Keeping Nibs Straight

If you’ve been here a while, you already know I have a lot of altered nibs. If you’re fairly new here, then my recent nib overview post likely gave you a clue.

I have 32 altered nibs from 9 different nib customizers/meisters. About 10-15 nibs ago, I realized I need a foolproof way to keep track of them. I settled on a two-part system involving marking the nibs and storing them.

Storage

The storage is the simpler part, and likely isn’t unique to me. I store the nibs in a bead storage box. I’ve done this for a while, but recently downsized for portability. I store the rest of my unaltered nibs in the previous, larger container.

Each compartment of the bead container is labeled using tucked-under tape (for easy removal later). I’ve labeled my compartments with: EF, F, M, B, TWSBI, Kaweco, Oblique, Cursive Italic, Stub, Architect, Unique Grinds, Layered, Flex, Platinum, Sailor, and Pilot. This leaves one compartment open for holding a nib that belongs to a specific pen when I choose to swap it for an altered nib for that fill.

There is a high change that I’ll outgrow an individual compartment at the rate I’m collecting obliques. But, some compartments only have 1 or 2 nibs, so there’s space.

OK, with the less interesting — to me — part out of the way, I can move on to marking the nibs.

Marking

I want to note that I only do this for altered nibs, and I only get modifications on nibs that are easily replaceable — Jowo, Bock, etc. — or purpose-bought — yep, I’ve bought some pens secondhand to pillage the nibs. So, I’m not advocating that anyone — nor would I ever — mark nibs that belong to a specific pen.

Enough blathering. I mark nibs by painting the upper-back of the feed with nail polish.

I have 6 bottles of cheap polish — they were about $2 a bottle. I keep a key on my storage box, although I memorize the colors pretty quickly. I try to assign colors to nibmeisters/makers who are very different so that even though I have two people to one color, I can still easily tell the nibs apart.

After the polish dries, I mark the type of nib with a sharpie. O for oblique, S for stub, A for architect, etc. Originally, I just added a small dot, but it’s much easier if you paint the entire flat section of the feed.

So far, I haven’t had any problem with the polish staining, reacting with the ink, or coming off. This system has made it very easy to keep track of my nibs. I may employ something similar with Bock nibs in the future since they can’t be bothered to mark nibs with the width. Perhaps with shades of gray so it isn’t so much in your face as the colors.

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How do you keep track of your altered nibs? Would you try my method? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

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