The Meisterstück 149 Calligraphy Appreciation Thread

[fpupulin]

As those who follow this thread have abundantly seen, I mostly ask my 149 Calligraphy to produce scripts (like the Copperplate), in which I want the shadows to be darker than the thin strokes, but within a certain limit, say, with a thickness about twice that of the highlights. In this way, the Cursive do has variations between "light and shadow," but at the same time it maintains a light appearance, which is the type of script I prefer.

 

Now, and this is a topic I've rarely touched on, the ability of a pen to produce thin and very broad strokes is certainly a required quality of a flexible nib, but it represents only one component of a quality nib. From my perspective, another essential quality is the ability to produce lines of intermediate thickness that have a certain consistency, responding in a measured—and I would almost say exact—way to a moderate amount of pressure from the hand.

 

When talking about 149 Calligraphy, it's usually stated that the stroke can vary from 0.3 mm (EF) to about 1.6 mm (BB) in thickness. But this doesn't mean that the "width" of this variation must always be used to its maximum. In fact, both my 149 Calligraphy pens allow me to maintain the two "extremes" of the variation I desire almost constant, simply by varying the intensity of the maximum pressure of the hand.

 

Here I am showing what exactly I means. The word “Francus” and the single letters on the left are written applying to the nib from zero to a light mid-pressure. On the right, the same word and the letters are written with pressure from zero to close to the maximum allowed by the nib. So you may have from the same nib a “gentle”, subtle cursive, or a bold, engrossed script. 

 

This is a lot of control for a pen.

 

 

[fpupulin]

And below is a test of the 149 Calligraphy in Engrossed Cursive, a text long enough to appreciate the pen's consistent behavior as it approaches the nib's maximum flexibility.

 

 

As we've commented on other occasions, beyond the nib's maximum flex, the tip of the feeder touches the paper, at least when using a writing angle around 45 degrees. The feeder's contact serves both as a warning not to overdo the pressure and as a protection for the tines from excessive pressure that could damage them.

 

As you can see from the photograph, nowhere in the text is there a trace of the thin lateral line that the feeder leaves on the paper when the maximum permitted pressure is exceeded. This indicates that the Calligraphy nib is probably capable of an Engrossed writing with slightly more bold strokes.