Artist's nib

[antoniosz]

A friend from the cold north has introduced to me this interesting early Waterman's nib variation, which carries the name of "Artist's nib". No, I am not an artist, but this is a long tines, extra fine, extra flex nib that Waterman provided to customers on special order. He also pointed me towards a seller that had a sample on sale. Thanks Mike. The rest is history... The pen (and the nib) is on the way, and I promise to review it when it gets here.

 

AZ

 

So much for financial sanity. After Dennis B help me sell a number of pens and brought my 2005 negative balance to a more bearable figure, a new PFM and this pen has put me deep in the red. Oh well.

Edited May 4, 2005 by antoniosz

[wimg]

Hi Antonios,

 

Wow, sounds great! Looking forward to your artistry with this nib! Sorry about the wallet ache, though. Guess that couldn't really be avoided .

 

Warm regards, Wim

[antoniosz]

I am sorry for the delay. It has been busy recently

Well it is all Mike C.'s fault. First he showed me this Waterman

ad in a discussion about points of the #7 ripples.

But my eyes were caught by the nib at the bottom right.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/WatPointSel3.jpg

to make things "worse" he even pointed me to a web site that was selling one.

It belongs to a person that posts some of the most to drool for pens on ebay (askm936). This is what I found there :

http://home.comcast.net/~askm963/poc4.JPG

My resistance to spending evaporated and I got it.

So it is now on my desk filled with Waterman Brown. OK I am not an artist but I have enjoyed using this pen. Essentially an uber-wet noodle. Both "wet" and "noddle" as you can see below.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/Artist1.jpg

In comparison with my other waterman nibs it is the longest and the most pointy.

It is the one on the very left. Next to it, there is what I have considered a really wet noodle. The 4th from the left is a Waterman star nib, and the last from the right is a great fine flex #4.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/Artist2.jpg

One more example. I am not sure if this pen is ment for writing - (artist?), but I have for sure enjoyed it....

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/Artist3.jpg

Actually I just found this link with a drawing that is said to be drawn by a similar nib (LINK)

Edited March 21, 2007 by antoniosz

[covertpen]

Hi Folks

 

AZ meant to say bottom right

When your name embraces the alphabet there is little room for reference!

Or maybe with all the writing he does there is nothing but left :blink:

I prefer to think it's because he's an Engineer

 

One thing for sure we know he's got write nailed down solid.

 

Perfect AZ just perfect

Edited May 21, 2005 by covertpen

[antoniosz]

Mike, the left was not right, so I had to write right, right?

Thanks one more time for pointing me to that nib

[antoniosz]

Another Artist's nib on a late Safety Waterman's pen. This is the (grand?)daughter of the earlier eyedropper that I posted above last year.

According to M. Fultz the late Safeties were sold by Waterman from mid 30s up to the 60s.

In basic black, this pen is not an eye-candy but the artist's nib is to drool for

Initially I thought that this was plastic - as mine does not smell after rubbing and I had attributed the faint smell of hard rubber to the seal. But I was corrected on PT that these pens are made of hard rubber.

Anyway, the more important part of the pen , the artist's nib, gives a great range of thicknesses (from a very thin hairline to a decent width BB.

The thin-thick contrast is excelent and the result very very enjoyable. A wonderful pen with a superb nib.

Thanks to Charles Ackerman for making the pen available and many thanks to Richard Binder for fixing the mechanism

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/waterman-artist-001.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/waterman-artist-003.jpg

Edited March 21, 2007 by antoniosz

[Ashland]

That writing is so gorgeous it makes me want to cry or maybe just jump up in down fists clenched in jealousy. I want to write like that! Really, is the secret in the nib or learning to write in a certain way? I bought a Sailor Super Script hoping to produce similar capital letters--especially the As, but I haven't managed to do so. Please tell me...am I doomed to buy another specialty nib?

 

Ashland

 

P.S. Thanks again for sharing that amazing handwriting.

[WillAdams]

Ashland,

 

I list 3 books on copperplate-style calligraphy and flourishing on my web site:

 

http://members.aol.com/willadams/books-calligraphy.html

 

Pictorial Calligraphy: Gems of Flourishing

Lupfer, E.A.

(New York: Dover Publications, 1982).

ISBN 0-486-21957-7 Paperback.

Original title, Fascinating Pen Flourishing, Containing a Complete Course and a Collection of Masterpieces Produced by Leading Penmen of the Penmanship Profession (1951 edition).

 

Ornamental Penmanship: Two Eighteenth-Century English Classics of Calligraphy

Tomkins, Thomas & William Milns.

(New York: Dover Publications, 1983).

ISBN 0-486-24449-0 Paperback.

Facsimile of The Beauties of Writing by Tomkins, 1777 and The Penman's Repository by Milns, 1794--95. Nice example of copperplate and other scripts rendered by engraving.

 

Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy: A Step-by-Step Manual

Winters, Eleanor.

(Avenel, New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1994).

ISBN 0-517-10134-3 Hardcover.

Contemporary text.

 

I'd suggest the Winters book to start.

 

William

[antoniosz]

Ashland, thanks for your kind words. If you have the patience and you are willing to practice it can be done.

 

Williams, thanks for the wonderful list of books. Especially for the link to "La Operina". Please post the link to your site in the penmanship forum.

It would be nice to extend the list of the suggested books.

 

AZ

[rosey]

Your handwriting is beautiful. Thanks for sharing with us. I would love to learn but I don't think I have the patience to practice!

 

I was wondering what kind of paper you used in the last post. (I can't get the picture to copy, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.)

Is it special paper for calligraphy?

I'm always interested in new paper and I like the looks of it.

[kissing]

Your writing with that pen is brilliant

 

Nice Nib and Nice Hand

[antoniosz]

Your handwriting is beautiful. Thanks for sharing with us. I would love to learn but I don't think I have the patience to practice!

I was wondering what kind of paper you used in the last post. (I can't get the picture to copy, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.)

Is it special paper for calligraphy?

I'm always interested in new paper and I like the looks of it.

 

Thank you for you kind words and I am sorry for taking more than one year to reply

The paper is Séyès (French ruled) paper by Clairefontaine. Check the discussion here about this paper.

[PelikanPenman]

Antonio, I for one am glad you took so long to respond. Otherwise I would not have seen this. I must say that is a very nice nib. Thank you for the post.

 

Cheers.

[MYU]

I'd like to see a video of THIS pen in your capable hands, Antonios!

 

~Gary

[Gran]

Very helpful indeed. Thanks much for this thread!

[JonB55198]

This nib is amazing

[Bo Bo Olson]

Envy is my second middle name.

 

More than likely affordable 'back in the day' prices too.

Edited October 14, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[curioti]

I just scored my first artist nib which I found on a stenographer #12. I am debating whether to sell it or have Henry Simpole do an overlay on it.

 

It is similar to the Waterman Pink in that it lays down a fantastic line. But it takes more pressure to do so than some of the wet noodles I have. i guess I am truly spoined when I complain about an Artist nib

[watch_art]

an artist's nib IS a wet noodle. It shouldn't take ANY pressure to get flex. Mine is about as soft as you could imagine a nib being.

[MrMGWard]

Unless I am mistaken the Artists nib should require much less pressure to flex than a Pink nib. I have unfortunately never had that privilege of using one though. So my knowledge may be somewhat lacking.

 

The Artist nib is what I would consider my Holy Grail nib... *sigh* someday haha