Leonardt Principal Ef Nib

January 11, 2014

Seeing that these nibs are touted as being very good nibs for the Spencerian hand, I thought I'd pick-up a couple to play with. After receiving my nibs, I cleaned them with a rotary toothbrush and toothpaste as recommended by one member. On inspection, I noticed that these nibs displayed a very easy flex which seemed a real plus!

As for my ink, I'm using a Moon Palace Sumi ink. My paper is a A4 lined Rhodia, and my work surface beneath the paper is a 12" x 18" piece of Corian material, very hard, flat and smooth.

On using the nib, I find that on the descending stroke, the nib splays very nicely and gives some nice character to my line.

As for the ascending stroke on the other hand, that's where the problem begins! With such a fine sharp point, I knew before even starting that this nib was going to require very little pressure. With such light pressure, I seem to lose control in producing a definitive line that seems committed, but rather a line that seems weak and wobbly at times. Although I have to say that the ascending line is narrow and shows good contrast next to the descending line.

Any adjustment in pressure to try to gain control over the ascending line, results in hop and skip snagging of the paper. I've played with adjusting the angle of attack, and rotating the nib some, but haven't really found anything that felt as though it corrects the problem.

Now in my reading on this forum, I've run across several potential sources to the problem, like the hard surface beneath the paper, rather than a piece of leather or some softer material. It could very well be the paper not being suited for this nib, and possibly even the ink. Perhaps the ink is too thin and not cushioning the nib as it glides over the paper. Now before I end up way out in left field on trying to solve my dilemma with this nib, I thought I'd query you kind folks as to how you handle this temperamental nib with the hop and skip snagging problem and still being able to produce a fine committed line.

I'd like to give this nib a good honest try before giving up on it for another of the hundreds of nibs out there waiting to be tried.

Thank you

January 14, 2014

I thought I should probably add some imput, I never liked having my threads be dead and have a paucity of reply...

Here's what I know.

The Principals are very, very sensitive to your hand. It has been described for expert usages, and I pretty much agree with M. Sull and a few other penman these days. I have found that one medium or hard paper catch is enough to screw up the tines pretty severely, in my experiences, so do be careful.

Yes. Do use a hard, smooth surface beneath the paper that you are using, as it helps to even out the paper further... but the main thing I would like to add is that the way you use the pen. Most beginners tend to use finger movements, but as I have read in the past, the way to use these ridiculously sharp points is to use pure arm movement. Your fingers are only allowed to hold, but not move or do anything else. All the propelling is to be done be the arm. If you use your fingers, you will change the angle in which the nib contacts the paper, which will be much more susceptible to being caught. By using your arm, you maintain the paper-nib contact angle, so it will catch less often. If at all. The key thing with this nib is that you need to have a really, really light hand. I started out using Japanese G nibs, of which are much more sturdy.

When you use your arm to move the pen, light lines will not be a problem, mainly because of the greater degrees of freedom. In contrast, the fingers are not capable of graceful movement because their radii of movement is limited. Thats how I began to get accustomed to this expert nib. For general practice nowadays, I may find myself a bit unusual because I use an esterbrook 356 nib, which is very fine, and somewhat smaller.

As for inks, I have not been playing around much with various inks, I cannot give you much insight on the types of ink, but I have found that Higgins Eternal tends to work well, and some hand-ground (ink from a stick) ink tends to work well. I don't have experience with Sumi to give you insight on that. Generally, I dilute my Higgins ink quite a lot: 5 to 4 water to ink ratio.

In short, I think a good arm movement, and zero, dead finger action is necessary to handle this delicate nib. Your setup appears to be legitimate, but with arm movement, the wobbles in your line will fade, gradually. Often times, people in the ornamental penmanship era often learned a really good, almost perfect monoline, non-shaded cursive form, i.e. business handwriting, so they did not run into many problems when adapting ornamental penmanship (I have a kind of stigma against calling this script spencerian, but its basically the same form: light line and thick shades).

January 14, 2014

Actually, this post didn't get any replies because it's a duplicate of this one: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/258757-leonardt-principal-ef-nib/

January 22, 2014

In my experience these super-sharp nibs require super-smooth paper. I have found that Clairefontaine works. The least bit of tooth and I catch the nib - at best I splatter ink, and half the time I put the nib right through the paper. Eeek, I remember trying to insert the nib into the holder and instead inserting it deeply into my finger. I guess my tetanus shot must have been up to date!

January 23, 2014

If you are catching the pen on the upstrokes, you may be able to adjust the nib or your writing angle to get a lower angle of the nib to the paper. Some of the older threads here on FPN discuss this in great detail.

You did not mention your holder -- you are (if right-handed) using a good-quality adjustable elbow oblique holder? Say, the Blackwell or the Ziller or ... If you are left-handed, a regular holder should work -- just concentrate on staying as close to parallel as practical to the paper on the upstrokes.

Enjoy,

Edited January 23, 2014 by Randal6393

January 23, 2014

In my experience these super-sharp nibs require super-smooth paper. I have found that Clairefontaine works. The least bit of tooth and I catch the nib - at best I splatter ink, and half the time I put the nib right through the paper. Eeek, I remember trying to insert the nib into the holder and instead inserting it deeply into my finger. I guess my tetanus shot must have been up to date!

if you're actually puncturing the paper, you are surely putting too much weight on the nib. Of course smooth paper helps, but you should also strive for the lightest touch.

January 23, 2014

For very soft pens such as the Principal and the Gillott 303 a slight change in contact angle can help with the hairlines and upstrokes.

The tines need to stay squeezed close together to avoid catching the sharp inner corners on the paper fibres. This can be by the nib's spring force or by getting the contact angle on the leading tine to assist.

If you can check your nib while writing under strong magnification such as a microscope, you will see the ideal process - using very low pressure and making the contact begin with the corner of the right tine first, then applying ink in a fine hairline by keeping the tines pressed together and contacting the paper where the two tips meet. The digging and catching is normally due to excessive pressure or using the wrong contact angle which causing a splay and an inside edge to snag the fibre.

Once you observe the problem under magnification it becomes easier to picture the contact with the paper and then get smoother results even with a very sharp new EF nib. This helps to get a gliding action on the upstrokes, liaisons and hairlines and the gliding gives confidence and less wobble. It's a bit like learning to ski on hard ice and being aware of your sharp edges that can catch and make you fall.

January 24, 2014

Seeing that these nibs are touted as being very good nibs for the Spencerian hand, I thought I'd pick-up a couple to play with. After receiving my nibs, I cleaned them with a rotary toothbrush and toothpaste as recommended by one member. On inspection, I noticed that these nibs displayed a very easy flex which seemed a real plus!

As for my ink, I'm using a Moon Palace Sumi ink. My paper is a A4 lined Rhodia, and my work surface beneath the paper is a 12" x 18" piece of Corian material, very hard, flat and smooth.

On using the nib, I find that on the descending stroke, the nib splays very nicely and gives some nice character to my line.

As for the ascending stroke on the other hand, that's where the problem begins! With such a fine sharp point, I knew before even starting that this nib was going to require very little pressure. With such light pressure, I seem to lose control in producing a definitive line that seems committed, but rather a line that seems weak and wobbly at times. Although I have to say that the ascending line is narrow and shows good contrast next to the descending line.

Any adjustment in pressure to try to gain control over the ascending line, results in hop and skip snagging of the paper. I've played with adjusting the angle of attack, and rotating the nib some, but haven't really found anything that felt as though it corrects the problem.

Now in my reading on this forum, I've run across several potential sources to the problem, like the hard surface beneath the paper, rather than a piece of leather or some softer material. It could very well be the paper not being suited for this nib, and possibly even the ink. Perhaps the ink is too thin and not cushioning the nib as it glides over the paper. Now before I end up way out in left field on trying to solve my dilemma with this nib, I thought I'd query you kind folks as to how you handle this temperamental nib with the hop and skip snagging problem and still being able to produce a fine committed line.
I'd like to give this nib a good honest try before giving up on it for another of the hundreds of nibs out there waiting to be tried.

Thank you

Those are difficult nibs to manage, especially if you are just starting out with the pointed pen. I would recommend putting those Leonardts aside for now, and get a supply of Zebra G nibs, or Nikko G nibs. The G nib will be much more forgiving, and I assure you it will be much more enjoyable for you. No, it won't get the spider web fine lines of a Leonardt Principal or a Gillott 303 or a Brause 76 Rose; but if you have not yet developed the skill to write like that, the nib's capability is a moot issue.

Seriously, get some G nibs and learn your letterforms with those...at the same time you will be getting a good feel for the pointed pen and in a short amount of time you can swap out for one of those Leonardt P's. I tried it with a Principal when I first started the pointed pen...thought that I would learn with the "good stuff". Wasted about a month doing nothing but spraying ink all over the page and listening to the nib go "bink", "doink", "poomp", "pank", etc. LOL! The G nib will do a little of that too, but nothing like those razor sharp-and-ultra-soft Principality nibs. And invest in some good paper too...Clairefontaine or Rhodia preferably. You won't go wrong with either of those.