Texatdurango
Member
Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion as to what is causing the scratches on several brands of pen nibs.
Before retiring I was a manufacturing engineer at an aerospace company and in that capacity, one of my most common tasks was to solve problems involving tooling and it’s interaction with production parts.
Well, I put that hat back on for a bit this morning and I think I have found a possible cause for the nib scratching.
To begin with, to get a cross section of several brands/vendors I took out six pens:
Baron
Jr Statesman
Majestic
Jr Gent
Baron
Emperor
Keeping vendors out of the situation (and hopefully out of the discussion) I listed only the kits which are familiar to most.
I have three photos below with captions above each. Please read and feel free to reply with any thoughts or theories but PLEASE keep the vendor and manufacturer trashing out of the discussion and focus on the problem and solution. This is my opinion only, yours may vary.
This photo shows all six caps involved and all six have at least two things in common:
1. They all have plastic threads in the cap.
2. They all have a metal center band at the mating end of the cap.
This photo shows how all six pens look just after disengaging from the lower body threads. Please note the position where the cap is contacting the nib. Does the area of contact look familiar to the scratch patterns seen on many of your nibs?
This is a close up of the center band making contact with the nib. I believe this center band is what is causing many if not all of the scratch patterns on the nibs. Under magnification, I looked at a couple caps and some show small nicks on the rim. The metal band itself could cause the scratches but in conjunction with these small nicks, when engaging and disengaging the cap from the pen, especially if a slight swirling action is present, act like small files cutting away at the nib. I believe this is why some users report little to no damage while others report more damage.
In conclusion I believe there are two culprits involved here, one is shown in the photo, and the other is reading this post!
Before retiring I was a manufacturing engineer at an aerospace company and in that capacity, one of my most common tasks was to solve problems involving tooling and it’s interaction with production parts.
Well, I put that hat back on for a bit this morning and I think I have found a possible cause for the nib scratching.
To begin with, to get a cross section of several brands/vendors I took out six pens:
Baron
Jr Statesman
Majestic
Jr Gent
Baron
Emperor
Keeping vendors out of the situation (and hopefully out of the discussion) I listed only the kits which are familiar to most.
I have three photos below with captions above each. Please read and feel free to reply with any thoughts or theories but PLEASE keep the vendor and manufacturer trashing out of the discussion and focus on the problem and solution. This is my opinion only, yours may vary.
This photo shows all six caps involved and all six have at least two things in common:
1. They all have plastic threads in the cap.
2. They all have a metal center band at the mating end of the cap.
This photo shows how all six pens look just after disengaging from the lower body threads. Please note the position where the cap is contacting the nib. Does the area of contact look familiar to the scratch patterns seen on many of your nibs?
This is a close up of the center band making contact with the nib. I believe this center band is what is causing many if not all of the scratch patterns on the nibs. Under magnification, I looked at a couple caps and some show small nicks on the rim. The metal band itself could cause the scratches but in conjunction with these small nicks, when engaging and disengaging the cap from the pen, especially if a slight swirling action is present, act like small files cutting away at the nib. I believe this is why some users report little to no damage while others report more damage.
In conclusion I believe there are two culprits involved here, one is shown in the photo, and the other is reading this post!