Just did this on a Mont Blanc that I think someone had tried to grind the nub on with a grinding wheel!!! I could see how bad the nib was with a lens. This worked an absolute treat!!!! Thanks sbrebrown.
And another happy watcher - fixed my Montegrappa with the help of nail files and buffing boards and LOVE the result now. Many thanks for the encouragement - I wouldn't have done it myself without this video and the positive results in the comments. ;-)
I got a Lamy Medium Nib few weeks ago because the fine that came with the pen was too fine for what I like. So what I found is, the nib was a little bit scratchy on the right stroke. I modified,and over modified the nib and that was what I got, a baby's bottom. It became a lot smoother but skipped a lot. I followed what you did in the video with a 7000（I don't know what that unit is in english） sandpaper, and it works pretty well now. The only thing is that it writes broader than when I received it. But I love it. It's a really helpful video. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks a lot for doing this video. It helped me fix an Edison medium nib for me. I don't know if I am unable to find it or if it does not exist but, I would love to see a video on fixing weird tine misalignment. V or inverted v shape and lateral tine overlap.
you've given a forewarning a during warning and an after warning, if they still complain still then there is no hope. Thanks for the demo, keep up the good work
Very well done video and I must admire you for doing this with such a high end pen. Truthfully though, I think a problem like this should be fixed by the manufacturer, at no charge. I would consider this a defective product. The same as if I had a computer or a lawn mower that did not start properly.
I've had this problem on a few pens but I think I'd get pretty bent out of shape if it happened on an (overly?) expensive Montblanc. I was peeved enough when I discovered it on my Visconti Rembrandt. It is in one sense an irreparable flaw because the remedy will alter the geometry of a round tip. This isn't a problem for me because I reprofile all my nibs to cursive or stub italic anyway, but your advise to take things slowly is very important. A nib specified as 'M' will very quickly lay down a 'B' or 'BB' line otherwise.
awesome.... I had a waterman that was too fine and I turned it into a 2 broad. Your videos helped me smooth it out and now I have another great pen that is smooth and juicy!
Another very well done video, Stephen, thanks. It's especially good that you warn about overdoing the process to avoid eating up too much of the tipping material. I'm wondering whether the horizontal figure-of-eight strokes don't actually exacerbate the problem, though, since the tine tip leading into the lateral stroke gets flexed, leaving the inner edge of the other tine tip to actually contact the grit surface and become rounded. I would think restricting the process to vertical strokes might be better, followed by smoothing on a very fine micromesh. I'm interested in your take on that.
Excellent as always, shame it is even necessary in this day and age to have to include disclaimers, but I completely get why. Trash your nib? Tough. Fix your nib? Boom shackalacka.
I've watched a few videos and tutorials over there and I must say that YOU helped me fix my beautiful sheaffer pen :) it has baby bottom he hee thanks for those great videos!
What brand loupe is that? it has the clearest and most even picture I've ever seen. Mine has a very narrow range of vision. It's a triplet loupe, but yours is like whoa...
I'm like 20ish pens into collecting and have never seen a nib problem that isn't this one. There's lots of instructions about other stuff that can go wrong with nibs but it never seems to, it's always this. Did stuff change that much in 9 years?
Hmmmm...looks pretty aggressive to me. The coarsest micromesh grit is 1500 and that will remove a lot of material quickly. I think I would have started with one of the medium grits (probably 3600). Also, I notice that you didn't check your work with a loupe during the process. That is something I always do. I have had good success using a ceramic knife sharpening rod for this kind of stuff using very little pressure and checking often with a loupe as I work to see what is going on.
I don't take half measures :-). Seriously though: this was a fairly bad case. Your advice makes sense: maybe start with a lower grit and definitely check the results often.
Hey Stephen, love the videos! Keep them coming. One quick question, you referenced two books in a video about everything to know about fountain pens, I can't remember the names of them, nor the video you should them?
I have just bought a used MontBlanc 149. I have used a couple of inks and for the first line, there is no ink. The tip look like a baby bottom....but is it possible it's something else?
sbrebrown Call me crazy, but I took the risk of your solution, but only with finer pads (4000, 6000, 8000 and 12000)...and very smoothly. It now works perfectly.
Just a note for new users, sometimes your new nib/pen will skip and the problems is much simpler to deal with. There may protective oil residue on the tip, which prevents the ink from flowing. All you do is grab a lighter and move the nib over the flame for just split of a second. The quickest move is enough to burn the oil and suddenly, the ink flows beautifully.
Or flush the pen with soapy water. A bit or rubbing alcohol on the nib will also degrease it. - careful, some alcohols can dissolve plastics; not good for your feed. I think your solution is more appropriate for dip pen nibs. Some people use saliva.
Hi Steven! Do you know if this problem happens in 1.1 mm? I am having a very similar issue with my Kaweco 1.1 mm, hard starts and skipping. But also, I feel the tines open too easily, so I can't really press to make it write (I have a TWSBI and an Italix stubs and they are pretty rigid) I will give this technique a try!
Enjoy your videos very much. I purchased a pen. It skipped on the downstroke when I first used it a few days ago. After writing with it a few times, the skipping problem seems to go away on its own. It still skips once awhile but definitely not as severe. Has that happened to your pens? Thanks,
Hello. Did you empty the pen before rubbing? Because I see no ink on the pads but then when you try it on the paper it actually writes. Thanks for the tutorial, BTW. Great job.
I bought an Italix Churchman's Prescriptor with an italic broad nib like yours, and it doesn't look to ME like baby's bottom, although I am very inexperienced in examining nibs. It writes every time, but it only writes from the middle of the nib tip and not the edges. If I keep writing, the ink flow will slowly spread along the width of the nib tip, but then the problem starts over again when I start a new line. Have you ever seen anything like that?
I am an ardent viewer of your channel. Want to ask you a bit of a strange question on the micro pads which has no connect with your topic here. I ask because I see few katanas on your wall. I am an avid collector of knives, pens and watches. Do these micro mesh helps stropping knives too? Apologies beforehand if I have asked a question not fit for your topic here.
Any experience of 'singing' nibs Stephen. I have a lovely conway stewart 27 that's flexy and smooth but so noisy I don't use it at work. Be great to turn the volume down a bit!
You mentioned sending more expensive pens to a nibmeister, but do you happen to know where one could find one in Europe? Also, great video and great channel, I'm an avid follower. :)
Serpent@Eden I have heard very good things about John Sorowka in the UK, but I have not personally dealt with him; Mr Sorowka does not have a website, but he is “oxonian” on the fountain pen network, so you can reach him there.
I think my P45 has baby's bum. Will address this after chaos of move. By then I'll have a loupe and smoothing stuff. Thanks for the how to. Whoever invented the term "baby's bottom"? Very description, also weird.
Probably the same person who invented the term "ass-burn". A condition a hospital patient gets from sitting on a toilet seat that has been cleaned with an overly strong dilution of a cleaning soluction.
sbrebrown Thanks. I've moved and have been practising nib smoothing etc with my cheap Chinese pens. I've discovered the amazing results which can be achieved just by adjusting misaligned tines. This turned a difficult-to-write-with Baoer 388 into one of the nicest pens I have. I've had mixed results with the micromesh. Still not confident enough to touch the Parker 45.
Stephen, have you ever heard of the nibmeister Nobuhiko Moriyama? It's said that he customizes a nib to fit the users writing style, would you know if this is even possible?
Hi, Steve. I recently got a Pelikan M1000, and I'm experiencing some skipping from time to time, but it does not seem to be due to baby's bottoms. It writes very well almost all the time. But, after a few seconds with the nib off the paper, like a stop a little longer between words, the tip of the nib runs out of ink. I mean, when I start writing again, it doesn't write immediately. I have to touch the paper with the tip of the nib for, lets say, one second, in order to re-establish the ink flow and the pen writes again. Looking closely at the tip of the nib, I have noticed that the tines don't touch each other at the very tip. Do you think that this is the cause of the problem?? I'd love if you could tell me something about it. Thank you very very very much, anyway. Bye
sbrebrown Sorry I wrote your name wrong before. Today I got it right due to my visit to the page "About me" at sbrebrown.com. I really appreciate your tip. I'll check this out. Thank you very very much, Stephen.
Definitely! Now I just need to figure out a place where I can find a complete set of micromesh pads locally. Thanks for all the awesome videos, Mr. Brown! Cheers!
Micro mesh grits are different from stone and sand paper grits. A 12000 micro mesh is not anywhere close to a 12000 water or oil stone. If I remember correctly Micro mesh's 1500 is the same as a 400 grit.
So cheap pens work fine, but when i want to buy a nice expensive pen, it doesn't work and I need to spend hours of time researching and do all this work just to get the damn thing to write. Makes sense....NOT
...I don't suppose it's good to have ink get stuck in a baby bottom's buttcrack. Thank goodness you didn't use some kind of brown ink for the demo, too. It, uh...it just wouldn't look right. x_x :P
Ewwww...or what about some mustard-y, olive-y brown ink? Like Noodler's "Rome Burning"? Normally, I like that color. But, uh...not in the context of "baby bottoms" and how ink gets stuck in baby's buttcrack. :P
No kidding! But, uh...I think this is what we get when we talk about "baby bottoms" and stuff getting stuck in something's crack. :P All of this is also reminding me of how I feel about Starbucks's pumpkin spice latte. Short answer: I don't like it. Yet every year, I do try buying one anyway, just to see if I might like it any better this time around. I drink it, hope I actually like it...and I don't like it after all...but I drink it anyway. Then I pop the top off and take a picture of the dregs of my latte because it has an orange-y brown "baby made a poo poo" look to it and post it to Facebook.... Uh...yeah. I'm an odd one, all right. XD
What the hell are you talking about baby's bottoms on a nib? Forgive me for being a newbie but you should use language that's not too much for insiders.
How can you use anything other than the proper term if you don't want the title of the video to turn into a novella? Terms exist for a reason, you know.
