We’ve had this calligraphy set in our store for years, but we’ve never had any success using it. The problem we run into is that the ink does not wet the nibs and flow out properly; instead whatever ink gets on the nib just beads up in drops. This seems to happen no matter what ink we’ve tried (although I must admit this is definitely not a wide range, and in particular does not include oil-based inks).
The set includes several pen nibs, a handle, brush, pencil, black ink, and three colours of watercolour paint. Along with these tools and materials, there is a book of projects and a separate book on technique. The latter mentions the problem of the ink not wetting the nibs and suggests that new nibs must be thoroughly cleaned with soap. We’ve tried this to no avail as well. I have to wonder if these particular nibs are coated with some sort of silicone, which would be resistant to soap.
One calligraphy book I recently leafed through at the local library suggested scorching new nibs in a candle flame to remove their water-repellant coating. This struck me as a poor solution, since too much heat would cause the steel in the nibs to lose their temper and thus their springiness.
Tools and supplies included in the set
The four nibs (l-r): #5 roundhand, #3 roundhand, 8mm poster, and copperplate. The #5 has an ink reservoir clipped onto it which can be transferred to the other roundhand nib.
The nibs appear to be gold-plated, but rust on the shank of the #5 roundhand nib belies that fact that the underlying metal is plain (not stainless) steel. I don’t want to try the candle trick, but I would really like to get these working properly. I have a few solvents I can try to remove the coating, but if any of you have specific suggestions as to what to try…
I found one YouTube video that also suggests the scorching technique, but also rubbing alcohol, stabbing the nib into a raw potato repeatedly, and cleaning with toothpaste and an old toothbrush. Any of these might be viable on a copperplate nib, but the roundhand and poster nibs have internal surfaces that pretty much preclude any sort of mechanical cleaning. There is a big fat fingerprint clearly visible on the poster nib so clearly cleaning is a regular chore!
They could also make their own sheet of paper, and then got to take away another sheet made by someone else earlier in the day. The sheet they just made was too wet and fragile to carry (or even pick up) so they would get a sheet from a previous stack that had been pressed using our portable press to remove most of the water.
The pulp we were using was made from recycled glossy brochures from a previous studio tour and the ink from the old printing produced a somewhat gray sheet of paper with lots of flecks of colour, giving it sort of a stone-like appearance. We had also added a bit of blue pigment to counter the drabness of the gray. These sheets are 5×7″ in size.
Lily helped with the demonstration when things got really busy, while at other times Audrey or I accompanied her to other displays, so she was kept occupied for the whole day.
