Writing With Glass

Рет қаралды 4,875

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 37

@Chris_the_Muso 6 ай бұрын

I love my glass pens, I use them for testing ink samples. That pen you have is not running right, it needs some work. I can write a whole sentence at normal speed with my glass pens, you just have to rotate it as you write as only the flutes closest to the paper deliver ink. You can get Chinese glass pens for just a few dollars but you have to grind and polish the tip before they will work at all. Do *not* sharpen the tip to a point. The tip needs to be ground to a flat ball with 600 grit wet/dry paper, then you polish it with 2000 grit. This gives a very smooth writer. The closer the flutes are to the paper the faster the ink will flow. What I'd suggest: grind the tip flat by holding it at 90 degrees to the 600 grit paper. Next hold the pen at your normal writing angle and rotate the pen along it's longitudinal axis to shape the tip. Change to the 2000 grit paper and holding the pen more upright do figure eight swirls on the paper, also rotating the pen. It should now feel smooth on the paper and write reliably. It won't need re-grinding for a very long time (years) I could actually use my glass pen as a daily writer except for the inconvenience of having to carry ink around. I do always have a few bottles of ink on my desk however, and glass pens are great for using many different inks quickly. Glass pens also work great with shimmer inks which have metallic particles. Dipping the glass nib in a glass of water to clean it to change colours makes a wonderful swirly pattern on the surface of the water. The only inks that don't play nicely with glass pens are exceptionally "wet" inks, for example Noodler's Army Green. Exceptionally wet ink just slide straight off the pen and lay a very wet line, putting all of the ink into just a few words. I've *never* had ink dry on a glass pen. Certainly not in the time frame you seem to show here with water based inks. Apart from testing ink samples I also use glass pens for writing out recipe cards and greeting cards. For recipe cards I like to use lots of different colours for ingredients, methods, instructions etc. I then laminate them so they don't get messed up while I have them in the kitchen. I live alone now, so finding the motivation to cook interesting and nutritional meals is very important to me, and combining the hobbies of cooking and fountain pens/inks is one way of doing that. When I find a recipe that I like I improve it to my taste and write it out so I can always recreate it when feel the need. I haven't broken a glass pen yet, but I am very careful with them. They get stored in a plastic tube when I'm not using them, and I use a pen rest when I'm writing with them so that they can't roll away.

@romancharak3675 6 ай бұрын

What a lovely article about the art of writing with glass pens.

@RPKGameVids 6 ай бұрын

Those are beautiful pens. I've never seen pens like those before.

@MrDutchino 6 ай бұрын

You had me at writing.. I love glass pens and fountain pens! Hope to see more of these videos

@flymypg 6 ай бұрын

I greatly enjoy seeing useful devices "made of art"! In this case tiny, glass sculptures providing both visual and tactile appreciation during use. Yes, we can enjoy the "art of engineering and fabrication" in many things, but this goes far beyond that, providing a stark contrast to our modern manufactured environment. I remember my grandmother having some of these pens in the 1960s. They were always on display, and us grandkids were allowed to carefully handle them under her watchful eye. They were used mostly for writing birthday and Christmas cards, and for the occasional signature on something special. As I recall, the ink she used, in colors ranging from black to cherry red and maroon, may have been somewhat thicker than what Fran's using, and my grandmother would soak the tips in alcohol before and after use. On good (slightly rough) paper, the line was between that of a fountain pen and a calligraphy pen, though I have no clue if the line variations were due to angle, pressure, flow, or all combined. I was fascinated by how often she had to dip the pen, at least for every word, sometimes for just a single letter (such as a capital letter done with a flourish), and how she was able to resume precisely where she had stopped, as if the trip for a dip hadn't happened. I remember my sister and I silently watching her with rapt attention as she wrote her notes and cards. I recall the repeated 'ting' sound as she'd lightly tap the pen against the edge of the inkwell. Though she sometimes used a blotter with her other ink pens, she didn't with the glass pens, instead letting the writing dry on its own before putting it into an envelope. Thanks for reviving my memories!

@Chris_the_Muso 6 ай бұрын

Modern glass pens have longer flutes so can write entire sentences between dips, but you have to rotate the pen to bring each flute closer to the paper. You dip the pen to the full length of the fluted nib, but then yes you have have to touch the nib to the neck of the inkwell or bottle to shed some of the excess. It sounds like you might enjoy a glass pen. You can get Chinese made ones for just few dollars, but you do have to grind the nib before they work right (I wrote instructions for this on another comment). Most modern fountain pen inks can be cleaned with just water, though some like Noodler's Baystate Blue can stain even a glass pen. I'm not sure how that's even possible but it's true.

@flamencoprof 6 ай бұрын

At school in the mid-Sixties I had a fountain pen with a glass nib like that. I had quite a few different fountain pens. I liked the ones with a syringe filler, they held a lot of ink. I still have a few fountain pens I have kept for nostalgia's sake, but I don't use them. My preferred "carry while going out" pen is the Parker rollerball type with liquid ink cartridges. Simple and reliable, but a bit more individualistic than a plastic BIC.

@Chris_the_Muso 6 ай бұрын

Try the Platinum Preppy. It's a cheap fountain pen that takes cartridges, but you can "eyedropper" it really easily. What you do is coat the threads of the section in silicon grease, then you fill the body of the pen with an eyedropper and screw the section back on. It holds lots of ink and lasts a long time, and the body is clear so you can see the ink. An excellent cheap pen that doesn't dry out - I've left mine for months at a time and they always write. The best part is that it's less than ten bucks, so makes a stress free EDC pocket pen. You can get the converter for it, but it costs more than the pen, so most people just eyedropper them or refill the cartridges with their favourite fountain pen ink.

@flamencoprof 6 ай бұрын

@@Chris_the_Muso Thanks, but no thanks. I wouldn't be watching Fran if I wasn't a techie, but that's a bit far for me. :-)

@KeritechElectronics 6 ай бұрын

Beautiful and delicate indeed! Don't let yours clumsy truly anywhere near. Makes me wonder how much different the inks were WayBackWhen and now. The glass design could be optimized for slower drying ink, which might have been the case a few centuries ago, but that's just my wild guess.

@FranLab 6 ай бұрын

Ink dried at the same rate - Then just as now it was just water, pigment, and a little bit of natural glue for a binder. The viscosity would vary with the amount of binder you added.

@KeritechElectronics 6 ай бұрын

@@FranLab thanks :) - I was wondering about the binder part.

@Chris_the_Muso 6 ай бұрын

@@FranLab Modern inks will also include a surfactant. This allow the ink to flow off the nib more easily, or appear "wetter". I don't know if this was a factor in older inks but it wouldn't surprise me. My feeling is that the binder is used to help keep the pigments in suspension, while the surfactant helps the pigmented ink to flow.

@Donna230 6 ай бұрын

This brings back memories of calligraphy class.

@mikebarushok5361 6 ай бұрын

There weren't likely many places where the indoor air was as dry when these were more commonly used. It's a very modern thing to live in desert dry air.

@_MisterG 6 ай бұрын

Some glass pens have spiral grooves - makes the flow to the end more consistent

@fazergazer 6 ай бұрын

Ox gall iron ink is the best with these guys, takes awhile to dry but is thixotropic and smooth!❤❤

@chrispomphrett4283 6 ай бұрын

I think I'll stick with my Lamys for daily stuff, writing prescriptions etc. My daily has a nib that's now rounded with wear and it's now superb. The glass one I'd have broken by now but nice to look at.

@Jason-fv4rg 6 ай бұрын

ASMR Lab with Fran Blanche

@origionalwinja 6 ай бұрын

i have 2 like the newer one you were showing. theyre a dream to write with, i just dont have the penmanship to correctly utilize them. i honestly wish i had more reasons to write with them.

@mangamaster03 6 ай бұрын

What a beautiful pen! Thank you for sharing his they work.

@McTroyd 6 ай бұрын

Funny you should mention fingernails on a chalkboard. I was just thinking the glass-on-paper sound was much like chalk on a chalkboard. Very interesting sound for a writing utensil, but probably not universally appreciated. 👍

@scottthomas6202 6 ай бұрын

These pen and pencil videos have turned out to be far more interesting than I originally would have thought... they're great! I am fairly klutzy, and would be scared to even hold that pen....

@joinedupjon 6 ай бұрын

Would they have used inkwells made of material with a bit more compliance to protect the glass nib a bit?

@Chris_the_Muso 6 ай бұрын

No, most old inkwells were metal, or a metal case with glass jar or tube. Later Bakelite inkwells were a thing, but most still had a glass liner. I find the travel inkwells fascinating. They were the only option if you wanted to write while traveling but didn't want to take a large clumsy bottle. The designs usually had anti spill features and sealed completely, but it's very hard to find good working examples these days. Mostly the seals are rotted away, and I suspect a good number were dropped and broken, or thrown away as "useless" accoutrements about 120 years ago. Regardless of the pen or the inkwell, dipping your pen is a delicate operation that (surprisingly) takes a bit of practice.