Bluesea wrote:

"Aaron Hsu" wrote in message
...
"Take the pen between the first and second fingers and the thumb,
observing, 1st, that it crosses the second finger on the corner of the
nail; 2d, that it crosses the fore finger forward of the knuckle;

I don't understand "knuckle." Which one? I've got it under the pad before
the first joint nearest the fingertip.

In these particular descriptions, this means that the pen should cross
the fore finger just between the first (largest) knuckle nearest the
palm bones and the second joint. It's slightly old terminology.

3d,
that the end of the thumb touches the holder opposite the lower joint of
the fore finger;

See, this "lower joint" sounds like the one closest to the palm, the
farthest from the fingertip. I'm getting confused. Which end is up? ("Who's
on first?")

The lower joint here is the one furthest from the palm.

4th, that the top of the holder points towards the
right shoulder;

This forces the writer to cock the wrist inward, doesn't it?

Not in the proper writing position. According to thise book, the wrist
is basically not used, only the fingers, fore arm, and shoulders for
some three different types of motions. The book actually mentions three
different positions for sitting, the one that seems to work best for me
is the standard forward facing version. In this version, you stand with
your shoulders straight forward and your fore arms resting on the edge
of the desk. You let your arms form right angles with each other, and
then you let the paper sit parrallel with your right arm. This lets the
pen sit naturally and squarely with the paper, and also let's the write
remain straight. The forearm is then used to transport the pen across
the paper, while the fingers perform the minor details of the letters.

5th, that the wrist is above the paper, and the hand
resting lightly on the nails of the third and fourth fingers; 6th, that
the point of the pen comes squarely to the paper."

The book further describes two different strokes, the light stroke and
the shades strokes. With light strokes being formed "by moving the pen
lightly on the paper without springing or spreading the teeth," and
shaded strokes formed "by springing the pen by a pressure to spread the
teeth, then lightening the pressure, and allowing them to return to
place."

Few people today use this form of holding the pen,

From what I got from the description, it sounds uncomfortable.

It really depends on what style of writing you have. If you are trying
to write Spencerian, I think it works very very well. It takes practice,
but it does work well, because it helps to create a consistency and
reduces variables. if you are trying to write in another form, it might
not be the best.

or writing, and what
is considered light in the fountain pen world, even though it is very
light, may not be light enough for a flexible steel dip pen. With a
fountain pen, sometimes there are certain directions and shapes to make
that require a bit more pressure to make the proper ink flow that you
want. With a steel dip pen like those I use, these additional pressures
will deliver very different stokes than what most people expect, and so
a very ilght touch is usually required, with the shaded strokes being
formed deliberately.

As for dipping, I notice that some of the replies want you to brush the
nib with a brush or drop into the feed system. I think these are all
good ideas when absolute writing integrity must be guaranteed, but when
it comes to daily correspondence, this method seems very slow to me, and
I prefer to dip the nib straight into the bottle. I use Mont Blanc
bottles to store my ink, and they work very well for maintaining the
proper depth of ink for dipping.

How far do you dip? Do you dip the entire nib or halfway or what? My glass
pen has grooves that spiral upward that are supposed to hold ink for longer
writing, but I get too much ink and too wide of a line when I dip more than
about 1/8" up the tip.

I dip just past the main hole drilled in the nib. Sometimes, if i need
to do details, then I don't always dip that high up. Other times, if I
need a lot of ink for a large line or something, and I know that I can
control the smear, I'll dip a little more and shake a little less.

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