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Suggestions for pen and ink use with watercolour.

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John Walker

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Hi folks. I have decided to try acrylic inks for fine detail with watercolour. My old Rotring pens have dried so badly they are now impossible to clean. I have looked around for some pens, but all I can find are various coloured pens, which come in sets, and are clearly not reusable. So what can I use to draw with the acrylic inks? I don't mind using a dip-pen, but the search engines don't seem to know what I mean by refillable pens or dip pens. Can anyone advise please? The inks I want to try are the FW line. Mostly for fine branches of trees. My hands no longer seem steady enough to use a fine Rigging brush.  Any advice most welcome. Cheers John

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Sylvia Evans

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I have just googled “dip pens” John and there are quite a lot on there. Nice interchangeable nibs.  Another alternative look for calligraphy pens.  Nice thing to do. 
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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John I just checked out Amazon and the card up with quite a few dip pens , they even came up with dip pens for artists. Have a look and you might see something on there that you can then follow up .
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Robert Jones, NAPA

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I've got enough pen holders and pens (which is what the nibs were called) to last me until I die, so I haven't been looking for them.  But you can find them on the Ken Bromley website, and get them from Cult Pens.  Rotring pens are still made, their drawback being that the ones you can use with permanent ink come with a series of fixed nibs, whereas the traditional dip pen is more flexible.  
251-95

John Walker

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Sylvia, Paul, Robert. Many thanks.  I have found what I was looking for and it's on order. My VPN is causing me problems with some websites, including Amazon, and I forget to switch it off when using Amazon. So problem solved now! Cheers John

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Sylvia Evans

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Great.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Pleased to hear it sort out John, enjoy whatever you buy. 
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John Walker

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Thanks again Paul and Sylvia. Robert; It seems we use the same suppliers then. I am happy with Ken Bromley, and Cult pens I have used once or twice. I had an idea that I might be able to use dip pens with watercolour, as an ink would be used, so I will try that technique first and see how I get on. Thanks again to everyone; now to concentrate on regaining 'not so recently used' abilities! Cheers John !
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John Walker

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Hello John, I was wondering if it might be possible to recover your Rotring pens. If you have not used acrylic ink in these pens, then have you considered Rotring cleaning fluid for cleaning your pens? The fluid (100 mL) costs 6.25 pounds on Amazon. I bought this fluid a year ago, as my Rotring pens were badly dried up and I tried isopropyl alcohol etc, to no avail.  I bought an inexpensive ultrasonic bath (6 euros) runs on a battery, but you can use a jar with a lid. I placed a few mils of the cleaning fluid and filled up the container/bath with water. Then after unscrewing the Rotring pen parts, I allowed them to soak overnight in this solution. I agitated them a few times by running the ultrasonic bath. Rinsed them under the tap thoroughly. Its best to use gloves when handling this fluid.  Even after an hour some of the pens were working. For very badly dried pens, you can also use undiluted Rotring pen fluid. I used a small bottle about 15 mL, and was able to reuse the solution for cleaning other pens. Its important to rinse the rotring pen parts thoroughly with water.  This is how I recovered a set Faber Castell TG-1 pen sets which I purchased for 5 euros on the used market here. They were listed as damaged and old. And they are all working now!! I also reuse the Rotring cleaning fluid and store it in a jar.  If the cleaning fluid does not work the first time, best to repeat it a few times. I thought I would share my experience, in case it works.
Shazia Juna on 03/12/2021 07:09:10
Thank You Shazia. I will give this a try, but to get up into the loft for the pens is not possible for me at the moment. I will wait until my son can spare an hour or so! Believe me, getting old isn't for 'wimps'! Regards John