nib grinding

Hi,

I have enjoyed reading the posts on this news-group for some time, and
I am posting today because I am interested in sharing information with
anyone here that grinds their own nibs; I've done a few, but have reached a
point where I need some help, and hope that in this news-group there are
some who grind their own nibs.

By way of background, I lurk here; I have been buying and using
fountain pens for close to 50 years - not necessarily because of the passion
that many of you demonstrate, but because I learned with a dip-pen, moved to
a fountain pen, and since ball-points in the early 50s were cheap, plastic
and smeared, I never related to them.

In any event, since lurking here I wanted to add some flair to my
handwriting, so I bought a handwriting book or two, and sent one of my pens
to a nib-master to be ground to an italic-cursive. Well, it was a
revelation - so much so that I sent him a number of my best pens to be
ground to an italic-cursive tip.

This leaves me with a drawer full of cheaper pens that I would like to
grind myself - none of them are my favorites, nor worth the cost of a
nib-master. In the past, I have successfully repaired and modified my own
pens, adjusting ink-flow and smoothing nibs. I had bought "Da Book" and
found it helpful. I should also add that I have a bit of an unfair
advantage: I worked as a jewelry fabricator/watchmaker before college, and
since then have added "amateur miniature machinist" and "guitar maker" to my
hobbies - this means that I have a workshop that is unusual in that it
includes tools, abrasives and micro-abrasives of various types and kinds
that most folks never see. But I digress.

In any event, I bought a few HERO pens and ground their nibs as
practice: I can grind a satisfactory italic nib, but - and this is the big
"but" - I can not make it the easy-writing italic-cursive that the
nib-master can. I am lost as to just how to soften the "corners"; and I
presume that a fixture to hold the nib precisely would help.

I should add that my interest is personal and because I simply enjoy
working with my hands; I am not interested in doing this as a business, nor
would I grind my good pens; I send those out.

Is there anyone here who would like to share information on nib grinding?
Thanks!

--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara

dovekeeper+at+electric-ink+dot+com

Sonam:

Here is an excellent article that I discovered about a year ago:

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/nibs.html

Since then, I have ground about a dozen nibs successfully. I began on
inexpensive Namiki Vanishing Points (the 14Kt nib inserts can be
purchased for less than $20). Recently, I modified a M Visconto Wall
Street to a smooth cursive italic and a Pelikan M805 from a fine to a
fine italic. Just take your time - remember, it's better to remove
too little tipping material than too much!

Good luck,
Jay


On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 14:37:22 -0400, in alt.collecting.pens-pencils you
wrote:

snip

Is there anyone here who would like to share information on nib grinding?
Thanks!

wrote:
Sonam:

Here is an excellent article that I discovered about a year ago:

Wonderful!

Thank you, Jay. The very last part about "smoothing" the corners is what
I was looking for; I "copied" the nib-master's angles by viewing his under a
strong lens, but this article deals with the final smoothing of the
corners - just what I was looking for!

My only disagreement - though slight - is with his use of a stone. My
experience is that stones - even those cool Japanese ones - are rarely
ground flat enough for something as tiny as a nib - a chisel or knife yes,
but nib no. And they can cut quite fast. My .02 is that modern aluminum
oxide/mylar films provide a better micro-abrasive surface than a stone
followed by crocus, but YMMV!

I use 1/2 inch thick plate glass as a flat surface, it happens to be as
flat as a Starret ground flat lapping surface and is *WAY* cheaper; and I
lay 3M 1-micron (about 14,000 screen grit) mylar lapping film on it. Though
slow to remove material, it leaves a very fine, high-polish surface which
needs no further work.

But that is a great article and resource. Thank you for providing it:
tonight yet another HERO will be my guinea-pig!

--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara

dovekeeper+at+electric-ink+dot+com

You are very welcome! I am glad that I could assist - that's what
this group is all about.

I generally agree with your comments on Arkansas stones. I use them
only to perform a very "rough" grinding (particularly for a nib like a
broad Vanishing Point, which has a LOT of tipping material, IMO), then
swithch to the mylar discs.

Speaking of the discs, have you found a reasonably-priced supplier? I
purchased them online from a pen-dealer and they were quite expensive.

Regards,
Jay

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:38:05 -0400, "Sonam Dasara"
wrote:


Thank you, Jay. The very last part about "smoothing" the corners is what
I was looking for; I "copied" the nib-master's angles by viewing his under a
strong lens, but this article deals with the final smoothing of the
corners - just what I was looking for!

My only disagreement - though slight - is with his use of a stone. My
experience is that stones - even those cool Japanese ones - are rarely
ground flat enough for something as tiny as a nib - a chisel or knife yes,
but nib no. And they can cut quite fast. My .02 is that modern aluminum
oxide/mylar films provide a better micro-abrasive surface than a stone
followed by crocus, but YMMV!

I use 1/2 inch thick plate glass as a flat surface, it happens to be as
flat as a Starret ground flat lapping surface and is *WAY* cheaper; and I
lay 3M 1-micron (about 14,000 screen grit) mylar lapping film on it. Though
slow to remove material, it leaves a very fine, high-polish surface which
needs no further work.

But that is a great article and resource. Thank you for providing it:
tonight yet another HERO will be my guinea-pig!

wrote:

Speaking of the discs, have you found a reasonably-priced supplier?
I purchased them online from a pen-dealer and they were quite
expensive.

Yes. But micro-abrasives are expensive no matter. Discs are the most
expensive since they are die-cut for a polishing machine. Half-sheets are
the most reasonable, I pay about $1 each.

The suppliers I use sell in lots of 100, and I can give you one or two
sheets if you want 1-micron on 3-mil mylar; If you want more, there is a guy
on one of my amateur machinist groups who is selling 50 small sheets for +/-
$15.

Email me (the address under my name - not the munged one in reply-to)
for details.

--
Cordially,

Sonam Dasara

dovekeeper+at+electric-ink+dot+com

"Sonam Dasara" wrote in message ...
wrote:
Sonam:

Here is an excellent article that I discovered about a year ago:

Wonderful!

Thank you, Jay. The very last part about "smoothing" the corners is what
I was looking for; I "copied" the nib-master's angles by viewing his under a
strong lens, but this article deals with the final smoothing of the
corners - just what I was looking for!

My only disagreement - though slight - is with his use of a stone. My
experience is that stones - even those cool Japanese ones - are rarely
ground flat enough for something as tiny as a nib - a chisel or knife yes,
but nib no. And they can cut quite fast. My .02 is that modern aluminum
oxide/mylar films provide a better micro-abrasive surface than a stone
followed by crocus, but YMMV!

I use 1/2 inch thick plate glass as a flat surface, it happens to be as
flat as a Starret ground flat lapping surface and is *WAY* cheaper; and I
lay 3M 1-micron (about 14,000 screen grit) mylar lapping film on it. Though
slow to remove material, it leaves a very fine, high-polish surface which
needs no further work.

But that is a great article and resource. Thank you for providing it:
tonight yet another HERO will be my guinea-pig!


Hi Sonam. Instead of an Arkansas Stone, you could try one of those
stones which are used to make traditional japanese ink. Some are made
of plastic, but the real ones are made of a black mineral (nachiguro
if I remember well) which may be what you are looking for. The
grinding stone has a "slope" carved where you put some water and then
rub a solid bar of ink.

I tried it during the 2002 Spain's Open Go Championship, where there
was a workshop about japanese caligraphy; it took me 20 minutes to
make ink for a couple of kanjis. Then, when the workshop was finished
I asked the master caligrapher (4 dan) to write (draw?) some kanjis
for me and she took a bottle of ink!!. I asked her whether she wasn't
going to make the ink. She said: no, it's just that you were learning.
I was like thinking... who are you Mr Miyagi doing the polish wax
thing again??

Somehow it was funny. At least I have those kanjis hanging from my
bedroom wall

Juan

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:38:05 -0400, "Sonam Dasara"
wrote:

My only disagreement - though slight - is with his use of a stone. My
experience is that stones - even those cool Japanese ones - are rarely
ground flat enough for something as tiny as a nib - a chisel or knife yes,
but nib no. And they can cut quite fast. My .02 is that modern aluminum
oxide/mylar films provide a better micro-abrasive surface than a stone
followed by crocus, but YMMV!

I use 1/2 inch thick plate glass as a flat surface, it happens to be as
flat as a Starret ground flat lapping surface and is *WAY* cheaper; and I
lay 3M 1-micron (about 14,000 screen grit) mylar lapping film on it. Though
slow to remove material, it leaves a very fine, high-polish surface which
needs no further work.

You can flatten most stones by lapping them with wet-dry silicon
carbide paper on a flat surface (table saw, flat lapping surface, flat
plane of glass). This is even recommended for woodworking
applications, so you don't end up rounding off chisel or plane blades.
IIRC, arkansas stones can be flattened with a series of wet-dry paper
ending up at about 1200 grit.

Pat

Since some of you seem very knowledgeable about stones, I
thought I'd bring this up.

I've got a couple of antique stones for honing straight
razors. The surfaces are so smooth to the touch, it used to
amaze me that they actually worked.

Would these be suitable for fine nib work? While it's been
years since I've used a straight razor, I'd hate to ruin the
stones for their original purpose.

TIA,
Mark Z.

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:30:42 -0500, Patrick Lamb
wrote:

You can flatten most stones by lapping them with wet-dry silicon
carbide paper on a flat surface

Whilst this is true, I don;t think you can _maintain_ some stones
(particularly Japanese waterstones) flat enough afterwards. The bond
between the grains is very soft and any attempt to run a narrow tool
like a nib over them will wear a groove almost instantly - even the
hard waterstones.
--
Smert' spamionam

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:10:30 -0700, mz
wrote:

Would these be suitable for fine nib work? While it's been
years since I've used a straight razor, I'd hate to ruin the
stones for their original purpose.

Which also brings up the traditional honing strap/razor strop used for
straight edge razors. Doubt you could do much with the leather side,
but the other side is a pretty flat abrasive (and was the more feared
side in other applications).

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...