# Fountain pen nibs



## Rich P. (Oct 11, 2018)

Does anyone have a lot of experience changing out fountain pen nibs? Many of our customers have asked for fine nibs in the turned pens and all the kits come with medium. Sometimes it is as easy as replacing the entire nib and feed mechanism but I have been wanting to use the housing and feed from the kits and change out the nibs which I have done a few times.
#1 I am looking for companies with affordable replacement nibs. 

#2 does anyone know what companies supply the nibs for Pennstate or any of the other pen kit companies?

#3 Can you replace an entire assembly with a different number assembly. Can you replace a #5 nib and assembly with a #6 if you replace the entire assembly?

I am sure I will have a bunch of other questions once this thread gets started.

Thanks,
RichP


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## Sprung (Oct 11, 2018)

For replacement nibs, there are a few options. ClassicNib sells Bock nibs (plus their own Phoenix nibs, which I believe are re-badged JoWo's). Meisternibs sells JoWo nibs. There is also FPNibs, if you're ok with waiting for an international shipment to arrive - they sell JoWo (plus some others). JoWo and Bock are the two largest manufacturers of nibs and both make great nibs, IMO, though I tend to prefer JoWo's in my pens. And, just because the nib says "Iridium Point Germany" doesn't mean it was actually made in Germany - could be made in China, with just the tipping material, the iridium, coming from Germany.

The numbers are size specific. A #6 is larger than a #5, so they are definitely not interchangeable.

There are two ways to approach changing out the nibs. Either pulling the nib and feed out and, reusing the feed, replacing just the metal nib. Or unscrewing the whole nib and feed assembly and replacing that. The challenge with replacing the whole assemble is that you have to use a replacement assembly with the same threading - everyone's threading is different.

If the kit you are using was manufactured by Dayacom, their nibs are made by JoWo and a JoWo nib assembly of the appropriate nib size (either #5 or #6, depending on the kit) should be able to be screwed right in.

Beyond that, I can't tell you what other manufacturers are using for their nibs. Many of them, especially PSI's, are cheap made in China and the threading may not be a match for either JoWo or Bock feed assemblies, in which case you may have to swap out just the actual nib instead of the whole nib and feed assembly.

Having used fountain pen kits from various sellers, I've come to the conclusion that for a kit based fountain pen, something made by Dayacom is the way to go. Their stock nibs are JoWo and write well and they're easy to swap out for different sizes. Though the kits are priced on the upper end, Dayacom makes the highest quality kits I've used.

Reactions: Informative 5


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## Rich P. (Oct 11, 2018)

Matt,
Thanks for the info. I guess I still have a lot of research to do. I have been getting away from Pennstate for various reasons and this just adds to the list

Thanks again
Rich


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## Sprung (Oct 11, 2018)

Rich P. said:


> Matt,
> Thanks for the info. I guess I still have a lot of research to do. I have been getting away from Pennstate for various reasons and this just adds to the list
> 
> Thanks again
> Rich



Anytime, Rich! If you have any more questions, shoot away and I'll do my best to answer them.

I haven't turned a pen in 10 months and probably won't turn too many kit pens going forward, but I am going to be giving custom/kitless pens a try soon. Have had the tooling for a while, but have lacked the time. But I had made the decision to get away from Penn State's kits a while ago - they just don't hold up for me. Their platings start to wear off quickly, they seem to have been introducing more and more plastic into mechanisms, and the castings and fitment of their novelty pens has been less than impressive - especially with the higher prices they ask for some of the novelty kits. At least that's my opinion on PSI...

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## Jerry B (Oct 12, 2018)

Rich P. said:


> #3 Can you replace an entire assembly with a different number assembly. Can you replace a #5 nib and assembly with a #6 if you replace the entire assembly?


Matt pretty much covered the basics ........ In response to this question, yes you can usually upgrade from a #5 to a #6 by replacing the complete unit ; nib, feed, housing, and front section. Especially for Jr. Gent II type pen kits. Those can be purchased from the links Matt posted (bought as a complete unit, just remove 1 and screw in the other) ....... 
If needed I can also dig thru my bookmarks and post other links.
If you want to message me your email address I can send you 1 or 2 PDF files covering conversion, fine tuning, care, etc.


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