Dip pen

A dip pen is a writing instrument used to apply ink to paper. It usually consists of a metal nib with a central slit that acts as a capillary channel like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and plastic; some pens are made entirely of glass.

Generally dip pens have no ink reservoir, so the user must refill the ink from an ink bowl or bottle to continue drawing or writing. Sometimes a simple tubular reservoir can be clipped to the top of the pen, allowing for several minutes of uninterrupted use. Refilling can be done by dipping into an inkwell, but it is also possible to charge the pen with an eyedropper, a syringe, or a brush, which gives more control over the amount of ink applied. Thus, "dip pens" are not necessarily dipped; many illustrators call them nib pens.

Dip pens with replaceable metal nibs emerged in the early 19th century, when they replaced quill pens and, in some parts of the world, reed pens. Dip pens were widely used well into the 20th century, only gradually being displaced with the development of fountain pens in the later 19th century, and are now mainly used in illustration, calligraphy, and comics.

While a fountain pen offers the convenience of less frequent refills, the dip pen has certain advantages over a fountain pen. It can use waterproof, pigmented, iron gall ink, particle-and-binder-based inks, such as India ink, drawing ink, and acrylic inks with ease; while fountain pens generally must use water based inks, require thorough and frequent cleaning to prevent clogging when used with pigmented or waterproof inks and may corrode when used with iron gall ink. Steel and brass dip pen nibs may also corrode when used with iron gall ink but this is not as likely nor as problematic as the nib of a dip pen is often cleaned after each use, and is easily replaced. Flexible dip pen nibs allow for the production of a line that naturally varies in thickness.

There is a wide range of exchangeable nibs for dip pens, so different types of lines and effects can be created. The nibs and handles are far cheaper than most fountain pens, and allow color changes much more easily.

A copper nib was found in the ruins of Pompeii, showing that metal nibs were used in the year 79. There is also a reference to 'a silver pen to carry ink in', in Samuel Pepys' diary for August 1663. 'New invented' metal pens are advertised in The Times in 1792. A metal pen point was patented in 1803 by Bryan Donkin, but the patent was not commercially exploited. The patent for the manufacture of metal pens was advertised for sale in 1811. John Mitchell of Birmingham started to mass-produce pens with metal nibs in 1822, and after that, the quality of steel nibs improved enough so that dip pens with metal nibs came into general use.

The earliest known split-nib metal dip pen is a surviving copper-alloy pen found in Roman Britain (AD 43 to 410). Several other surviving all-metal and removable-nib pens from the Middle Ages and Renaissance have been found, suggesting they were used alongside quill pens.

The steel pen is first attested in Daniel Defoe's book A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain – 1724–26. In Letter VII Defoe wrote: "the plaster of the ceilings and walls in some rooms is so fine, so firm, so entire, that they break it off in large flakes, and it will bear writing on it with a pencil or steel pen." In Newhall Street, John Mitchell pioneered mass production of steel pens in 1822; prior to that the quill pen had been the most common form of writing instrument. His brother William Mitchell later set up his own pen making business in St Paul's square. The Mitchell family is credited as being the first manufacturers to use machines to cut pen nibs, which greatly sped up the process.