Transcription
Alright, let's talk about how to prep a nib. And I'm talking about a dip pen nib that you might use for calligraphy or drawing. And you know, these are pens that you, you know, you have a nib in the end of this pen holder and you dip it into the ink, which you can kind of see off to the right here. And that loads the ink onto the nib, but then you can write or draw with it.
And I have two different pens here. The blue holder is an unprepped nib, so it hasn't been prepped yet, and we'll see what that looks like. And the one in the wooden holder is a prep nib, which is ready to go. Now, you can see, let's just look at the nib close-up here. And you can see there's no ink on it. And let's dip it in the ink. And this is the prep nib. And you can see when I dip the prep nib into the ink, you can get a good look at it. It's really full with ink. It's completely covered. That ink's really sticking to the nib. Turn the nib over, you can see where I dipped it up to about right here. Look at the top of my fingernail. It's really covering the nib down there. And as a result, this nib is holding a lot of ink. And I can do quite a few, quite a few thick shaded strokes with this nib before it runs out of ink. I'll do them a little fatter so it runs out. Alright, and then I just ran out there. So we got quite a few strokes with that prep nib.
Now, we're gonna look at my unprepped nib. And hopefully, you can see it's a little shinier. It hasn't been used, hasn't been worn down at all. And part of that is that these nibs have an oil coating on them when they come from the manufacturer. And that keeps them from kind of sticking together and, and from rusting. So we need to get that oil off of the nib. But if you try to use this nib without prepping it, watch when I dip it into the ink now. You can see I'm not getting that complete coverage in the nib that we got before. Okay, you can see I dipped it all the way up to here, but the ink really isn't starting till right there. And then, if you really care, when you look at the tip of this nib, there's no ink on the tip. So this, this nib might not even, I mean, it'll write a little bit, but it's gonna run out of ink very quickly. Alright, it already ran out of ink right there. Okay. And this is the problem that you're probably having if you're watching this video.
Alright, so how do we prep our nibs? The whole idea is to get that oil coating off. And really, to do that, we need to use some type of cleaner, some type of acidic cleaner that is going to break down that oil and get it off the nib. So really, the cleaner that everybody has and you don't need to go out and buy is your own spit. Saliva. That's what I use most of the time. That's what a lot of calligraphers do. Saliva works very well. Saliva is slightly acidic. And you just kind of, I literally am, I'm gonna do it here. I'm gonna save you the visual, but, you know, I have a paper towel. I spit into the paper towel, and then I just wipe the nib as thoroughly as I can, trying to hit the front and the back and really contact all parts of that nib. Okay. And I just use that because it's, it's what I always, you know, you always have spit on hand and you can use it very easily. But you can use things like Windex, rubbing alcohol, just about any type of cleaner works.
So that's one way. Easy to do. Easy to do. People talk about a potato. You can kind of stick the nib in your potato. I don't recommend that because one, you have to keep an old potato on your desk, which gets old and moldy and gross. It does work. And the other thing I don't like about it is you're sticking, you know, if you're using a really sharp nib, you're sticking it into a potato, you're just going to kind of start to ruin the point of your nib. So not a potato fan of the potato myself.
Lastly, the idea of another way that I really like to do from having a lot of trouble with the nib and I can't get that oil off, used to use a flame. And that's what I'm gonna do right now. A lot of people kind of warn you about using a flame like, oh, you're gonna ruin your nib. I've never ruined a nib with the flame, and it's because I'm very careful with it. When I'm using a butane torch, which is a very directed, it's a directed heat source, I guess you can say. So I really know where I'm applying the heat with this. But you just do it like this, and you just need a quick, you know, pass through on each side of the nib, and that really should do it. And what I typically do after that is use a little saliva to kind of just clean off after that. And might be able to see it, probably not in this video, but using the flame will, can, especially if you apply a little too much heat, will discolor the nib a little bit, but that's fine. It's still gonna write fine.
And let's just see how it's holding ink now. So I just applied the flame, and now we're really getting a beautiful ink adherence to our nib. Now, I mean, that thing is full with ink. The backside is completely covered with ink. Now it's writing again. This nib is ready to go. So it's really as easy as that. I wouldn't, I mean, don't be afraid to use your own spit. Don't be afraid to use a lighter flame. Don't hold the nib under there with the flame. If you heat it up too much, you are gonna weaken the nib to a point, and you're likely to break it at some point. But, you know, nibs break all the time anyway after you use them for a while. So it's really not the end of the world. I mean, this nib is holding a lot of ink, as you can see, and it's out.
Okay, so that's how you do it. That's how you prep the nib. Use your spit, use your Windex, rubbing alcohol, or if you're into fire, use your flame. That never fails, especially if you're using an ERI, this is a hot one, on one nib, which is a very common nib out there. You can get online at your local hobby store. If you're using an E-G, which is another very popular nib, those nibs have a lot of oil on them, and I, I feel like I'm always trying to get that oil off every time I use an E-G, Nico G nib, even after I've already prepped it. So for those, the flame is definitely the way to go. And those are really strong nibs too, that aren't gonna just break on you.
So that's it. Thanks for watching. Please like the video if it helped you out. Leave a comment if you have a question about prepping your nibs or anything else. Subscribe to the channel if you want to learn more about American penmanship and handwriting. I check out my website, write with your arm dot com, if you want to learn how to write in the traditional American style with your arm. So thanks for watching. We'll get you next time.