To cut a pen

Excerpts from Writing & Illuminating & Lettering by Edward Jonston Edited by Leif Eurén Diffent kinds of pens

For caligraphy two kinds of pens are mainly used: reed and quill.

A Reed or Cane pen is best for very large writing – over half an inch in height – and therefore it is of great use in studying pen strokes and forms. The Reed

The Reed pen should be about 8 inches long.

One end is cut off obliquely

The soft inside part is shaved away by means of a knife laid flat against it, leaving the hard outer shell

The nib is laid, back upp, on the slab, and – the knife-blade being vertical – the tip is cut off at right angles to the shaft

A short longitudinal slit (a-b) is made by inserting the knife-blade in the middle of the tip

A pencil or a brush-handle is held under the nib, and is gently twitched upwards to lengthen the slit.

An ordinary reed should have a slit about ¾ inch long. A very stiff pen may have in additional a slit on either side of the centre.

The left thumb nail is pressed against the back of the pen – about 1 inch from the tip – to prevent it splitting too far up.

The nib is laid, back upp, on the slab, and – the knife-blade being vertical – the tip is cut off at an angle of about 70° to the shaft, removing the first rough slit a-b.

A strip of thin metal (very thin tin, or clock spring with the “temper” taken out by heating and slowly cooling) i scut the width of the nib and abaout 2 inches long. This is folded into a “spring”.

The spring is inserted into the pen. The loop a-b-c is “sprung” into place, and hold the spring in the right position. The loop c-d, which should be rather flat, holds the ink in the pen. The point d should 1 be about ⁄8 inch from the end of the nib.

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/5615/quill/english.html