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To all those who own (tried) both pens, i would like to ask why are western nibs (pelikans specifically) are know to be wetter than the Japanese nibs (considering same nib width on paper and not marking) . Is it because of the feed/nib material or the engineering of the feed/nib ?

Hello! I haven't been around FPN lately, but I do pop in and lurk on occasion. I'm hoping that you all can give me a hand here (pun intended!). I'm currently working on some fan fiction for _Alias Smith and Jones_, and I got curious as to what the fellows' handwriting might have looked like. Heyes and Curry were born roughly 1850 - 1852, so I'm assuming that they would have learned manuscript penmanship in school about 1860. Since this would have been in the Midwest/frontier, say Kansas, my thought is that the school script they were taught would have been from a somewhat earlier time as schools on the prairie would not have had "all the latest" materials to use. I don't really intend to learn to write that way, but I'd like an idea of what it would have looked like, or what copy books were used in that period, so that I can find a script font that looks similar to use for letters written by the guys in the story I'm working on. Many thanks to my fellow FPNers! Addendum: I did find the IAMPETH site, and have looked at the books and materials from the mid-19th century. What boggles my mind is the highly flourished and ornamental capitals that are characteristic of Spencerian script. Teachers really taught that style to dozens of seven- and eight-year-olds in a one-room schoolhouse on the frontier? Little children in those one-room schools had flexible dip nibs? Clearly they went to school on a different planet than I did. Was there a standard school script of that period that didn't have all the ruffles and flourishes, comparable, say to the Vere Foster script in England?

"We are at one of those turning points, for the written word, that come only rarely in human history. We are witnessing the introduction of new writing tools and media. It has only happened twice before as far as the Roman alphabet is concerned – once in a process that was several centuries long when papyrus scrolls gave way to vellum books in late antiquity, and again when Gutenberg invented printing using movable type and change swept over Europe in the course of just one generation […]. Changing times now mean that for a brief period many of the conventions that surround the written word appear fluid; we are free to re-imagine the quality of the relationship we will make with writing, and shape new technologies. How will our choices be informed - how much do we know about the medium's past? What work does writing do for us? What writing tools do we need? Perhaps the first step towards answering these questions is to learn something of how writing got to be the way it is." I am quoting here the introduction to a book I am very much looking forward to read: "The golden thread" by Ewan Clayton. It sounds so promising and interesting, just about two things I hold very dear - (the history of) reading and writing, written from the perspective of both a calligrapher and designer. So far I just managed to read about 40 pages and it is packed with information and ideas. You can find a short review here on the website of the FT http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c36c371e-3006-11e3-9eec-00144feab7de.html#axzz2hsO9lNXP and more about the author here http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/4240f110-1a04-11e3-93e8-00144feab7de.html#slide0 I thought maybe some of you may be interested as well. Stefanie (I hope this is the right forum, I wasn't sure. But I didn't put it in the book section because it is not "only" about calligraphy – but if it should be moved there I am totally ok with that )