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I bought a cheapo sheaffer calligraphy set a couple of years ago and fell in love with fountain pens.  It came with 2 nibs that have so far been my favorite. They are labeled F and M. Are these the same as 1.1 and 1.5MM stubs? What's the difference between a stub nib and an italic nib? I also just bought a really handsome pen while I was in China for super cheap ($15?) It's big and shiny and heavy and I love it, but it doesn't write worth a crap. You can barely see the text on top of the pen in the picture.  Is there a way of fixing it? I already rinsed it out with water, but it produces the same awful results. Or is it just cheap chinese garbage that will never work? AnimalChin fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 7, 2013 |
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Mar 7, 2013 16:09
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 14:04 |
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Vitamins posted:The F and M stand for Fine and Medium respectively. They are the relative size of the line that the nib produces. This isn't the same as a stub. The F/M nibs have a round footprint thanks to the tipping material, so there is no line width variation depending on writing direction. However a stub is like a normal nib, but it has the writing footprint expanded horizontally, so you get some line variation between moving the pen forwards/backwards and left/right on the paper. An italic is the same concept as a stub, however the line variation is much more significant, so the left/right movement can be almost needle thin as the footprint is different. Are you sure?  quote:There's a good introduction to nib types here: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/nibs/primer.htm This is excellent, thank you. quote:Does that Chinese pen write better if you press a little harder than normal? It may have a case of "baby bottom" which can be fixed by writing with it on some extremely fine abrasive. A brown paper bag sometimes works for this also. It could also have flow issues. You'll want to wash it through with some water with a couple drops of dish soap in it, it works better than just plain water. If you have some ammonia, washing that through in a 10:1 ratio of water to ammonia will help too. Without pulling the feed it's hard to say what's wrong with it, but at the end of the day it's unfortunately quite common for some cheapass Chinese pens just to not work for whatever reason. You fixed it! I tried writing with some pressure but it didn't help. I just tried again with a LOT of pressure and it worked great. I reckon I'll find a brown paper bag to see if I can get it writing smoothly. Thanks!
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Mar 8, 2013 17:20
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Vitamins posted:I'm glad your pen works! Seems to be just a case of baby bottom then Is it possible to grind/sand down the nib to turn it into a stub? 
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Mar 9, 2013 18:28
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Vitamins posted:Yeah you can do whatever you want with a nib! Using very fine abrasive pads like Micromesh are really good for shaping nibs progressively, or I'm sure you could use something like a dremel to get something crude. As long as you've got the tools and a nib that you don't mind possibly wrecking then you can definitely try grinding them! HELL YES I'm going to try turning in my junker chinese pen into the best pen I have.
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Mar 10, 2013 18:19
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PaganGoatPants posted:This guy is 1 of 11 Master Penman. Holy crap. Are those flex nibs? The pens in the beginning?
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Mar 25, 2013 02:14
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In case anyone was wondering, the 3-in-1 fountain pen, butane lighter, flashlight from dealextreme is actually a 2-in-1 worthless lighter, worthless flashlight. There's no pen in that pen. http://dx.com/p/3-in-1-fountain-pen-w-butane-lighter-white-illuminating-light-black-silver-3-x-ag4-180713
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Mar 31, 2013 15:38
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Teach posted:loving bollocky shithouses. I've followed this thread for a while now, and I've always scoffed at stories of TWSBIs self-destructing. But then, last night... drat it all, mine did this too. I've had it for months (years?) how's their support? I loved that pen.
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Feb 19, 2015 21:21
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NeurosisHead posted:The other side of TWSBI's notorious quality issues is the fact that they'll send you new components free of charge if you email them about it. Emailed them a picture of my broken pen. The response was that I twisted the piece on too tight (I didn't) and that they would be happy to ship me a replacement part but that they were out of them and to check back in a few weeks.
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Feb 20, 2015 22:16
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 14:04 |
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NeurosisHead posted:The time table on the follow up is unfortunate, but that they'll do it for free is good. It would be better if they didn't have to do it at all, but that's irrelevant now. You can buy a replacement nib unit in any size from EF to 1.5mm from Goulet for $20 if you're feeling impatient. Ah that makes sense. Also I'm a big stupid dumby for not checking goulet for a replacement, but I've already spend a pile of money on a pen so I'll wait for TWSBI to send me one.
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Feb 21, 2015 17:08
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