Dip Pens For Beginners?

[Sandler]

Hello, everybody! About a month ago, I got a simple calligraphy set for my birthday and I've been working on the italic font. While it's mildly useful and the pen writes fairly well, I'm getting frustrated by how quickly I go through cartridges and how hard it is to tell that the cartridge needs changing before it starts spurting ink all over my pretty papers. I think I'd do better with a dip pen, but I don't know where to start. So far Speedball seems to have the best kit of chisel-tip nibs for italic writing. Does anybody have experience with them? Can you recommend something better? Thank you for helping a newbie!

[Mt.Roll]

Well, I've started learning some butchered Textura on monday night....

 

I've got meself a speedball holder coming in (any day now...), I'll let you know when it gets here how it works I guess?

[smk]

Welcome to FPN Sandler

 

Dip pens do give better results than FPs but are a bit of work to break in in some cases. There is a little bit of a learning curve when one first starts using them but the appreciation of superior results isn't far behind.

 

You have a choice of nibs of the broad-edged variety:

 

Speedball C-nibs. These range from C-0 (largets) to C6 (smallest). These are very nice nibs and all the smallest two or three have two slits that ensure nice ink flow throughout the breadth of the stroke.

 

Brause Nibs. These come in two flavors: The regular ones are slightly right-oblique which helps right-handed scribes keep a consistent nib angle, you can also get them in left-oblique (called Left Hand nibs). The obliqueness is quite gentle, I'd say about 15 degrees or so - you won't really notice it when writing. These nibs are quite stiff and have an overfeed which provides excellent flow. These nibs are marked in mm.

 

Hiro Tape Nibs. These are very similar to the Brause nibs but are slightly softer in feel. I believe they only come in right-oblique form but am not sure.

 

Mitchell Nibs. These are really nice nibs with a soft feel. These nibs have a slip-on reservoir that goes under the nibs which can easily be removed for cleaning. They go from size 0 (largest) to size 6 (smallest) and are quite sharp all the way through the range.

 

Hiro Rond Nibs. These are similar in design to the Mitchell nibs but are slightly stiffer. The few I have work just as well and one really can't tell the difference in using them.

 

Any of these nibs will work well for you. The Mitchell nibs are the easiest to clean. The Speedball and Brause don't have removable feeds and aren't as easily cleaned.

 

It is recommended that you learn a hand with a nib that's at least 2mm wide. Writing at this size shows inconsistencies clearly which helps with the learning process.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Salman

[Stompie]

Welcome to FPN Sandler

 

Dip pens do give better results than FPs but are a bit of work to break in in some cases. There is a little bit of a learning curve when one first starts using them but the appreciation of superior results isn't far behind.

 

You have a choice of nibs of the broad-edged variety:

 

Speedball C-nibs. These range from C-0 (largets) to C6 (smallest). These are very nice nibs and all the smallest two or three have two slits that ensure nice ink flow throughout the breadth of the stroke.

 

Brause Nibs. These come in two flavors: The regular ones are slightly right-oblique which helps right-handed scribes keep a consistent nib angle, you can also get them in left-oblique (called Left Hand nibs). The obliqueness is quite gentle, I'd say about 15 degrees or so - you won't really notice it when writing. These nibs are quite stiff and have an overfeed which provides excellent flow. These nibs are marked in mm.

 

Hiro Tape Nibs. These are very similar to the Brause nibs but are slightly softer in feel. I believe they only come in right-oblique form but am not sure.

 

Mitchell Nibs. These are really nice nibs with a soft feel. These nibs have a slip-on reservoir that goes under the nibs which can easily be removed for cleaning. They go from size 0 (largest) to size 6 (smallest) and are quite sharp all the way through the range.

 

Hiro Rond Nibs. These are similar in design to the Mitchell nibs but are slightly stiffer. The few I have work just as well and one really can't tell the difference in using them.

 

Any of these nibs will work well for you. The Mitchell nibs are the easiest to clean. The Speedball and Brause don't have removable feeds and aren't as easily cleaned.

 

It is recommended that you learn a hand with a nib that's at least 2mm wide. Writing at this size shows inconsistencies clearly which helps with the learning process.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Salman

 

+1 thank you!

[Holdav]

Thank you smk! That is great information!

[Bo Bo Olson]

My Soennecken nibs are easy full flex/ super flex.

My Hunt 99-100-101 are wet noodles, and weak kneed wet noodles.

There is some Hunt that I don't have that is a helium kneed wet noodle.

 

I find the 99-100-101 to be so easy to flex it is not funny.

[Wolverine1]

Our fellow FPN member Steve Engen handmakes some really wonderful dip-pens.

check out his site: www.dippens.net

[ink mixer]

I find the Brause nibs to be very good, but they are only available on line. If you are in the US, John Neal Bookseller and Paper and Ink Arts are good places to shop. Also, I would buy a converter for your pen, so that you don't have to keep using cartridges.

[inkstainedruth]

I know a number of people who do calligraphy, and seem to recall high praise for both Hunt and Mitchell nibs.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sandler]

Wow, thank you everybody who responded, especially smk! I'll look up all of those nibs and see which ones I can afford and which look like they'd be best for me. The slight obliqueness of the Brause nibs might help with the trouble I've been having with keeping the slant of my writing consistent. I might have trouble with softer nibs like Hiro and Mitchell if it means changes in pressure will be more obvious.

[smk]

You are most welcome Sandler.

 

Just to clarify, the Mitchell nibs feel a bit softer in use but do not show any line variation. The Brause are a good choice - they have excellent flow and produce lovely results.

 

Salman

[brunico]

+1 on the Brause. As fountain pen ink is thinner than acrylic ink or gouache or anything else you can't put in a fountain pen, I've found the Brause reservoirs (on top of the nib) hold ink better than the Mitchell reservoirs (below the nib): less chance of dripping. I don't remember this problem when I used Mitchell nibs with Indian ink.

 

I can write almost as fast with a 1mm Brause nib as I can with a 1.1mm nib on a fountain pen. Broader nibs will help you learn, as Salman says, but they take a bit more care.

 

The beauty of dip pens is that, if you find you bought the wrong nibs and dip pen holder, you're only out of pocket a few dollars. At least in the UK, good art stores will carry them: I got several Brause nibs for 85p each.

[josiah]

Speedball C-nibs. These range from C-0 (largets) to C6 (smallest). These are very nice nibs and all the smallest two or three have two slits that ensure nice ink flow throughout the breadth of the stroke.

 

Brause Nibs. These come in two flavors: The regular ones are slightly right-oblique which helps right-handed scribes keep a consistent nib angle, you can also get them in left-oblique (called Left Hand nibs). The obliqueness is quite gentle, I'd say about 15 degrees or so - you won't really notice it when writing. These nibs are quite stiff and have an overfeed which provides excellent flow. These nibs are marked in mm.

 

Any of these nibs will work well for you. The Mitchell nibs are the easiest to clean. The Speedball and Brause don't have removable feeds and aren't as easily cleaned.

 

One little correction: the Brause feeds do come off.

 

I have only used Speedball and Brause, and because the Brause feeds are removable, I've found myself using them almost exclusively for my chisel-point nib needs

 

That said, Speedball is what I used to begin with, and they feel like home.

[vondauster]

Our fellow FPN member Steve Engen handmakes some really wonderful dip-pens.

check out his site: www.dippens.net

 

 

Grumble. See what you made me do! (as my late mother used to say) Five minutes after checking out this site I ordered two of their pens!

 

At least you didn't make a reference to the Montblanc site. This way I can still easily afford to buy lunch...

 

Will

[ac12]

Thanks for the tip guys.

 

I just received a dip pen holder from Steve.

VERY nice

It costs a bit more than the plain pen holders, but it is oh so nice to look at.

And $15, seems like a very reasonable price for what you get.

 

Maybe I will ask Santa for another holder for Christmas.