HOW TO: Fountain Pen Nib Tune & DIY Nib Grind 

Good to hear you enjoy eating your mango chutney 😁

@@Doodlebud who doesn't like mango chutney 😊

Thx for the tip

Good tip

Rarely they are too wet. I've found it pretty common for nibs to run a bit dry

And never ending!

Glad that you're enjoying the pen 😊. You put a bunch of work into the VPC so it's a small thank you for your efforts

@@Doodlebud Aww, thanks so much for that (and a great new pen for me to write with 😊!)

Good to hear 👍 Glad it helped

Hey that's excellent news! That's why I made this video. Glad it was able to help 👍😁

I love the stacked lights on those GTO models

Glad you enjoyed it

Great to hear your pen is writing wonderfully

Glad you liked it, hopefully it helps someone with a nib one day

Yup takes a bit of practice & patience

I find for smoothing out a nib the micromesh pads are a bit more forgiving

@@Doodlebud I agree with Doodlebud. Micromesh is the only material I use for smoothing nibs!

Me too

I don't mind doing a nib here or there but don't know if I'm cut out to do batches

Knives & nibs are quite different. I use my stones for my knives & razors but a rotary system for nibs is far superior. It allows for more precise control & more difficult grinds. Reducing medium nib point to an XF for example is tricky with a rotary setup but extremely difficult just using stones. Basic nib grinds are ok on stones but rotary is much better.

@@Doodlebud ...apparently we have very similar taste in pens. I too prefer substantial weight with good girth and very fine nib, thus my modern cobalt blue steel PFM with XF - but I haven't attempted grinding from a wider to XF, only the other way to italic or stub. I especially enjoy an F italic these days and have a custom Binder on a Nuetenno Skipper as the second of my top 3. The stones are much more forgiving 😉 Just discovered your site (been on hiatus for a few years) so have some catch-up to get accomplished. I'm an artist rather than engineer but sure do appreciate you nerding out on the technical details. Your content is awesome!

Ahhhh yes, who doesn't love a good restaurant joke!

If anything, I think this video will leave nibmeisters comfortable knowing their jobs are secure 😆. Will be doing a video shortly about the ensso

@@Doodlebud Any reported/defined date when their kickstarter will launch? i been looking the past couple days? Will your video come out before or at the kickstarter launch? How much can you say time wise? God bless!

Professional work is especially important with gold nibs! I have been using FP's for over 60 years, and I smooth nibs, but never will I try a DIY italic conversion.

It's something I enjoy doing here & there, but don't think I'd like doing daily.

Absolutely, will be great to see everyone again

Thanks for watching!

Have only done one architect grind so far. Will have to do a few more before I post a how to vid

Yup, many ways to adjust nibs. The best way is the way that works for you 👍

LOL I've heard that a few times. Guess we have similar engineering thinking or something. I take it as a compliment 😂

Just ensure on the diamond stones that they have are the correct grit. They also remove material very fast compared to other abrasives so be mindful of that. I did my MB 149 with this setup & it worked great. But yes, check continuously & leave tipping material in place.

@@Doodlebud Thanks DB. The guy who loaned me the sharpening stones mentioned that the grits/grades of the diamond stones don't correspond to those of wet/dry sandpaper or micromesh, but I don't have a sense of how they differ. Presumably silicon carbide and aluminium oxide stones also differ. Based on your advice I should probably start with the finer stones, then work my way back to the coarser ones, then back to the finer ones. For the moment, I'm enjoying the behaviour of the Pilot's nib in its stock state.

Glad it sorta worked out 😆. Keep trying & playing around and you'll get exactly what you're looking for

@@Doodlebud the oblique happened because I didn’t bother to check the nib alignment. On the next two Jinhaos I got nice crisp stubs. Then I ground a fine Pilot Metro to a super fine stub. Almost like a needlepoint. Love it.

@@Doodlebud So I ground about three or four Jinhaos. Then I moved on to a Pilot Metropolitan. Then a Delta I never used. All success stories. Turned them into crisp stubs, my fav nib. Emboldened, I moved on to my Pelikan M805's Italic Broad nib. I bought the pen with a lovely F nib--smooth, just great. A bit of spring. The IB, by contrast, is flawed. It is too broad for the feed. It's about a 1.5 mm. When it works, it's too wet. Or it hard starts or skips. And the line variation isn't great. I ground it into roughly a 1.2 mm stub. It's so much better. I took a chance and it worked. Again, thanks, Doodlebud. Now the nib size seems better suited to the feed. Sure, it's a bit wet (I like my nibs and feeds dry) but now the flow is reliable.

Thanks

🤘😈

I have a full playlist of nib tuning and adjusting vids. Give those a look and that should help guide you to finding the problem

🤓

​@@Doodlebud I'm thinking of trying this myself now but I have a question. After the initial shaping on the 1000 grit stone, why do you polish on the 4000 grit whet stone instead of the lower grit micromesh? (I'm assuming whet stone and micro mesh grits are not the same)

Hmmm, it must really need to be opened up. I've also done it just by removing the nib from the housing and grabbing the sides and opening up. It depends on the nib and how much its off. Some can really be a battle to work with. I've also used my shims (feeler gauges) to open the tines as well. But again, this needs to be something someone is comfortable doing. If you think you're going to do more harm than good, best thing to stop.

@@Doodlebud yeah that’s what I was worried about doing more harm than good. So I put them down several months back. I’m considering picking it back up and working on it myself or sending it to someone and just getting it professionally done. It is a Bach I don’t know if I want to mess with it too much. Period. I do have two of them so maybe the one that’s bent already I could mess with and see if I can get anywhere again with that particular nib. It feels particularly hard to work with. That is at least how I feel about it. Or felt about it at the time. I’ve been going through a lot of medical issues so it could be that I wasn’t in the right state of mind to deal with it at that time either. Either way thanks for the response and your replies. Cheers

I did the full review of the pen just before this vid so the full disassembly (including nib removal) is there if you like

@@Doodlebud Oh, okay. I will look that vid up. Thank you. I am very interested to see that process.

Haven't done it yet

Which devices are you referring to?

@@Doodlebud I’m guessing he means the feeler gauge. Yes where do you find one, it looks automotive.

0.004" is way to thick. I hear you on trying to use it, can always give it a try, but I would pick up some brass shims or feeler gauges and use those. They will be a tool you'll use for a long time and are very affordable.

Yeah just give them a wipe

Don't oil the feed, it will make your fountain pen illegible.. if you have oiled the feeder by mistake, make cloth detergent warm water diluted mixture, I use Ariel detergent for cleaning the feeder which skips really bad. Don't use hot water as it can damage your feeder. Leave the feeder overnight and after 24 hours, clean the feeder under tap water with soft brush, I use Sensodyne soft Toothbrush and gently clean the feeder. Then pat it dry and leave for another 12 hours to dry naturally. Don't use hair dryer to dry in a hurry as the feeder component might melt. BEWARE.

Guess its personal preference. But my rational is to get the pen properly aligned and tuned & flowing first then grind. If those are out to begin with and you have to adjust afterwards, it can mess up your grind and will need more work. So far I haven't had to adjust a nib after I grind when doing it this way. Ensuing tine gap is key before grinding because this regulars ink flow. I test out the nib as I go to see how its looking & feeling, and if it doesn't have proper ink flow this will throw off my assessment of the nib and I could end up grinding it wrong to compensate for a poor flowing nib.

A quick good search and you'll find lots on the topic. www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/s/sNJIn3ddvC

Like a cross between AvE and Elementalmaker

I purchased those items here at local stores. But a quick google search and they are readily available in many places.

LOL, I couldn't resist myself with this one 😆. Yup, I sharpen knives & rasors with them and one day thought "Hey, I bet I could grind a nib with these." I find they work pretty well then just smooth out the nib on the micromesh pads. Love your videos btw 👍

@@Doodlebud 'Just The Tip' ?!?!!! Really? That one goes right along with 'I'll go slow & keep everything under control.' And the next thing you know, you've been screwed!

Tough to say without getting a bunch more info, but give this video a look. Might help you out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Yo6vefMOkwI.html

Just to be clear I don't do grinds for other people or sell ground nibs. I did a giveaway where I ground a bunch of nibs for fun. For those I just used a Jinhao #6 style nib as it is low cost, reasonable quality, & fits a wide range of pens. The nibs I simply bought on Aliexpress

@@Doodlebud I’m sorry. Yes, you are right of course. I should’ve been clearer. I do understand you do not work on nibs for most people and you do not do this as a job. Absolutely.I meant for the people you have, let’s say, gifted a nib grind of yours and they give away, etc. OK, that’s great. Thank you so much. I was wondering about Jinhao nibs. I tend to “think” that they’re pretty good nibs myself. Because I’m not an expert, and I don’t really know what, “great” nibs are, I wasn’t sure if my thoughts on this had any merit. I guess for my limited exposure to pen nibs, I wasn’t too bad of a judge on that. Awesome. AliExpress. That’s cool. I just recently bought my Jinhao X159’s from there. I’m fairly new to that sight, but I’m glad to find out from you that they sell nibs and nibs units separately. Thanks so much again for everything you do I often rewatch many of your videos just because I love fountain pens so much. And it may sounds kind of weird but it’s a kind of comforting to just put your videos on and watch them in a playlist. But I guess it’s like with em anything we enjoy, we want to be around it or talk about or listen to someone sense talk about it! Lol. Thanks again, for your info and insight. It is always much appreciated. Cheers

No reason to apologize LOL. I just mentioned it as I get numerous emails asking me ot grind nibs or restore pens. The Jinhao nibs are great for practicing with but nib point size selection is limited. Good to hear you're finding my vids helpful & hope your nib tuning/grinding goes well

I did a video on some accessories & have a link to it in the description ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9FJbGjlaajM.html

@@Doodlebud Thanks again!

Yeah give it a cleaning, don't want to get oil on your nib and/or feed

@@Doodlebud Thank you

For sandpaper, I just go to a local tool store which has an autobody section with paper up to 2000 grit. However, I don't really use sandpaper for my nibs. The micromesh pads can be found online in many places, I got mine at a local store called Lee Valley Tools. For the stones, again many options. I bought one from a store locally called House Of Knives, one from Lee Valley Tools, and also online from an online retailer called Chefs Knifes To Go.

@@Doodlebud awesome thank you, I couldn't think of the name of the micromesh, as I did not feel like using just normal sandpaper

I did to my MB 149, but never recorded it. Also my Lamy Dialog 3 14K EF to an architect EF, but also didn't record it 😕

These are whetstones that I use so just lubricate with water. I also sometimes just leave the pen inked as its water based. So water on the stones and some ink will come out the pen too

@@Doodlebud Thanks. And thanks for your great channel. Just discovered it, after taking a break of a few years from pen review sites.

Hope you get something out of my vids 👍

I have links in the description

If I'm not filming anything it would only be about 15min now. My first nibs took longer of course. And if it's a gold nib I go slower to really keep an eye on ensuring I leave tipping material in place

They're all snowflakes ❄️

"When you've seen one nib, you've seen one nib." That is clever and accurate. With your permission I'd like to appropriate that insight.

LOL, I didn't know about him until a year ago or so when someone said I sound like AvE. Great channel!

😉

Did this with a couple gold nibs & turned out great. Did it on my MB 149 & now its a wonderful writing Fine CI nib. Only removed tipping material to reshape it & left enough in place for writing. If someone doesn't have the hand skills to do it, then definitely stay away from gold nibs.