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William Mitchell Italic nibs are chisel-pointed and ideally suited for Italic Calligraphy. They are available square-cut for right handed calligraphers and left-oblique cut for left handed calligraphers. They can be used in conjunction with a William Mitchell No.2 Slippon Reservoir to improve ink flow and reduce the frequency of loading the nib with ink.
William Mitchell Nibs
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.
Designed by William Mitchell, The Witch Pen is a one piece metal folded to give a sturdy large nib.Each pen comes with a wooden penholder.Set of 5 pens with approximate pen sizes of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6mm
William Mitchell Nibs
The William Mitchell Round Hand Nibs are amongst the most popular edged nibs used by calligraphers. But the nib sizes are not so popular. Unlike the Brause Bandzug nibs and others, they do not have any measurements to indicate their size in millimetres. Instead they are assigned a number. Size ’0′ is the largest and size ’6′ the smallest. Even this is confusing as size 6 sounds like it should be larger than the size 0. It’s a shame the numbers on the William Mitchell (and Leonardt Round Hand nibs) do not relate to their actual width.Below is a chart giving the size of each nib in millimetres. These sizes are also the same for the Leonardt Round Hand Nibs
| Nib Size | mm | Inches |
| 0 | 3.7 | 5/32 |
| 1 | 3.0 | 1/8 |
| 1.5 | 2.4 | 3/32 |
| 2 | 1.9 | 5/64 |
| 2.5 | 1.5 | 1/16 |
| 3 | 1.2 | 3/64 |
| 3.5 | 1.0 | 3/64* |
| 4 | 0.8 | 1/32 |
| 5 | 0.6 | 1/32* |
| 6 | 0.5 | 1/64 |
* Inch sizes have been rounded and shown as fractions of an Inch rather than a decimal value. This rounding has given the anomaly of some nibs being the same size.Accurately ruling-up some of the smaller nibs sizes can be very tricky. For example, 5 nib widths of a Number 6 nib is 2.5mm or 3/32”. This problem resulted in the development of the X-Height Measuring Discs
Set consists of 10 SQUARE cut nibs of sizes 0, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5 and 6, Standard Penholder (Nut Brown) and 2 Round Hand Reservoirs. This nice looking set even comes with a small magnet to help pick out the nibs from the box!The nibs are square-cut and therefore this set is only suitable for right-handed calligraphers. Apologies if you are left-handed but Leonardt don’t appear to make this set using left-oblique nibs.
We now stock the Leonardt Poster Nibs. These are similar to the Brause Plakat Nibs. However, the Plakat nibs are only available in three sizes, but the Leonardt Poster Nibs come in six sizes; 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 15mm.
We now stock the Leonardt TAPE Nibs. They are cut right oblique with top loading reservoir.Available in 6 sizes: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 4mm
Leonardt TAPE Nibs
A Speedball nib and penholder chart is available to download. This useful chart gives a brief description of each nib. Next to each type of nib is a code to identify which Speedball penholder should be used.
We now stock the Speedball ‘A’ Style Nibs.
These nibs are used for creating block and poster Gothic letters, ornamented border designs and decorations.
They require a Speedball Penholder.
If you have decided to use a dip pen or nib for your calligraphy the next decision to make is which nib to use. There are a wide range of nibs available. They fall in to 2 categories; edged nibs and pointed nibs. The style of lettering you want to learn will determine the type of nib to use.
Edged nibs have a straight edge. Typically, the edge varies in width from about 0.5mm wide to 5mm wide. In general, the wider the nib the bigger the writing. Edged nibs are used for a wide range of lettering styles including Roman Capitals, Foundational Hand, Italics, Gothic and Uncials. Edged nibs are usually cut straight across, but many nibs are also available cut left-oblique. Left oblique nibs are cut such that the right-hand edge is higher than the left-hand edge i.e. the edge slopes down towards the left. They are cut this way to help left-handed people hold the nib at the correct angle. So, right-handed people want square-cut nibs and left-handed people want left-oblique nibs. The main ranges of edged nibs are William Mitchell Round Hand Nibs, Chronicle nibs, Brause Bandzug Nibs and Speedball ‘C’ Style nibs. Some of these are cut right-oblique! The most popular square-cut nibs are the William Mitchell nibs and Leonardt Round Hand nibs.
Pointed nibs have a pointed tip rather than a straight edge! In calligraphy a pointed nib is used for Copperplate and Spencerian styles of writing. They are also used for Ornamental Penmanship. A wide range of pointed nibs are available. The choice of Pointed nib is based upon how flexible it is and how thick the point is. The more flexible the nib is the thicker the line can be produced when pressure is applied. The thickness of the point will determine the width of the line without any pressure applied. The most popular nib for Copperplate and Spencerian is the Leonardt Principal EF nib
