Grinding a Medium Preppy into a Stub Italic

[@robbinallan3767]

I saw your comment about a Lady Sheaffer with a broken tine. I had to comment. I won an ebay auction for a Sailor 1911 and didn't see that the description said "junk". When the pen arrived, one tine was broken off very near the tip. I used my husband's wire nippers to cut both tines off straight across as close to the end as possible. After smoothing with micromesh, it became one of the nicest gold nibs I own. Since i love fine stubs, i have repeated this technique multiple times with 100% success.

[@InkyRocks]

I like that you said "I didn't ruin it" hahaha! I've "sharpened up" the edges on some pens to make them more "crisp" but have never gone from a bulb like nib to an italic. My problem is that I get impatient and then take gobs of material off and end up with a flat nib screwdriver...

[@gadgetstop321]

I had second thoughts when I was editing this video. I liked how the pen was writing at the halfway point and I thought about scrapping the rest of the footage. But after the pen sat overnight, I guess the ink really saturated the feed and I love the way it writes. Now I need to think of a cool name for it like Franklin Christoph's SIG or Mark Bacas' CSI.

[@karma13612]

Well, you just inspired me to make this my next project!. I did try the method of cutting off the tip and trying to smooth it into a stub. Ohh, that was not a good outcome!! So, I will try THIS method you have just demonstrated. Well done, and thank you!!!!!!

[@gadgetstop321]

You're welcome!

[@jadedenthusiasms]

This was so cool to see! I only have cheap pens. Right now I'd loooooooove to get a 1.1 stub TWSBI ECO T in this lovely color and😢/or (and being preferred 😊) the normal ECO in that gorgeous green. I love how much ink it holds. I just have no money for anything new, just the few cheap pens i use.... helps my painful hands SO much using fountain pens. I just may try this on one of them to try something new🤷🏻‍♀️😊 thanks so much!!

[@gadgetstop321]

Thank you! I'm not really a fan of medium nibs, but I enjoy the character that this customization gives my writing. 😀

[@MamaTomasu]

great job! i've been curious to try the Esterbrook Journaler's nib which is supposed to be a medium stub nib....but this seems like a much more affordable way to go about it! Thanks for sharing your process...glad it got some excellent results!

[@gadgetstop321]

Thank you! A stub nib is the easiest of all the custom nibs to grind, and is so satisfying to write with, but it still takes patience. By the end of your first attempt, regardless of the degree of success you have, you'll have a whole 'nother level of appreciation for professional nib grinders. 😀

[@MarysInks]

I love this idea! I've wanted to play around with nibs, but I didn't want to mess up a "good" nib. I never thought about using Preppies. Brilliant!

[@gadgetstop321]

Thanks Mary! Even with a Preppy, it's difficult to actually start working on it because I'm also nervous about messing it up. 😂

[@MarysInks]

@@gadgetstop321 I just saw a video of a guy who clipped the end of a preppy and smoothed it into a stub! I have to start trying these things. I think an architect grind might be fun too.

[@gadgetstop321]

@@MarysInks Working on Preppys (or any inexpensive nib) is great experience. It gave me the confidence to work on other pens in my collection that just needed a little help to get writing the way I thought they should.

[@InkquiringMinds]

Very brave Kathy! I'm fiddling with grinding nibs in private until I have some success before I turn on the camera! LOL Thanks.

[@gadgetstop321]

That's great Doug! I can't wait to see what you're able to make...maybe an architect nib? 😃

[@InkquiringMinds]

@@gadgetstop321 That's what I'm thinking! :)

[@patrickdemets6018]

That was wonderful! Great job! I recently ground a Pilot Penmanship XF to a stub (perhaps 0.7mm). I had ruined the nib by accidentally knocking it on the desk, trying to get ink to flow. After I straightened out the tines, I figured there was a perfect opportunity to experiment. It turned out very well. It's still a very fine nib, but now with great character. When I ground it, I removed all of the tipping and ground the nib with a very slight curve (somewhere between a true italic and a stub), so that it looks much my Platinum Metro CM or my Lamy Safari stub 1.1, except mine is quite a bit smaller (line width wise).

[@gadgetstop321]

Thanks Patrick! Your XF stub sounds great. I've discovered that I do enjoy stub nibs, as long as they aren't too crisp, and the finer the better. 😀

[@carlatae48]

Very interesting. Did you watch the video on which Nathan Tardiff talks about making stubs and actually makes stubs by cutting off the tips of his cheap nibs and then smoothing them?

[@gadgetstop321]

I haven't seen Nathan's video...I need to check it out. I had to do something similar with a Lady Sheaffer, but it didn't turn out well. When I first got into fountain pens, my mom bought a used Lady Sheaffer at an antique store and gave it to me. She didn't notice that the tipping on one of the tines was broken off. I cut the other side off with wire cutters but I wasn't able to get it into a shape that was comfortable to write with.

[@Detman101]

Hehehe...I tried that with a flex nib. Lets just say that the results weren't favorable in ANY way....yeesh. >_

[@robbinallan3767]

Thanks for posting this comment. I was unaware anyone of consequence used this method. Very cool.

[@silviaberladski909]

Can you indicate which brand this stone is or what’s it’s professional name ? I live in Europe and I don’t even know what this stone is . Is it used also in cosmetics like nail polisher polish ?

[@bikkies]

Interesting experiment. I've wondered about doing the same on a preppy before now but their .05 medium is just so glassy smooth. One of my favourite writers is a medium Plaisir which has the same nib and feed as the Preppy (ditto the Prefounte). As they give you such a generous blob of tipping it looks like you have a margin of error. What I'm curious about is actually trying to grind an architect rather than a stub, and that might suit this nib particularly well. When all's said and done, the preppy is a practically giveaway cost so screwing it up is little more than an irritation.

[@gadgetstop321]

I was a little reluctant to start modifying a perfectly good nib. And like you said, it was so glassy smooth. But I'm very happy with the results. After the pen sat overnight and the ink really saturated the feed, it is a joy to write with. I'm going to get another Preppy and try an architect grind. 😁

[@bikkies]

@@gadgetstop321 I have a love/hate relationship with Preppies. Others say the cap does a really good job of sealing up and keeping the nib from drying out, but that hasn't always been my experience. Also the nib and feed assembly is a friction fit into the section but in several of my Preppies the assembly is so loose that it comes out with little more than gravity. With a converter or cartridge fitted, it seems to stay in place on those pens without flopping about, but I am wary of eyedropper converting any preppy that has such a loose-fitting feed assembly. So when I have a preppy which is solidly put together then I really enjoy it. When I get one that is too slack I put it in a pen case and forget all about it.

[@gadgetstop321]

@@bikkies That's a good point. Now that I have two good Preppys, I may invest in a Prefonte or a Plaisir. If I mess up the nib, I can switch it with one of the Preppy nibs.

[@jeongminhyeong1938]

Nice work! It seemed like you did the grind in a very short amount of time. I wonder if you are grinding with extra coarse material or if the cheap pens have steel tipping instead of iridium compounds. They would make sense since they are cheaper but also because steel is softer.

[@muskndusk]

I have three Platinum Preppies and I can't get any of them to write at all. Bought as a batch, they were so cheap that I kept them. Maybe I'll try working on them now that I have a bit more knowledge. First step: give them a good flush.

[@gadgetstop321]

Flushing them out is always a good first step when trouble shooting pens. I've also discovered with my Preppies that some inks just don't want to work with them.

[@drrev40]

Good job. 👍. I have to confess I did a similar job after I bought a kaweco fine that wrote horribly. I went to polish it and took it too far so ended up with a medium stub after salvaging it 😂

[@vasilis_k_97]

😂

[@gadgetstop321]

Did you use an electric grinder, like a Dremel or a wheel grinder or did you use a stone on your Kaweco?

[@drrev40]

@@gadgetstop321 Hi, well I started off with micro mesh and when that went a bit out of control and I ruined the tipping on the nib I used a very smooth oil stone that I sharpen my chisels with. I applied a drop of light oil to lubricate and then very lightly ran the nib over the stone. I stopped frequently and checked using a jewellers loop like yours to keep an eye on progress. The nib ended up an oblique medium I’d say. I decided to go by hand so as to keep a finer level of control on progress. I felt a power tool had the capacity to overdo things in an instant. I did use the micro mesh again just to fine tune a little at the very end.

[@gadgetstop321]

@@drrev40 I'm pretty happy with the rate that material was removed with my sharpening stone, at least with a medium nib. I can see that it would be much more delicate work to grind a fine nib.

[@ichirofakename]

Well done.

[@gadgetstop321]

Thanks Ichiro! My next project will be an architect grind. 😁

[@fbales]

Cathy, I do some knife sharpening-just so you know that I know a little about removing, and polishing, steel. I think that stone, even the smooth side, may still be too course for polishing a nib. Another thought I had is I wonder if metal that you removed might get between the tines. I’m not sure how well you cleaned the nib after grinding-just a thought. Well done, though, kudos for having the courage to do this. 😊

[@gadgetstop321]

I think you're right on both counts. My Dad also gave me a lighter colored stone that is smoother than this one that I need to experiment with. And after I wrote with it for a while and the nib was well saturated and any trash worked out of the slit, it has turned out to be a really good writer.

[@john-allenduskglass3193]

italics are supposed to be scratchy. beautiful job!

[@gadgetstop321]

Thank you John-Allen! I really like how it turned out.