Below are the tools I recommend using when learning to write with your arm. A number of the recommendations are linked to Amazon (affiliate links), but they can be found at local retail stores and other online vendors as well.
Pens & Nibs
- Speedball Plastic Straight holder – Inexpensive, simple holder that will fit any nib.
- Nibs – There’s many different nibs available from online vendors. Here are a few you might want to try: Hunt 22, Nikko School Nib, Zebra G, Nikko G.
That said, just about any pointed nib will work for business penmanship, so use whatever nib you can get your hands on until it doesn’t write anymore. - Cheap Bic Ballpoint Pen – You can learn a lot with a simple ballpoint pen. Get a cheap one, not a fancy gel pen or rollerball.
- Fountain Pens – Fountain pens are lovely tools, but they aren’t easy to control with arm movement.
Ink
- Higgins Eternal Ink Black – This ink is great for arm writing and is ready to go right out of the bottle.
- Walnut Ink – This dark brown ink is also great for writing and is ready to use out of the bottle.
In general, you want ink that is free flowing for writing with your arm. Some inks made for calligraphy are too thick for arm movement and require that you add a little distilled water before they will flow properly.
Paper
- Rhodia Graph Pad – This paper is widely available and does well with most inks.
- Kokuyo Campus Loose Leaf Paper (Sarasara) – This is a really great paper to write on. Very smooth with some bite.
- Whatever you can find – You won’t really know what makes great paper until you have spent a lot of time writing. Might as well use what you have on hand to practice and experiment with the different writing tools you have.
Pencils
- GraphGear 500 – Inexpensive, quality mechanical pencil.
- Pentel 0.5 Lead Refill – To refill your GraphGear 500.
- Palomino Blackwing 602 – Great pencil if you prefer the non-mechanical variety.
Rules and Guides
- Wescott Transparent Ruler – Transparent rulers are great for checking alignment of forms.
- Protractor – For measuring and drawing slant lines.
- Ames Lettering Guide – Excellent tool for putting perfect guidelines down on a blank page. Here’s a video on how to use it.
- T-Square – You’ll need this if you want to use the Ames Lettering Guide.