What Does Your Handwriting Look Like

[Inky.Fingers]

 

[richiwalt]

http://www.richimages.net/Penmanship/IMG_1494.PNG

[Freddy]

 

Fred

say good night

 

Good nite

[Inky.Fingers]

Richard, how awesome, your handwritting. IPad is chuck full of features.

 

[richiwalt]

Richard, how awesome, your handwritting. IPad is chuck full of features.

Nice ! Italics is a much better style for this classic passage than ornate Spencerian. I'd love to see more.

[Freddy]

 

Fred

[Hobbitgate]

some late night practise

[richiwalt]

some late night practise

Great style - very pleasing to the eye, very ledgible as well. Great post

[AAAndrew]

I'm copying a letter from 1821 and here are two copies, one using a pointed pen and one using a small stub, both dip pens.

[richiwalt]

I'm copying a letter from 1821 and here are two copies, one using a pointed pen and one using a small stub, both dip pens.

I noticed that you cross your T's on the one on the right with more flair !!! They both look great !!!

[LizB]

I'm copying a letter from 1821 and here are two copies, one using a pointed pen and one using a small stub, both dip pens.

 

 

They are both so elegant. How do you get such consistent flow from dip pens? I end up with a massive gradient from wet pen to dry pen.

[AAAndrew]

 

 

They are both so elegant. How do you get such consistent flow from dip pens? I end up with a massive gradient from wet pen to dry pen.

 

Sounds like it could be a couple of things.

 

First, make sure you prep your nibs. When these nibs are (were) made they are coated to prevent rust. This coating also prevents the ink from flowing well. Also, if you get your finger oils on the nib, that can also prevent the ink from flowing well. There are several ways of preparing the nibs to take the ink. The traditional ways were to either suck on the nib, the proteins in your saliva both dissolve the coating as well as lay down a new coating that promotes good ink flow, or to pass the nib through a flame for a couple of seconds. With vintage nibs, I definitely wouldn't recommend the sucking method. They used all kinds of fun metals, including mercury as one of the nicer ones, for the coatings. Some people scrub their nibs with soap and water and a toothbrush, some with toothpaste (a technique recommended by a famous penman who is also a dentist).

 

My preferred method is to put the nib in a holder and using a common lighter I run the flame under the nib for one second, take the nib out of the flame, run it under for another second, take the nib out, and then do it one more time for yet a third second. Then I wipe off the nib with a paper towel or tissue. This 99% of the time removes any coating but is not enough heat to damage the temper of the steel. Then make sure it's cooled off before you stick it in the ink, otherwise you might hear a nice sizzling sound which really does indicate a changing of the temper of the steel.

 

Another issue can be the ink. Fountain pen inks often have a lot of lubrication agent to make them "wetter." You don't need these with dip pens where they already put down a lot more ink than fountain pens. If you use a "wet" fountain pen ink, you may well get big blobs of ink. Some fountain pen inks work well, some do not. The best bet are the iron gall inks. I use Diamine Registrar's ink all the time. I've found some Omas inks work well, and Monteverde Burgundy, while normally a very wet ink, when cut half/half with water to dilute the wetting agents becomes drier and works beautifully with dip nibs.

 

But you can't beat inks made for dip pens. The ink in this sample is what's called Walnut ink. You can buy it in liquid form, or in crystals, which is cheaper and easier to store.

 

Prep your nib, and try a different ink, and I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work.

[Inky.Fingers]

No dips for me. Just plain olde FP.

 

[Freddy]

 

Fred

[Inky.Fingers]

Richard,

 

I made a bit of improvement. Majuscole still needs work, same as miniscole.

[richiwalt]

Richard,

 

I made a bit of improvement. Majuscole still needs work, same as miniscole.

 

 

 

 

Wow InkFingers !!! That is incredible !!! What a great text for this style of penmanship too !!! You should look up the whole passage ... I only got 1/2 through it ... the last half is also GREAT !!! It talks about fantastic details, such as the scales fitting so tightly to each other as to not let air gaps exists, and other things ... It's really a fantasitc passage. And the use of your style, red color in the title is WONDERFUL !!!

 

Do be careful ... to me, (anyway), it adds to the ancient-ness of the text if it remains in couplets. Each question is repeated using different words in the form of line pairs ... Of course that was translated for the original text, but at least that much comes across in the translation ...

 

Keep Going ... it looks FANTASTIC !!! I LOVE READING THAT PAGE !!! Classic

Edited March 17, 2016 by richiwalt

[Inky.Fingers]

[LizB]

Thanks AAAndrew. Super advice.

[Freddy]

TwentyOneHundred

 

Fred

[richiwalt]

http://www.richimages.net/Penmanship/IMG_1519.PNG