I am kinda' kicking myself. It reminds me that my father had several of these pens. He was an engineer who did a lot of drafting back in the 60's early 70's. When he passed, I had a special wooden box of his, with protractors and extensions as well as several pen bodies and tips of different sizes. I moved around so many times over the psat 30 years that all I know is that right now, I no longer have them in my posession. A bit of a mixed feeling as I fondly remember them and my father but sadly regret not being more carfeul to hold on to them. I hope whoever has them now will value them more than I should have... Thank you very much for this video.
I had a similar thing, my father had all the original Star Wars toys and I mean boxes of them but I sold them in the late 90's because I had to move. They are now worth mega bucks.
We don’t always value the things that are left behind by our parents but our memories of them never leave us and those are the most valuable those you will never lose. God Bless and take care of you.
_Drawings by a 12 year old_ as soon as Peter pulled out those boxes, I was admiring the beautiful and *very professional* illustrations done on the cover. ML really had to do themself like that😫
Right! It took me a few looks to realize it was hand drawn. ML's got modesty for days! Kind reminder that nothing in the note indicated gender. ML isn't necessarily a he/him/his
You guys realize that you can say he or she if it isnt otherwise stated right? Its just expected to be default in general incidents like that especially if they dont specify. A person who would actually get offended at that innocuous "mistake", for lack of a better word, has a ridiculous ego and is not worth your time.
Ruling pens work best when held vertically, similar to a rapidograph. The screw allows you to adjust the line width, which you only notice when drawing parallel to the tines. I've used these for drafting a long time ago. I'd keep a test sheet off to the side where I could check my line widths every time I made an adjustment. I lost mine long ago but one thing I remember is how these flowed so well, especially vs a rapidograph.
@@1337blackone I used to use Rotring ink in a small 23ml bottle. You can hold the pen over a towel and just put a drop of ink into it with the spout on the bottle. Pilot makes a drafting ink, which I've not used, but its in a bottle that you can dip the nib into. JetPens sells it. Otherwise, I would think that any fountain pen inks would work but I'm not positive about that. The cool thing about these pens is they're so easy to clean so you can try different inks. Lots of places like Goulet pens, Vanness and Pen Chalet sell ink samples.
@@1337blackone Classic India ink is the default. Drafting prefers very opaque black lines. Also, find an ink eraser knife, if you can. An Exacto with a curved blade (not straight or concave) will do in a pinch. India ink mostly adheres above the surface of the paper, and can be erased by scraping it off. The results of such an eraser are not perfect. But, if you pitching a house design on a schedule, a little ugly is better than staying up all night to redo an entire drawing to fix one little mistake or having nothing to show at all.
Dear ML, When I first saw your packaging, I thought it was the original. I would not consider that to be the work of a twelve year old, unless that twelve year old were very talented. Don't be so hard on yourself! Sincerely, Some guy on RUclips
ML sounds like my brother, very creative with gift giving. They don't realize the time and thought they put into the gift are almost as good as the gift. Or do they? They are special people.❤
I love that look of excited satisfaction about his eager anticipation to draw by the inspiration of a, now sadly, archaic drafting device. I feel the same way when i watch others engage in the creative process. Its bits like that, which makes me feel less alone in the world.
Man I love to see your art in any form, but what a treat to see you drawing in multiple colors like that. And your face when you got so excited to draw after seeing the pen... what a gem.
I used to use one of these and I still have my set including a compass attachment. It's lovely. I was what was known as a 'paste-up artist' (insert gag here if required) and worked in an offset litho printers. Basically, this is how we did adobe illustrator before adobe illustrator. My job was to create artwork for all manner of print jobs which were glued down on to board (hence paste-up) and then effectively burnt on to printing plates through various processes. I switched to using Apple Macs when I moved to London in the 90s but it was good to have that grounding in ye olde school techniques.
loved the boxes and illustrations. also, why was i getting a little emotional when peter was reading the letter? peter's excitement and smile with the pen was so very contagious!
What a gift to get a pen that was used to create by an engineer. How special is that! And to see the look on your face♥️. Like a child getting a gift on Christmas. Peter, you make me smile. And ML made my heart feel good to see such unselfishness by giving away a pen that he used for many years. Who knows what beautiful things he created with it.
I work summers for the Bell telephone co in Washington DC in their drafting department. We used the drafting pin to draw the underground cables, as well as any time there was a repair or something added we had to update the charts. This was when I was going to college in 1960’s. I love them! We did use black India Ink!
My dude I absolutely love how no matter what it is you don't look into hiw to use it and just are like I'm gonna dip ot and scribble, lets go! Its very cathartic. Love it
I took technical drafting in high school when they still used analog instruments and paper rather than CAD, and I always loved it as a skill and it's the same kind of satisfaction I have drawing anything in ink and watching a drawing made by Peter. When I see a pen like this I think back to the process of drafting which is what these pens were for, you know formal blueprints and design drawings. And usually you would do a pencil drawing with almost every detail of course using rulers and squares and compasses and all that. And then maybe the person doing the drawing was only a draftsperson, and the engineer or architect or whatever would have to look at it and okay the final design and make revisions. And only then would you go ahead and ink the final drawing. And this was for permanence, but it was also because duplication wouldn't pick up faint pencil lines very well. And there was a pride in that, and inking was like the virtuoso act of a master draftsperson. And you might have different specialties in the office like one person was good at inking lines and another person was better at text. A sadly lost art.
The screw on the ruling pen adjusts for different line widths. Also, it was designed to rule straight lines for drafting purposes. That may be why it doesn't work so well with your organic drawing style.
Just wanted to say I used to watch you a lot in the past, didn't watch you for many years and I have recently dove back into your content and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I listen to your "Content-Free Podcasts" and I really enjoy them. I hope you start a new podcast sometime soon, I have 20 more to listen to so I have plenty of time left. Have a nice day Peter, keep doing what you're doin.
Oooh. I have one of these tips which came with a vintage bow compass set. I've never known how to use it until seeing this video. Thank you so much. Now I'm off to try it with my various fountain pen inks....this is exciting to learn something new about something old...
When I started drafting back in the 1970s, we used that type of pen, but we just called them "drafting pens". We had compasses that used that same sort of tip. Other than lettering, most drafting involves straight lines (via straightedges) or lines via compass, so the pen is normally oriented vertically and the two surfaces of the tip are set to be aligned in the same direction that the line is being drawn. As such, if you don't have any ink in it, you get two parallel scratches on the paper. I remember switching to the Rapidiogragh type of drafting pen not too long after that. They were quite a bit more expensive, but with the Leroy lettering machine, you ended up with very professional looking lettering. Drawings were normally done with pencil and on paper initially and once finalized, we would put a light clean coat of a spray can polyurethane to keep the pencil marks from smudging. For archival or presentations, we would then use a translucent matte finish polyester film and ink. Drafting tables often had light sources under them back then and the paper drawing would be put over it and then the polyester film. You could then trace the original drawing, leaving out any unnecessary guide lines. The Rapidiograph pens were a bit more finicky to keep clean and it was entirely too easy to accidentally bend the pin that went down the ink tube, but the consistency of the lines made it worthwhile. I actually stumbled across one of my ruling pens the other day while searching for something else and since I had a bottle of India ink, I tried it out... Even after 50 years, it still works as good as I remember it ever working... I have no idea where the rest of the drafting set that it came with ended up though... Perhaps a better question is why this pen has not been lost after so many years and moves / changes of duty stations...
Beautiful. A couple years back I went to a garage sale and the guy had a few cases of these and protractors, dividers and other drafting tools, I had no idea what these were for until a few months ago when I looked it up, but I bought them all for a few bucks anyway. New found excitement to try them out!
I've had a box of these pens in my desk for the last 12 years! They came in a box of misc stuff I purchased at an auction. No one that's ever seen them, including myself, have ever had a clue what they are! If anyone did have a guess it was nomally some sort of holder or tool. I'm going to have to see how they work. I find your videos relaxing and sometimes, like this one, also educational. Thanks!
As noted here by others, I also was a draftsman in the late 60's and early 70's and made inked drawings on Linen "paper" of dental instruments. I used ruling pens and compasses both with adjustable nibs for drawing lines of specific widths using the sides of straight edges, triangles, French curves, and templates all held above the paper surface to prevent ink flowing under the item. For the use (adjustments) and care of rule ink pens see You Tube video by Purdue University "Tracing with Ink" (1955). the end of that video describes how to sharpen the nibs.
Cool. I bought a ruling pen for applying masking fluid for use in watercolor painting. Maybe I should try to use it for its original purpose... Never seen such a funnel nib before, very interesting.
@@peter_draws I learned a tip on using masking fluid with brushes - if you put some washing up liquid on the brush before dipping into the fluid, it helps clean the brush at the end of the process. I've done it a few times and it works ok - but I still tend to use brushes that aren't my favourite!
The funnelnib pen is similar to the UNO pen, which back in the day we used for stencilling. The ruling pen adjustment is to vary the line width. I used to do technical illustrations (cutaway drawings, exploded views, etc.) and we used the ruling pen for the straight lines and a Rotring pen for corners.
wild that youtube hasn't recommended me one of your videos in like 3 years and the one it recommends is of this pen that i found in my moms art supplies after she died, which i had no idea what it actually was. thanks peter
Have not used a ruling pen since my days in college! Used for mainly straight lines using paint or ink with a ruler or compass. When using paint you want to ensure the paint is a thinner consistency but not too thin else it just runs out, too thick and you won't get smooth uninterrupted line work. And you can vary the widths of the line by adjusting the screw. Great for when you want very precise line work that you cannot get with a brush. For example, if you wanted to paint a red square. Using the ruling pen with a ruler, you would draw the 4 edges or lines of the square in red paint or ink and then fill in the square using a brush. Dipping the ruling pen in the ink bottle is messy, usually best to use a brush to partially fill the open sides with a brush or use a glass dropper.
As always, I love your personal philosophies around art in this video. That and the sincerity you bring towards the gifted pens. I can't imagine how honorable it must feel to be given a relic like these two pens.
I have a pen similar to that in an old drafting kit. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it had something missing. Now I have a new pen to play with...Yay!
Theory on flag colors: Red, blue, yellow, and sometimes green are primary colors and therefore show up the best when contrasted next to each other. Helpful on the high seas and battlefields to distinguish between friend and foe. Also designs were kept as simple as possible to avoid confusion at long distances.
Also with shields and coats of arms you coule not place a ‘metal’ (wite or yellow) next to another metal. This was so you could use the other colours as an application/ ‘paint job’ on top of the metal. Maybe the flags evolved from this as many of the old flags still keep this ‘rule’
Cost was also a factor, you will notice that very few flags are purple as purple dye was so expensive to make. It was used by the very wealthy as a show of wealth. Purple robes for royal, the Catholic Church had purple clothing for the higher ups and done flags for example.
How delightful! I have both my dad's and my husband's drafting sets. Ruling pens are the part I use the most and that is mostly when using masking fluid. The thicker the ink, the wider the line that is possible. India Ink was the most used from what I remember and tightening and loosening that screw gave you so much control over your lines! It is so sad that mechanical drawing is no longer taught with good tools. And it is sad that you have not inherited a set yourself! The ruling pen was built so that you can literally lean it against a ruler to make straight lines. There is usually several types of compasses in a set -- including an ink tip or one that lets you use a ruling pen, so inked circles were simple to accomplish. One of my dad's old books also explains how to use it. He was born in 1911... I was born in 1946. Things have changed.
@@clarisacalderon9555 the classes high schools used to have were called Mechanical Drawing,. You can see how there are similar ends to a lot of the small pieces - at least in what I have. They are interchangeable for pins, leads and ink. The pins are for keeping the tool in the same place. My husband said that there was a thin pad that was self-healing that went on top of the drawing surface.
Look for something on video. Lots of people use the inking pens for watercolor but the new ones are not as nice ase the old ones made for even the cheaper sets. Enjoy figuring it out.
You can also use ruling pens with watercolor, acrylic paints and anything you can imagine. With the metal pieces it's called repousse and copper plates are the metal I was taught on. Yes, a softish surface underneath is good (like mousepad) and even a ball point pen will make an impression.
The metal hammering techniques you're talking about at the end of your video might be "chasing" and "repousse". While the terminology is French in origin, many cultures have practiced the art form for thousands of years. While the metals used are commonly soft (gold, silver, copper, brass, etc) you can hammer more resilient metals such as bronze and steel to the same end, though you'll need to anneal them more frequently to prevent tears from developing as the material work hardens. As for putting something "soft" behind it, you're totally correct. Traditionally, the workpiece would be set on the surface of a dense pitch compound in a bowl, providing a balance of resistance and give that allows for hammer and chisel strikes to shape specific areas while the surrounding ones remain relatively unaffected. If you can't find a giant bowl of pitch to use, a sandbag can be a decent substitute. Finally, there are definitely specialty hammers and chisels for this but you can get away with using just about anything that's strong enough not to break when repeatedly pounded into sheet metal. If you want to see how your tools will affect the metal without beating it up sacrificially, press them into a soft substance (clay, putty, etc) and look at the imprint it makes. Try to stay away from tools with sharp edges unless you're being gentle, as they have a higher likelihood of tearing and cutting your metals. Otherwise, give it a whirl and have fun! I can't wait to see what you create. :)
As for a smooth drawing experience with the pen they were designed for tracing paper. With the correct ink you can draw on film. I am familiar with those pens and they were in all the drawing offices up to the 1970s and 1980s so you are spot on as regards vintage. I used to watch my Dad drawing with them when I went to his office as a kid back in the 1960s and 1970s. They also used to sharpen their pencils so that the lead (graphite) would look like a chisel. That way they could get a line with constant width as the lead wore down. So as not to smudge the drawing or leave and sweat on the drawing paper he held his drawing instruments with his thumb, index and middle fingers straight and even wrote that way when writing a letter. His block lettering on an envelope was immaculate!
Then I first started my degree course in Graphic Design in 1975 London we spent the first two weeks learning to use just these tools... no Macs no Photoshop, everything was done with pen, brush and scalpel... and boy was it a useful thing to know too! Lost skills eh! Thank you..! PS.. you mainly used them for laying out geometric shapes and lettering rather than freehand drawing... they work great with thinned down gouache or poster paints and we would fill the nib with a brush... frankly to use them well did take many hours of practice.... no wonder we kept to Freehand and Illustrator as soon as they came along....
Oooh I have a ruling pen like that! We used it when I worked at a frame shop to draw straight lines around the mat. It was awesome when used with gold gouache (watered down). You can load it up with any watercolor or ink. I used to load it by mixing up the color with a brush, then scraping the loaded bristles against the side of the ruling pen. Now you gave me inspiration to try using it without a ruler!
If you can find an old technical drawing book, before computers, you will find out all about drawing instruments. Thanks for the video. Nice work Peter!
I believe there is a lot of red, white, and blue used in Ancient Egypt, also they were big users of the very early reed pen. Last fall, I made a bunch of reed pens from the patches of reeds growing on the side of the road, they are fun to use. If anyone has them growing near you, I recommend trying it.
Peter, in the watercolor world, the ruling pen is sometimes used to distribute a mask solution over parts of the white paper you don't want to cover with paint. When ready, you simply peel the mask off. Brushes are easily destroyed with masking unless extra care is taken, but the ruling can lay down a very precise cover without worry of destruction from the mask.
My father was a professional engineer who started his career as a draftsman in the 1950's. I have seen many of these pen tips. The reason for the finely adjustable nib has to do with drafting standards. If you look at modern pens for drafting they come in standard widths .5, .8, 1mm etc. as well. The draftsman could align the nib with a rule to get the standard width for the line type they were about to draw. If you google it you could probably find information about the types of ink they would have used.
Used it in the 70's at school for scientific drawings. Thightening or unthightening the screw defines the width of the lines you're drawing. Still have mine and you can still find them online.
Hey Dan is out and about, good for him! Lovely gifts to receive, I hope to send something when possible. I also wanted to add I just love to see you smile man, such a warm inviting feel. And since it is a drafting pen, do you think we'd be able to see any new architecture designs?
The second drawing looks how a Bomb Pop tastes for me. :) I've also never heard of a ruling pen before, now I'm super fascinated. Looking forward to seeing the other one in action.
For me drawing with black vs drawing with a full color palette is like going from 2D to 3D. It's a whole dimensional shift. It's huge. It felt similar with chemical photography. Color was literally a whole new dimension.
My father had a lovely case with many pieces like this inside. Tips with different degrees of curve along with bodies a-plenty. Various types and sizes of compass. Some of the pieces used small lengths of lead that were kept in a metal tube. Spare(?) and different tipped needle points in another. In the same draw as this set there was always a bottle of black Indian ink. He had retired when I was young and never witnessed him use anything other than the compasses, so I am only assuming the Indian Ink was what he had used with the pens.
I have both of those items and more like them which I use regularly in my calligraphy. Be sure to clean and dry the technical point after each use. Congratulations!
Peter, on a really recent previous video you said painting with black ink was the most satisfying for some reason, maybe because the white of the paper's contrasting or something else, so I would definitely recommend trying to paint with colors on an already tainted canvas, like painting with greens on a yellow paper, painting with dark reds on orange, using purple in light blue papers, or even just a simple grey on a pink background, a simple change of underpainting can give a lot of inspiration to use a new color and not want to use the wonderful black ink.
You rough up the bottom layer of metal, which is usually the harder one, like steel. This is done with chisel like tools. Then you hammer in the softer metal, often copper, gold, etc., and as it is flattened in between the irregular rough cuts below the two bond. Very nice medieval armor was made this way.
I love the idea of you drawing a hypertechnical multilevel alien space ship with radiating tentacles and specialised gun turrets and then suddenly realising that you have coloured it inadvertently christmassy
I have several of these "ruling pens" that belonged to my dad, from the 30's or 40's maybe. I didn't know what they were for years. They're fun to use.
very cool tools. The first (2nd) drawing looks like a crazy model's high heel shoe of some sort. Amazing to see how easily that pen just worked. the scratch was very satisfying to hear. Loved the color combo and just the color in general. As a viewer it just added something to it. I couldn't keep my eyes still and was constantly bouncing around the colors etc. Anyway, keep posting these satisfying and informative vids Peter!
The small airbrush type is a kind of fountain pen. I saw Jazza use it once, so you're supposed to fill it with ink and stick some kind of dwell or stick as a handle.
Okay, now I want one. It seems like it might work for left-handed writing, too? Maybe. Plus it's just so satisfying to hear and look at, I can almost feel it in my hand when I watch you using it.
OOH! so that is what that tool was for. When I was in primary school I had a compass scribe that had an option for a pen nib like that one and I never could figure out what on earth it was used for.
Watercolour artists still use these all the time for applying masking fluid or sometimes liquid ink or watercolour. I got mine from amazon or ebay, so they're still available for a couple of quid for anyone who would like to try.
There is no right distance for the blade of the ruling pen, except it won't work when completely closed (at least, not well). The adjustment determines the thickness of line. And be warned, the thicker the line, the faster the ink runs out. I have a high-capacity ruling pen specifically intended for thicker lines.
Hey Peter! Have you heard of the Pelikan Graphos? It's a drafting FOUNTIAN pen that exclusively holds India ink, and has interchangeable nibs with many sizes and styles!
@@ichirofakename oh yeah, they're a little weird, but I like the larger sizes for script work and logos, and the nibs being parallel to the page is much simpler than the ruling pens.
Hey Peter, hope you are reading this, eventhough you posted your video 6 days ago. I got some answers ; embossing is one of the names for the metal working. Personally I use aluminium and the back of a brush which material is unknown to me ( it's probably some old type of plastic, it gets blackened when used to hard and it gets shorter and shorter without leaving any trace or remnants ). Unterneath I use a mouse-pad and hard wooden board and for real larg pieces I sometimes use carpet. My parents work with mozaiek and I am combining my aluminium work with glass-tiles lately ( I started with embossing in februari 2021, so I can still learn a lot ). I would like to show you some of my work if you're interested. :-) Also the Dutch flag is one of the oldest and the Russian and French one are based on it ( on wikipedia is some information about this ). That is why a lot have these 3 colours.
Dan!!! so great to see you out and about... i thought maybe you were quarantining for covid We were taught how to use these pens when I was in the 8th grade for our mechanical drawing class. There was also an adjustable nib that could be attached to a compass, and the line width could be adjusted to match the ruling pen. The original intent was to make lines on technical drawings using a special ruler. After you finished your pencil drawing, you would ink the drawing using these pens. So cool to see you make art drawings with this pen. I never would have thought you could use it in this way. And yes, you can of course use india inks with this pen.
Did your rulers and squares have little bumps to hold the edge off the page so the ink of the line would not be drawn under the ruler by capillary action? I have a 45deg. and a 30-60-90 deg. squares like that from my father who was an engineer.
The ruling pen, sometimes called a bow pen, is beloved of model makers ; it can be charged with paint and used to apply exquisitely fine lines on scale models. A disappearing art.
I think the name of the pen kinda says what the pen is for. The main purpose of the pen is to draw uniform lines with a straight edge, such as a triangle, t-square, or templates. The adjustment is to adjust the thickness of the line. It's like having a whole set of technical pens in one pen. It's main purpose is for doing mechanical drawings, but I've seen artists use them for more expressive work -- as Peter has demonstrated here.
You can still buy ruling pens. They’re really useful for applying frisket/resist for watercolor, airbrushing, etc, because they don’t clog and are easy to clean
How do you guys not know about rulling pens? There used to be at least one in every compass set we had at school as kids! You could attach the tip to a stright holder, or to a the compass. They were designed for engineering drawing (using a ruller - duh!) before Steadtlers and Rotrings came about. I've never seen anyone actually writing with it! The adjusting wheel determins the thickness of the line you can draw with it.
👨🏽🎨 What a great pen...also your drawing is inspiring....thank you for the video... This video helped me through my anxiety, it relaxed me, idk if it was your Angelic voice or the way the pen worked, but it did wonderful....
First think I thought was that perhaps you should have tried drawing on technical drafting film as in the old days! My first couple of days of my Engineering Apprenticeship here in England were spent sharpening my newly issued pencil to a chisel tip and drawing parallel lines perfectly at a 3mm spacing on drafting film. If they weren't perfect, you did them all again. You soon learn to do things properly under threat of having to repeat and miss lunch.
Visiting my grandparent's house I found a set of these types of pens just a couple days ago and then I get your video recommended to me! I was wondering how the pens worked.
ML sounds such a lovely person and these are very cool gifts.
I am kinda' kicking myself. It reminds me that my father had several of these pens. He was an engineer who did a lot of drafting back in the 60's early 70's. When he passed, I had a special wooden box of his, with protractors and extensions as well as several pen bodies and tips of different sizes. I moved around so many times over the psat 30 years that all I know is that right now, I no longer have them in my posession. A bit of a mixed feeling as I fondly remember them and my father but sadly regret not being more carfeul to hold on to them. I hope whoever has them now will value them more than I should have...
Thank you very much for this video.
I had a similar thing, my father had all the original Star Wars toys and I mean boxes of them but I sold them in the late 90's because I had to move. They are now worth mega bucks.
We don’t always value the things that are left behind by our parents but our memories of them never leave us and those are the most valuable those you will never lose. God Bless and take care of you.
they in a landfill bro
you can buy more on amazon
@@tylerjames1716 there are more important things in my life now.
_Drawings by a 12 year old_ as soon as Peter pulled out those boxes, I was admiring the beautiful and *very professional* illustrations done on the cover. ML really had to do themself like that😫
Right! It took me a few looks to realize it was hand drawn. ML's got modesty for days!
Kind reminder that nothing in the note indicated gender. ML isn't necessarily a he/him/his
@@nathanaelcard true true, my mistake. I edited my comment
You guys realize that you can say he or she if it isnt otherwise stated right? Its just expected to be default in general incidents like that especially if they dont specify.
A person who would actually get offended at that innocuous "mistake", for lack of a better word, has a ridiculous ego and is not worth your time.
Ruling pens work best when held vertically, similar to a rapidograph. The screw allows you to adjust the line width, which you only notice when drawing parallel to the tines. I've used these for drafting a long time ago. I'd keep a test sheet off to the side where I could check my line widths every time I made an adjustment. I lost mine long ago but one thing I remember is how these flowed so well, especially vs a rapidograph.
i just got my first ruling pens and ruling compasses, and im looking for an ink reccomendation. if you're happy to help I'd appreciate it.
@@1337blackone I used to use Rotring ink in a small 23ml bottle. You can hold the pen over a towel and just put a drop of ink into it with the spout on the bottle. Pilot makes a drafting ink, which I've not used, but its in a bottle that you can dip the nib into. JetPens sells it. Otherwise, I would think that any fountain pen inks would work but I'm not positive about that. The cool thing about these pens is they're so easy to clean so you can try different inks. Lots of places like Goulet pens, Vanness and Pen Chalet sell ink samples.
@@1337blackone Classic India ink is the default. Drafting prefers very opaque black lines. Also, find an ink eraser knife, if you can. An Exacto with a curved blade (not straight or concave) will do in a pinch. India ink mostly adheres above the surface of the paper, and can be erased by scraping it off. The results of such an eraser are not perfect. But, if you pitching a house design on a schedule, a little ugly is better than staying up all night to redo an entire drawing to fix one little mistake or having nothing to show at all.
The dude that sent those has to be extactic seeing how excited Peter got while testing out that pen haha 😄
Extactic is now one of my favorite words. Thanks!
@@EPeltzer I also love the word, hope it found a place in your vocabulary!
@@EPeltzer Ecstatic
The custom made box and label makes it look like it came from the 1940s and it's pretty neat.
I swear Peter is just the most wholesome person on the internet. He always manages to make my heart happy ☺️
@on yx oooh, never heard of them, I'll have to look them up 😊👍
@on yx Crafsman is soothing, funny, and talented. Love him.
Dear ML,
When I first saw your packaging, I thought it was the original. I would not consider that to be the work of a twelve year old, unless that twelve year old were very talented. Don't be so hard on yourself!
Sincerely,
Some guy on RUclips
Agreed
Sincerely,
a different guy on RUclips.
Thirded. Thirdly. Thirdidly.
Sincerely,
Another guy on RUclips.
Engineers have a different standard of precision 😄
ML sounds like my brother, very creative with gift giving. They don't realize the time and thought they put into the gift are almost as good as the gift. Or do they? They are special people.❤
I love that look of excited satisfaction about his eager anticipation to draw by the inspiration of a, now sadly, archaic drafting device. I feel the same way when i watch others engage in the creative process. Its bits like that, which makes me feel less alone in the world.
Man I love to see your art in any form, but what a treat to see you drawing in multiple colors like that. And your face when you got so excited to draw after seeing the pen... what a gem.
I used to use one of these and I still have my set including a compass attachment. It's lovely.
I was what was known as a 'paste-up artist' (insert gag here if required) and worked in an offset litho printers.
Basically, this is how we did adobe illustrator before adobe illustrator.
My job was to create artwork for all manner of print jobs which were glued down on to board (hence paste-up) and then effectively burnt on to printing plates through various processes.
I switched to using Apple Macs when I moved to London in the 90s but it was good to have that grounding in ye olde school techniques.
loved the boxes and illustrations. also, why was i getting a little emotional when peter was reading the letter? peter's excitement and smile with the pen was so very contagious!
What a gift to get a pen that was used to create by an engineer. How special is that! And to see the look on your face♥️. Like a child getting a gift on Christmas. Peter, you make me smile. And ML made my heart feel good to see such unselfishness by giving away a pen that he used for many years. Who knows what beautiful things he created with it.
Thank you ML for giving so much happiness to Peter to share with us all. ❤️🖖
I work summers for the Bell telephone co in Washington DC in their drafting department. We used the drafting pin to draw the underground cables, as well as any time there was a repair or something added we had to update the charts. This was when I was going to college in 1960’s. I love them! We did use black India Ink!
My dude I absolutely love how no matter what it is you don't look into hiw to use it and just are like I'm gonna dip ot and scribble, lets go! Its very cathartic. Love it
I took technical drafting in high school when they still used analog instruments and paper rather than CAD, and I always loved it as a skill and it's the same kind of satisfaction I have drawing anything in ink and watching a drawing made by Peter. When I see a pen like this I think back to the process of drafting which is what these pens were for, you know formal blueprints and design drawings. And usually you would do a pencil drawing with almost every detail of course using rulers and squares and compasses and all that. And then maybe the person doing the drawing was only a draftsperson, and the engineer or architect or whatever would have to look at it and okay the final design and make revisions. And only then would you go ahead and ink the final drawing. And this was for permanence, but it was also because duplication wouldn't pick up faint pencil lines very well. And there was a pride in that, and inking was like the virtuoso act of a master draftsperson. And you might have different specialties in the office like one person was good at inking lines and another person was better at text. A sadly lost art.
The screw on the ruling pen adjusts for different line widths. Also, it was designed to rule straight lines for drafting purposes. That may be why it doesn't work so well with your organic drawing style.
They work amazingly on frosted-Mylar drafting film.
Thanks, now I don't need to say it.
Thanks! First I learn it's a pen from his video and now you let me know what it's specific purpose is. Thanks!
Just wanted to say I used to watch you a lot in the past, didn't watch you for many years and I have recently dove back into your content and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I listen to your "Content-Free Podcasts" and I really enjoy them. I hope you start a new podcast sometime soon, I have 20 more to listen to so I have plenty of time left. Have a nice day Peter, keep doing what you're doin.
Oooh. I have one of these tips which came with a vintage bow compass set. I've never known how to use it until seeing this video. Thank you so much. Now I'm off to try it with my various fountain pen inks....this is exciting to learn something new about something old...
When I started drafting back in the 1970s, we used that type of pen, but we just called them "drafting pens". We had compasses that used that same sort of tip. Other than lettering, most drafting involves straight lines (via straightedges) or lines via compass, so the pen is normally oriented vertically and the two surfaces of the tip are set to be aligned in the same direction that the line is being drawn. As such, if you don't have any ink in it, you get two parallel scratches on the paper. I remember switching to the Rapidiogragh type of drafting pen not too long after that. They were quite a bit more expensive, but with the Leroy lettering machine, you ended up with very professional looking lettering. Drawings were normally done with pencil and on paper initially and once finalized, we would put a light clean coat of a spray can polyurethane to keep the pencil marks from smudging. For archival or presentations, we would then use a translucent matte finish polyester film and ink. Drafting tables often had light sources under them back then and the paper drawing would be put over it and then the polyester film. You could then trace the original drawing, leaving out any unnecessary guide lines. The Rapidiograph pens were a bit more finicky to keep clean and it was entirely too easy to accidentally bend the pin that went down the ink tube, but the consistency of the lines made it worthwhile. I actually stumbled across one of my ruling pens the other day while searching for something else and since I had a bottle of India ink, I tried it out... Even after 50 years, it still works as good as I remember it ever working... I have no idea where the rest of the drafting set that it came with ended up though... Perhaps a better question is why this pen has not been lost after so many years and moves / changes of duty stations...
Beautiful. A couple years back I went to a garage sale and the guy had a few cases of these and protractors, dividers and other drafting tools, I had no idea what these were for until a few months ago when I looked it up, but I bought them all for a few bucks anyway. New found excitement to try them out!
I've had a box of these pens in my desk for the last 12 years! They came in a box of misc stuff I purchased at an auction. No one that's ever seen them, including myself, have ever had a clue what they are! If anyone did have a guess it was nomally some sort of holder or tool. I'm going to have to see how they work.
I find your videos relaxing and sometimes, like this one, also educational. Thanks!
As noted here by others, I also was a draftsman in the late 60's and early 70's and made inked drawings on Linen "paper" of dental instruments. I used ruling pens and compasses both with adjustable nibs for drawing lines of specific widths using the sides of straight edges, triangles, French curves, and templates all held above the paper surface to prevent ink flowing under the item. For the use (adjustments) and care of rule ink pens see You Tube video by Purdue University "Tracing with Ink" (1955). the end of that video describes how to sharpen the nibs.
Cool. I bought a ruling pen for applying masking fluid for use in watercolor painting.
Maybe I should try to use it for its original purpose...
Never seen such a funnel nib before, very interesting.
That’s smart, masking fluid is a capricious beast, good at ruining brushes
Damn, where the hell have I been? That's brilliant!
@@peter_draws I learned a tip on using masking fluid with brushes - if you put some washing up liquid on the brush before dipping into the fluid, it helps clean the brush at the end of the process. I've done it a few times and it works ok - but I still tend to use brushes that aren't my favourite!
The funnelnib pen is similar to the UNO pen, which back in the day we used for stencilling. The ruling pen adjustment is to vary the line width. I used to do technical illustrations (cutaway drawings, exploded views, etc.) and we used the ruling pen for the straight lines and a Rotring pen for corners.
wild that youtube hasn't recommended me one of your videos in like 3 years and the one it recommends is of this pen that i found in my moms art supplies after she died, which i had no idea what it actually was. thanks peter
I like your pink/blue drawing, blue/pink is one of my favourite colour combos, while drawing. Also ML is very good at those drawings.
I love your video’s Peter, I’ve been watching for a couple of years and it’s always satisfying
Have not used a ruling pen since my days in college! Used for mainly straight lines using paint or ink with a ruler or compass. When using paint you want to ensure the paint is a thinner consistency but not too thin else it just runs out, too thick and you won't get smooth uninterrupted line work. And you can vary the widths of the line by adjusting the screw. Great for when you want very precise line work that you cannot get with a brush. For example, if you wanted to paint a red square. Using the ruling pen with a ruler, you would draw the 4 edges or lines of the square in red paint or ink and then fill in the square using a brush. Dipping the ruling pen in the ink bottle is messy, usually best to use a brush to partially fill the open sides with a brush or use a glass dropper.
As always, I love your personal philosophies around art in this video. That and the sincerity you bring towards the gifted pens. I can't imagine how honorable it must feel to be given a relic like these two pens.
i love his drawings, they're abstract but so precise at the same time. Also I like how excited he gets about pens of all things
I have a pen similar to that in an old drafting kit. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it had something missing. Now I have a new pen to play with...Yay!
Theory on flag colors: Red, blue, yellow, and sometimes green are primary colors and therefore show up the best when contrasted next to each other. Helpful on the high seas and battlefields to distinguish between friend and foe. Also designs were kept as simple as possible to avoid confusion at long distances.
Also with shields and coats of arms you coule not place a ‘metal’ (wite or yellow) next to another metal.
This was so you could use the other colours as an application/ ‘paint job’ on top of the metal.
Maybe the flags evolved from this as many of the old flags still keep this ‘rule’
Cost was also a factor, you will notice that very few flags are purple as purple dye was so expensive to make. It was used by the very wealthy as a show of wealth. Purple robes for royal, the Catholic Church had purple clothing for the higher ups and done flags for example.
I love how happy the ruling pen made you 💕
How delightful! I have both my dad's and my husband's drafting sets. Ruling pens are the part I use the most and that is mostly when using masking fluid. The thicker the ink, the wider the line that is possible. India Ink was the most used from what I remember and tightening and loosening that screw gave you so much control over your lines! It is so sad that mechanical drawing is no longer taught with good tools. And it is sad that you have not inherited a set yourself! The ruling pen was built so that you can literally lean it against a ruler to make straight lines. There is usually several types of compasses in a set -- including an ink tip or one that lets you use a ruling pen, so inked circles were simple to accomplish. One of my dad's old books also explains how to use it. He was born in 1911... I was born in 1946. Things have changed.
Thanks for sharing what you know. I appreciate it.
Would you happen to know the name of the book? I git a set my self and am pretty lost on how to use it properly
@@clarisacalderon9555 the classes high schools used to have were called Mechanical Drawing,. You can see how there are similar ends to a lot of the small pieces - at least in what I have. They are interchangeable for pins, leads and ink. The pins are for keeping the tool in the same place. My husband said that there was a thin pad that was self-healing that went on top of the drawing surface.
Look for something on video. Lots of people use the inking pens for watercolor but the new ones are not as nice ase the old ones made for even the cheaper sets. Enjoy figuring it out.
@@katpaints thank you :)
What a beaut😻 another pen added to my "pen bucket list" to watch out for. And I really liked the colour drawing, so there.
Back in the day...the 60s-70s my father used to make Engineering drawings with this kind of pen. He used to enjoy it quite a lot!
very happy to see this video and figure out what was in my grandfather's drafting set and how to use them now
That pen is special. Look how mechanically sound it is compared to its design. Amazing. Draws incredibly well.
You can also use ruling pens with watercolor, acrylic paints and anything you can imagine. With the metal pieces it's called repousse and copper plates are the metal I was taught on. Yes, a softish surface underneath is good (like mousepad) and even a ball point pen will make an impression.
The metal hammering techniques you're talking about at the end of your video might be "chasing" and "repousse".
While the terminology is French in origin, many cultures have practiced the art form for thousands of years.
While the metals used are commonly soft (gold, silver, copper, brass, etc) you can hammer more resilient metals such as bronze and steel to the same end, though you'll need to anneal them more frequently to prevent tears from developing as the material work hardens.
As for putting something "soft" behind it, you're totally correct. Traditionally, the workpiece would be set on the surface of a dense pitch compound in a bowl, providing a balance of resistance and give that allows for hammer and chisel strikes to shape specific areas while the surrounding ones remain relatively unaffected. If you can't find a giant bowl of pitch to use, a sandbag can be a decent substitute.
Finally, there are definitely specialty hammers and chisels for this but you can get away with using just about anything that's strong enough not to break when repeatedly pounded into sheet metal. If you want to see how your tools will affect the metal without beating it up sacrificially, press them into a soft substance (clay, putty, etc) and look at the imprint it makes. Try to stay away from tools with sharp edges unless you're being gentle, as they have a higher likelihood of tearing and cutting your metals. Otherwise, give it a whirl and have fun! I can't wait to see what you create. :)
Ruling pens are some of my favourite instruments.
As for a smooth drawing experience with the pen they were designed for tracing paper. With the correct ink you can draw on film. I am familiar with those pens and they were in all the drawing offices up to the 1970s and 1980s so you are spot on as regards vintage. I used to watch my Dad drawing with them when I went to his office as a kid back in the 1960s and 1970s. They also used to sharpen their pencils so that the lead (graphite) would look like a chisel. That way they could get a line with constant width as the lead wore down. So as not to smudge the drawing or leave and sweat on the drawing paper he held his drawing instruments with his thumb, index and middle fingers straight and even wrote that way when writing a letter. His block lettering on an envelope was immaculate!
Then I first started my degree course in Graphic Design in 1975 London we spent the first two weeks learning to use just these tools... no Macs no Photoshop, everything was done with pen, brush and scalpel... and boy was it a useful thing to know too! Lost skills eh! Thank you..!
PS.. you mainly used them for laying out geometric shapes and lettering rather than freehand drawing... they work great with thinned down gouache or poster paints and we would fill the nib with a brush... frankly to use them well did take many hours of practice.... no wonder we kept to Freehand and Illustrator as soon as they came along....
Oooh I have a ruling pen like that! We used it when I worked at a frame shop to draw straight lines around the mat. It was awesome when used with gold gouache (watered down). You can load it up with any watercolor or ink. I used to load it by mixing up the color with a brush, then scraping the loaded bristles against the side of the ruling pen. Now you gave me inspiration to try using it without a ruler!
If you can find an old technical drawing book, before computers, you will find out all about drawing instruments. Thanks for the video. Nice work Peter!
The color drawing is absolutely perfect!
I believe there is a lot of red, white, and blue used in Ancient Egypt, also they were big users of the very early reed pen. Last fall, I made a bunch of reed pens from the patches of reeds growing on the side of the road, they are fun to use. If anyone has them growing near you, I recommend trying it.
I have a few old (40-60's) German compass sets that came with these pens. They also work well with watered down acrylics for crisp lines.
Yes, I have seen both of these and I still have them both😁 The rotring like pen tip goes into an dip pen.
Peter, in the watercolor world, the ruling pen is sometimes used to distribute a mask solution over parts of the white paper you don't want to cover with paint. When ready, you simply peel the mask off. Brushes are easily destroyed with masking unless extra care is taken, but the ruling can lay down a very precise cover without worry of destruction from the mask.
My father was a professional engineer who started his career as a draftsman in the 1950's. I have seen many of these pen tips. The reason for the finely adjustable nib has to do with drafting standards. If you look at modern pens for drafting they come in standard widths .5, .8, 1mm etc. as well. The draftsman could align the nib with a rule to get the standard width for the line type they were about to draw. If you google it you could probably find information about the types of ink they would have used.
I love how excited you get. I’m still looking for what makes me feels that.
Used it in the 70's at school for scientific drawings. Thightening or unthightening the screw defines the width of the lines you're drawing. Still have mine and you can still find them online.
Hey Dan is out and about, good for him! Lovely gifts to receive, I hope to send something when possible. I also wanted to add I just love to see you smile man, such a warm inviting feel. And since it is a drafting pen, do you think we'd be able to see any new architecture designs?
The second drawing looks how a Bomb Pop tastes for me. :)
I've also never heard of a ruling pen before, now I'm super fascinated. Looking forward to seeing the other one in action.
LOOOL love this comment. I feel the same way. It tastes sweet like artificial blue raspberry.
They still come with a compass to draw thicker lined circles
For me drawing with black vs drawing with a full color palette is like going from 2D to 3D. It's a whole dimensional shift. It's huge.
It felt similar with chemical photography. Color was literally a whole new dimension.
My father had a lovely case with many pieces like this inside. Tips with different degrees of curve along with bodies a-plenty. Various types and sizes of compass. Some of the pieces used small lengths of lead that were kept in a metal tube. Spare(?) and different tipped needle points in another. In the same draw as this set there was always a bottle of black Indian ink. He had retired when I was young and never witnessed him use anything other than the compasses, so I am only assuming the Indian Ink was what he had used with the pens.
Sweeet! So simple. Especially this ,,Rotring'' prototype. So simple to DIY with syringe needle... tempting...
keeping my eye out for lower-jaw:upper-jaw based dip pens
My dad gave me a drafting set that had pens like that as part of the kit...pretty cool. Now I wish I had them.
It’s not the pen it’s the person drawing with the pen that makes good art
I have both of those items and more like them which I use regularly in my calligraphy. Be sure to clean and dry the technical point after each use. Congratulations!
In a past life I used both making drawings; now they are pulled out for applying MEK to glue cracks and broken plastic parts.
Peter, on a really recent previous video you said painting with black ink was the most satisfying for some reason, maybe because the white of the paper's contrasting or something else, so I would definitely recommend trying to paint with colors on an already tainted canvas, like painting with greens on a yellow paper, painting with dark reds on orange, using purple in light blue papers, or even just a simple grey on a pink background, a simple change of underpainting can give a lot of inspiration to use a new color and not want to use the wonderful black ink.
Really nicely chosen gifts, what a treat
You rough up the bottom layer of metal, which is usually the harder one, like steel. This is done with chisel like tools. Then you hammer in the softer metal, often copper, gold, etc., and as it is flattened in between the irregular rough cuts below the two bond. Very nice medieval armor was made this way.
I love the idea of you drawing a hypertechnical multilevel alien space ship with radiating tentacles and specialised gun turrets and then suddenly realising that you have coloured it inadvertently christmassy
I have several of these "ruling pens" that belonged to my dad, from the 30's or 40's maybe. I didn't know what they were for years. They're fun to use.
Nice video. I have one of these pens in a box of odds and ends I picked up. Shall have to dig it out and play with it.
The colored drawing is excellent. More of that!
I have one of these in a vintage drawing set and i never knew what it was for! Im definitely going to find it and use it!!
very cool tools. The first (2nd) drawing looks like a crazy model's high heel shoe of some sort. Amazing to see how easily that pen just worked. the scratch was very satisfying to hear. Loved the color combo and just the color in general. As a viewer it just added something to it. I couldn't keep my eyes still and was constantly bouncing around the colors etc. Anyway, keep posting these satisfying and informative vids Peter!
The small airbrush type is a kind of fountain pen. I saw Jazza use it once, so you're supposed to fill it with ink and stick some kind of dwell or stick as a handle.
Okay, now I want one. It seems like it might work for left-handed writing, too? Maybe. Plus it's just so satisfying to hear and look at, I can almost feel it in my hand when I watch you using it.
OOH! so that is what that tool was for. When I was in primary school I had a compass scribe that had an option for a pen nib like that one and I never could figure out what on earth it was used for.
What a very thoughtful and cool gift.
Nice! Great to see a pen designed for use by draftsmen, and for straight lines get the "Peter treatment".
Watercolour artists still use these all the time for applying masking fluid or sometimes liquid ink or watercolour. I got mine from amazon or ebay, so they're still available for a couple of quid for anyone who would like to try.
Simply captivating
There is no right distance for the blade of the ruling pen, except it won't work when completely closed (at least, not well). The adjustment determines the thickness of line. And be warned, the thicker the line, the faster the ink runs out. I have a high-capacity ruling pen specifically intended for thicker lines.
Hey Peter! Have you heard of the Pelikan Graphos? It's a drafting FOUNTIAN pen that exclusively holds India ink, and has interchangeable nibs with many sizes and styles!
No longer made.
@@ichirofakename but still cheap and easy to find on ebay
@@CanadianAlien20 You like 'em? I really wanted to, but ended up getting rid of mine.
@@ichirofakename oh yeah, they're a little weird, but I like the larger sizes for script work and logos, and the nibs being parallel to the page is much simpler than the ruling pens.
Always an interesting post! Would love to try that pen! Looking forward to look at your second video working that other tech pen.
Hey Peter, hope you are reading this, eventhough you posted your video 6 days ago. I got some answers ; embossing is one of the names for the metal working. Personally I use aluminium and the back of a brush which material is unknown to me ( it's probably some old type of plastic, it gets blackened when used to hard and it gets shorter and shorter without leaving any trace or remnants ). Unterneath I use a mouse-pad and hard wooden board and for real larg pieces I sometimes use carpet.
My parents work with mozaiek and I am combining my aluminium work with glass-tiles lately ( I started with embossing in februari 2021, so I can still learn a lot ). I would like to show you some of my work if you're interested. :-)
Also the Dutch flag is one of the oldest and the Russian and French one are based on it ( on wikipedia is some information about this ). That is why a lot have these 3 colours.
Dan!!! so great to see you out and about... i thought maybe you were quarantining for covid
We were taught how to use these pens when I was in the 8th grade for our mechanical drawing class. There was also an adjustable nib that could be attached to a compass, and the line width could be adjusted to match the ruling pen.
The original intent was to make lines on technical drawings using a special ruler. After you finished your pencil drawing, you would ink the drawing using these pens.
So cool to see you make art drawings with this pen. I never would have thought you could use it in this way.
And yes, you can of course use india inks with this pen.
Did your rulers and squares have little bumps to hold the edge off the page so the ink of the line would not be drawn under the ruler by capillary action? I have a 45deg. and a 30-60-90 deg. squares like that from my father who was an engineer.
@@fredericapanon207 yes, the ruling edge was raised for that exact reason
No, peter, they do look great, like a 1950's era book/manual illustration, great work!!
The ruling pen, sometimes called a bow pen, is beloved of model makers ; it can be charged with paint and used to apply exquisitely fine lines on scale models. A disappearing art.
I think the name of the pen kinda says what the pen is for. The main purpose of the pen is to draw uniform lines with a straight edge, such as a triangle, t-square, or templates. The adjustment is to adjust the thickness of the line. It's like having a whole set of technical pens in one pen. It's main purpose is for doing mechanical drawings, but I've seen artists use them for more expressive work -- as Peter has demonstrated here.
We are using that pen to draw lines on our gouache paintings. Its a pretty handy tool tbh, you can adjust the line thickness and stuff :D so cool...
You can still buy ruling pens. They’re really useful for applying frisket/resist for watercolor, airbrushing, etc, because they don’t clog and are easy to clean
How do you guys not know about rulling pens? There used to be at least one in every compass set we had at school as kids! You could attach the tip to a stright holder, or to a the compass. They were designed for engineering drawing (using a ruller - duh!) before Steadtlers and Rotrings came about. I've never seen anyone actually writing with it! The adjusting wheel determins the thickness of the line you can draw with it.
I always wondered what the heck are these for 😀
👨🏽🎨 What a great pen...also your drawing is inspiring....thank you for the video...
This video helped me through my anxiety, it relaxed me, idk if it was your Angelic voice or the way the pen worked, but it did wonderful....
I’ve used it for applying masking fluid for watercolor
I have a very old ruling pen. It's a bit quirky, but nonetheless fun to play with.
First think I thought was that perhaps you should have tried drawing on technical drafting film as in the old days!
My first couple of days of my Engineering Apprenticeship here in England were spent sharpening my newly issued pencil to a chisel tip and drawing parallel lines perfectly at a 3mm spacing on drafting film. If they weren't perfect, you did them all again. You soon learn to do things properly under threat of having to repeat and miss lunch.
Lookin good, Peter 😎
Beautiful drawings as always, now I want one of those pens, I have a few bottles of ink I need to open again
I just picked up the one from KOH-I-NOOR. Thanks for showing me what to do with it 🤩
Visiting my grandparent's house I found a set of these types of pens just a couple days ago and then I get your video recommended to me! I was wondering how the pens worked.