dip pens
 

Who plays with dip pens and what is a good way to get started
equpment wise?

matthew
ohio

dip pens
 

MatthewK wrote:

Who plays with dip pens and what is a good way to get started
equpment wise?

I use dip pens for most of my personal correspondence. They're great. If
you just want to get started, you can find any number of styles and
types ranging from soft to firm and fine to broad. Most dip pens are
remarkably cheap, too.

I know that places sell bags of assorted nibs, and you can then get a
holder for those nibs and just switch and mix until you find something
that you like.

Do you have a specific style of handwriting that you use? If your style
ranges to a more expressive Spencerian or Roundhand, you might look at
some flexible or truly flexible nibs. If you have a strong, more modern
Edwardian or Italic type hand, you might look at stronger, firmer nibs
that are more broad.

As for ink, well, you can find just about anything that you want out
there for dip pens, and dip pens can take all sorts of ink, so go crazy
there. My favorite for letter writing right now is Encre Authentique
which holds up really well in weather and international mail systems.
--
Aaron Hsu | Jabber:
``Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to
live at the expense of everybody else.'' - Frederic Bastiat

dip pens
 

On Tue, 27 May 2008 16:49:34 +0000, MatthewK
wrote:

Who plays with dip pens and what is a good way to get started
equpment wise?

I recommend Speedball and I use the italic C-4 and C-5 nibs. I've
used other nibs, but the Speedball nibs have this thing on that holds
ink pretty good, more ink than the ones that don't. I've tried at
least a few dozen other nibs. As far as the italic--it's the only
kind of point I use because it seems to make my handwriting more
readable--but they make all kinds of speedball nibs.

As far as ink, I recommend the Bombay inks. I'd get the regular blue
and grass green. Orange is good. And some of the reds look good as
well--the green is not green and the blue greens all look about the
same to me--get a white from somewhere--I'm using Bombay white. I've
used the Higgins inks too, and no problem with those. Regular
fountain pen inks also do pretty good.

This whole deal is cheap--a bottle of Bombay is less than $3 bucks and
you can get a nib and a holder for about the same thing, $3.

Glass pens are worthless if you ask me.

dip pens
 

In ,
Aaron Hsu wrote:

If
you just want to get started, you can find any number of styles and
types ranging from soft to firm and fine to broad.

By any chance, do you know whether nibs come in more than one standard size?
I recently pulled the nib from an Osmiroid "easy-change" FP section to
adjust it (they slide right in and out), and discovered that it's
essentially a dip-pen nib. Same type of thin, hardened, springy steel
(gold-plated), same sheared slit, same type of tail... and the same lack of
a pellet. However, the curve is a little smaller in diameter than an
Esterbrook and a Speedball that I had handy to compare it to.

It seems like the Osmiroid could be a nice "reservoir" holder for dip pens.

Brian
--

dip pens
 

Brian Ketterling wrote:

In ,
Aaron Hsu wrote:

If
you just want to get started, you can find any number of styles and
types ranging from soft to firm and fine to broad.

By any chance, do you know whether nibs come in more than one standard size?

If you are talking about fountain pen nibs, then yes, they do come in
different sizes. The nature of the barrels and the assemblies
necessitates this to some degree, or at least, it does on the pens I
use.

On the other hand, there seems to be a pretty standard neck size for dip
pens. I can't confirm this, though.

--
Aaron Hsu | Jabber:
``Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to
live at the expense of everybody else.'' - Frederic Bastiat

dip pens
 

In ,
Aaron Hsu wrote:

If you are talking about fountain pen nibs, then yes, they do come in
different sizes.

Yes, they do :) .

On the other hand, there seems to be a pretty standard neck size for dip
pens. I can't confirm this, though.

_That's_ what I was talking about. Osmiroid might have adopted dip pen
construction for custom-sized nibs, but it seems more likely to me that
along with material and technique, they would have used an already existing
dip pen *size*, as well. It would have saved on tooling, if nothing else.

Thanks, in any case -- maybe I'll run across some of my hypothetical
"smaller size" nibs sometime.

Brian
--

dip pens
 

On 2008-05-27, MatthewK wrote:
Who plays with dip pens and what is a good way to get started
equpment wise?

Thanks for all the great replies group. I'm definately headed
in the right direction now.

dip pens
 

MatthewK wrote:

On 2008-05-27, MatthewK wrote:
Who plays with dip pens and what is a good way to get started
equpment wise?

Thanks for all the great replies group. I'm definately headed
in the right direction now.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your dip pens, what you buy, and how
they turn out for you!
--
Aaron Hsu | Jabber:
``Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to
live at the expense of everybody else.'' - Frederic Bastiat

dip pens
 

On 2008-06-02, Aaron Hsu wrote:
MatthewK wrote:

Thanks for all the great replies group. I'm definately headed
in the right direction now.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your dip pens, what you buy, and how
they turn out for you!

Absolutely. :)

dip pens
 

On 2008-06-02, Aaron Hsu wrote:
MatthewK wrote:


Thanks for all the great replies group. I'm definately headed
in the right direction now.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your dip pens, what you buy, and how
they turn out for you!

Well, it looks like I might be buying some nibs and just ink. I
found some old speedball calligraphy stuff from when I was a
kid. :) I'll probably post something here when I get a chance
to test them out.

My main interest is in italic forms and I would like to devote
some time to renisance italic in the future. I think if I want
to do fancy stuff I'll order a brush pen...then again
spencerian may be in my future yet. ;)

matthew
ohio