Overwhelmed - Completely New To Fountain Pens And Penmanship

[sharonspens]

I see you are in Georgia. If you are in/near Atlanta, take a trip to Artlite and handle some pens in different price ranges. I can't recall if they will let you dip them, but at least HANDLE them so you get a feel for weights, styles, widths, etc.

 

When you are traveling, also look for a pen shop (DC, NYC, Houston, Santa Fe, LA, Chicago, Kansas City, Toronto, New Orleans, Indianapolis - yeah, I get around!). You should be able to handle some vintage and new pens in thos eplaces. and finally, I concur with finding a pen show and/or a local pen group who can talk you through some stuff.

 

And practice, practice, practice.

 

Sharon in Indiana

[Bo Bo Olson]

Bookcat, yes I do. With the Tripod, or any other variant of the tripod, the body of the pen is held behind the big index knuckle. To hold it before is to hold a fountain pen like a ball point.

 

The modern fountain pen, with it's fat blobby double 'kugal/ball' is designed so Ball Point Barbarians don't have to change their hold on the pen....causes skipping often enough.

You can not really use a vintage nib with a ball point hold.

 

 

You of course can use a tripod grip...three fingers clamped near the section. I don't, I use the 'forefinger up' variant. I didn't want to confuse our 'noobie' Zenobia too much, but will now show the 'forefinger up'. An automatic light way to grasp a pen.

The thumb is flat...this picture shows a tad too much thumb bend. The pen rests against the thumb. No pressure is used to "hold" the pen firmly....not needed.

The forefinger rests at 12-12:30-13:00, with just enough pressure to keep the fountain pen from doing back flips. The angle of this pen...a long posted thin medium-long pen is @ 40 degrees. It is at the start of the web of the thumb.

Zenobia, you should go to the advanced search section and look up the threads 'Classic Tripod' and 'Death Grip', with in those long threads....a good ones, a couple of us use the 'forefinger up' variant and talk about it there.

A problem with the 'Classic Tripod' is many say it can take months to develop a light grip.

The 'forefinger up' takes three minutes.

I had the Death Grip for 55 or more years, the 'forefinger up' got rid of it with in three minutes.

 

People new to fountain pens should have an idea how to hold a pen with the 'classic tripod', many of the better writers advocate it for best nib control when doing serious calligraphy.

There are woodcuts showing the master penmen of the late 19th century using a 'forefinger up' variant.

 

A bit early and might be a bit over your head ...today....not in a week, Zenobia.

Cursive is a good writing style for a fountain pen. Many print instead. IMO one should learn normal Cursive before jumping into fancy scripts.

And when one does, I favor learning stiff italic calligraphy, in it shows one how to form and draw letters, before going into more flexible scripts as listed below. The first time I tried to draw a letter with a real flexible nib, I had at least an idea from my dabbling with italic calligraphy how a letter was shaped.

 

There are Copperplate/Spenserian calligraphy styles where the pen is held behind the big knuckle.And there is italic calligraphy, where the pen is held before the big knuckle like a ball point with the nib canted/turned 45 degrees.....it is push-pulled to draw the letters.

In all three the letters must be learned by .... drawing them.

 

The forefinger up way of grasping a fountain pen. I use term grasp, because to me, gripping a fountain pen has a connotation of pressure...in I gripped for dear life with the Death Grip for some 55 years.

 

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/SAM_0418.jpg

Edited December 16, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson

[Kuhataparunks]

Don't sweat any of it; you'll acquire the knowledge over time. I learned mostly everything from SBRE Brown's YouTube channel, Hes a very informative character and makes quite quality-rich productions.

[BookCat]

Thanks Bo Bo, the pic really helps. I think I was confused by your use of the term "index finger", which to me means the finger which you're placing on top of the pen. To hold a pen behind this finger, as you described in your earlier post, seemed very odd.

 

I hold a fountain pen with the pen lightly resting in the web between my thumb and index finger, these digits hold the pen on either side and the pen then lightly rests upon the first knuckle of my middle finger. I always hold a pen with the nib facing the line of writing, I just can't do the angled-to-the-left nib position. This is the ideal position for flexing, but not quite ideal for an italic nib, but I use them anyway.

 

Sorry, for some odd reason I can't post the pic either in the post or as an attachment.

It's the second picture of post 37 in this thread: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/201146-the-classic-tripod-grip/page-2

Edited December 17, 2014 by BookCat

[Bo Bo Olson]

Bookcat, yours looks very classic tripod to me.

Looks very Death Grip too, but that depends on how much pressure you are using.

 

I hold my nib straight to the paper, unless the nib is vintage oblique, then I cant the nib, re-grip and write normal.

 

Italic calligraphy, I hold the pen body like a ball point before the big index knuckle and cant/twist the nib until it is 45 degrees. It is a push-pull action. I should try it again this year.

I like my Lamy 1.5 joy for that in I can see better what and how I'm drawing a letter.

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Zenobia,

 

First off, love the name, the best names start with Z!

 

Welcome to the addictive world of Fountain Pens and other fine writing instruments.

 

You might start with just one pen, but you will end up with a lot more as time goes by. I started with one but know I have about 25 and counting.

 

Great bunch here, I have know doubt that you can get your questions an answered here.

 

One thing I will suggest, check out a pen show if you can, I believe Atlanta has one each year.

 

So enjoy!

[Barnaby Bumble]

As someone who's still relatively new to this, too, I can tell you I didn't find a single site or book that laid out all the basics. I had to gather it from here and there, and infer a lot. Here are some things I found useful, in roughly the order I found them:

• SBRE Brown's YouTube videos.
• Goulet Pen Company's YouTube videos.
• Matt Armstrong's YouTube videos ("The Pen Habit").
• Some of the FPGeeks videos. (Some of them can be very "inside baseball," though.)
• Peter Twydle's book.
• This place.

Note that all but the last touch on only one of the topics you asked about: fountain pens. No calligraphy to speak of.