Manuscript Pen Company MC1155LA Deluxe Calligraphy Set

I have a set of dip pens for caligraphy, but sometimes it's nice to just have a ready to go pen for letters and suchlike. This pen feels a bit cheap to be honest. The plastic cap and barrel are quite light and feel a little tight, so it's a little difficult to close the tip and barrel and lid. The nibs are decent quality and write smoothly without dripping or spotting and even the cheap small ink cartridges will fit. The ink converter works well, but also feels cheap and a little fragile, so needs a bit of care when filling from a bottle. As a set to help a young person learn calligraphy, or as a quick use pen for letter writing or journal notes these are ideal for the task. So far nothing has broken, much to my surprise so it appears to be robust enough for teenager abuse. The nibs supplied with the pen are basic but no copperplate tip is included unfortunately, although a standard tip for general handwriting is. Overall, for the price, this is not a bad set and is extremely useful for teaching young people and teenagers to write with a fountain pen and use general calligraphy. For people wanting to get deeply into various forms of calligraphy and handwriting I would suggest a dip pen set as they invariably have a much wider selection of tips. This is a fine starter set though. It is unfortunate in my opinion that fountain pens are not generally used these days, as they offer a much more attractive hand writing form than the common gel/biro style pens that litter every desk today. Delivery was very quick, and the product was nicely packaged against postal abuse.

Writes beautifully

It is good, but there are a few issues, like getting the bigger nibs to work, and the smaller nibs not really looking like calligraphy writing. I have got my use out of it for the very affordable cost, and I would recommend it, but the only nibs that I use are the 2b and 3b. The metal case is great. Kinda sold me, actually.

great

Not what I was expecting. On the start of each letter it doesn’t mark the paper. I’ve changed the nib but still the same. Disappointing

Great product, better than Works

Do not under any circumstances buy one of these. I've used Manuscript in the past with mediocre results but I need a range of nib sizes and thought these might do. However, that is just impossible.. Of the six nibs. One worked straight out of the box, a second was made to work with a 'reasonable' amount of messing, a third worked after about half an hour of buggering about and then gave up. The others I cannot get to work at all and even using them as dip pens didn't work because they consistently gave split lines (railroading). They seem to become the more unreliable the broader the nib size which of course is pretty useless for any calligraphy. I would have been much better off getting a liner to do what I wanted rather than the results I am getting from these nibs. To add to my vexation, the green ink seems impossible to remove from fingers with white spirit or anything else and believe me you are going to get messed up fingers. Also, I just can't the ink adapter to work even minimally. It is too stiff and fiddly to fill with ink properly though I couldn't do that on the earlier set either. Even filling it with a syringe. From what I have seen the 'thin to wide' ratio needed in calligraphy also seems inadequate but I can't get a proper view of that because I can't get the bloody nibs working in the first place! If you buy these brace yourselves, they look pretty but they are a waste of money. I'd send these back but the postage is prohibitive. Nil stars and happy camping! George Sweetnam

I AM SO PLEASED WITH THIS PEN SET and it's value for money. You receive 6 different nibs and 4 different coloured inks. I've been looking for a set like this for a very long time, but they were always so expensive. when I saw the price of this set I didn't hesitate to buy it. I spent the whole afternoon, hours practicing with the pens and I only stopped because the time had got away from me. I would highly recommend buying these pens and urge anyone it's not worth paying anymore money, I don't honestly think you could get better.