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I've been looking through old convict records and felt the need to share some of them:

I've mainly been using a dip pen for sketching, to ensure that my strokes are surer when I sketch and that I get more comfortable with long strokes, curved strokes, etc. However, since I joined FPN, I've been itching to try my hand at calligraphy. A friend gifted me an old nib from their stash of different unused, it turned out to be a William Mitchell Round Hand 3. Here is my very first attempt at a Round Hand script, And here is the nib, I plan to, - Practice with either graph paper or ruled sheets as an aid - Figure out if I can work with cursive in this script - Look up IAMPETH and Zanerian to print out a reference script Any suggestions about how I could improve the script (apart from regular practice)? A few questions about the nib, - I also noticed some green deposits on the nib, which I'm guessing is rust. Does anyone know how I can get rid of it without ruining the nib? I'm in India, and unsure of sourcing materials that might be sold off the shelf elsewhere, so homemade or self made solutions/ideas would be a plus. - As you can see from th holder, the cork is quite stained (it has blue and black inks in them) because I am currently dipping it straight into a small mouthed/necked bottle and do not always know when to stop dipping. Any ideas how to clean the cork? - I'm currently using a stock dye based black fountain pen ink (Bril), I've read that adding arabic gum to this will help when using dip pens. Will this affect the nib in any way?

Scans are here: http://tinyurl.com/polwxr3 download a .zip file with all the scans in here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/qkpqzg Please note that plate 25 was missing from the copy I scanned, all of the rest are there. This book was published in 1795. William Milns did the calligraphy and Harry Ashby engraved it. This book was popular enough that it continued to be published until the 1850s in England. William Milns emigrated from England to America at some point after publishing this book, and his grave may be found today in Boston, in the old burying ground, on Boston common near Boylston street. His headstone reads: To the memory of William Milns Member of St. Mary Hall in the university of Oxford, Author of the Well bred Scholar, The American accountant, the Penman's Repository, and of Several Dramatic Works, Master of Salvador Academy, and of the city commercial school in London, who died in this town, the 27th February 1801, Aged 40 years. Society was benefited by the exercise of his talents. His private virtues endeared him to his friends. source of information: "American penmanship 1800 - 1850" by Paul Nash. Some low-res previews for you: http://i.imgur.com/gybev5z.jpg http://i.imgur.com/5NL6ddf.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pIEXdjN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Wfkh7sW.jpg