Three cursive italic re-grinds and one happy client!

I recently had the pleasure of grinding three nibs for a client of mine. I love grinding nibs! These were all cursive italics, and all for Bexleys. I haven't seen or handled very many Bexleys before, so this was a real treat.

To the left - a Bexley Simplicity II, now fitted with a lovely broad 777 Pen Repair cursive italic!

To the right - A Bexley Elegancia, now sporting a medium 777 Pen Repair cursive italic!

I really enjoyed testing out both these pens during the grinding process! They are very comfortable in hand.

Here are all four nibs. We have one 2 M CI's, and 2 B CI's. One broad was ground by someone else, though I adjusted the flow, and used it as a template for the other nibs per the customers request. One medium CI started as a B, but I was asked to reground it to a M CI, since the client prefers his nibs in that size.

Another close up shot. Makes me wish I had a better camera to show of the details of the tipping shape. :)

You'll want to click on this one to get a super-sized view of it! Each nib shows wonderful variation, and they're all very smooth too!

Here's that lovely broad CI! I was really liking the way this nib turned out.

Here's a medium CI. Not quite as much variation as the B, but still excellent.

I also had the enjoyment of tuning-up a Sheaffer for this client.

Best of all, it was equipped with a lovely Sheaffer semi-flex "feather touch" nib!

The client was very pleased with the nibs when he got them back! Here's what he told me in an email:

"Hi, Tyler--

It's the first day of classes here at college, and while I am never thrilled to see another summer end, this year, thanks to you, I have lots and lots of options for grading papers and taking notes during lectures.  

Now that I have had several weeks to experiment with your handiwork, I write to thank you very much.  I tend to prefer fine and extra-fine nibs, so I naturally gravitated toward the medium cursive-italics you ground for me.  And they are indeed lovely--fine, with subtle variation, and incredibly smooth.  I have one in my briefcase right now.  But the broad CIs might bring me over to the big side--even greater line variation and even more smoothness; I keep looking for excuses to ink up one of those and enjoy the ride.

The German nibs you ground sell for $15 each at isellpens.com.  As round nibs, they are perfectly serviceable.  But add your reasonably priced grinding, and they are a superb bargain.  If other customers ask you about the possibility of custom-ground steel nibs, I will be glad to sing their praises. With money tight and with the price of gold reaching new records constantly, these are a terrific budget option.

Thank you again, Tyler!  You can bet that I will be back in touch with more work later.  In the meantime, best wishes for success in your business."

- R. I.

Needless to say, I was very happy to hear that he was pleased with the nibs! It's my favorite thing to hear a client who is happy with my work, and willing to return again for more.

Let me know if I can do anything for you. My nib grinding prices are very inexpensive, at only $25.00 a nib! And my amazing 1 week turn-around time lets you enjoy your nibs sooner!

Just send me an email anytime! I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. :)

Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl

A very happy customer, and a really neat nib grind!

I recently had the pleasure of working with yet another customer who was in need of some nib work. Three pens were sent my way, two in need of re-grinding, and another one that needed some feed-to-nib adjustment.

The feed-nib adjustment job was a fairly easy fix, and was fun to do. The really fun job however, is always grinding nibs! At the request of the sender, the first pen, a red Waterman Phileas, was taken down from a medium nib, to something between an XF and a fine. The other pen, another Waterman Phileas in grey this time, was given one of my buttery-stub re-grinds. Originally we were going to take the nib down a size first and then grind it into a stub, but it was decided to leave the nib as is. It came in as a broad and left as a broad stub!

Along the way of fixing these pens, we encountered a slight problem. To this day I still do not know how it happened, but as the professional, it is my job to assume responsibility for any mistakes, even if made by the USPS. :)

The Grey Waterman Phileas had a crack running down the section of it! Uh oh, you can't have that. When you have a cracked section, you have inky figners. The crack allows the ink to flow out onto the section and to your hand, fingers, etc. It's basically a mess. Again, I don't know how a crack could have gotten here by simply grinding the nib, but, I do have a guess. It is very, very hot were I live. It gets up to 103F-107F degrees on some days. It was one of those days when I went up to the mailbox and got this pen out. It's just a guess, but it would seem to make sense that in the heat, the plastic may have stress cracked from expansion of the plastic. It also should be noted that the section cracked at a known weak point. There was a large gouge out of the lip of the section where the crack started. Put that together with the heat and I think we have our misterious FP "killer".

Anyway, I chose to fix it free of charge since it wasn't there when he shipped the pens to me. Unlike all my other pens that are guaranteed for 1 year, this section repair is guaranteed for life! If it ever breaks again on him, he simply needs to send me an email, and I'll ship a new replacement section ASAP. You can check out my crack repair below:

Of course, when I say you can see my crack repair below, I mean this: You can see the absence of a crack. Meaning I did a good job. :)

As you can tell, there is no evidence of any cracks in the grip-section.

If I hadn't fixed it, you would totally see the crack in this shot. The camera is aiming right at it.

So, after this problem was overcome, it was on to the fun stuff!

Here is the Waterman Phileas after the stub-grinding.

Upon receiving his pens back, here's what this customer had to say:

"Tyler--

WOW! What a difference! You are a genius. The Phileas Red pen is fine and spidery and lays down my red ink for a line as smooth as spiders silk!

The Phileas Grey is sporty, has a nice flair and while still broad, not bothersome like it was before.

And the Bulow writes as good as any of my “good” pens, and it cost me only $20 and your fix.

Amazing. I am VERY happy. Don’t see the fixed crack in my Phileas Grey at all.

I will definitely send the Pelican, which writes like a goose quill in comparison; and since you were kind enough to offer to look at that Falcon, (soaping did no good) I’d be fool not to have it working as well as these three favorite pens of mine (now)!

I may have had my doubts when you told me of the problem, but I’m here to testify! You are a miracle worker! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Best Wishes,

Your Happy Customer,"

- Jim B.


I think we were both very pleased with the way these pens turned out! The crack repair has still been holding STRONG for over a month now, and I suspect it will never change. :) I'm still investigating the possibility of the heat-cracking. If that is indeed what it was, which it most likely is - I need to get myself a PO box soon. I believe the main reason for it however, was that  lip crack on the section. The thick edges of the section are what prevent it from cracking. Take away that thick "retaining-wall" and there goes your crack-protection...


Either way, the crack is fixed now, and the customer is very happy! He is still enjoying his nibs, and is preparing more pens to send me. That's the best "thank you - your work is fabulous" gift any customer can give me: sending more pens. A repeat customer lets me know that they really are happy!


Let me know if I can grind any nibs for you. My price is extremely competitive, at only $25.00 a nib! My turn around time for nib grinds is a mere 1 week! That's including shipping. No 6 month waits here! Just one week to get your new-ground nib back into your hand, so you can start using it sooner. Just send me an email, and let me know how I can help you out.


Regards,
777 - Tyler Dahl

Know your nibmeister

Today's post is a lesson in business. As a customer, you really need to know who you are dealing with. When you're preparing to send your pen to someone, and pay for there services, you need to be sure you can trust them. You want to see if they have a track-record of excellent work, and good customer service.

As an example today, I am going to show you two pens that came to me for nib work. I'll begin with the full story - The client sent these pens off to a semi-well-known nibmeister, who's name will remain undisclosed. The client requested both nibs (a  modern Sheaffer Balance and a Pilot Custom 74) to be ground to stubs. After coming back to the client, they were found very unsatisfactory. "Why?" These nibs were not ground properly. They presented this client with the following problems:

Another satisfied customer of 777 restoration services!

So, a week ago I was contacted by Diane B. (again from Fountain Pen Network). After a few short messages she sent me her pen for repair. It was a Blue Esterbook Dollar pen, and in pretty sad shape. The nib had been bent beyond repair, so a new one was in order. The pen had some nasty gouges in the section due to the owner trying out some "self-repair". :) Also, the original owner from some 50 years ago was obviously a chewer! Yikes, there were a lot of bite marks on this pen. Luckily, I was here to "save-the-day" so to speak. Diane hasn't gotten her pen yet, but here's what she said about the finished pictures of it.

"Hi 777,

You've done a fantastic job on the Estie, that nick at the lip is barely noticeable and I don't see any of the other gouges I put in it.  Great work!" 

Diane was even kind enough to put in a word for me on her own blog! See the post entitled "Esterbrook Dollar Pen"!

Here are the pictures. This pen turned out beautiful!

Best Regards,

777 - Tyler Dahl

A satisfied customers testimonial! Thanks David!

A few months ago I came into contact with David Pritchett via the Fountain Pen Network. After a few emails back and forth he sent me his two pens and five nibs for complete restoration.

"OK, the pen, nibs and ink just got here.  Even though I’m working on a huge, complicated matter for a client, I stopped everything to open the package ( you use tape the way I do when I wrap Christmas presents to try and irritate my boys at the difficulty :) ), look at the nibs, open the ink, unwrap (lastly) the pen, admire it, fill the pen, and write with it.  Man oh man, what a wonderful job you have done.  That is certainly one of the sweetest writing nibs I have ever used! and I have quite a few nice ones (what will I do with them now?). And the pen itself, it shines!  Thank you!"  DAVID

Sounds like David really likes how I've restored his pen and tuned his nib! Do you have an Esterbrook nib that's a little, maybe, messed up? Dry writing, misaligned tines? I can fix that to! Just send me an email to 777penrepair@gmail.com. My nib tuning services cost only $15.00! My pen restoration starts at just $25.00!

Here are some pictures of the finished product, a gorgeous green Esterbrook J!

Best Regards,

777 - Tyler Dahl