Thank you Troy. I bought the sandpaper set, then the rubbery 12,000 sheet and the white and yellow mylar. My first attempt was a $2 fine nibbed pen that I tried with a fine automotive sand paper (I don't recall the #) and ended up turning it into a broad with no tip lol. I wish I had seen this video first! It was a mess! But with the correct tools I smoothed out a nice 1949 Sheaffer open nib that started out like a sharp nail. Since that was also my first full restore on a pen, the nib work was icing on the cake. I will treasure that pen!
It is definitely smart to start out with cheap pens so mistakes are not so costly. I have found that I can make almost any pen nib smooth with some patience and experience.
This a great overview of how to get a smooth nib. Thanks alot Troy, for a fantastic pen-tuning video. By following your advice, I have saved quite abit of money by not sending my cheaper nibs to nibmeisters for expensive tuning along with buying a bunch of rather expensive stuff (that you have pointed out) that is not really needed or necessary for tuning. Great video and once again, Thanks a bunch!
I am glad that this has been helpful to you. I had learned a bit on my own by watching videos from others and refined it somewhat with the short class from Richard Binder. I learned a few time and money savings things that I wanted to pass along to others, so it is good to get the feedback that this has been helpful to you. I still use these same techniques on my own pens with generally great success...except this last time when I was trying to smooth out an old Esterbrook nib on which about all of the tipping material was already worn off. You can't do much when that happens except maybe grind it into a stub, which I am not yet equipped to do. I have the tools, just not the knowledge, but I have to start somewhere.
Thanks so much for such a quick response. I thoroughly enjoy your videos, and I also enjoy when you have Matthew with you. What a tremendous opportunity to influence future generations in this awesome art,as well as others through your spirit of giving to others (as you are doing). I also admire your service for the Lord. Thanks again!
I use micromesh, starting from around 4000 and ending at around 8000. I find the 12000 is way too fine for what I like. I have had a lot of good results including a Visconti Homo Sapiens with baby bottoms and hard starts to old antique nibs from the 20's. The key is to work slow and check frequently. Nice video and some good advice/ideas. Cheers
I used to use just micromesh, as well. I started around 2000 for really difficult nibs that were like needle points and worked my way finer, ending around the 8000 grit. Once I learned about the automotive grade wet/dry sandpaper trick, I have stuck with that since it works a lot faster and better than micromesh alone, in my opinion. The buff stick that I showed in the video has 2400, 4000, and 12000 grit micromesh. I finish with the 12000 and don't use the 2400 grit portion at all. Obviously if you already have these grits in micromesh, the buff stick is not necessary, but they are inexpensive and easy to use. Thanks for watching and sharing. I have learned that different people have different methods, often all getting to the same end result. This method has worked for me on everything from Montblanc to vintage pens to Jinhao.
I've been looking forward to this Troy. Thanks for going step by step. I must say I've had very limited success and some failure, because I read a site who said you can find the files that have different steps and use that on your pens, and I had been using that thing and mylar. I'll be going to pick up some of that sandpaper tomorrow and I've already put in an order with Anderson for those micromesh boards. Thanks for the tips!
I figured that step by step was the only real way to do it. One thing that I did not include was to check regularly through a loupe or magnifying glass to ensure that the round ball shape was still there and not flattened out or misshapen, though I did mention it. You can't see me using the magnifying glass with the camera set up I have. Though I was pretty sure that I would be fine with this particular smoothing operation since it was a fairly unused nib, I could have done a better job of conveying that.
I recommend investing in a lcd screen microscope. I had to do some very detailed stone work on a nib that was uneven and not because they were misaligned. A friend of mine had a microscope and I was able to smooth it out. You can find them for less than. 100 bucks in Amazon.
I have one, but I have not had any need for more than a good loupe. I was taught by people who do this for a living and I bought the same loupe that they use every day. I do have a microscope that connects to my computer, but so far I haven't run across the need for anything but a good 10x loupe.
Thanks for the video. I'll try the rotating technique since i was using the 8 figures. It's very hard finding micro mesh so i'm trying using a nail polishing block instead so i have to do it with much more care.
Troy, thanks for the excellent tutorial on nob smoothing. Having decided to get involved in this process, I started looking for supplies, but I cannot seem to locate the Biloma Triplate eye loupe. Do you have a source other than EBay or Amazon where I might locate this item. Do you have another brand that you could recommend? Thanks so much. I always enjoy your videos!
Thank you for watching and for the comments. The Belomo is a nice loupe, but it sometimes has its limitations being only a 10x magnification. I also have a Five Elements Triplet with both a 10x and a 20x magnifier built into either end. The Belomo is easy to hold and carry, which is probably why people like Richard Binder recommend it. So I bought one based upon his recommendation for the class I took, but I have the other one as well. The brand is not important, especially if you are not doing this for a living but only as a hobby. The Belomo is not cheap by comparison, but it is sturdily built and is quality. But others will do the job. I bought both loupes on ebay. ebay is my go to site for most supplies, but not necessarily for ink sacs and supplies like that. ebay is just too expensive for those.
@@allenjeng3506 I was taught to use Mylar paper by the instructor of a class I took, but quite honestly I fail to see the benefit of it. I still use the technique in the video and have good success, so I have stuck with it and don’t use Mylar.
Thank you so much for this, it was very helpful. Just curious, if the pink part of the buffing stick is the same as the 1200 grit, why buy it? Can I just use the pink part instead?
The pink part of the stick is much rougher than the sandpaper and just doesn't work as well. The automotive sandpaper does a much nicer, smoother job. I have tried both and really don't much care for the pink part of the stick. Richard Binder recommended the sandpaper and I have found that he is correct. It just works a lot better. If the pink part of the stick works for you, by all means, use it. I have found that it is worth the extra expense for the sandpaper. I am glad to see that you are interested in tinkering on your own. Enjoy your learning and experimenting.
hi Troy. thank you for your video, its very helpful, i have a MB pen in gold Fine nib, and i have a problem with it, when im writing with that pen, when im going up in my writing, the nib get stocked in the paper, i dont know why, i will try to explain better if im making an O when i go up on the O the nib stucks in the paper, and some time brakes the paper, i trien to align the tip of the nib, i think its aligned but the pen keep doing this again, you think if i use some sand paper it will correct? im farly new to this hobbie, allmost 6 months, and i really like your vids, i like the way you talk to us, like a friend chating with other friend, you use simple words easy to understand, nothing too technical, and for me is great, im from Mexico and English its not my native language, but i really can understand all your vids. keep doing them, im your fan and i love when your kid goes into the videos . thankyou PD. sorry for my poor english,
Your English is better than many native to my local area, so you are doing fine. After thirty years of not speaking French, I don't think that I could have a good written conversation much less a spoken one, so I can appreciate that you are doing well in English. What you are experiencing sounds a lot to me like a tine alignment issue. If you can get a good magnifying glass and look at the tip of your nib, you may be able to see if one is sitting lower than the other, probably the one opposite the side of the tear. If a nib has that sort of issue, it can make things scratchy for writing or even do exactly what you are seeing, dig into and tear the paper. I have seen it myself on some pens. Then again, I also had one Esterbrook nib that was just plain like writing with a needle and tore paper. Smoothing took it down a little bit, but it was never perfect. Keep in mind that a Montblanc is an expensive pen and any smoothing, if not done correctly, can really be costly. Tine alignment done properly may be helpful. You can bend them slightly without hurting the pen just using your fingernails. Matt Armstrong (The Pen Habit) and SBREBrown both have videos on the topic of tine alignment and I know that Matt covers smoothing as well, since I first saw his videos on the subject and got the idea that I could actually do this. If you are comfortable with the idea that the two tines are properly lined up with one another, you can think about some smoothing to take the edge off the sharpness, but I wouldn't touch any micromesh or sandpaper until you are absolutely certain that alignment is not an issue. Obviously since I am not there to look at your pen, I can only go by my experiences thus far, but this would be my first bit of advice. Thank you so much for your kind words and for watching my little video channel. Sometimes I am amazed that anyone would want to watch my horrible videos.
Thank you, Troy, for a very interesting video. I am sure this will be of great help to me and others like me. Can I ask a couple of questions? Does your technique differ if the nib is fine, extra fine, medium or broad? Also, is the process the same for steel nibs, gold nibs and even titanium nibs? I appreciate first timers don't want to practice on a gold nib. Perhaps the softness/hardness of the metal used for the nib is irrelevant as you are just smoothing the iridium tipping material. As you can tell, I don't really know what I'm talking about but I would appreciate your views. I was smoothing a Duke 209 just today and noticed an improvement, and I'm just starting out. Cheers, Troy. Great video!
Good questions, David. The technique is going to be pretty much the same regardless of the nib material. As you said, there is a welded tipping material on the end of most nibs and that is generally what gets smoothed out. As to the size of the nib, the technique will again be the same. Keep in mind that you may want to use the loupe/magnifying glass to check on the tipping material. The idea is to keep it mostly in the round, like a little ball, though even a flat spot on the writing pad itself is also normal. You will probably take less time to smooth a fine or extra fine nib, since there is less surface area. Still, to me, fine nibs will write scratchier than medium nibs in my experience, so I may be prone to over smoothing them, which is why you should check with them magnifier and check writing often. I did not do that in this video since I knew that I had a new-ish medium nib that just needed a little smoothing and was confident that it would be fine by the end of the video, and it was. I have used the exact same technique on oversized gold nibs like the Montblanc 149 and on fine nibs like on a couple of my vintage pens. I have also used the same methodology on many Chinese steel nibs, fine and medium alike. If you have seen progress as a relative newbie to smoothing, that is a great sign. There a few more things that I could have covered in the video, but I did not want to make it any longer than I already did and did not want to make a part 2. The basics are there, and I am just hoping that I have imparted enough of the basics to get people to try it and learn on their own through experience. That is pretty much what I did at first. I played with it, found some good results, and kept at it. I did not take any workshops at first. The workshop only added to my knowledge and technique as well as confidence. Even after the seminar I took, I was still reticent to try on higher end pens until I figured that I spent time and money on the seminar and had some good success on cheaper pens, so why not just break bad and try it. That paid off for me, so I keep going and getting better and faster at it.
Thanks Troy - I picked up some very useful ideas from this video! I've done just a little bit of nib smoothing on a Jinhao 992 and on 599 (successfully) but I am really happy to have these tips - I'm going to be getting some of that 2000 grit auto sand paper!!!! Are those buff sticks available everywhere or just specialty places? Are they the ones you see in the dollar stores?
Yup, those buff sticks are micromesh on a stick and are well worth the nominal cost. The nail/emory/file boards are going to be way too rough for your pen. What I do use them for, though, is to sand down the peg where an ink sac gets cemented onto the section. When taking off the crusty crud there is often some rough residue and the nail file board helps get the peg smooth to get a good cemented seal.
So you're saying don't use sandpaper, use sandpaper? Micromesh is sandpaper. If you couldn't get the job done with grits that are consistent and marked out between 3200 - 12000, dont see how using 2000 grit and some unknown sanding stick grit would do any better or worse.
I am saying to use the right abrasive for the job. Obviously there are different kinds of sandpaper and abrasives meant for different applications. I am using what people who do this for a living taught me and it works very well for me. Take it or leave it, you do you.
Thank you Troy. I bought the sandpaper set, then the rubbery 12,000 sheet and the white and yellow mylar.
My first attempt was a $2 fine nibbed pen that I tried with a fine automotive sand paper (I don't recall the #) and ended up turning it into a broad with no tip lol. I wish I had seen this video first! It was a mess! But with the correct tools I smoothed out a nice 1949 Sheaffer open nib that started out like a sharp nail. Since that was also my first full restore on a pen, the nib work was icing on the cake. I will treasure that pen!
It is definitely smart to start out with cheap pens so mistakes are not so costly. I have found that I can make almost any pen nib smooth with some patience and experience.
This a great overview of how to get a smooth nib. Thanks alot Troy, for a fantastic pen-tuning video. By following your advice, I have saved quite abit of money by not sending my cheaper nibs to nibmeisters for expensive tuning along with buying a bunch of rather expensive stuff (that you have pointed out) that is not really needed or necessary for tuning. Great video and once again, Thanks a bunch!
I am glad that this has been helpful to you. I had learned a bit on my own by watching videos from others and refined it somewhat with the short class from Richard Binder. I learned a few time and money savings things that I wanted to pass along to others, so it is good to get the feedback that this has been helpful to you. I still use these same techniques on my own pens with generally great success...except this last time when I was trying to smooth out an old Esterbrook nib on which about all of the tipping material was already worn off. You can't do much when that happens except maybe grind it into a stub, which I am not yet equipped to do. I have the tools, just not the knowledge, but I have to start somewhere.
Thanks, Troy, this helps! I've got a couple of vintage pens that don't write worth a hoot. Gonna give it a try.
Thanks so much for such a quick response. I thoroughly enjoy your videos, and I also enjoy when you have Matthew with you. What a tremendous opportunity to influence future generations in this awesome art,as well as others through your spirit of giving to others (as you are doing). I also admire your service for the Lord. Thanks again!
Extremely informative; very, very useful video. Thanks Troy.
Great job,Troy. I'm sure will be many who will appreciate this information. Thanks. 🌈🌈
Thank you for the kind words and for watching.
I use micromesh, starting from around 4000 and ending at around 8000. I find the 12000 is way too fine for what I like. I have had a lot of good results including a Visconti Homo Sapiens with baby bottoms and hard starts to old antique nibs from the 20's. The key is to work slow and check frequently. Nice video and some good advice/ideas. Cheers
I used to use just micromesh, as well. I started around 2000 for really difficult nibs that were like needle points and worked my way finer, ending around the 8000 grit. Once I learned about the automotive grade wet/dry sandpaper trick, I have stuck with that since it works a lot faster and better than micromesh alone, in my opinion. The buff stick that I showed in the video has 2400, 4000, and 12000 grit micromesh. I finish with the 12000 and don't use the 2400 grit portion at all. Obviously if you already have these grits in micromesh, the buff stick is not necessary, but they are inexpensive and easy to use. Thanks for watching and sharing. I have learned that different people have different methods, often all getting to the same end result. This method has worked for me on everything from Montblanc to vintage pens to Jinhao.
I've been looking forward to this Troy. Thanks for going step by step. I must say I've had very limited success and some failure, because I read a site who said you can find the files that have different steps and use that on your pens, and I had been using that thing and mylar. I'll be going to pick up some of that sandpaper tomorrow and I've already put in an order with Anderson for those micromesh boards. Thanks for the tips!
I figured that step by step was the only real way to do it. One thing that I did not include was to check regularly through a loupe or magnifying glass to ensure that the round ball shape was still there and not flattened out or misshapen, though I did mention it. You can't see me using the magnifying glass with the camera set up I have. Though I was pretty sure that I would be fine with this particular smoothing operation since it was a fairly unused nib, I could have done a better job of conveying that.
I recommend investing in a lcd screen microscope. I had to do some very detailed stone work on a nib that was uneven and not because they were misaligned. A friend of mine had a microscope and I was able to smooth it out. You can find them for less than. 100 bucks in Amazon.
I have one, but I have not had any need for more than a good loupe. I was taught by people who do this for a living and I bought the same loupe that they use every day. I do have a microscope that connects to my computer, but so far I haven't run across the need for anything but a good 10x loupe.
Thanks for the video. I'll try the rotating technique since i was using the 8 figures. It's very hard finding micro mesh so i'm trying using a nail polishing block instead so i have to do it with much more care.
Troy, thanks for the excellent tutorial on nob smoothing. Having decided to get involved in this process, I started looking for supplies, but I cannot seem to locate the Biloma Triplate eye loupe. Do you have a source other than EBay or Amazon where I might locate this item. Do you have another brand that you could recommend? Thanks so much. I always enjoy your videos!
Thank you for watching and for the comments. The Belomo is a nice loupe, but it sometimes has its limitations being only a 10x magnification. I also have a Five Elements Triplet with both a 10x and a 20x magnifier built into either end. The Belomo is easy to hold and carry, which is probably why people like Richard Binder recommend it. So I bought one based upon his recommendation for the class I took, but I have the other one as well. The brand is not important, especially if you are not doing this for a living but only as a hobby. The Belomo is not cheap by comparison, but it is sturdily built and is quality. But others will do the job. I bought both loupes on ebay. ebay is my go to site for most supplies, but not necessarily for ink sacs and supplies like that. ebay is just too expensive for those.
Any pen nib can be smoothened if they are rubbed against a glass. I’ll be making a video soon on this
Thank you for the video. Do you use Mylar paper at all?
@@allenjeng3506 I was taught to use Mylar paper by the instructor of a class I took, but quite honestly I fail to see the benefit of it. I still use the technique in the video and have good success, so I have stuck with it and don’t use Mylar.
Thank you 🙏
Thank you so much for this, it was very helpful. Just curious, if the pink part of the buffing stick is the same as the 1200 grit, why buy it? Can I just use the pink part instead?
The pink part of the stick is much rougher than the sandpaper and just doesn't work as well. The automotive sandpaper does a much nicer, smoother job. I have tried both and really don't much care for the pink part of the stick. Richard Binder recommended the sandpaper and I have found that he is correct. It just works a lot better. If the pink part of the stick works for you, by all means, use it. I have found that it is worth the extra expense for the sandpaper. I am glad to see that you are interested in tinkering on your own. Enjoy your learning and experimenting.
hi Troy.
thank you for your video, its very helpful, i have a MB pen in gold Fine nib, and i have a problem with it, when im writing with that pen, when im going up in my writing, the nib get stocked in the paper, i dont know why, i will try to explain better if im making an O when i go up on the O the nib stucks in the paper, and some time brakes the paper, i trien to align the tip of the nib, i think its aligned but the pen keep doing this again, you think if i use some sand paper it will correct?
im farly new to this hobbie, allmost 6 months, and i really like your vids, i like the way you talk to us, like a friend chating with other friend, you use simple words easy to understand, nothing too technical, and for me is great, im from Mexico and English its not my native language, but i really can understand all your vids. keep doing them, im your fan and i love when your kid goes into the videos .
thankyou
PD. sorry for my poor english,
Your English is better than many native to my local area, so you are doing fine. After thirty years of not speaking French, I don't think that I could have a good written conversation much less a spoken one, so I can appreciate that you are doing well in English.
What you are experiencing sounds a lot to me like a tine alignment issue. If you can get a good magnifying glass and look at the tip of your nib, you may be able to see if one is sitting lower than the other, probably the one opposite the side of the tear. If a nib has that sort of issue, it can make things scratchy for writing or even do exactly what you are seeing, dig into and tear the paper. I have seen it myself on some pens. Then again, I also had one Esterbrook nib that was just plain like writing with a needle and tore paper. Smoothing took it down a little bit, but it was never perfect.
Keep in mind that a Montblanc is an expensive pen and any smoothing, if not done correctly, can really be costly. Tine alignment done properly may be helpful. You can bend them slightly without hurting the pen just using your fingernails. Matt Armstrong (The Pen Habit) and SBREBrown both have videos on the topic of tine alignment and I know that Matt covers smoothing as well, since I first saw his videos on the subject and got the idea that I could actually do this.
If you are comfortable with the idea that the two tines are properly lined up with one another, you can think about some smoothing to take the edge off the sharpness, but I wouldn't touch any micromesh or sandpaper until you are absolutely certain that alignment is not an issue.
Obviously since I am not there to look at your pen, I can only go by my experiences thus far, but this would be my first bit of advice.
Thank you so much for your kind words and for watching my little video channel. Sometimes I am amazed that anyone would want to watch my horrible videos.
Thank you, Troy, for a very interesting video. I am sure this will be of great help to me and others like me. Can I ask a couple of questions? Does your technique differ if the nib is fine, extra fine, medium or broad? Also, is the process the same for steel nibs, gold nibs and even titanium nibs? I appreciate first timers don't want to practice on a gold nib. Perhaps the softness/hardness of the metal used for the nib is irrelevant as you are just smoothing the iridium tipping material. As you can tell, I don't really know what I'm talking about but I would appreciate your views. I was smoothing a Duke 209 just today and noticed an improvement, and I'm just starting out. Cheers, Troy. Great video!
Good questions, David. The technique is going to be pretty much the same regardless of the nib material. As you said, there is a welded tipping material on the end of most nibs and that is generally what gets smoothed out. As to the size of the nib, the technique will again be the same. Keep in mind that you may want to use the loupe/magnifying glass to check on the tipping material. The idea is to keep it mostly in the round, like a little ball, though even a flat spot on the writing pad itself is also normal. You will probably take less time to smooth a fine or extra fine nib, since there is less surface area. Still, to me, fine nibs will write scratchier than medium nibs in my experience, so I may be prone to over smoothing them, which is why you should check with them magnifier and check writing often. I did not do that in this video since I knew that I had a new-ish medium nib that just needed a little smoothing and was confident that it would be fine by the end of the video, and it was. I have used the exact same technique on oversized gold nibs like the Montblanc 149 and on fine nibs like on a couple of my vintage pens. I have also used the same methodology on many Chinese steel nibs, fine and medium alike. If you have seen progress as a relative newbie to smoothing, that is a great sign. There a few more things that I could have covered in the video, but I did not want to make it any longer than I already did and did not want to make a part 2. The basics are there, and I am just hoping that I have imparted enough of the basics to get people to try it and learn on their own through experience. That is pretty much what I did at first. I played with it, found some good results, and kept at it. I did not take any workshops at first. The workshop only added to my knowledge and technique as well as confidence. Even after the seminar I took, I was still reticent to try on higher end pens until I figured that I spent time and money on the seminar and had some good success on cheaper pens, so why not just break bad and try it. That paid off for me, so I keep going and getting better and faster at it.
Thank you, Troy, for a very detailed reply. Very much appreciated.
Thanks Troy - I picked up some very useful ideas from this video! I've done just a little bit of nib smoothing on a Jinhao 992 and on 599 (successfully) but I am really happy to have these tips - I'm going to be getting some of that 2000 grit auto sand paper!!!! Are those buff sticks available everywhere or just specialty places? Are they the ones you see in the dollar stores?
Oops I asked the question as I was watching ... I see you mentioned 2 places to get those buff sticks.
Yup, those buff sticks are micromesh on a stick and are well worth the nominal cost. The nail/emory/file boards are going to be way too rough for your pen. What I do use them for, though, is to sand down the peg where an ink sac gets cemented onto the section. When taking off the crusty crud there is often some rough residue and the nail file board helps get the peg smooth to get a good cemented seal.
Great video Troy
Chad
What power magnifier? 10x? 20x?
A 10x should suffice. I usually use a Belomo Triplet 10x loupe.
So you're saying don't use sandpaper, use sandpaper? Micromesh is sandpaper. If you couldn't get the job done with grits that are consistent and marked out between 3200 - 12000, dont see how using 2000 grit and some unknown sanding stick grit would do any better or worse.
I am saying to use the right abrasive for the job. Obviously there are different kinds of sandpaper and abrasives meant for different applications. I am using what people who do this for a living taught me and it works very well for me. Take it or leave it, you do you.