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Firmly push the cartridge into frontend. |
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Load a second cartridge into the barrel. |
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Screw the barrel to the Frontend. |
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The pen is now ready. |
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Gently tap your pen on surface to start the flow. |
Once the nib has been prepared it is important to set it up correctly. Some nibs are purchased with a reservoir, but reservoirs for the William Mitchell Square Cut nibs and Leonardt Square Cut Nibs are purchased separately and have to be fitted to the nib. These reservoirs are usually made of brass making them flexible enough so they can be adjusted. It is important to fit the reservoir correctly otherwise it can cause problems. If the reservoir is fitted too tight it can affect the tines of the nib causing scratchy pen strokes. If it is fitted too loosely it will fall off (I’ve lost several down the sink or in the bottle of ink!). The fit needs to be such that the reservoir stays on the nib but could quite easily fall off.The reservoir can be adjusted by using both thumbs to adjust the little wings that wrap round the nib.
It is usual that each time you fit a reservoir you will need to adjust it for the nib. Now the reservoir fits the nib correctly you need to make sure the tip of the reservoir is just touching the nib. Often it is necessary to bend the point of the reservoir a little.
Once the reservoir has been attached to the nib you will see a gap between the reservoir and nib. The tip of the reservoir should be touching the nib.
Now the reservoir needs to be positioned correctly on the back of the nib. The position of the reservoir will control the ink flow.Start with the reservoir about 2mm away from the tip of the nib. If the ink does not flow very well, slide the reservoir a little closer to the edge of the nib. If the ink flow is too great, reduce the flow by sliding the reservoir away from the nib.
There has already been a post on this blog about preparing nibs before you start to use them. Using a new nib frequently causes problems. Only the other day I spoke to a customer who was experiencing difficulties try to get the ink flow from a new nib. After a chat they followed the instructions on the preparing a nib post and later emailed back and said it worked.Another method of preparing a nib is to use a naked flame. With this method, the nib is passed back and forth through a naked flame. I have tried this method and the results seem to be the same as using boiling water, so I have always stuck with that. However, the following email extracts prove it can be worth trying different ways.Back in May, a customer contacted us with the ink flow problem. Attached to their email was some photographs that clearly showed the problem.
“I am attaching these pictures to illustrate my problem with this nib.You sent me a Leonardt 33 nib. But, as you can see I can’t seem to write a single word.I have ink on the nib but no flow at all. What am I not doing wrong? Any suggestion would be helpful.”As the first photograph clearly shows, the ink was just sitting on the nib. You can see the tip of the nib is still dry. So we recommended the boiling water method. The following day we received an update.“Unfortunately , it is not working for me. The nib cannot write at all.. despite the soaking.”We then suggested the flame method. A couple of days later we receive another email and photograph. It had worked.
What I had learnt from this was that it is worth trying different methods on the same nib. Just because once in the past the flame method had been tried and the result had not appeared to be any different to the boiling water method I had not used it since. However, if one method does not work, try another.
We recently discussed ways of practising your calligraphy. In that post we said it is best to practise frequently and do so in a constructive and methodical way. By setting yourself a target for the practise session you would be more focused and achieve better results.I thought I would follow this up by describing the way I practised Italic Minuscules. I don’t intend to explain how to write that style rather than my approach to practising the style.The characteristics of Italics are different to those of Roman Capitals and Foundational Hand.The nib is held at 45° to the write-line. So, I constructed a 45° line at the top left on my practise paper (I like to use Layout Paper). Next I ruled up the paper. It’s best to write large at first and at a later stage reduce the x-height. So I started with an x-height of about 15mm. The letters are also sloped at 5°, so I constructed a 5° line and then copied it across the page at 20mm intervals.
I was ready to begin; after loading the nib with ink, I hovered it over the 45° line to make sure the pen angle was correct. From experience I find that each practise session starts of badly – it takes a while to warm up. Then for a while you write at your best before starting to become tired and the letters become weaker. So at first I produce a few vertical and horizontal lines to get myself in the right frame of mind and to check the ink flow. It is important the nib is correctly inserted in to the penholder and the ink is flowing nicely. When practising, you do not want to be distracted with any nib and ink flow problems.At this stage, the paper is ruled-up ready including your 5° slope lines and 45° pen angle line. Your nib and reservoir are correctly fitted and the ink is flowing nicely from nib. We are now ready to start writing …..Italic Minuscules can be grouped together based upon similar characteristics. In this practise session I had already decided to practise the ‘O’ group of letters. It is difficult to get the consistency of these letters because they are all based on the oval shape. Getting the shape is not so bad, but to get the same width oval shape is hard. In contrast to this if you were studying Roman Capitals or the Foundational Hand you may be finding it really hard to get a perfect round circle, but at least you can visualise the shape. Visualising the correct width of the oval is a lot trickier.Now warmed up and ready to go, I started by writing out a line of the letters c, e, o, l and t to get going. Next a complete line of the o letter was written. Then I looked carefully at my letters comparing them to the alphabet sampler and accompanying notes. Each letter was analysed and if I thought it was acceptable I placed a small tick next to the letter. If the letter was bad a small cross was made against it. At first there would be whole lines of letters with a cross against each of them. Several lines later a few more ticks started to appear.This technique was then used with the other letters of the group.Towards the end of the session I produced a couple of lines writing each letter of the group in turn.By analysing and marking EACH letter written, quite quickly I found my work would improve. This method was used for each group of letters.Finally, It’s a good idea to date your work and keep all the practise sheets for a while so at a later date you can go back through them and see how much progress you have made.
Learning calligraphy is a bit like learning to play an instrument. You will only achieve results through practise.What is the best way to practise? Well, everybody has their preferred method. It’s a bit like revising for an exam.Set a side time for practising your calligraphy – Firstly, do not sit down and practise for hours at a time. Frequent sessions are better than the odd long practise.Before you start your practise think about what you want to achieve. It is far more productive to have an objective for the session; otherwise, you can easily end up writing loads but not really improving. Objectives for a practise could be; maintain a consistent pen angle, produce consistent straight vertical and horizontal pen strokes.Once you have a good control of the pen you can then start practising the letters. With many styles of writing, letters can be grouped according to their characteristics. It is best to practise a group of letters in one session and a different group another time rather than writing out each letter of the alphabet.If in one session you can see an improvement in one are you will be more satisfied with your progress. If you feel you are making progress you we will become more motivated and will want to practise moreProgress = motivation = progress
I don’t know anybody that likes ruling up. As previously mentioned the X-Height Calculator and consequently the business, started from not enjoying ruling the paper. (see starting scribblers post for more background on the business).However, from observations in the classroom, many students have made ruling up hard work. These tips may help:Accuracy is most important. Time taken to accurately rule up will save a great deal of frustration later on. Ruling up needs to be accurate and consistent. I have seen people produce roughs and then rule up the final piece inaccurately. This caused their writing to be slightly smaller, creating a line of text not as long as their rough, which meant the text was no longer centrered.How many people try and rule-up a small x-height using a blunt pencil? Blunt pencils cause two problems. Firstly, the marks you make on the paper will be thick – first opportunity for an inaccuracy to occur. Secondly, the lines themselves are thick. With a large x-height you can get away with it but not with a small x-height.Choice of pencils. I like to use a softer pencil (B or 2B). Many calligraphers prefer a harder pencil (4H or harder). I’m not sure if the grade of the pencil lead is important? What does matter is how hard you press the pencil on the paper to produce the guidelines. With a softer pencil you can get away with more pressure than you can using a hard pencil. Too much pressure with a hard pencil will permanently mark the paper even after erasing the pencil lines.Sharp pencil. Use a sharp pencil for finer lines. Or alternatively you could use an Automatic Pencil, with a lead thickness of 0.5mm or even 0.3mm.
I have found another very useful video from Yang Haiying. Actually, Yang has lots of good videos on YouTube.In this clip, Yang talks about preparing and using a Chinese brush for the first time. Also, what do you do with those plastic caps that are usually found covering a new brush?Yang’s website www.yanghaiying.com
This blog first appeared last year – but is worth repeating! By preparing your nib you will get better results 
Customers sometimes ask why they cannot get the ink to flow very well in their new nib. The most common reason is that the new nib has not been prepared before using it. New nibs are usually coated with a thin coat of lacquer to protect them. This should be removed before you start writing. There are 3 ways of removing the lacquer.The most popular method is to use boiling water. You need 2 cups of water; one with boiling water and the other with cold water.
