How To Get Dried Out Ink Out of Calligraphy Nibs
When starting out I had no idea how to correctly clean my nibs for calligraphy, leading for them to get dried ink on them. I had no idea how important was to clean your nibs correctly.
I am here to make sure that you don’t make that same mistake. A lot of people don’t understand how important it is that your calligraphy nibs are nice and clean.
Today I am goign to be answering the question of how to get dried out ink out of calligraphy nibs?
One of the most effective ways is grabbing a toothbrush and put some water/soap on it. Start to scrub your nib very gently were your dried ink is. This should then lead to your nib to be squeaky clean.
That was the short answer, for the rest of the article I am going to be diving into why it is important and other ways that you can do it.
Here is a quick summary:
- Why It Is Important To Keep Your Nibs Clean
- 3 Ways To Get Dried Ink Off Calligraphy Nibs
- Final Thoughts
Why Is It Important To Keep Your Nibs Clean
In general, taking care of your calligraphy nibs (and any other supplies) is just a calligrapher’s basic good practice.
So why do we do this anyway? Other than making sure that our nibs don’t get all crusty, there are actually real reasons you should clean your nibs.
FIRST REASON
When you are getting your own nib the manufacturer usually leaves a type of sealant or oil on the nib.
When you are using your nib and you have not taken off the sealant this can lead to the ink not to work with your nib.
For example, the ink might not want to be on the nib, leading to the nib not to collect ink.
The way to get off the sealant is by cleaning your nib. As you can tell if you did not clean your nib you won’t be able to use it.
SECOND REASON
If you are not cleaning your nib correctly this can lead to dried ink to get stuck on your nib, which is a problem we are trying to solve.
This ink that is stuck on your nib can lead to the ink to not be able to flow correctly from your nib onto the paper.
That means no ink might be able to flow threw your pen, since there is ink already stuck onto it.
All the ink can also collect up into one place and lead to a big “splat” onto the paper. Overall there can be a lot of different problems with having ink stick onto your nib.
This can all also happen over time with your nib, since calligraphy nibs aren’t meant to last forever, they are meant to be replaced once in a while.
Three Ways To Get Dried Ink Off Calligraphy Nibs
All these ways you can also use for a step by step process with your nibs. Or you can just use one of these things to help you out.
FIRST
The very first thing I would try to do is simply rinse it with warm water and get a paper towel. With the paper towel move it one direction against the nib.
Start to scrub the spots where the ink is. You are going to only have to scrub in one direction because you don’t want any of the fibers to get stuck onto the nib.
This is the most easiest way to be able to get dried ink off of calligraphy nibs. Before trying out anything you should do this because it is just a simple wash.
If this didn’t work at all, or you still have some dried ink then you can start to do something else.
SECOND
After trying that I would then do the most effective technique, which would easily take off all of the ink.
All you are going to need is a toothbrush and some warm water.
You are going to grab your toothbrush and dip into the water and start scrubbing very gently against the nib in one motion.
Continue doing this until all of the ink is completely off of your nib. If you can’t get some off, add some soap or a cleaner that is used for nibs to the toothbrush.
THIRD
After cleaning my calligraphy nibs I usually like leaving them dipped into a cleanser that is used for calligraphy nibs.
This you can say is the “least effective way” of getting the ink off of your nibs, since you are not using any force.
I still recommend doing this after you have done either of the two above techniques since it just makes sure that you haven’t left anything on the nib, like paper from the paper towel, or even bristles from the toothbrush.
This can also lead to some the dry ink to come out of the nib on its own, meaning it can contaminate the rest of the cleanser, so be careful.
You also don’t need to dip the nib into a cleanser. Some water can be just as good if you are on a budget. The water can also lead to some of the ink to get off on its own.
Don’t feel that you need some expensive cleansers for your nibs, some plane water can be just fine.
Plus, you can skip this step entirely if you feel that your nib is squeaky clean, this is just something I like to do, for final touches.
Final Thoughts
As you can teel it is actually quite easy to clean your nibs and it is easy to know how to take care of them correctly. Don’t worry if you haven’t been doing this at all, just start doing it now.
Nibs over time are going to wear out but doesn’t mean you shouldn’t clean them. During there lifespan you should be cleaning them to help them last longer and so that you won’t have any problems with your calligraphy.
If you have any more questions about your calligraphy nibs feel free to comment.