How To Use Italic And Poster Nibs?

[Helios]

I purchased a set of italic and poster nibs with a straight holder yesterday. As I'm left handed, is there a different way of approach to writing?

Also, when I dipped the poster nib in ink, the first letter I write is so inky the ink permeated through a few pages of art paper. I am wondering how I am able to limit the ink flow.

[RMN]

Hi, I moved your question to a more appropriate forum, and as you probably want to do some calligraphy with your nibs this forum seems best suited.

 

Enjoy the forum

 

D.ick

[smk]

Hi Helios - what kind of poster nibs did you get? Are they the kind that have a reservoir on the top and bottom and the writing edge is folded up a little? If so, they will benefit from a good clean with a bit of toothpaste and an old toothbrush to clean off the protective coating. This should let the ink stick to the nib a little better and have a more controlled flow.

 

Also, are you using fountain pen ink? FP inks have surfactants added to help them flow in fountain pens. These effective make the ink wetter i.e. wetter than water. This is why some FP inks are useless with dip pens. Try adding a bit of water to your ink and see if it helps regulate the flow a bit better.

 

Higgins Eternal is a good all around ink to use for practice work. Another good all rounder is Walnut ink which is available in both crystal and liquid forms. Winsor and Newton Calligraphy inks are also good for broad pen work - especially the Matt Black.

 

Is your paper suitable for ink (or wet media)? Heavy paper doesn't necessarily work well with inks. Again some inks will work better than others on a give paper. Walnut ink is very forgiving in this respect. Higgins Eternal can be a beast with some papers.

 

I hope this helps a little with your experiments :-)

 

- Salman

[Helios]

Hello smk.

 

Thank you for replying. The nibs I have are the ones where the reservoir is attached to the nib and could be easily removed via a slight pull or tug. I have tried using the italic nibs and they do not overflow as much as the poster nibs.

 

Yes the ink I am using is fountain pen ink which may result in the ease of permeability as you have mentioned. After dipping, I touched the nib to the bottle sides so excess ink would slide back in the bottle. I will try dipping a bit of the ink in water and see if that works.

 

I will try and find calligraphic inks if possible. I am postulating that western calligraphy is not as popular here so it may be a bit more difficult to find or I have to order online (which may be a bit expensive due to shipping fares).

 

Thank you for your suggestions.