I've done some more pangrams, and am now pretty happy with it all. I do still have to do some sorting out of the ligatures.


I am now going to move down to my 1.5 mm Brause pen.

I wanted to have a look at which ink would be best. Until now I've been using my Art Spectrum, which is fine for general practise, but as a smaller x-height, I want the script to be as clear as possible, so want a good ink.

I tried Ling Lung Copperplate ink, Higgins Eternal, FW Acrylic and Will's Quills China Black.

The different lines (the last 5) are marked in the practice sheets above.

The Ling Lung gave me the finest hairlines, the crispest lines and was a good black. I did have slight flow problems.

The Higgins was pretty grey and not much better than the AS ink.

The FW Acrylic was good - but I'm reluctant to use an acrylic for practice because I'll have to keep cleaning my pen. (which is fine if I'm doing a proper piece but not for practise unless I have to). It dried slowly enough that I had enough ink for hairlines but the hairlines weren't particularily fine.
It was the best black.

The Will's Quills China Black was second to the Ling Lung. It did occasionally look 'greasy' on the paper. It does have a nice shine.

The Ling Lung, being a copperplate ink, just feels so good with the hairlines, which I so often struggle with.

I do really want to try some Sumi ink tho!

The Will's Quill page with the two Chinese inks I used, plus Sumi inks :

http://www.willsquills.com.au/ChineseFluidInks.htm

Yowsers, sumi ink is expensive!!

In going to the smaller x-height, I handily already have the guidelines drawn up - I did that back in http://elmsleyrose.blogspot.com/2007/01/script-analysis-drawing-up-guidelines.html

Beard's (Robert of Stonemarche) comments :-

"I loathe reservoirs, they seem to encourage blobbing.

If you're writing as slowly as the hand demands, the ink will start to set in the nib, that little coagulated bit of ink screws things up.

The ink will also affect blobbing. It's all surface tension, if it's a watery ink, there's a greater chance of letters blobbing together

If it's a lacquer style ink, like Sumi, it can congeal on the nib while you're working. Though, even with that flaw, I think Sumi has a more period look to it on the page, it rises above the paper slightly and has a gloss that I can see in the manuscripts I like).

Regarding blotting, I find that Sumi ink works more or less okay on printer paper. And hitting it up with some Gum Sanderac makes it work quite nicely. (not perfect, but good practice" material)

Since the Will's Quills page mentions that the Ling Lung ink is a thicker ink, and Beard mentions that with thicker ink (I think this is true as well as for lacquer inks), it can congeal on the nib. Which would explain why I find the flow a bit choked.