FP Nib Plating

[samuel07]

I was cleaning the nib on my El Toro FP and I noticed some of the gold plating stuck to the feed when I took it apart. Anyone else have this happen? Could it have been caused by the ink? The pen sat unused for about two weeks with PR Fiesta red in it.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

IMHO.. the nibs are pretty cheap on some of these kits. I finished off an El-Grande yesterday and for the life of me it did not want to feed and I kept seeing 2 sharp lines. I tried to "figure 8" polish it with old MM (last 2 grits) and it did not help. I then looked at it close and it was a freaking "Y"!! The nib is not bent, the tip itself is defective! I had a spare solid plated nib I tossed into my gold El-Toro and used the 2 tone nib from that pen in my new El-Grande. I normaly have to hand polish the nib for a smooth feel out of the box.

On the feed side I would not worry about it too much, just make sure you clean the plating off the feed.

 

[bjackman]

Agreed, that the plating on some of our kit's nibs are not the best. If i'm doing a chrome, plat or rhodium kit I will usually pull the nib out of the feed and buff off all the plating. Sometimes it leaves some plating still in the engraving on the nib, I like the look better than the obviously plated gold.
The plating is often not terribly accurate and slightly "ofset" to the engraving.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Bill, what method do you use to buff it off?? This is a trick I could use on the silver Churchill kits (that come with an gawd awful looking solid gold plated kit)

 

[jtate]

http://www.penhero.com/DebKinneyMain/AboutDeb.htm

Here's a link to information about Deb McKinney, she does a great job at tweaking the nibs that come with our kits. Her prices are really reasonable and her turn-around is quick. There's nothing like a funky nib to put the kibosh on the sale of a fountain pen.

Julia

 

[RussFairfield]

The fumes from any exposed CA glue with eat the plating off of a nib inside the enclosed space of the cap. The "experts" all tell me that it only takes a couple days with the cap open to let the gasses escape, and that everything is fine after that.

HOWEVER, I have an El Grande that has been sitting with cap off since November, and it will still eat the plating off a nib in a heartbeat. That is a lot longer than a "couple days".

 

[bjackman]

Lee,
I just use the same buffing wheel I use as my final step in finishing pens. Sometimes I add a little white diamond to the wheel, but I don't think I usually do that to buff the plating off nibs. Your Churchill example is a perfect recepient of this buffing.

Russ,
That's a long time to wait for your CA to stop outgassing! Have you tried a careful spray of accelerator into the cap? Maybe use the aerosol can with the little red tube to get it only inside the tube.
I had a similar experience when I sent some pens to a fellow turner. The pens had been done and open for several days to a month, and they fumed. It was always worse for me as my CA got older. The fresher the CA was the less chance I found of having fuming issues. YMMV

 

[RussFairfield]

Bill, I filled the cap with accelerator and let it sit overnight, twice; but it still eats off the gold and curdles the ink.

It could have something to do with the amount of CA I used in the CERC that I made on this pen. Anyway, I have switched to the System-3 quick-cure epoxy and have had no more problems.

CERC = Closed End Recessed Clip