Testing Old English Gothic With Fp Vs. C-Marker

[50000cal]

I decided to try to do some "self research" on the efficiency of writing in the Old English Gothic style with a fountain pen. I pitted my Lamy Safari XF nib with Lamy Black ink against a ZIG Memory System double-ended calligraphy marker, using the 3.5 mm end of the marker. The results are actually interesting...

 

 

This picture shows the aesthetic and time difference. Left side shows the marker, the right side is my Lamy.

 

 

These two are close-ups to show paper degradation. The ZIG marker shows some feathering, but this is cheap printer paper, and I held the marker at 2 or 3 seconds in one spot. The right side, although it might look more elegant, has ridiculous paper damage. It's fine tunes, but it scratched off the paper a lot. If you glide your fingers across the page, you'd feel nothing on the ZIG side, but you'd feel a lot of bumps on the Lamy side. The biggest and most plausible explanation for this is the XF nib. I might update this post when I get my medium Metropolitan.

 

The other thing is that gauging the thickness of a line is difficult while using a thin pen. The marker already has an 3.5, but you need to imagine what it would look like if you tried to trade it with a fountain pen.

 

I needed to downscale the pictures because the phone camera shoots something roughly 3000 x 2400 photos.

 

Short summary: it's very possible to write OE Gothic, just be prepared for quite a lot of doodling and fine tuning. If you want the best, I would rather go with a dip pen with a wide line.

[mvarela]

Arguably, with the Lamy you're not writing, but hand-lettering. Stick to dip nibs and/or Parallels

[Hedvika]

On YouTube are videos with the use of Parallel pens. It's a great pen for this type of calligraphy, you should try it.

[Randal6393]

Why are you trying Gothic with an EF nib? Classically, Gothic was done with a broad-edged pen, something like a 1.1 mm italic nib. Get a 1.1mm or a 1.5 mm italic for the Lamy and compare that to the Zig marker. You will find using the right tool helps a lot.

 

Best of luck and enjoy,

[Randal6393]

Arguably, with the Lamy you're not writing, but hand-lettering. Stick to dip nibs and/or Parallels

Sorry, mvarela, but the Lamy nib he is using is the wrong nib for gothic lettering. If one switches to an italic nib, the Lamy is an excellent pen for gothic writing and is equivalent to a dip nib or a Parallel. I have several that get a lot of usage.

 

Enjoy,

[mvarela]

Sorry, mvarela, but the Lamy nib he is using is the wrong nib for gothic lettering. If one switches to an italic nib, the Lamy is an excellent pen for gothic writing and is equivalent to a dip nib or a Parallel. I have several that get a lot of usage.

 

Enjoy,

Precisely my point, he's using an XF nib for something that should be done with a broad edge. He's doing hand-lettering (drawing and painting the letters) as opposed to writing/calligraphy.

 

I disagree about the Lamy italics (which is not what he's using!) being the equal of a dip pen (or even a PP) for broad-edge scripts . They're nice nibs (I have the whole italic series, some in more than one pen, and use them pretty much everyday), but the hairlines and line variation they produce are nowhere near those of a dip pen.

Edited January 23, 2014 by mvarela

[Randal6393]

Precisely my point, he's using an XF nib for something that should be done with a broad edge. He's doing hand-lettering (drawing and painting the letters) as opposed to writing/calligraphy.

 

I disagree about the Lamy italics (which is not what he's using!) being the equal of a dip pen (or even a PP) for broad-edge scripts . They're nice nibs (I have the whole italic series, some in more than one pen, and use them pretty much everyday), but the hairlines and line variation they produce are nowhere near those of a dip pen.

Yes, I agree -- for good broad-edged writing, one needs to use a dip pen (or a quill, if one is a real masochist). That is what I meant to say, myself.

 

But, the Lamy Safari is the equivalent of most fountain pens, IMHO. And can be used for practice in gothic, study of other broad-edged scripts, and general writing.

 

Enjoy,

[mvarela]

Yes, I agree -- for good broad-edged writing, one needs to use a dip pen (or a quill, if one is a real masochist). That is what I meant to say, myself.

 

But, the Lamy Safari is the equivalent of most fountain pens, IMHO. And can be used for practice in gothic, study of other broad-edged scripts, and general writing.

 

Enjoy,

 

Then we're in agreement!

have a good one!