Eccles posted:

Pilot Parallel?

Dad Hominem posted:

There are a bunch of people making stacked nibs these days, you could order a custom or learn to DIY.

mortons stork posted:

How does a concord nib work? The curvature seems like it would need some very special grip and angle in order to draw its lines.
What kind of lines does it make?

grack posted:

Those aren't music nibs and they're not three-tined.

mortons stork posted:

6mm? that's insane, I think that's about the max you can get for a pilot parallel stub! And that will only make 6mm lines so it sounds a lot more flexible an instrument than that too.

Wonder what kind of lettering you could make out of this, probably could approximate some character styles that need brush adjustments?

This is awesome dude! If you hadn't told me I wouldn't have believed all of it was drawn with the same instrument. that's so freaking cool

howe_sam posted:

Three tines != music nib. Most of them do, but not all. What makes it a music nib is the real stubby grind.

Chip McFuck posted:

Edit: Also, how did you modify your nibs? The drawings are really impressive and I've got a bunch of cheap pens I wouldn't mind experimenting on...

Chip McFuck posted:

Interesting; I knew about Sailor's two-tined music nib but didn't realize it wasn't an outlier. I guess the question I have is are there three tined nibs that aren't music nibs?

grack posted:

It can, but it depends on the nib and feed. The feed has to extend far enough to provide ink flow to the nib slit.

Also, gently caress eBay's international shipping. Bought a pen over two weeks ago and it hasn't even left the US yet. The seller shipped it the day after the auction ended!

Trevor Hale posted:

Trevor Hale posted:

Is there a tactile difference in lighter inks? I suppose there must be if there’s not as much stuff there to lubricate the nib on the paper, right?

Fearless posted:

Picked up a fresh bottle of ama-iro today, and a recent score from an auction arrived in the mail as well. I was reasonably certain that I had gotten a Sheaffer Imperial Touchdown at an exceptionally good price but instead was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a PFM-IV.

A couple of hours later, and the new pen is cleaned, re-sacked, has fresh seals and is writing beautifully. I will do more cosmetic polishing over the next couple of days.

Fearless posted:

Hmmm. I might be tempted to look for something tackier than silicone grease-- there are some thread sealers out there like this stuff:

https://fifteenpens.ca/collections/adhesives-and-lubricants/products/thread-sealant

You could get a similar effect from one of those wax toilet gaskets-- those are made from a solidified form of alox, which can function as a very high temperature lubricant or a thread sealer at lower temps. One gasket will run a couple of dollars at your local hardware store and have loads more material in it than you will ever need for the task. Anyways, it's quite tacky and yet reversible insofar as body heat or a blow dryer will warm it up enough that it will allow the barrel to unthread.

Shellac would be another option though it can complicate getting that pen back open again regularly for filling (though it can be reactivated with gentle heat from a blow dryer). I would add just a single dab of it as opposed to fully coating the threads and see how tightly that locks it down.

Everett False posted:

I have a friend with a question someone here might be able to answer!

They've tried looking at swatches but a lot of different swatches from different people appear to be contradictory. All I know about what they're looking for is a good waterproof brown that won't just look black.

grack posted:

Speaking of that brand, I'm working on a Montegrappa Ferrari Special Edition that someone dropped on the floor. God drat the nib is an absolute mess.

grack posted:

Put the portion of the nib you want to straighten on a wooden block, and then roll a wooden dowel over the top of the nib. If you're worried about scratches use can put some painter's tape or Kaptan tape on the top of the nib.

And sometimes you might just end up with kinks regardless when you're bending a nib that much.

signalnoise posted:

How do I avoid getting taken for a ride at a pen show? How can I spot a good deal? My wife is taking me to a pen show this weekend.

grack posted:

Here's a fun one, this pen repair ended up being a lot of left turns

This



Is a Montegrappa Ferrari, circa 2005. The owner dropped the pen and bent the nib out of shape, so I was asked to take a look at it. After doing the initial straightening, I determined that the nib was just too damaged to repair. Given that, the owner asked me if I could source a replacement nib and I said I would try.

So I pulled the nib out and this is what I find:



That is a Montblanc nib! After doing some more research, I discovered that this pen was actually made by Montblanc, and uses the nib, feed and cartridge loading mechanism of a Montblanc 147 "Traveler" circa early-2000s. This actually ended up being a good thing. Montblanc doesn't sell nibs separately, but they are available if you're willing to pay the sometimes eye-watering prices they command.

Last night I was able to get my hands on a replacement 146/147 from the correct time period at a price that the owner was willing to pay, and



Perfect fit. I still need to do some minor adjustment, but the pen now writes.

Sold by Montegrappa, co-branded with Ferrari, and made by Montblanc. loving weird all around.

grack posted:

I always return nibs to the owner unless they say otherwise. Having the original nib for a pen like this Montegrappa, even broken, is important for provenance.

It also has a non-trivial value as scrap gold, so it's not really mine to keep regardless.

Zenostein posted:

Honorable Mention to the various Chinese p51 clones where the sac is shellacked in but the press mechanism slides right off.

Sankis posted:

inexplicably this 90 year old Parker Parkette I picked up on a whim has become my most used pen. There's nothing particularly special about it, but it's still just really nice to write with. It's also really pretty.

Bilirubin posted:

Debating between a Pilot Metropolitan and Lamy Safari as babby's first refillable pen. I like the idea of metal over plastic so lean that way but it seems they can be fussier from comments above?

Bilirubin posted:

Thanks, that's a helpful rule of thumb.

For permanent marking up of things I have a full set of Rapidograph pens and India ink (I know not to use India ink in fountain pens) but should fancier writing be required pigment it will be

Sagebrush posted:

India ink does jam up in rapidographs. However you can completely disassemble them for cleaning in a way you can't with fountain pens, so it's not quite as big of a disaster. You're still meant to empty them out and clean them anytime you're letting them sit for more than a few days.