Historic Types of Pens

There are several types of pens that are no longer in common use.

A dip pen (or nib pen) is very similar to a fountain pen. The biggest difference is that is has no ink reservoir. A metal nib is mounted on a handle or holder, often made of wood. It must be repeatedly recharged with ink while drawing or writing usually by dipping it in an ink well.. Unlike the fountain pen a dip pen can use waterproof pigmented (particle-and-binder-based) inks, such as so-called India ink, drawing ink, or acrylic inks. These inks would destroy a fountain pen by clogging, as well as the traditional iron gall ink, which can cause corrosion in a fountain pen. Dip pens are now mainly used in illustration, calligraphy, and comics.

An ink brush is the East Indian traditional writing implement for calligraphy. The body of the brush can be made from either bamboo, or rarer materials such as red sandalwood, glass, ivory, silver, and gold. The head of the brush can be made from the hair (or feathers) of a wide variety of animals, including the weasel, rabbit, deer, chicken, duck, goat, pig, tiger, etc. There is also a tradition in both China and Japan of making a brush using the hair of a newborn, as a once-in-a-lifetime souvenir for the child. Calligraphy brushes are widely considered an extension of the calligrapher's arm. Today, calligraphy may also be done using a pen, but pen calligraphy does not enjoy the same prestige as traditional brush calligraphy.

A reed pen, as the name implies was cut from a reed (or bamboo) There wasa slit in a narrow tip. It works very similar to a quill. The reed pen has almost disappeared but it is still used by young school students in some parts of India and Pakistan. Popular belief has it that writing with a reed pen improves handwriting.

A quill is a pen made from a flight feather of a large bird, usually a goose. Quills were used as instruments for writing with ink before the metal dip pen. Quill pens were used in medieval times to write on parchment or paper. The quill eventually replaced the reed pen.