Hi,
I'm gradually acquiring a collection of FP's with various nibs, including an italic one. However, a total gap in my knowledge is the nature and impact on handwriting of an oblique nib. I am seeking enlightenment; can anyone help?
Thanks
Andy

When it comes to nibs, your fist stop should always be Richard Binder, not just because he produces excellent nibs, but because he offer a real wealth of information on his site.

Here is the page that explains oblique nibs (3rd one down).

OBLIQUE

Its effect on your writing depends on the cut of the oblique (whether it's left - the commonest - or right, and whether it's cut to provide much line variation), which hand you write with, and how you hold the pen. E.g. if you hold a pen so that it's more-or-less perpendicular to your body, and write with the pen more-or-less perpendicular to the bottom edge of the paper you're writing on, with a straight cut italic a vertical line will be the thickest, a horizontal line the thinnest (this is also true of flexible nibs, unless you can provide downstrokes with zero pressure). With a left oblique italic held the same way (but it will have to be rotated a bit to the left for optimal paper/nib contact) the thickest line will be a diagonal from upper left to lower right and the thinnest line will be the diagonal from lower left to upper right.

Based on observing people I know and writing samples here it seems that many (most?) right-handed people don't hold a pen like that at all. Rather, thanks to the angle of their arm, the nib hits the paper at an angle which creates maximum thick/thin lines in much the same places as the left oblique does above: the thickest/thinnest lines are diagonal, not vertical/horizontal. Because I prefer the extremes to be diagonal rather than vertical, and because I'm a left-handed underwriter able to hold a pen more-or-less perpendicular, my preference is for left obliques. (And doubtless because of the way I hold a pen, I don't understand the commonly encountered recommendation that left obliques are for right-handed people, right obliques for left-handed; I've never been able to figure out how to hold a right oblique nib and have it work properly.) I have no idea what would work for you (to complicate matters, it makes a difference how steep the angle is).

By now you've doubtless read that "oblique" doesn't = "line variation" (or words to that effect); "oblique" just refers to how you hold a pen vis-a-vis the paper, and oblique nibs merely accommodate those who rotate the nib while writing. So a nib that's merely oblique will just be a modified round-tipped pen that leaves marks on the paper like any other round-tipped nib. So, if you want line variation you have to modify the description - left oblique cursive italic, say. And this is why if you buy an oblique nib from, say, Pelikan, it will provide as close to zero line variation as makes no difference.

Well, maybe; but if so, try telling that to the pen companies that actually make and label nibs. Just as they don't distinguish between stubs, cursive italics and crisp italics (no pen company provides a choice of all three, and I doubt they ever did; Bexley will sell you what they call "stub", Conway Stewart and Stipula will sell you "italic", etc., but they all write in much the same way), they aren't that precise about obliques either (some didn't even use the term - Waterman's referred to their Blue nib as a stub, but it's also slightly left oblique; Esterbrook's stubs and reliefs were also oblique). German pen companies probably made more obliques than anyone else (especially in the 1930s-50s). These varied in width from fine through triple broad, and in flex from stiff through wet noodle, but I've never met one that wouldn't qualify as at least a stub; that is, they all provide significant line variation - until some point when they ditched or radically reduced the line variation but kept the same terminology (there's a vast difference between an oblique nib made by Pelikan in the 50s and one made now). But some modern obliques still provide line variation (e.g. Visconti). In other words, if you pick up a pen and see "OM" (=oblique medium) written on it, you won't be able to tell from that how it will write - you also need to know who made it and when or at least (assuming you know what to look for) to take a close look at how the tip has been ground.

Simon

Dear wspohn and Simon,
Thanks both of you for taking the time to offer me some guidance - your support is greatly appreciated!
Best wishes
Andy