Can you snip the tip of the nib of a normal fountain pen to make a calligraphy pen? Sounds pretty acheivable.

I don't know the specifics of it, but yes, there are people who grind regular nibs into stubs and italic. http://www.richardspens.com/ Mr. Binder is a well known nibmeister who does this. I think it'd be pretty hard to get a good result, though.

I use a cursive italic nib from Richard Binder for my studies on Arrighi's italic. Works wonderfully. It's much smoother with better ink flow than all the calligraphy pens that I've picked up from Hobby Lobby.

I second that. Richard Binder's nibs are truly wonderful to write with.

Expensive nibs (Pelikan) I either buy from Richard Binder or have him grind, cheap ones (steel Lamy for Safari or AL-Stars) I grind myself.

Doug

Yes, you can--and they can come out very well, giving you a very good thick/thin ratio. However, like HDoug, I only do this on inexpensive nibs.

Best, Ann

Please! Don't snip the tip of a pen! It may mangle the nib alignment and, if not done carefully, will remove all the harder rhodium/palladium/iridium from the tip. Meaning that you will be writing with steel (hard enough but possible corrosion problems) or gold (very soft, relatively speaking). Instead of snipping, try grinding the nib down with a small hand or bench stone. I have a short article on this here.

Best of luck to you and email me if you have any questions regarding this.

Alternatively, look for an inexpensive (cheap, $5 - $20) calligraphy fountain pen. Two brands you can find in many shops, sometimes even in arts & crafts ones, are Sheaffer and Manuscript. The nibs on both are simple stainless steel, broad and flat, with no tipping. Depending on what sets are in stock, you can buy them with one nib or up to 4, all of different widths.

I hope you don't snip the nib of your fountain pen with a pair of scissors or something. Grinding will give you the product that you want because you can take off little bits at a time.