Custom Nib Testimonials

Folks, I just gotta tell ya: If you don't have one of Deb Kinney's modified pens, you're missing the writing experience of a lifetime. I just got one of her modified True Writer demos (the turquoise). It has a .6mm cursive italic that is absolutely to die for! You might think you wouldn't get much line variation from such a fine nib, but you'd think wrong. So go ahead: Treat yourself. You'll be very glad you did!
Leilani W.

Well gang, I've been playing with a new pen this week. Actually it's a transformed old pen. I had a Pelikan 250 -- old style with an OBB nib that was most unsatisfying. (No, let's not start that talk again!) That is no longer the case after a little nib magic by Deb Kinney from Durham, N.C. How one goes from divinity school to working in a law library to being a nib grinder, I just don't know. Ahhh, well then we all come here by strange paths. Anyway, this nib is now much more oblique, much more expressive and just plain fun to write with. Great job from her workbench!
Richard Jarvis Penspiration.com

Just letting you know that I received the wonderful Danitrio Mt Fuji from Kevin yesterday. THANK YOU so much for the work you did on the nib - it is perfect! I can't believe how smooth it is - smoothness is something I don't expect from my tiny nibs!

I'm really happy with the pen now. I was convinced I would never like it after all of the rigmarole I previously went through, but the new nib is so beautiful to write with that I am completely enamoured by it once again!
Laura Y.

I received my pen to day and it is fantastic!! Feel free to quote me any time.
The smoothness of the stub exceeded my expectations. And you took a dry factory Aurora nib and turned it into a perfect, juicy writer that lays down a line with a feather touch. An excellent investment for me.
Jack B.

The Pelikan Go is absolutely perfect. I love that it is so nice and smooth, too. Wow! Thank you so much -- you do a GREAT job! :)
Now I'll actually want to use this pen again. Now I know why Lani (and everyone else) likes your work so much..
Sheila Q.

Deb
I just got my Filcao back from you, and THIS NIB IS AWESOME! You are so talented! Thank you!
I am more than pleased!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheryl A.

This weekend I received my Pelikan Go with the 0.9 mm Debified nib, and my reaction was !wow! Smooth, reliable, but now a nib to compose with, not just scribble a few notes. If your pen is pretty, but the line from your nib is not, send the offender to Deb Kinney! You get back a nib with line smooth and varied, to make even the grocery list poetry. (Which this is obviously not)
Kitty

Dear Deb,
WOW, FANTASTIC, MAMA MIA such a smooth pen. It is instantly my favorite right now. I used it all night at work on Thurs. and Fri. It performs flawlessly. I am ever so grateful for your expertise.
TTFN,
Zig

I need to thank (again) Deb Kinney for the marvelous job she did regrinding the nibs of my Omas Extra (from a medium to a fine stub) and my husband's Recife (a balky medium now an extremely smooth medium). Our pens are now fun to use!
Thanks again!
Leilani

Wow, after hearing all the things you've said about Deb's talents with nib work, I sent her a bunch of pens. I quickly got a selection of several of them back that demonstrated the various options, as I had asked. She turned some REALLY boring, no-fun-to-write-with modern and old pens into BEAUTIES! I can't praise her work enough, I'm thrilled!
marla

I just received a re-worked nib from Deb Kinney. She took an unremarkable Sheaffer Prelude medium italic nib and performed a small magic trick, and now I have a fantastic fine italic, gloriously smooth writing instrument. Count me among the happily Kinneyfied. (Deb, you may take a bow. :-) )
Keith

Deb,
I received the I Castoni in the mail today. Once again, you've worked your magic. The stub is excellent--really smooth. The skipping has stopped, too. Bernard is right about this one--it's a great pen (I was lucky enough to see his Zoss for sale post on the Go75's that you had modified. That cursive italic 75 is still one of my favorite pens!). In any case, I'm going to have to look at my collection to see which pen will come your way next.
Thanks again,
Frank

The first time it happened was at a recent meeting of the Triangle Pen Club. We were at The Mad Hatter, a bakery/restaurant in Durham, North Carolina. The usual passing-around of pens was happening and Deb Kinney casually extracted a Sheaffer oversized Balance whose body was a tad darker than its cap, in a greenish-brownish sort of way, and handed it to me. There was something about her smile as she did so... I posted the cap (carefully, I know about Balances) and put nib to paper.

Did you see "When Harry Met Sally"?

I don't know if people at the other tables actually said "I'll have whatever he's having" but in my memory of that moment that's exactly what happened. Never has any pen performed as perfectly for me. It was as though I could imagine the writing onto the paper. Stub nib, made that way by Deb, so smooth that smooth sounds rough compared to the way this felt. I was nearly gasping.

I had been ill during the weeks leading up to the meeting, so I figured it was the Prednisone that made that pen feel like something that might have been handed me by space-aliens. ("Earthling, your species knows nothing of nib technology. Try this!") I knew better than to make decisions under the influence of steroids. I waited.

Tonight, we met for dinner at George's Garage, so Deb could return some pens she's been working on. The Prednisone is ancient history. Deb handed me my Jefferson reproduction, which now writes wonderfully thanks to her ministering to its nib-needs, and as I was trying it out she oh-so-casually put that same greenish-brownish Sheaffer on the table.

Sober. No steroids. It happened again. Private Reserve Sherwood Green flowed onto paper like teflon. No, teflon has a higher coefficient of friction. It's beyond words.

A heavier pen might not have gotten the same result. Different center of balance? Who knows? Maybe a different ink would be less perfect. That I can experiment with. Because it came home with me. In my pocket. Give up this Sheaffer? Only when it's taken from my cold, dead hand. I felt I needed to explain to the other pens in my shirt pocket that I did not love them any the less.

Tonight, Deb Kinney has taken her place among the all-stars in my line-up of nib geniuses. She admits she has no idea how many hours she spent getting this one right, but I have no difficulty imagining the sun setting and rising unnoticed behind her more than once.

Whew! Thank you for letting me rhapsodize. And thank you, Deb, for being willing to sell a pen that is among, no, is _the_ finest writing instrument I have ever had the joy of using.
Bernard