Jon Santos suggested I buy some dip pens before venturing into fountain pen flex nibs. How right he was. I have bought about 10 dip pens nibs, holders and caligraphy ink and have been exploring this part of penmanship.
I cant thank Jon enough. His advice was spot on and has opened up a new world. I have a variety of dip pen nibs from very flexy to Italics and have been experimenting and enjoying the experience. Now I under what true flex nib means. Nothing like what I thought and exactly as Jon and others advised.
One of my nibs is a Brause E 76 Rose EF which is just one of the most flexy nibs you can image. You just have to rest the nib on the paper and the tines just widen. So I cleaned the nib as suggested. Fitted to my holder and inked up with some caligraphy ink. Despair!!!!!Couldnt get the the nib to yield up the ink sitting in the nib. The tines would open and the ink would retract. Tried various cleaning methods of the nib and various papers and inks. No still no ink on paper. So I thought. Why is this nib so often recommend?
I googled "trouble with getting ink to a Brause 76 Rose nib" And read a few and came across the following youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rVo3jTBfhk
Interestingly my google searches revealed a similar problem with this nib so I didnt feel that bad. Bad the oriental lady on this video showed a couple of methods of getting this nib to actually put ink on paper. Firstly you have to put a dot of ink on the paper and then put the nib on that dot and start writing. Voila. It worked and I was getting this much talked about nib to yield some of its abilities on paper. It gives the most fantastic flex nib experience one would need. A lot of people would not put up with its intricacies but I am willing to persevere and master it. The line variation is unbelievable and the tines just widen up so much.
In the video the author also gives advice as to using a thicker ink which I will try. But if you have the time to fast forward the video and see some of this lady's caligraphy scrolling with this pen. I think it is so amazing and I just watched in aware at her penmanship. If only I could learn that and put that on a Xmas card or something.
Enjoy the video
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