#removal of rust from vintage calligraphy nibs

[authorsdenbyorihime-may]

Rust removal from vintage pointed pen nibs

As promised, here’s the account of how I removed rust from some vintage nibs I received from the mail. At the end of this post I’ll place the links of where I buy my supplies. And no I am not sponsored, yet. Who knows lol.

There were actually 4 nibs but the Million Pen looks almost exactly like the Popular Pen so I just placed one in here, for illustrative purposes.

Yeah the camera angle looks bad but at least you can see some rust, either at the head of the nib or at the foot, like Kantel, the bowl-shaped nib at the top. If I recall correctly, that nib has a lot of rust at the part that attaches to the pen holder, and that can’t be good.

Yeah I think this is the after rust removal picture. It’s been 2 years I already forgot if I took step by step pics or I just took whatever I can since the ketchup removal method was still in its experimental stage.

No I did not take step by step pics. Maybe because I also had to do the ketchup and sanding thing over and over until the rust got smoothed off. This removal took around 2 days to complete, and the above pic shows what a mixture of light acid and some varied sand paper grades can do to rust. I think I used white toothpaste as a neutralizing abrasive too so, the extra shine is there. Dang it I forgot about that and used dish soap lately. Oh well. If you haven’t seen how I removed rust stepwise with the listing of the actual stuff, the post about the ketchup removal is here. Well I hope this post helped you in any way. If you have any ideas, experiences,  questions or what feel free to comment on this post. Thanks very much and see you all very soon. Where I get my supplies: The Curious Artisan - Online store. Oblique pen holders, inks, calligraphy sets, pad papers for caligraphy. I love the paper, they’re better than Rhodia in my honest opinion, smoother and more transparent, and I have Rhodia pads too. Plus the fact that they deliver quite quick too. Really awesome.

The Craft Central - Online and Physical Store. I recommend visiting the physical stores, the selections in each branch can be different, and they got lotsa stuff. Nibs, holders, some paper, walnut and sumi inks. The walnut ink can eat away the metal nibs *it’s acidic AF* so rinse that sh** off with some dish soap, white toothpaste, and some hot water. 

The Oil Paint Store - Online and physical store. I recommend visiting the physical store, they got so much stuff you can’t buy online. Also they’re nice because most people get lost finding their place lol. Unless they have expanded, haven’t been there in a while. Papers of any kind. I work with watercolor and colored pencils so it’s important to get a wide variety of paper to check which ones will take the pigments best.

Deovir Arts - Online and physical store. I recommend visiting the physical store because again, more selections not seen on the online site.

National Bookstore -  Online and physical store. I placed this last because to be honest, they’re nearly everywhere. However, not all sell artist quality products, the only places that I got to buy good ones were in NCR, and in SM Pampanga. 

[authorsdenbyorihime-may]

I removed rust from steel nibs (Hunt Imperial 101 and Hunt Mapping 103 Nibs)

What to do when rust attacks your shiny metal stuff

I had to put up this post in case I need it again. 2 years ago (2018), I bought an oblique nib holder with an adjustable flange from The Curious Artisan (click here to go to their page. I am not sponsored by the way.). The whole thing has lotsa freebies like free calligraphy pad, Engrossers' Script or Copperplate templates, and a whole bunch of vintage nibs. I thought the nibs were all nice and OK but I found 4 that unfortunately had some rust so I did some rust removal on them. I might post that later because that’s a whole story altogether. Also apparently I can only post a maximum of 10 pictures per post so. yeah.

Fast forward to 3 days ago, I had to check up on my not-vintage nibs from Speedball and HOLY CRAP THEY GOT RUSTED 😢😢😢 Like seriously look at em, LOOK AT EM 😭😭😭

You know that's rust when it doesn't shine and just absorbs light. I like shiny things and seeing rust is a pet peeve, due to the aesthetic as well as functional implications.

Even the dorsal side wasn't spared of the rust issue.

Of course I had a tiny panic attack, and did my best not to self-hate for storing them in what I thought was an airtight bottle. Spoiler alert, it wasn't, as indicated by the deflated moth balls. So after 3 days of gathering supplies, I made today rust-removal day.

What I used:

Ketchup packets - only a bit is used, to dislodge the rust and chemically reduce that sh** into a more removable form. CHEMISTRY!!!

Cotton swabs - for dabbing the ketchup

Diluted dish soap - as neutralizing solution, since baking soda would be OVERKILL. Again, CHEMISTRY!!!

Water-proof sand paper - for physical removal of rust, ideally one rough and one fine but because I had to ask my dad for some and he only has the rough ones for pots and pans, and I lost my tiny scrap of super-fine I used 2 years ago so... they didn’t get polishing

Kitchen towels - tissue paper dies fast, this one can stand some hugs

Petroleum jelly - for the aftercare, and prevention of more rust. Ideally should be oils used for bikes and hinges but we ran out of that oil so this is the next best thing

Porcelain or glass plate or wax paper - surface to work on, not gonna suggest plastics because that dissolved iron oxide has some really good staining power, it's hard to remove, if that’s even possible so something inert and easy to wash is good

So first identify the places where there is rust. Then add some ketchup on the rust. No need to flood them like I did here, this is just for illustration purposes.

Just leave them on for 5-10 minutes or so. If you're working on vintage nibs it's best to leave the ketchup a bit longer, for up to 30 minutes before the next step, which is sanding the stuff off. Remove excess ketchup, just leave a bit for the abrasion process. Use the rough sand paper, cut into a tiny piece and start lightly rubbing in circular motions. You can rub in a straight line but you could miss some spots so going around in circles is best. Plus it would look better later. 😀 You can wash the ketchup off with some dish soap and then water to see if any rust is left. Repeat the scrub as needed. Then dab a bit more ketchup before using the fine sand paper. This is again, for the abrasion process. Rinse with dish soap, then with water, check if the rust was removed according to your standards. Dry with a paper towel.

This is what it would look like if there wasn't fine sand paper used. Not so smooth. Kinda makes me arrgh.

Yeah, see how small that is? I had to use my chonky hands to remove rust from tiny steel plates. Plus the sanding off of the rust. It's a miracle I even manage to remove as much as I can, but here they are now.

Dorsal and ventral sides

Lol did I use dorsal and ventral? Seriously I need to doze lol. But hey, I removed as much rust I could with the bare minimum material, and I am suprised. I used some petroleum jelly to seal in their shiny reborn selves before storing them with my other nibs in the best place I could find.

Yeah sure, laugh all you want but seriously, the vintage nibs I fixed 2 years ago haven't gotten new rust since I placed them in this jar. That's some serious sealing capability. Also adding a moth ball helps to control the humidity. 

See? No new rust growth. But the ketchup can really remove colored plating as you can see from the top nib, so it’s important to keep the ketchup ONLY ON THE RUST. Although these were sanded off with a finer grained sand paper so they look a bit more polished. Well, I tried. 😂

Also I highly recommend the Code9 moisturizer, it's good for humid days, like the Jeju Ice from Face Shop. But that's another story. 😂

So anyway, I hope this post helped you somehow, in removing tiny rust from tiny metal stuff. If you have any questions feel free to drop an ask or a comment on this post. Thank you.