Ink Flight Five

Welcome aboard, inky travelers!

You may have come across this page wondering what exactly did we get you into this month? Well, we always look to create each ink flight box around the idea of sampling and cataloging your inks, so it was natural to include a tool that helps accomplish the task in an efficient, albeit traditional, manner.

If using a fountain pen is considered "old school," then using a dip nib pen is "old, old school." Instead of filling your fountain pen by converter, piston or syringe, the dip nib loads a relatively small amount of ink onto the metal nib. There are a number of pointed nibs that calligraphers prefer to use because of their ability to produce swells of line variation while maintaining proper ink flow and controlled expression. To accompany the nib holder we included in this month's Flight Box, we bundled it with the following (3) interchangeable nibs:

Brause No. 361 Steno "blue pumpkin" nib

Brause No. 66 Extra-Fine "arrow" nib

Brause No. 76 "rose" nib

If you're uninitiated to the idea of dip nibs, we're glad you decided to read this post. Let's get ourselves familiar with this set so you can try it out and enjoy using them with your inks.

Ink Sampling with a Dip Pen Nib

To watch other folks who are far, far better at calligraphy, you can find several videos on YouTube that feature folks using the Brause dip nibs that were included in the Flight. One note about the "rose" nib is that it can sometimes be fickle to start. "Stabbing" the nib into the paper is usually the solution to get the flow going. Once it does, the "rose" produces a beautiful, flowing swell of ink on the page. 

 Here's one of my favorite short clips of the Steno "blue pumpkin" in action by @kingblottothethird. The Steno nib holds a bit more ink and requires moderate pressure to create the line swells of ink.

 We hope you have an inky fun time with your new dip pen and nib holder. There are a number of other types of nibs that would also fit into the holder as well. If you're into it, we may make them a regular part of the products offered on InkJournal.com.