Pen Nibs and Inks

Just a few nibs in my collection 

Once again Sandy Allnock got me to break out my very large stash of pen nibs and inks. Go check out her new series about working with pen and ink. 

If you go to or do enough estate sales you will find boxes full of nibs. I've been collecting them for years. Don't ask me why when I'm left handed and calligraphy is a right handed thing. I've also found bottled ink at estate sales but most of the time they are way over priced. It's better to buy a new bottle even knowing the ink doesn't really go bad. So I'm looking at all these nibs and not knowing anything about them wondered how artists know what each nib does when you have hundreds of them. Went down the rabbit hole but never found anyone who showed how they store their nibs and keep track of what sizes they have. Yes, you can break out a magnifying glass and look at the numbers on each nib and I'm guessing if you work with them enough you'll just know. But what about us crafters who just break them out when we're bored?

Since I'm also working on my book binding projects I made a little booklet. It's a design in progress so don't judge me. I like the idea the nib is on the same page that shows what it does. 

I also have several very old fountain pens that need to be filled or need new cartridges. Sandy has a tutorial on that too so I at least know what I'm looking at.