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.

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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

* 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

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You can blend the Zig Calligraphy Pens to achieve a range of effects. This is achieved by wiping one colour on to another. However, the effect can last, meaning it can take a long time before only the original colour comes through.
A nice flower effect can be simply produced using The Zig Calligraphy Pens. Firstly, two colours are blended. Next each petal is produced by writing an ‘S’ shape on the paper. The paper is then rotated before the next petal is drawn.

Download the information sheet for more information

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Some papers ideally need treating before writing to give a sharper, crisper surface. Pounce gives a tooth to smooth paper helping produce crisper letters.

Pounce is also used to remove the grease from the paper surface, preventing the ink from spreading. It can help prevent ink from spreading on unsized paper or over an erasure, as well as to prepare vellum to take writing ink.
Pounce can be used for a paper that is too absorbent, on which the ink sinks into spreading and bleeding.

Pounce is a finely ground powder prepared from gum Sandarac mixed with pumice or cuttlefish bone.

To use, sprinkle a little Pounce over the surface and gently rub in with a soft cloth. Then, remove the excess with a soft brush. If there is a gritty feeling on the paper or the Pounce collects in the nib, you need to have another go at dusting the paper.

Pounce Powder

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Schmincke Finest Artists’ Calligraphy Gouache Colours are brilliant and mainly opaque, and their fine consistency perfectly suits the different forms of application in calligraphy.

The following guide was taken from a Schmincke Finest Artists’ Calligraphy Gouache product sheet I recently discovered in an old box.

You can create as many different colours as you need by using just six paints in the Schmincke Calligraphy Gouache Set.

These six colours are each in a cold and warm variant:

- yellow
- red
- blue

From these you can mix the secondaries.
Look at the paint blocks below. Each individual colour has a tiny amount of a second colour mixed with it. The first colour, lemon-yellow, is yellow-blue. Cadmium yellow light is yellow-red. To make good, strong secondaries mix together the two primary colours which are associated.

Schmincke Finest Artists’ Calligraphy Gouache

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