One often hears claims of pens that, when new, were initially somewhat scratchy but with only a few weeks of use "broke in" and became smooth writers. Similarly, the question of how to smooth a scratchy nib is one that occurs frequently. The argument offered in response to the break-in is that after a few weeks of writing, the hard tipping material of the pen becomes smoother due to the friction caused by running it against paper. This natural abrasion then is supposed to do two things -- make the pen smoother and causing the tipping surface to conform to the particular writing style of the person using it. The latter is the standard reason given for not lending a pen to someone. Smoothing strategies are typically just an accelerated version of this same process. For instance, users are sometimes instructed to write figure 8s on pieces of glass in hopes that the friction between the tip and the glass will wear away rough spots.

The main problem with these theories is that they cannot possibly be true.

This is not to say that pens don't perform better a couple of weeks after they're first acquired. They often do, but not for the reasons given above. Improved pen performance during this time period is mainly attributable to two factors. First, as the feed gets completely wet through and the oils and other factory stuff gets flushed out of a new pen, ink will tend to flow more consistently and freely and this additional lubrication smooths the writing. Second, over the time that a writer lives with a pen, he or she will gradually discover ways to hold and use the pen where it performs better. With the passage of time, your writing style naturally adjusts subtly to take advantage of the spots where the pen performs better. Eventually, this becomes ingrained and hence the pen's performance improves -- the nib breaks in -- after a relatively short time period.  That is, the pen "breaks in" the writer and not vice versa.

So why is the nib smoothing theory necessarily wrong? Fountain pens are usually tipped with hard metals that are chosen for their resistance to friction from ordinary use.  This ensures that the pens will be durable for years to come. Want proof of the success of this approach -- a quick visit to ebay will reveal pens that are decades old, show substantial use, and yet have much of the tipping material intact. In other words, it takes a long time for the wear of ordinary use to show on this kind of tipping material. Working backwards, this implies that two weeks is simply too short a time period for everyday use to have had any appreciable effect on the tipping material. In fact, if it did, one certainly would not expect the tip to still be usable in five years. The same argument holds for the glass writing treatment as well as the prohibition against pen lending. None of these things is going to matter to the wear of the pen (unless you plan to lend the pen out for a decade).