Page 320 - Green - Maritime Archaeology: A Technical Handbook. 2nd ed

Chapter 11: Artifact Drawing 299
a toothbrush to ensure the passageways are clear. You can often tell when this breather is blocked, because as the pen is held, the warmth of your hand causes the ink to be forced out of the tip and drip over your almost complete artwork. Leave everything in the jar for several days, preferably a week, change water from time to time, and thor- oughly wash out under a water faucet each time. This is really the only way for the very fine pens. There are some ingenious aerosol pen cleaning kits in which the nib screws into the can and the cleaning fluid is forced through the nib.
3. Fiber Pens
A number of excellent fiber-tipped pens are now available. It is impor- tant with these pens to test if the ink is really waterproof. This can be done by drawing a few lines on paper and film and then wetting the surface (giving a reasonable few seconds to dry). If the ink runs, then the pen should not be used, even for general writing. For example, if a field register is left out in the rain and the ink runs, a lot of very important information may be lost. The felt or fiber-tipped pens are available in a variety of tip shapes which can be quite useful, particularly, when drawing a plan or object at very large scale prior to reduction (see Section VI about reduction). There are also a number of fiber pens with nibs encased in a metal tube that give a constant line thickness of 0.2 and 0.4 mm, although the ink is a little thin.
4. Other Pens
With the gradually improving inks, ballpoint pens are coming back into vogue. They are a great improvement on the greasy, uneven lines that were produced when the Biro first came out. Some of the better quality pens can be used for artwork.
E. PENCILS
There are many different types of pencils for different types of drawing, ranging from soft to hard. It should be noted that, because plastic drafting film is exceedingly abrasive, there are special problems when using pencil on it. Hard pencils (8H), when used on film, tend to produce thick lines like a soft pencil (4B) would on paper. To produce a light, fine line pencil work on film should be as light as possible with a hard pencil; if too much pressure is exerted it will scratch the surface. There are also pencils (F)