2od FP

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Cabhog

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This is my second fountain pen I've made. I have a couple of questions about them, How do you tell nib size, how do you clean them and what do you use to clean them with?
 

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I'd like to tell you how I handle "dippers" and subsequent cleaning but Roy is the expert. I will let him answer your question and it will be right.
 
This could be one of the best and most useful threads we've ever had here!

We have many experts and many opinions and I hope they'll all weigh in.
 
Well the most common sizes found in pen kits are 5mm and 6mm - typically the nib size is governed by the size of the pen larger pens like full size Gents, Chairman, Emperor and many others will have a larger nib. The many varieties of small pens (jr Gents, Majestic Jr, Classics etc) seem to have nib size in common and it's 5mm.

You measure the nib at it's widest point to determine the size. After you see the two most common sizes side by side, you look at the nib and you'll know.

Cleaning I'll leave to others.
 
If your asking the nib size as to writing tip most of the kit or component nibs are what I would call a heavy medium, if your referring to the physical size as Smitty said there are two sizes that come with our component sets 5 MM and 6MM to tell which size your component sets have 5mm or 6mm measure the width of the feed , they will measure 5MM at the widest on the smallest fountain pen components and 6MM on the larger component sets. Cleaning is pretty straight forward,

As I said it's not rocket science to clean, go to the infant dept. at your local Wal-Mart and purchase a nasal syringe, fill a small bowl with tepid water, have an empty small bowl next to the one with the water. Run water (tepid water) over your feed and nib from the back side until it runs fairly clean , sorry I should have told you first to remove the section and take the cartridge or pump of first, Now fill your syringe with the tepid water and place it on the back side of the feed where the cartridge or pump attach and flush the feed into the empty bowl, you'll see ink still coming out do this as many times until it runs clean. You now have a clean feed,nib and housing.
 
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Thanks to all, I am new to making FPs and have a lot to learn. First was how to get the ink to flow. When I first inserted a cartridge it took a while to get ink to the tip to wright. Now I need to find out what a good nib is as compared to the one in the kit. Fine, medium. Silver or rhodium? Also need work on my penmanship.
Thanks again for your help
 
Cabhog said:
Now I need to find out what a good nib is as compared to the one in the kit.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have made maybe 10 fountain pens from kits (Tycoon, Olympian Elite, Apollo Infinity, Jr. Gent) and not had a single nib that was bad.

Sure, I use Bock and MeisterNib (JoWo) nibs when I'm making custom pens, but I don't see any reason to swap out a perfectly good nib just because it came in the kit.

IMO, it would be better to work on your penmanship till every nib does what you hope for. Then when you do get a superb nib, you will be ready to use it.

Kind of like learning in a Ford so the day somebody throws you the keys to their Lamborghini you already know how to drive :biggrin:

btw ... that pen looks great, emerald green has always been my favorite color for a pen
 
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