Him; I spit into the paper towel.
Me: * already licking the nib *

Thank you very much!  Complete beginner, bought a new dip pen with nibs for pen and wash drawing and nearly binned it as I just couldn't get it to work.  Tried your tip of wiping with isopropolene alcohol and it worked like a charm.  You saved my day, thank you!

"or if you're in to fire use a flame" The way you said that broke me so hard. I never expected to laugh so much at a how-to video. Thanks, made my day!

Perfect tutorial for a beginner nib user.  Had no idea that they needed to be prepped.  Used some spit et voila.  Working nib.  Thank you!

Another suggestion would be having a travelers tube of toothpaste.  Apply a small amount, let set, and with an old toothbrush gently brush the nib.  
Ref: Dr. J. Vitolo, PhD, DMD

SEMPER Fi

I don’t mean to single you out because there sure is a lot of sketchy 'advice' about preparing metal dip pen nibs floating around. You say " I understand the theory, but in practice I’ve never tempered a nib to the point ..." in these comments -- but in this video @5:15-5:20 you show the result of heating a nib to remove the coating as "...discolored a little bit...". That straw-reddish color is the result of changing the temper. On these very thin small pieces of steel that's all it takes to change/destroy the temper. Sure the nib still 'works', but it's now 'outside factory specs' as they say for durability and performance.
    I learned this decades ago but I guess schools and manuals no longer include such information. Dipping or immersing nibs in detergent, alcohol, or nail polish remover (that’s acetone —the best) then rubbing them with a cloth does the least damage. And I think the careful rubbing alone sometimes is enough.
    No one mentions or uses reservoirs either. A reservoir allow you to write/draw 5-7X more before re-charging the nib. Yes, ink dries around it and needs to be cleaned off occasionally after 4-5+ 'loads’ depending on the ink and humidity, but it only takes a few swipes with an old paintbrush charged with slightly soapy water, a dip-rinse into plain water and a wipe off (that’s if you’re using India ink -the worst). Then re-charge the reservoir and continue to write/draw.
     Reservoirs used to be made of watch springs (good luck finding that now) or some other narrow, thin springy metal.  That’s the ideal material.  I make them now using narrow strips of thin stiffish plastic.  Strips cut from credit card stock can be sanded down at the ‘working end’ to get the preferred flex and ‘ink holding’ finish.  Usually 2-3mm wide and 1-2mm thick.  The length and overall shape depends on the construction of the pen handle/holder.
    Some holders are hollow with a spring that grips the nib.  Some just have a curved slot the nib fits in, etc.  The working end of the reservoir should touch the nib just below any gap, hole or filigree that interrupts the split in the nib (ie: the split that channels ink down the last few millimeters to the tip/paper).  The working end must be bent into a curve (not too shallow, not to steep) so that just the tip of the curved end will touch the nib to hold a drop of ink — the “reservoir”.  The other end which holds the reservoir to the pen must fit snugly into the gap between the bottom of the nib and the holder spring or slot.  So this end needs to be long enough to insert 5mm or more into the holder. The overall length and shape of the handle end of the reservoir strip stuck into the holder requires some creative design by the user to best fit their holder(s) and produce a stable optimal drop of ink in the ‘reservoir’.
     Once you understand how it works, you can make a hand-full of reservoir strips and easily adapt them to different nibs and holders.
     Sorry I can’t include an illustration - I tried a bit of ASCI art but it didn’t work.  If I can find the book I learned this from I’ll come back and add it to this post.  [Don’t hold your breath.  That was 40 years ago. { ; - ) ]

Omgggg thank you so much for making this video! I recently purchased a nib and when I went to write with it, it didn’t write like “the other videos I watched about that nib” 😂😂and I got really discouraged. I had practiced my calligraphy for a few weeks before trying my dip pen and then to have it not write ✍️ the way I had saw it on the videos kinda killed my motivation to use it. Now that I know you have to prep it first, I can’t wait to get home and prep it. Thank you again!

Bro had to stop himself from saying directed energy weapon

Its a good thing i saw this before my nibs arrived. I intend to do more illustrating with ink so its good to know what to do to prepare them beforehand

You, my friend, are a lifesaver! I was wondering why the ink seems to only be on a small portion of my nib and only writing a little, before running out. The saliva trick worked an absolute charm, so thank you very much! 🙏🏻🙌🏻

5 years later still an extremely valuable video. I used a flame to the point of case hardening the nib and still no ink sticking. Not even alcohol was working. It wasn't until I used my spit that I was finally able to break down the oil. Thank you!

Soap and hot water followed by cleaning alcohol. Dry. Start. Works well for me.

All the other videos I tried to watch were SO SLOW. I was pulling my hair out until this video. Thanks for a great tutorial!!!!

Thanks a bunch for this! I'm a beginner getting a new set of nibs and everywhere I looked either had methods to clean the oil off that I couldn't use or took too long to explain making me a little confused and impatient. This is an underrated video, keep up the great work!!!

My grade school teacher always used a dip pen. He was educated in France in the 50s/60s so I'm that may or may not have something to do with it. I'm going to start now. Thanks for the great tips.

spit is so nasty but so useful. i spit join yarn and now dip nibs lmao a quick dip in acetone is super quick and no flame or paper towel needed.

I attended school before ball pens were allowed for use by students. Students were issued pen holders and nibs and sometimes the schools supplied ink but most often students had to buy bottles of ink from a store. Before a nib could be used students put the nib in their mouth and carefully moved it around in their mouth for less than a minute then removed the pen from the mouth and wiped it clean on a handkerchief. Girls used white hankies or Kleenexes if they had them but boys used handkerchiefs or their shirts becasue boys didn't use Kleenexes back in those days. Generally, teachers used to watch closely when students put nibs in their mouths in case a student accidently swallowed a nib but I never recall that such a think happening. When the nib was inserted into the pen the combination was typically referred to as a straight pen. We used straight pens to write literally every thing, the only exception was in arithmetic or math classes where pencils were mandatory. Ball pens were not permitted in most schools in Canada until the late 1950s. We didn't have paper towel to spit into and if we had the process would have been considered gross and bad manners but, putting nibs in our mouths was okay. We could always tell when the nib was clean becasue we could taste the metal of the nib, only then was it ready to dry and insert into the holder. That was a great many decades ago.

Oh wow!  Who knew???  Why don’t nibs come with an instruction to clean before use?  Thank you so much for this information.

Well I mean.. back in the day when there werent 103300 supplies available and all they probs did things like these and they worked.. I found an old French book on how to make ink, one used egg shells and vinegar to make white ink to write on black paper and lots of other ingredients we cant find very easily or not anymore and it worked then wonder why they did then and dont now

I've found that even vinager works