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Are those Lamy italic nibs proper fountain pen nibs with hardened iridium/osmium/whatever tips, or are they just sharpened steel "calligraphy" nibs?
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Feb 4, 2013 21:51
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 21:43 |
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gwrtheyrn posted:A cursory glance at FPN would indicates that the Lamy italics do not have any tipping material on them Ah, that's a shame. I've tried my hand at regrinding a couple of round nibs into italics, but I wanted to compare them to the real thing.
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Feb 4, 2013 23:51
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Feb 5, 2013 20:28
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Feb 6, 2013 01:41
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 (Click for big) quote:
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Feb 6, 2013 02:03
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Feb 6, 2013 02:24
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 (Here's the link where I learned Italic handwriting: http://www.freehandwriting.net/educational.html Took me about a month to get fluent with it. I'm still not anywhere near as neat as an actual calligrapher.)
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Feb 6, 2013 03:18
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BuzzVII posted:Has anyone heard of using cotton gloves or something along those lines when they write? My hands get really sweaty and writing left handed it can brush the page causing major problems. I've tried writing right handed but I need to rest my hand on the paper and it gets sweat stains.  (In all seriousness, maybe try a really dry fine pen with one of the Noodler's Bulletproof inks; the dry line will dry very quickly, and the bulletproof-ness will keep your sweat from smearing the ink. Also, you can try holding the pen differently.) Strangelet Wave fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Feb 6, 2013 |
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Feb 6, 2013 17:17
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Yeah, you don't throw a Lamy 2000 away when it breaks, especially one with sentimental value. Hell, they still manufacture 'em, so they have bins full of all-new parts for it. Even if every single part needs replacement, the worst you'll have to worry about is the ship of Theseus problem.
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Apr 16, 2013 06:26
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Get a Jinhao 159 for like $7 shipped off of eBay (or $10 on isellpens). Huge and heavy, made of lacquered brass, and actually writes pretty decently. Definitely worth the price to see if you really like big pens, then you can get a >$100 one if you still feel like it.
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Jun 10, 2013 19:08
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I like Italic writing, but was frustrated by my inability to find an iridium-tipped italic nib for less than $500. For those not in the know, standard (round) fountain pen nibs are tipped with a little ball of a very hard metal alloy, typically from the platinum group of metals—osmium, rhodium, iridium, and such. This kind of nib is generically called an "iridium-tipped" nib. The extreme hardness of the tip makes the nib very long-lasting. Italic nibs touch the paper with a contact surface shaped like a line, rather than a point, and so a side-to-side stroke leaves a thinner line than an up-or-down stroke. This results in a pleasing line variation, but also makes the pen a little more difficult to handle than a round tip. Specifically, the pen can be a little harder to start, you have to hold the nib exactly level with the paper, and side-strokes are likelier to be scratchy. I consider this a fair trade. (Italic nibs with very smooth sides—"cursive italic" nibs—obviate some of these issues at the expense of line variation.) Unfortunately, many italic nibs (and all nibs marketed as "calligraphy" nibs) don't have any hard tipping material; they've just a bare stainless steel edge, which wears down quickly and requires periodic re-sharpening. You've got to go up to the $500+ range to get a pen with an iridium-tipped italic nib, and it'll usually be a 14k gold number which you'd never want to take out of the house. The other option is to get a cheap reground pen off of eBay, or pay someone to grind it for you, but where's the fun in that? So, after some practice grinding the nibs from cheap Chinese eBay pens using this excellent guide, I ordered two Bülow #6 nibs from xfountainpens and ground one of them myself. I'm using it in my trusty Noodler's Konrad, but it also fits my gargantuan Jinhao 159 (and any other pen which takes a #6 nib).  Here are the results:  After on the left, before on the right; sorry for the shakiness on the right, I used my spare nib without putting it in a pen.)  ...and here's the process. If you want to try this yourself, you should definitely read the guide I linked above.  I used a knife-grinding stone purchased from my local Asian supermarket, two micro-mesh abrasive sticks with 8000 (super fine) and 12000 (super super fine) grit, a napkin, a 30x loupe, a pad of paper for scribbling, and a little cup of water (not pictured). I did the whole process with the pen inked up, because gently caress it. The first step is to flatten the bottom of the iridium ball. Here's a comparison pic:  On the bottom is the untouched nib, on the top is the ground nib. To flatten the bottom, place the nib tip on the grinding stone, and move swiftly side-to-side with slight downward pressure. Hold the pen perfectly level at all times. Check often with the loupe; you want the front edge of the flat part to reach almost all the way to the front face of the nib, and you want to make sure you're not putting too much pressure on one side or grinding it crooked.  Next, you want to remove a fair bit of material from the top of the tip, even though that part never touches the paper. You'll want to do this to make sure the capillary action leads the ink downward, and to keep there from being too much ink in the nib when you lift the pen from the paper (this will leave little droplets of ink at the end of all your strokes). Comparison:  Left before, right after. This is a two-step process: first, remove most of the material in much the same way as the bottom, but hold the pen at about a 10° angle from the horizontal. Always check often with the loupe.  Next, bring the tip almost to a sharp point by pulling the tip down the grindstone, starting at 10° and ending up at about 45° at the end of the stroke. Keep your finger under the pen to make sure you don't grind too shallow.  Finally, form the writing edge by grinding off the front of the tip. Hold the pen vertically, and make short downstrokes with very light pressure. The flat front surface will meet the flat bottom surface at a 90° angle, and make a sharp edge. This process takes a while; the pen with skip and skitter, and ink will splatter everywhere if you're a chump like me and keep the pen inked up.   Finally, you're done with the primary grinding! Your tip should look something like this in profile:  Not a great image, it's hard to focus on the silhouette of the tip. Now start doodling on the paper, testing the side-strokes and downstrokes. If the line variation isn't enough for you, take a little off the bottom. If the pen is hard to start or leaves ink dollops, take a little off the top. Be very conservative with your grinding; scribble something after every two or three strokes on the grindstone. Finally, smooth the pen by making downstrokes on the 8000 grit. For God's sake, be careful! Apply absolutely zero pressure, use only the weight of the pen itself. If you smooth too much or too hard, you'll get baby-bottom syndrome on your nib, which makes the pen very hard to start. The only solution is to grind away more at the bottom and the front, and then start smoothing all over again.  Make a few light side-strokes to smooth the edges. Once the pen isn't too scratchy, slide it over the 1200 once or twice to polish it up (again, just the weight of the pen when you're polishing the writing edge. If you want to polish up the top of the tip for appearances' sake, go nuts.) I had to work out the fine details managing the capillary flow by trial-and-error, mostly, but I'll share an important one here. Check this out:  This is the Bülow nib as it came. See how the slit between the tines narrows as it comes to the tip? You want that. That narrowing helps drive the ink toward the tip, which is especially important for an italic nib since it's more difficult to get good tip-paper contact. Don't press too hard when grinding the bottom, or you'll splay the tines apart, and they're pretty difficult to bend back together. Another thing that helps is to heat-set the feed, if it's ebonite like the Noodler's feeds. Easiest thing in the world, just hold the feed and nib in boiling water for about 45 seconds. The ebonite will go soft, and the tension in the steel nib will form the feed to the nib's shape. Pinch the feed to the nib gently with your fingers, if you like. Let it cool down for a minute or two, and the feed'll harden right back up and be ready to write.  This can also un-splay the tines, if such splaying the caused by the feed pressing up on the nib. And that's all there is to it! Strangelet Wave fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jun 15, 2013 |
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Jun 14, 2013 21:26
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Yeah, a few drops of ammonia or dish soap in cold water is what you want. Some plastics/resins are damaged by alcohol, and casein (used in some vintage pens) actually dissolves in regular hot water, so it's best to just never take any chances.
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Jun 16, 2013 20:12
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:(I will let your use of the f-word with respect to a steel nib go, even though it pains me.) Hey now, we want to be nice and inclusive in this here thread! Even Richard Binder has repented of his gold snobbery. Strangelet Wave fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 06:38
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Kheldragar posted:I don't think they spew out ink quite like you describe, but it's the only fountain pens that I'm familiar with at the moment. Compared to the old gel-pens that I used to use, they're quite nice. I do want to know, however, what causes ink to gradually crawl up the clear plastic space where you hold the pen. Does something special happen when it goes all the way up? The space where you hold the pen is the "section," which houses the "feed" (that little plastic or hard rubber widget with all the grooves and baffles on it). The feed draws ink from the reservoir through capillary action, and deposits the ink right underneath the nib. The nib then draws that ink up the slit in its center to the very tip of the point (again through capillary action), where it soaks into the paper as soon as you bring the point in contact. You want the ink to saturate all the way up the feed to the nib, so that the nib is provided with a sufficient amount of ink. (Some people are pedants and insist that the entire metal bit at the end of the pen is the "tip"—as in a "steel-tipped pen"—and that the "nib" is just the little ball of hardened metal at the end of the tip.)
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Sep 7, 2013 18:57
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teraflame posted:I'd like to try an italic nib for maximum shading. How can I do this cheaply? I have a pilot 78g and a lamy safari. The 78g "broad" is really an italic—or, rather, a fairly broad stub. I've got one right here, it has a really nice line variation. A new 78g from isellpens is probably cheaper than a new Lamy stub nib.
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Apr 5, 2014 08:10
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 21:43 |
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ACRE & EQUAT posted:Hey, this was posted a while ago but I would like to emulate your impressive handwriting for similar lab book and grading purposes Thanks! I also used a book called "Italic Calligraphy & Handwriting: Exercises & Text" by Lloyd. J. Reynolds, but really the most important thing is practice. I started keeping a journal, and I keep scrap paper at my desk for doodling and letterform practice.
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May 12, 2014 17:42
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