Question About William Mitchell Nibs

[Drawing61]

Hello,

 

I'm on a quest to learn an italic hand and have made some small progress. Small because I have numerous distractions but who hasn't. I have been practicing with Pilot Parallel but one of my practice books recommended William Mitchell Round Hand nibs. I bought a set of nibs along with some reservoirs which I finally figured out how to attach to the nib with less than spectacular results. My question is, is this the road ahead, scratchy skippy writing until I achieve some degree of mechanical competence?

[smk]

The Mitchell nibs are indeed quite sharp and unforgiving. If a nib is catching, it means either you are using too much pressure or failing to keep the whole of the nib on the paper allowing the edge to dig into the paper. You need a light touch with edged nibs in order to produce good results. Paper makes a difference too. Rough, absorbent papers are generally harder to write on.

 

Writing well with dip nibs does take some getting used to. It will help a lot if you can find a local guild and go to one of their meetings. 5 minutes with someone who knows how to write with dip pens will save you hours of frustration.

 

BTW - a Pilot parallel pen is a perfectly good instrument for learning Italic. The dip nibs will produce superior results. You can 'play' with them until you get used to them while doing most of your practice with the Pilot pens.

 

- Salman