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The most commonly found tools for lettering have included reeds and quills sharpened to specific sizes, pens with pointed or broad edged mental nibs, sticks of bamboo carved to size and angle, drafting pens, pencils and round and flat brushes.

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Metal Nibs

Paul Antonio, calligraphic master, on preparing nibs:

John Stevens goes over shaping your nibs:

notes-on-shaping-your-nib

Randall Hasson, passionate Speedball lettering artist, talks about Speedball’s unique bent nibs:

Randall talks about vintage lettering and Speedball:

Randall focuses on the Speedball A-nib:

Randall focuses next on the B-nib:

Randall moves on to the D-nib:

Randall brings the bent nibs into contemporary uses:

Another history of the widely available and popular Speedball nibs:

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Brushes

Renowned calligrapher, John Stevens, shows preparation of the 1/2″ flat brush for Roman Lettering:

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Quills

Townsends shows how a feather turned into a pen in his history focused series:

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