What Can I Do With Dip Pens?

[ASCIIaardvark]

I've been playing with dip pens lately, enjoying diverse nib options & some of the writing-fluids not safe for fountain pens...

• gouache - nice for writing on black paper, has readable white/yellow
• mica powder - very sparkly, but not as readable as gouache
• acrylic inks - come in some nice metallics like gold/copper/nickel that fountain pen ink can't do
• glue - write in glue, then lay gold leaf or sprinkle embossing powder
• liquid latex - make a design, paint over it, remove latex for negative image
• bleach - write over (some) fountain-pen inks in bleach to erase them

 

What else can I do with dip pens that I can't do with my fountain pens?

 

 

[Bibliophage]

Dip pen nibs come in a vast variety of types that you'll never find in a fountain pen, unless you have one custom built. So even just with writing, you can do make your lettering look very different - on Christmas cards, for example. (Also, you can use a radio nib as a lancet.)

[AAAndrew]

Attempt to copy old ways of writing. Find some images of old letters and see what it was like to write everyday kinds of thing, like letters, ledgers, with dip pens. Find one of the old penmanship books on archive.org and practice using the tools the original students would have used.

 

Write letters, try lots of different styles of pens, play.

[ASCIIaardvark]

(Also, you can use a radio nib as a lancet.)

 

I hadn't heard of radio nibs - from what I read, they're a particular nib Esterbrook made, not a class of nibs like "G" nibs (Zebra/Nikio/Lenardt). Is that correct? I've never seen one in person.

 

 

 

@AAAndrew - I have trouble doing calligraphy in different hands, so I mostly just work on improving my handwriting. I wrote my secret santa in dip pen so I could use gouache on black paper & have been learning to make calligraphy-flourish animals like that bird.

 

I also learned a few of the things I did wrong with gold leafing during inktober, so I'll take another crack at that in the new year. I want to make some certificates for people who "win" events at my camp -- I think it'd be fun to juxtapose traditional gold-leaf scrollwork and an embossed seal with text saying they "smoked the most hookah" or "made the best fart noise on a didgeridoo" (like crass cross stitch)

[jvr]

I only use them to try new inks. But since I’m really old, they also remind me of my elementary school days when I learned to write with one, dipping the pen in the built-in ink well of my little desk. Pity that what I learned then I’ve forgotten since and my handwriting is atrocious.

 

And these days I wonder how the school’s janitors dealt with all those desk with full ink wells...

[AAAndrew]

Esterbrook Radio Pens were the regular pens but with a special silver-alloy coating which kept the pen from corroding quite as quickly. They all start have a 9xx number, usually related to their non-Radio equivalent. For example, Charles Schultz, the cartoonist who created Peanuts, only used a 914 Esterbrook nib to draw all of his cartoons. The 914 is just a #14 Bank Pen but with a coating. The 914’s go for a lot more than the regular 14’s, only because of the Peanuts connection, even though the 14’s are every bit as good.

 

Drawing with pen and ink is another thing to do with dip pens.

[Honeybadgers]

Throw them at people/things like lawn darts.

[Bibliophage]

Esterbrook Radio Pens were the regular pens but with a special silver-alloy coating which kept the pen from corroding quite as quickly. They all start have a 9xx number, usually related to their non-Radio equivalent. For example, Charles Schultz, the cartoonist who created Peanuts, only used a 914 Esterbrook nib to draw all of his cartoons. The 914 is just a #14 Bank Pen but with a coating. The 914’s go for a lot more than the regular 14’s, only because of the Peanuts connection, even though the 14’s are every bit as good.

 

Drawing with pen and ink is another thing to do with dip pens.

They're also reeeally sharp. At least, the ones I was using to test some ink I was diluting were very sharp.

[Honeybadgers]

I have a box of about a hundred 968 radios that I got for like $5 at an antique store. They write a damn treat, but aren't really flexible.

 

That reminds me, I need to give them a coat of oil. They're all bone dry.

[AAAndrew]

Dip pens, in general, are much sharper than fountain pens, which are tipped. They just take a much lighter touch and some time to get used to them.

 

BTW, dry is good for pens. They do not need, or want, oil. That just makes it harder for the ink to flow well.

 

The 968 is a firm pen. Thats one of the fun things about dip pens, they came in so many shapes, sizes and degrees of firmness. They each have their own writing experience. Thanks one of my favorite things to do with dip pens, try lots of different kinds. Ive put a few videos up on my YouTube channel. Heres one comparing several Inflexible pens from different manufacturers.

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by AAAndrew

[taimdala]

Oooh! Video! Thank you, AAAndrew!

[taimdala]

But to answer the question, "What can I do with dip pens?"

 

When I'm not writing with them, I use the blunt rear end of the nib holder as a hair stick, to keep my hair out of the way in my studio. Damned hair will get everywhere if you let it. It's got a mind of its own.

Edited December 13, 2019 by taimdala

[Honeybadgers]

Dip pens, in general, are much sharper than fountain pens, which are tipped. They just take a much lighter touch and some time to get used to them.

 

BTW, dry is good for pens. They do not need, or want, oil. That just makes it harder for the ink to flow well.

 

The 968 is a firm pen. Thats one of the fun things about dip pens, they came in so many shapes, sizes and degrees of firmness. They each have their own writing experience. Thanks one of my favorite things to do with dip pens, try lots of different kinds. Ive put a few videos up on my YouTube channel. Heres one comparing several Inflexible pens from different manufacturers.

 

 

Dry isn't good when you're trying to keep them safe in storage

 

also I always misread that box. They're not 968's, they're 896's.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[AAAndrew]

896? It’s an Esterbrook? If so, I would love to see a picture. That’s an Esterbrook number that doesn’t show up in any catalogues but was reported once without a picture.

[Honeybadgers]

896? It’s an Esterbrook? If so, I would love to see a picture. That’s an Esterbrook number that doesn’t show up in any catalogues but was reported once without a picture.

 

I'll take a pic. The box is in spectacular condition. I could be wrong, but the alignment and font make me think it's 896.

 

They're nothing special. Good, very large, but not very flexible

 

*edit* they're actually 968 radio's. It's just the weird way that they're written on the nib, they stamped the number upside down to how font is usually placed on nibs.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[AAAndrew]

 

*edit* they're actually 968 radio's. It's just the weird way that they're written on the nib, they stamped the number upside down to how font is usually placed on nibs.

 

That makes much more sense. Thanks.