelli has a new shop up and running and so he should be doing retipping again, using a superior technique--less likely to affect the springiness of the nib--to Minuskin. The retip job I had done by Minuskin had to be corrected by Torelli to make the pen write nicely and the tipping look normal.

I recently got a MB 124G with an incredible factory BB nib and noticed two cracks along the sides of the plated portion of the nib. Greg (in my experience) would be happy to repair this sort of thing, no questions asked. He probably wouldn't bother to explain, as Brad did, that the location of the cracks and heating involved would have a profound effect on the springiness and feel of the nib, and for that reason, I'd be better off finding a new nib or hoping the cracks don't grow.

[de_pen_dent]

Thanks for that - anyone have an email or a website for Brad? Will give him a holler. Else hit up Greg.

(I actually have a Parker 51 with a barrel made by him and the nib tuned by Richard Binder - what a great combo that is!)

[FredRydr]

fountainpenkid: How long ago did Brad retip your pen?

A month ago, Greg warned me that he wouldn’t be able to do a retipping job until late November, at the earliest.

[Farmboy]

What technique do each (Greg and Brad) use for retipping and crack welding?

[fountainpenkid]

What technique do each (Greg and Brad) use for retipping and crack welding?

As I remember Brad explaining it, Brad uses no extra gold, whereas Greg cuts back the tip and builds it up from a new gold layer.
As for crack welding, I’m not sure. Brad said it would involve hearing much of the nib close to the melting point.

[FredRydr]

As I remember Brad explaining it, Brad uses no extra gold, whereas Greg cuts back the tip and builds it up from a new gold layer.
As for crack welding, I’m not sure. Brad said it would involve hearing much of the nib close to the melting point.

fountainpenkid: How long ago did Brad retip your pen?

[fountainpenkid]

As I remember Brad explaining it, Brad uses no extra gold, whereas Greg cuts back the tip and builds it up from a new gold layer.
As for crack welding, I’m not sure. Brad said it would involve hearing much of the nib close to the melting point.

fountainpenkid: How long ago did Brad retip your pen?

He only modified the Minuskin retip on my pen (Soennecken 111).

[FredRydr]

Put it this way, how long ago did Brad modify the Minuskin retip on your pen?

[fountainpenkid]

Put it this way, how long ago did Brad modify the Minuskin retip on your pen?

Sorry for being thick!
I think it was a year and a half ago.

[Farmboy]

In full disclosure Greg retips and repairs cracks in a lot of nibs for me.

Greg uses a laser and welding wire to weld cracks. Nearly everyone else uses a torch and solder. These two processes are not really comparable.

For retipping you really do need to add a buffer layer of gold to return the nib to the correct shape and improve adhesion and wetting of the tipping bead. The break point if you look at it under magnification is not suited to welding tipping on. To get a good result you also need to remove the tipping on both tines to add a single bead that can be cut and shaped.

[dneal]

I had Greg tip a couple of nibs a few years ago and never saw what all the fuss was. Simple transaction, fast turn around. I did my own fine-tuning.