Oh, what a picturesque sight, eh? A man sitting at his desk, oil-lamp burning brightly, an inkstand open in front of him and a fine, gold dip-pen in his hand. Listen as he dips the nib of his pen into the inkwell, the soft ‘clink!’ as he taps the excess ink off the nib against the side of the well, and then the soft, scriffly scratching as the sharp, metal pen-point scrapes over the paper as he pens down the latest novel, scientific theory or groundbreaking essay on tropical medicine.

The Dip Pen has been part of human life for centuries, and its dominance only ended less than a hundred years ago. This article is devoted to that one, archaic writing instrument with which so many great documents and literary creations were penned down with, and to explore how they work, what came with them, and what they’re like to use. For the sake of convenience, this article will concentrate on the mass-produced steel pen-points which came into existence at the turn of the 19th century.

What is a dip-pen?

A rather obvious answer awaits this question. A dip-pen is a writing instrument (be it an actual steel pen, a quill, a brush or a reed) that is without its own, inbuilt, long-term ink-supply, and which must be dipped repeatedly (hence the name) into a source of ink, to allow it to write. Said source usually being a bottle of ink or ink contained in an inkwell. As I said above, this article will concentrate on the steel dip-pens which dominated much of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

How a dip pen works.

Dip-pens, like the fountain pens that succeeded them, worked by a combination of gravity and capillary action. Capillary action worked off the natural surface-tension of liquid while gravity directed the flow of ink. When a dip-pen is dipped into an inkwell, a small amount of ink clings to the underside of the specially-shaped nib. Surface tension keeps the ink on the underside of the nib, while capillary action and gravity draws the ink downwards towards the tip of the nib. Quite simple really. Unfortunately for mankind, this was as far as writing-technology got until the late 19th century when people began to understand the importance of air-pressure in making a good fountain pen.

Terminology.

A note of importance is the terminology. A dip pen is actually the steel pen-point…what most people today would call the nib. The shaft which the pen-point fitted into, was the pen-holder. If you went out to a stationer’s shop in the 1870s and asked for a ‘box of pens’, you’d recieve a small cardboard box filled with little steel pen-points. These days, however, the ‘pen’ is synonymous with ‘nib’, since the introduction of the fountain pen.

Preparing your nibs.

If you’ve just gone out to your local art-shop and bought some paper and a pen-holder or two and some nice dip-pen nibs and now you’re at home at your desk with your ink and your paper and your pens and you’re itching to start writing, there are a couple of things that you should do before starting your inky adventures. The first thing, rather obviously, is to select a dip-pen nib and slot it into your pen-holder. The second thing that you need to do is to prepare the nib for writing.

Now if you don’t understand this, I don’t blame you…but try this: If you get a fresh dip-pen nib and dip it into ink and then take it out of your inkwell or bottle, you’ll notice that the ink drips right off the nib, or otherwise, it forms nasty little ink-drops on the nib which crawl away from the slit and the pen-point like ants from a Huntsman spider. The reason for this is that the pen has a very thin film of oil on it, which was left there in the manufacturing of these nibs. You might get lucky and there won’t be any oil there at all, and you can write straight-off. However, in most cases, this won’t be the case. Now I’ve read several posts in forums about people who say: “I got my nibs, I got my pen-holder, but the ink refuses to stay on the nib. What do I do?”

Quite simple. Burn it. Or rather, temper it.

To do this, you need to strike a match, or light a candle, and pass the nib through the flame several times, making sure that all parts of the nib go through the flame at least once. What this does is remove the oil from the nib, and this allows the ink to cling to the nib as it should.

A word of warning. As these nibs are made of steel, they heat up VERY fast. Put the pen-nib into the pen-holder BEFORE running it through the flame, or else hold the pen-point with a pair of tweezers, first. Otherwise you’ll give your fingers a very nasty burn.

Having done that, your pen should hold ink perfectly fine.

The next thing to do is to smooth the nib. By this I mean, you need to smooth out the tip of your pen nib, with some very fine sandpaper, to give yourself a nice, smooth writing experience. This isn’t always necessary, but sometimes, pen-points (which are razor sharp) can tear and rip at the paper when you use them. Smoothing the nib and testing it occasionally, will give you a nice, comfortable writing experience.

Who uses dip pens?

“Hang on, hang on!” You’re saying, “Why the hell are you telling me this? Who the heck still uses dip pens these days!?”

You’d be surprised. A lot of people still do. Artists, calligraphers, illustrators, historical re-enactors and people who wish to explore the history of writing, or who wish to have a bit of fun when they write. I fall into this last category, myself. Also, fountain pen users sometimes find themselves drifting into using dip-pens for more interesting and creative writing-styles, which can’t be achieved with a fountain pen.

Dip Pens in School.

Even though dip-pen nibs were dying out by the first decades of the 20th century, they still persisted in schools for a surprisingly long time. Up to the 1950s or 1960s in some places. I’m sure many of you are wondering: “Why?”

Why would teachers and schools force kids to write with dip-pens when more effective, cleaner and more easily-used fountain pens were available?

There are several reasons for this, but it mostly boils down to convenience and cost.

In a school where you might have upwards of 1,000 boys, it was cheaper to supply them all with dip-pen nibs, which cost tuppence a box, rather than fountain pens, which were much more expensive. Ink for dip-pens is very easy to make and it was cheap. You could buy huge quantities of it (massive bottles of it, actually!) which would last for ages. Fountain pen ink had to be specially-made and formulated, and this was expensive.

But then you might ask: “Why didn’t students just buy their own fountain pens and fountain pen ink?”

Well…that was because they were students. You have to remember that in the 1920s, when practical fountain pens really started taking off, a decent fountain pen cost about $3.00-$5.00. While this doesn’t sound like much money today, in 1925, you could buy yourself lunch and a drink with twenty-five cents. Spending three whole dollars on a fountain pen was considered extravagant, expensive and far beyond the reach of most children’s pocket-money. And even if their parents bought them fountain pens to use, they would probably have warned their children not to take them to school, on account of how expensive they would’ve been.

It’s for these reasons that dip-pens lasted in schools for as long as they did.

Dip Pen Accessories.

Dip pens require various accessories to make them really work properly. These accessories are…

1. A leather writing-pad.

A leather writing-surface, either nailed into a desk or inlaid into a writing-box or writing-slope, was a necessary addition for dip pens. The cushioning of the leather allowed for the sharp, metal pen-point to travel smoothly over the page, without also scratching the wooden desktop underneath. It led to a more pleasurable writing experience.

2. A rocker-blotter or blotting-paper.

Dip-pens tend to write incredibly wet. By this, I mean they have a tendency to lay down a very generous amount of ink. Blotting-paper, either as a loose sheet, or cut into a strip and put into a rocker-blotter is essential. Failure to blot regularly can result in big, nasty, inky messes on your writing.

3. An inkwell or inkstand.

An inkwell was a necessary accessory to the dip-pen. Unable to carry their own ink-supplies, dip-pens need an inkwell near at hand when writing. Usually, it would be just the one inkwell, with a hinged lid. However on larger desks, you might have two inkwells, set in an ‘inkstand’, a special desk-accessory that held spaces for pens, inkwells, spare nibs and even, in some cases, space to store a rocker-blotter.

A typical inkstand, of silver and lead crystal (or glass). In this particular case, the stand would have been placed in the middle of a large, partner’s desk, for use by two men (note the opposing troughs, either side of the inkwells in the middle, for storing pens). The inkwells were filled with ink, usually two different colours (such as red and black), but in this case, probably both with black ink. The box between the two inkwells was for storing postage stamps.

Frequently Asked Questions.

Here are a few frequently asked questions about dip pens…

1. What kind of ink can I use?

Any ink, really. Traditionally, it was powdered ink or iron gall ink, and this is still the best ink to use, but regular fountain pen ink works just as well.

2. How long does a nib last?

You just got a new nib, it’s tempered, it’s smoothed, it’s ready to go…how long will it last before I have to change nibs?

That depends, really. It depends on the type of nib, it depends on how you use it and how frequently you use it. I’ve had dip-pen nibs that lasted a few weeks, I’ve dip-pen nibs that have lasted me the better part of a year.

3. Are dip-pen nibs really fragile?

You read this a lot in autobiographies of people who grew up in the early 20th century, of breaking dip-pen nibs at school. Or maybe your parents or grandparents used to tell you they broke dip-pen nibs when they were at school, and ink went everywhere and then the schoolmaster gave them a right, royal hiding with a bamboo cane for all the mess.

How fragile a dip-pen nib is, depends on the kind of nib it is. Most stiff, steel nibs are actually quite tough and VERY sharp. You could probably stab someone to death with one of them and then write a confession-note later with the same pen. It’s pretty hard to break them.

On the other hand, dip-pens which are flexible in nature, with softer, more malleable metals, might be more prone to breaking. I personally, have never broken a dip-pen nib. One the one occasion that I actually tried, it’s actually damn hard to do. That said, the nibs which students would have used in school were probably the cheaper steel nibs, which was all they could afford with their pocket-money, but that’s all I could say on the matter.