Sheaffer Taranis. 

A gift from a good Doctor friend. Both a good Doctor and a good friend. 

I was changing my nurse role from older persons/palliative nurse status to cardiac rehabilitation nurse. On the leaving ‘do’, the good Doctor gave me this gift. I had a few more weeks on the ward and used the pen. Then….dropped it onto the floor. I was, needless to say, mortified. Bent out of shape the nib just scratched on the paper and was seemingly a ‘write off’. 

So, after a few years now of regretting the whole experience, I thought I’d try and rectify the mishap. I initially looked at ideas on YouTube. Then, from ideas, I ordered some micro mesh at 12,000 grade. Looked through the 20x magnifier straight onto the nib’s end to witness the extent of bent tine and misalignment between the two. You actually look at the nib writing end pointing at your face. Using my finger nail I gently pushed the left tine down to level with the right tine. I figured that the ‘dropping’ made it push upwards, not the right one downwards. Didn’t want to compromise the inks feed and flow. Then I began a gentle micro mesh polish. 

The mesh technique? No pressure applied whatsoever. I let the nib ‘float’ on the mesh. No knowledgeable experience to go with, it was a simple case of drawing a figure of 8 about 8 to 10 times. Then a left to right to left with continuous mesh contact and nib moved with angle/surface/directional subtle changes. Very little intervention in reality. 3 or 4 strokes in each chosen direction. With ink in the pen I was able to test out after each small mesh intervention on some paper. 

To be honest. I wouldn’t commit to advising anyone trying this because you could possibly ruin a much cherished nib. A professional fix is probably best. But I am retired and on a meagre pension. So needs must! 

The Taranis, as one of the photographs shows, still has a bent left tine. But she writes ‘very much’ okay. That’s enough for me. You cannot buy nib replacements easily. I saw a nib ‘unit’ a few years back at about £38. You buy the whole caboodle. Not just the nib itself. I obviously didn’t get it!! Hence this blog. Oh! I haven’t been able to find one since either. 

Tap on photographs to enlarge.