so.... when you say you want to adjust or tune a nib....

[Go West Young Man]

What are you talking about exactly?

I've played with a couple pens where I stuck a blade up between the tines to spread them touch, making it write a bit thicker/wetter. Is that it, or are there more arcane rituals?

 

[liverman]

Nib Tuning:
1. Alignment - most imporant - the tine must be properly aligned before you mess with anything else
2. Smoothing - removal of rough places on the nib where it normally contacts the paper - this is not grinding or nib re-shaping
3. Flow adjustment - increase: enlarging the space between the tines, the space between the nib and the feed, enlarging the ink flow channel in the feed OR decrease: the opposite. Note that reducing the flow may require a new feed

John Mottishaw has a good article: http://www.nibs.com/Article6.html
Richard Binder's Reference Pages contain a load of info (just start reading!!): http://www.richardspens.com/ref/00_refp.htm
And of course, there is Da Book, which Richard still sells: http://www.richardspens.com/accessories/dabook.htm. There is a "chapter" on nib adjustments.

The key thing to making a nib write smoothly is tine alignment. If the tines are not properly aligned, then while it is possible to "grind" the nib into alignment, that is not the right way to go about it. Align the tines, then smooth the nib. If you enlarge the channel, you'll probably have to re-align the tines. Many of us use brass shim strips instead of razors or exacto blades - safer for the fingers and the tines. Steel blades can nick the nib and create more problems. I think everyone on this forum understands that blades and fingers do not mix .

Read, get some cheap pens/nibs and practice. Replacement steel nib assemblies for many popular pens (Bexley, Edison, kit pens, Pelikan M200, etc.) run about $25, so a training error will not be too expensive if you use a pen that uses one of these units.

--Greg

 

[nemo]

Great explanation liverman, thanks. Tuning is all of the above, really just making the pen write the way you want it to write.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Do not stick blades between the tines to spread them! Thanks.