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Testing A Dip Nib "enhancer"


antoniosz

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Since the early 1800, when dip nibs were massively produced, people kept trying to enhance the ink capacity of the nibs. Of course fountain pens were invented and solved the problem, but dipnibs were still used till the ballpoint came into the picture, primarily because of their low cost but also because of their superior perfrormNce with The social correspondence hands. In principle, one could stick a dip pen into an FP, but hey if it was just for efficiency we would not be dealing with fountain pens...

 

To make a long story short, people today still try to invest such dip pen enhancers. CAse in point a friend ftom UK asked me to test his invention

 

Here is the result.

Edited by antoniosz
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That looks good....I have a couple of nibs with built in bent metal reservoirs. Some don't, and a fella here has taken bees wax and made a 'feed' that I am going to try some day.

Got the bees wax candle for it.

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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I almost never use a dip pen because of the lack of ink after a few words. This looks interesting. Could someone tell me how to make a bee's wax reservoir? Thanks.

There will be no crisis this week. My calendar is already full.

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I almost never use a dip pen because of the lack of ink after a few words. This looks interesting. Could someone tell me how to make a bee's wax reservoir? Thanks.

Your press bee's wax into the back of the nib below the breather hole and incise lines into it like a feed.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4328026978_c1f01faa11.jpg

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Jbb - the beeswax is quite nice idea, but I am sure it requires some dexterity (post a video if you can).

 

I should also give credit to the creator of the feed - his name is Andy Newton (I do need permission from him before I post any more contact info)!

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Jbb - the beeswax is quite nice idea, but I am sure it requires some dexterity (post a video if you can).

 

I should also give credit to the creator of the feed - his name is Andy Newton (I do need permission from him before I post any more contact info)!

Not much dexterity needed. :headsmack: The beeswax feed is crude and very simple: push a bit of beewax that you've soften with the heat of your fingers into the back of the nib then take a nail file (or something like that) to make feed-like lines in the wax to hold more ink. It's takes about a minute to make and probably costs less than a penny in wax. :thumbup:

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oh neat! the two little nubs sort of hug the nib, and then the feed thingy is under of course, holding ink, feeding it (pah!) to the nib. interesting. what's it made from? how many has he made? is this a one-off?

 

andy newton? hey! i'm a newton!

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Thanks for the information about the bee's wax hack. I shall try it as soon as I locate the hunk of bee's wax I have kicking around the house.

There will be no crisis this week. My calendar is already full.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Greetings to all here...

 

I am the guy who made the dip pen reservoir tested in the first post above.

 

More information here for those of you who are interested.

 

The most recent design version is reservoir number 100.

Photos of reservoir number 100 are below.

 

post-49682-0-39916800-1296751102.jpg

post-49682-0-15121600-1296751118.jpg

post-49682-0-12426600-1296751138.jpg

post-49682-0-02039800-1296751156.jpg

 

How to make one?

Practise, practise, practise....!

The basic method is to stick strips of masking tape onto the inside surface of a dip pen, then push a blob of melted plastic into the pen and also form plastic fixing wings that extend round the sides of the pen. When cool, slide the plastic molding off the pen, remove the masking tape, and slide back on. There is now a gap between the plastic and the pen, where the masking tape was. That gap is the ink reservoir space.

Here is a page from my notebooks recording how I made reservoir 100. The notes are rather brief, so extra information added below the image.

 

post-49682-0-53517000-1296751787.gif

 

Dimensions above are in millimetres.

The tape assembly pressed down inside the pen is slightly narrower than the pen. This is necessary to give a secure mounting of the reservoir.

The plastic used is Polycaprolactone or "PCL", available under the trade names of Polymorph, Shapelock, Friendly Plastic. Melt it at about 70degC and form it with your fingers.

I melt it on a silicon rubber sheet resting on a metal plate resting on top of a domestic slow-cooker set to low heat.

The plastic is supplied as small beads or pellets. Count the beads to make each part of the molding in steps 5 and 6 above.

The "carrot core" in step 5 means that seven beads are melted, rolled into a tapering carrot shape, and placed inside the pen. Then the pen is rested on the slow-cooker hot plate to remelt the plastic. You can see in one photograph above that a few small air bubbles were trapped when the "carrot" remelted and settled into the masking tape mold.

Step 6 is done whilst the main core is still molten, so the wings fuse with the core.

 

I am doing this project for my own use in pen and ink drawing and sketching. As the reservoir design and manufacture method is working well now it is time for me to get on with trying to improve my drawing skills instead of having fun studying reservoir designs. :rolleyes:

 

Here is the sort of thing I am doing now, using the pen and reservoir shown above.

 

post-49682-0-08132300-1296752808.gif

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Thank you Andy...

Some day, I'll get the plastic....

 

But what am I to do with the two bees wax candles I bought just for the day...for my dip pens. :headsmack: Of course they are unopened.

 

At least some of my supplies on hand will be used.

 

I go putting a candle light dinner, and the wife will wonder if the post-woman rang twice. :rolleyes:

In reference to P. T. Barnum; to advise for free is foolish, ........busybodies are ill liked by both factions.

 

 

The cheapest lessons are from those who learned expensive lessons. Ignorance is best for learning expensive lessons.

 

 

 

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Nice design Andy and thanks for sharing. The design notes/sketches are so awesome!

And non-toxic biodegrable plastic you can melt without getting reprimanded by parents? I am in! :-)

 

Some questions I have are:

 

1. Is the device meant to be easily detachable from the nib?

2. What is holding the device in place? Is it just the wing biting into the vertical

edges of the nib, or friction caused by plastic contraction on cooling?

3. Can you explain how the deeper back reservoir prevents rinse water trap?

 

Sam

Edited by lamder
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Some questions I have are:

 

1. Is the device meant to be easily detachable from the nib?

2. What is holding the device in place? Is it just the wing biting into the vertical

edges of the nib, or friction caused by plastic contraction on cooling?

3. Can you explain how the deeper back reservoir prevents rinse water trap?

 

Sam

 

Answers

 

1) Yes, the plastic reservoir slides off the nib. (If the nib is a suitable shape - see below.)

If the reservoir is stored permanently on the nib then the nib will rust due to traces of moisture left inside.

Vintage dip pen nibs are generally springy carbon steel - not stainless - they rust quickly when damp. If stored dry they do not go rusty though.

After each drawing session I slide the reservoir off the nib, clean the separated pen and reservoir, dry the nib, and leave the two parts separate until next use.

 

2) The pastic molding is an exact fit to the metal pen on the top surface (where the two wings are) and round the side edges of the pen in the wing "armpits", and a very short distance up inside the pen all along the edges of the central core at the sides of the pen. So those mating surfaces give the reservoir a firm fixed support in the correct position. To achieve that shape and fit all that is needed is to ensure that when making the molded reservoir the side edges of the masking tape stop a little way short of the internal sides of the pen.

The molten plastic forms a precise match to any imperfections in the surface of the metal. If the wings extend over an area of lettering embossed on the metal nib then the plastic molds itself into the letter indentations. When slid on and off you can feel the wings clicking into exact registration as the lettering goes back into exact engagement.

 

For other shapes of metal dip pen:

If your prefered type of dip pen nib has a deeply embossed design, or if it is any shape other than a part of a simple straight cylinder, then the winged reservoir design shown above would not be removable by sliding forward and backwards.

Making a removeable plastic reservoir is still possible though. Leave off the two side wings. Remember to include some areas inside the molding where the plastic will be in direct contact with the inside surface of the pen - to create location points. Then when making the molding the cooled plastic reservoir will simply lift out of the pen. Remove the masking tape and then re-attach the plastic reservoir with a small elastic band positioned like a belt around the reservoir and pen.

 

 

3) As I use heavily pigmented drawing ink the nib and reservoir can become coated with sticky layers of dried ink during a drawing session. To stop that happening I swish the pen and reservoir occasionally in a jar of water and dry it on a paper tissue, dip in ink again, and carry on drawing. Early designs suffered from a problem though. Any water held back up at the top of the reservoir space would dilute the first ink dip made after a rinse.

The solution to that problem is to make the reservoir gap between plastic and pen very slightly deeper up at the back end. That ensures that when the rinsed pen and reservoir is dried with a paper tissue then every last drop of water drains out onto the tissue.

 

The depth of the reservoir gap is controlled by the number of layers of masking tape stacked up inside the pen when making the molding.

Strips a, b, and c create the gap at the front of the pen under the tines. (Three layers of tape.)

Strips d and e are shorter, and build up the main ink reservoir space to five layers of tape.

Then strips f and g are shorter still, making the gap even deeper at the back end stepping to six layers and then seven layers of tape. Such a deep gap will not hold onto ink or water, so the rinse water in that area is pulled forward by capillary action into the narrowest gaps it can find - at the front of the pen - where it finds its way out - and into a paper tissue. Problem solved.

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This is pretty good. I remember dip pens, with feeds like the ones on fountain pens, from the 1950s. Haven't found one lately, but this is excellent.

Edited by pajaro

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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Thanks again Andy. You are very generous with your knowledge and explanations.

 

I am really geeked out by mods like these, so if you don't mind a couple of followup comments/questions:

 

2. So we are relying on the inevitable imperfections or indentations on the the nib to hold the

plastic mostly in place as I understand it.

 

3. Is the wider opening just so tissue can reach the water, or is it also because surface tension/capillary

effects on a narrower opening are preventing the tissue from wicking away all the water in older designs?

 

4. When dipping ink, is it sufficient to immerse the front opening or would you have to go deep enough

that the back opening is immersed?

Edited by lamder
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Generous explanations --- Do I mind more questions?

 

In fact I am delighted! - If more users join this research project the results could be improved even further.

 

After trying a heap of experiments (see photo of heap below) the value of the enhancements that can be achieved is proven.

--- Further discoveries and improvements are certainly possible though.

--- And optimising for different inks or different styles of use or different nib types (stubs etc) remains to be explored.

 

Many of the basic bugs in the design have been encountered and solved. And I have some reasonable explanations of why things work like they do.

--- Further problems may be encountered later (see tightness of fit example below) and then solved by design changes.

--- Better, or entirely different, explantions of the physical processes involved may be found if more experimental results are collected.

 

Manufacturing methods are fairly easy and repeatable, after some practise in learning how to manipulate blobs of soft hot plastic.

--- There must be lots of alternative manufacture methods or materials that remain to be explored. Some may be far better than my current methods. (E.g. FIMO?)

 

All these thoughts encourage me to share my experiments, designs, methods, results, and (theoretical) explanations. Other experimenters can use all this information as a starting point for more research. Think "Galaxy Zoo" (Google that if needed) ... becomes ... "Reservoir Zoo" ...?!!

 

Here is the heap of experiments:

 

post-49682-0-97356100-1296834308.jpg

 

At bottom left is an example of a fancy shape pen that cannot use a slide-on slide-off reservoir. It is a wingless design held in place by a rubber band. The pen is a Perry&Co No429 Manifold.

 

" ....relying on the inevitable imperfections or indentations on the the nib to hold the

plastic mostly in place ....?"

The reservoirs in the heap above were generally a rather tight fit on whatever pen they were molded onto. After a few days of use some can become too tight to comfortably slide on and off the pen, especially if the wings join at the top to form a complete 180 degree arch. (Plastic wear, scuffing, ink debris in the narrow gaps where the pen edges are embedded in plastic?)

The open "wing" design as seen in example 100 seems a good compromise. The example tested in the first post of this thread has the wings rather far back with a long reservoir pointing forward. That does give a secure fixing but slight changes in angle at the fixing point may change the feed gap at the front of the system. In design 100 the wings are further forward to reduce that source of error.

 

Is the wider opening just so tissue can reach the water ....?

After a rinse in water I wrap or fold a kitchen tissue round the wet pen and reservoir, squeeze gently, and then continue use. The gap profile used in design 100 has the result that all the water drains out when I do that. I don't push the tissue up into the gap between pen and plastic.

Other earlier gap profiles retained some water - as I found to my cost in some drawings that had mysterious patches of diluted ink appearing.

Some changes to the gap profile were tried, and tested by wrapping the pen and reservoir in a clean tissue and then shaking it and checking to see if any water comes out.

My explanation of why design 100 drains fully is not proven fact, it is just the idea that led me to try the slight deepening of the rear gap.

 

Depth of dipping?

That is an most interesting topic.

If you make a shallow reservoir gap that is a constant depth all the way from front to back (say three layers of masking tape at full length of pen) then a dip at just the front end of the pen can suck ink up into the reservoir all the way to the top, some way above the level where the pen is dipped to.

The ink can be sucked up all the way to the top even if the reservoir gap is much deeper if there is also a central ridge in the plastic acting as a shallow "feed gap". That is easy to make, by removing a central strip in some of the layers of masking tape that are stacked together before pressing into the pen.

However, after making reservoirs that could suck up gallons of ink and write for ages, with a fairly uniform wetness, before needing to be dipped again, I decided that other factors were more important in real use. Ease of rinsing especially.

So the current design (reservoir 100) is dipped so the wings remain just above the ink. The reservoir does not suck up quite as much ink as some other designs, but it is still ample for my purposes. Consider the solid black areas in the example drawing in my first post here. Plenty of ink in reservoir 100 at each dip for that type of use.

Then to rinse, I dip in water so the entire reservoir is submerged. Lift out of the water and some large drops of dirty water will fall out of the pen - that is the rearmost area draining down. Then drying on a tissue as described sucks the rest of the reservoir area dry.

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