|
|
With time and effort, and these kits, you can smooth your own nibs. Nib smoothing isn’t for everyone, but if you want to try it, you need very fine abrasives. The films in our kits are used in the fiber-optics industry to flatten and smooth the ends of cables so that light can pass unimpeded from one cable to the next. They’re smooth! I use these films, and I consider them to be the very best product available for smoothing nibs.
The Basic Kit includes two 0.003" (0.08 mm) Mylar sheets approximately 6"×9" (150 mm×225 mm) in size. The colored sheet has 1.0-micron aluminum oxide abrasive, and the white sheet has 0.3 micron. Also included is a piece of 0.002" (0.05 mm) sheet brass about 1" (25 mm) square, for flossing nib slits and the ink fissures in feeds. The vintage Sheaffer school pen shown in the photo is not included!
The Student Kit includes the Basic Kit as described above and adds two Autopoint “Big Cat” pens for you to practice with. These inexpensive cartridge/converter pens are 57/32" capped and 611/32" posted, and they’re surprisingly nice pens. They were made in Germany and have high-quality Mutschler steel nibs. (You might actually have to rough them up a little before learning to smooth them.) The photo here shows a blue pen; the kit contains one blue and one black pen. Each pen includes one cartridge and can also accept a standard International converter (not included).
I do not tune or adjust these pens as I do with our regular new pens! These are for you to tune, and they are virgin pens. If you’re good at this, you might end up carrying one of these pens for knockabout use; they’re that good.
These kits do not include instructions for their use. We cannot accept liability for any damage you may do to your nibs using these materials. Use them at your own risk!
We are not able to offer a consulting service or a course in nib smoothing. You can find basic instructions for nib smoothing in Frank Dubiel’s book FOUNTAIN PENS THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO REPAIR AND RESTORATION. and there is also a very useful article on the Web, Nib Grinding Experiences, by Wim Geeraets.
I recommend starting with inexpensive pens such as the Big Cat that we include in our Student Kit. Esterbrook 9000-series nibs are also good to learn on.
Untipped steel nibs, like Esterbrook 1000- or 2000-series nibs or the cheap nibs found on many third-tier vintage pens, are less useful as teaching aids because their tips are so soft that you will not learn from them how to work on tipped nibs. (Note: vintage nibs marked DURIUM TIPPED are actually untipped. Chinese-made IRIDIUM POINT GERMANY nibs may or may not be tipped.)
| Basic Kit: $8.00 (Add to shopping basket) | Student Kit: $15.00 (Add to shopping basket) |
| © 2008 Richard F. Binder | Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
http://www.richardspens.com/
|