My new lettering layout trick

KCSteve

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Dani Girl's thread about her new pen lead to a nice tip about making your own nibs out of bits of bamboo.
That lead me to thinking that a wooden nib might work where metal had failed me - in lettering directly on metal.
I grabbed a bamboo skewer out of the kitchen drawer, used my pen knife for it's actual purpose for once in my life, and
gave it a quick try - it WORKED!

So I decided to make myself a nib holder for my little bamboo nibs. Being the wealthy and accomplished artiste I am I sawed
off a suitable sized piece of 1/4" dowel and quickly drilled a hole in one end. Came out just a touch off axis but worked
fairly well.

For the second version I heated up some ThermoLoc and blobbed it onto the other end of the stick. I stuck a bit of bamboo
skewer into the blob and took my grip to form it to my hand. As you may know, proper use of ThermoLoc involves a lot of saying
ow so I didn't hold it very long. As it slowly cooled I redid the grip forming as needed. One important note: you have
to hold the 'pen' pointing straight up while it cools or the nib will slowly droop down.

If you've already made a nice bamboo nib do not use it for this - it took pliers, twisting, pulling, and basically destroying
that piece of bamboo to get it out. At this time the nibs fit very tightly in the hole. I expect that it will get a little
bit easier over time but the whole idea is for it to stay pretty tight.

The pictures give you and idea of the setup. When you have some lettering to do, use your ink pen to get it laid out the way you want
on paper, then use some Transfer Wax on the metal and use the bamboo nib to letter right on to the metal. The three nibs I've made so
far are one I shaved down with my pen knife, a 'scribe' point made by just clipping off the pointed end of the skewer, and a smaller
nib I did by using a sanding drum in a not-a-dremel. Slightly less messy to sand away the bamboo than carve it but slightly less
control.

I'm glad I was inspired into this - I just got a small job doing some Coptic (not Greek) lettering. I'm sure there's a font out there
somewhere I could I have used to do a transfer, but it will be a lot easier to just draw a line and write the symbols.

For those of you wondering why I couldn't do my layout with a pencil, well... I've wondered that myself. Just never can seem to get it
to draw out the thicks & thins right. It's just so much easier with a proper pen.
 

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Sam

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bamboo_skewers.jpg

I have both bamboo skewers and pegwood sticks for layout. I sharpen them in my pencil sharpener and then put the final point on with sandpaper (a piece is taped to my bench in the pic).
 

KCSteve

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The key for me is having that chisel point for doing letters. Of course now that I have this I can do like you and use a bit of skewer to get a super fine point as needed.
 

Dani Girl

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Wow, what my thread inspired you to try has inspired me to go make myself one or two and try it too. Thanks heaps for posting :)
 

santos

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Hi Steve
After reading Danae's post ,I tried to write directly on transfer wax with an oblique penholder and a dry nib and it works for engrosser's script
The nib is a stiff one, and with the oblique holder, the tines spread parallel when you are writing the downstrokes. It’s a bit hard to do the same thing with a straight penholder.
P1100750.jpg

Regards

Jean
 

Gemsetterchris

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I use pointed wooden skewers for picking off thermoloc to avoid scratches, also checking soft stones tightness..I`m getting abit of a bug for script now reading these posts!
Really worth learning lettering & most likely in the old days it was more of a necessity for an engraver to do so.
 

KCSteve

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Santos I had tried using a metal nib but I had the dual problems of it having no 'bite' - just sliding around on the metal and also scratching the surface.
I'm thinking that your nib is higher quality than the cheap one I tried. Of course you noted that you found it worked better with the offset holder - all I have is the straight.

In any case, the bamboo ones are working great. Now I just need to practice with my ink pen to get my hand back.
 

Kevin Scott

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Steve, I think you are overthinking this. The old books on jewelry engraving that covers mostly lettering say you do not need good handwriting to engrave lettering. Because you are drawing the letters, not writing them.

What is really important is to get the slant, spacing of the letters and layout right, versus penciling in perfectly formed letters.

Here is one way I do it. It is quite abit more detailed than the books suggest. I do it this way so I make less mistakes when cutting. I changed the last line because it was not centered, and also changed the wording before I cut it.

I see in Santos posts pictures he draws the slant guide lines on the engraving work even though his calligraphy skills are great. Something I should do more.

Also, drawing script lettering with a #2 pencil and paper is good practice. Sharpen the pencil to a wedge shape. You can get the thin and thick lines without the hassle of ink, nibs etc. Then later practice with ink if you want. But I don't think it is really needed to be good with ink and paper to do letter engraving.
 

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KCSteve

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Kevin

It's not my handwriting I need to improve (well, technically that wouldn't be a bad thing but as noted, not relevant here), I need to get my calligraphy hand back so I get the letters I want to get.
 

KCSteve

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Popping in for an update:
Santos very kindly sent me some of the nibs he had in France that were working for him (Thanks Santos!) and I finally got to try them today and they do work!

So now I know what the key is: The nibs I bought here are 'standard' nibs. They're too stiff and just slip and scratch. The nibs Santos sent me are flexible nibs - they pretty much require an offset nib holder but with one they work beautifully. They leave just a pair of lines, formed by the outside corners. The bamboo 'nibs' leave a cleared off line that's very easy to see. But the outline from the flexible nib is better because unlike the bamboo that can only give as thin a line as you've carved the nib to, the flexible nibs can leave a true hairline.

So, if you want to be able to lay out your lettering by simply lettering it, get an offset nib holder and flexible nibs. Or carve your own nibs from something like bamboo. Either way you'll be amazed how quickly and easily you can lay out some very nice lettering.
 

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