What's The Point Of Oblique Nibs?

[Mickey]

........

http://www.nibs.com/...tomizations.htm

 

Not at all - I found the forth vid down instructive! And mystifying too - I notice here that so much must depend on the 'touch' of the writer. Pausing the vid at 1:06 and comparing the two scripts indeed shows thinner ascenders from the oblique when comparing the capital I in 'Italic' above to the small L in 'oblique' below. At the end of the first word in either sample, however, there is no difference in the final e of each word or in the link to that e from the previous letter.

 

I'm beginning to think that we compensate and adjust subconsciously as we form letters with whatever nib we happen to have in our hand, and that variation so produced by the 'touch' of the user can make a significant difference to the performance of these nibs.

 

Absolutely correct, and adjusting to an oblique, particularly if one is used to italic nibs (stub, cursive, formal), requires shutting down part of the connection between eye and brain long enough for the hand / eye interface to readjust. It also helps the process if one already understands what the letters SHOULD look like with a given nib style. As I said, I think a lot of people who have frustrating experiences with obliques don't properly understand their function and try to make them write EXACTLY like italic nibs. As an experiment, I've tried to do it and while it is possible, it's not easy and certainly not intuitive.

 

I also found it amusing that the small print toward the bottom of the page I referenced stated,

 

"Note that some manufacturers, such as Pelikan and Bexley, provide standard nibs labeled as oblique or stub."

 

I doubt they meant it quite the way I first read it, but this qualification immediately put me in mind of the IPG marking on some cheap Asian pens. As least as regards modern Pelikans, my first reading is not that far from truth.

[mark e]

The answer for left handers is simplicity itself: Simply write backwards.

 

hey--it was good enough for da vinci, right?

[beak]

.....

 

I should hardly have been surprised by the input of the writer proportional to the facets offered by the tool; I have taught that appreciation for years when instructing in design and technical drawing. 'A pair of compasses or a circle template is only an aid to drawing a circle.', I hear myself droning on! Perhaps I, of all people, fell into the trap of expecting the tool to perform all by itself, and failed to recognize the skill required to use it effectively.

[ninjandrew]

I keep hearing about people who "naturally" roll their pens to the left or right. I just figured that correctly orienting the nib to the page was one of those basic skills you had to pick up when starting with fountain pens, and I'm not sure why anybody would have difficulty with this.

 

I agree completely. I wonder if those people put there pants on one leg at a time...

[professionaldilettante]

...

An oblique nib provides line variation that is opposite of a stub or italic nib. With an oblique nib, down strokes are narrow and cross strokes are broad. Some people like this type of line variation and prefer oblique nibs.

...

Bill

 

That would be an Arabic/Hebrew Italic, which isn't an oblique.

 

You are essentially correct in your description of an Arabic Hebrew type nib. I wouldn't, however, tack on the label italic, since italic nibs are generally understood to be nibs with the edge at 90 degrees to the pen shaft.

This is the answer that makes the most sense. You have italics, and hebrew nibs at 90 degrees of each other, and then obliques that fill the angles in between. Perfect sense. As for all you nib rollers, you still confound me.

[Chi Town]

I never knew about oblique nibs until I purchased a Watley woodgrain FP, ( a watley is the cross between a Waterman and a Bexley) where the seller failed to mention that it was an oblique nib. Well.,I noticed that this pen writes like butter for me and one day I looked at the nib under a magnifying lens and noticed that the nib is slanted to the left. I am right handed. After doing some research, I realized that I had a left slanted oblique. Now, I am going to have more of my pens sent out and have them ground this way. As I just can't believe how nice this pen writes in comparison to my other medium's, which is what I normally get.