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Pens With Arabic Italic Nib


dragos.mocanu

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Hello, I would like to make a nice Christmas present to my girlfriend this year. She studies Arabic and her writing is beautiful (actually a lot more beautiful than mine or her regular writing :lol: ), but it would look like the "real thing" if she wrote using a proper nib. I saw that Richard Binder grinds such nibs, but 170$ is a bit too much (for a Pelikan M200 with such a nib), not to mention the shipping costs and the customs charges (an extra 24% in my country). That being said, do you know any other nib meisters (preferably in the EU) that could do this work? Or pens that come with an Arabic nib? Thank you.

Edited by dragos.mocanu

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

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In Egypt, it is quite hard to find them as most stores don't carry Calligraphy sets. What you do have are felt tip pens with tips sliced for Arabic writing, They are meant to mimic writing with a reed pen (The preferred tool for Arabic calligraphy).

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OK, pardon what may be an untutored question--are there also nibs specific for writing Hebrew letters?

 

Thanks!

"Ravens play with lost time."

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OK, pardon what may be an untutored question--are there also nibs specific for writing Hebrew letters?

 

Thanks!

 

From what I gather hebrew and arabic are the same grind.

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If you do a board search, there was a whole discussion on this a few years back when a rabbi sought the perfect nib.

 

I believe Dollar pens are available with right oblique & Speerbob who sells in the Classifieds occasionally gets his hands in nib assemblies for Preludes. You might PM him. No affiliation, just peripheral awareness.

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There's a review of the Duke D2 that comes in a package with an arabic nib - it's in the fountain pen review forum and only a week old. It has a link to the ebay seller.

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A nib ground for any language that writes from right to left will do. Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Urdu are all written in the same direction.

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Any old left-oblique nib will do just fine for writing Arabic. This shape mimics the cut of the reed pen.

 

There seems to be a rather common misconception that the vertical strokes in Arabic, and associated scripts, are thin while all horizontal strokes are thick - hence the Arabic/Hebrew nib grind. While it might appear to be so, Arabic scripts require significant nib manipulation (i.e. strokes start with one nib orientation and end with another). This is easiest to achieve with a left oblique nib.

 

Here are some of the nibs I use for my practice:

 

fpn_1348598574__pens.jpg

 

L to R:

Dollar Qalam with left oblique (LO) nib

Sheaffer No Nonsense ground to LO

Dollar 717i with nib from Inoxcrom school pen ground to LO

Noodler's Creaper with nib from Hero Calligraphy set ground to LO

 

I get the best performance from the Sheaffer nibs as the flow and consistency is the most reliable. The Noodler's feed is excellent and can easily keep up with the huge nib.

 

Manuscript makes a set with LO nibs but it looks and feels rather cheap. Works really well though. Rotring Art pens can be found with LO nibs and produce excellent results.

 

Salman

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Surprisingly this Duke D2-1 I've purchased came with an Arabic nib too, you might want to check, I found the nib is too thick writes like between B or BB to my eyes.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/255622-duke-d2-1-marabic-nib-pen-case/

One boring blue, one boring black 1mm thickness at most....

Then there are Fountain Pens with gorgeous permanent inks..

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I have no experience with his services, but this fellow offers such a nib grinding service. http://tylerdahlpens.com/grinding.html

 

I have talked to Mr. Dahl and he accepted to help me out. I thank everyone for the various suggestions.

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

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OK, pardon what may be an untutored question--are there also nibs specific for writing Hebrew letters?

 

Thanks!

 

If you are looking for results similar to what you see in a Torah scroll, be aware these are required to be written with an feather quill. To really learn what a sofer (a scribe) uses, contact perhaps a local Orthodox rabbi; if he doesn't know he may be able to put you in touch. If you're anywhere in the Greater Detroit area, I'd say check in with a local Chabad; they are very helpful.

 

Looking forward to see what you find out!

Moshe ben David

 

"Behold, He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps!"

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Any old left-oblique nib will do just fine for writing Arabic. This shape mimics the cut of the reed pen.

 

There seems to be a rather common misconception that the vertical strokes in Arabic, and associated scripts, are thin while all horizontal strokes are thick - hence the Arabic/Hebrew nib grind. While it might appear to be so, Arabic scripts require significant nib manipulation (i.e. strokes start with one nib orientation and end with another). This is easiest to achieve with a left oblique nib.

 

 

As someone who use uses a fountain pen for writing Farsi, you are technically accurate except your comments apply to right handed writers. I as an underwriter left handed find the opposite to be correct. I have several right-foot oblique nibs that I use and they work perfectly.

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As someone who use uses a fountain pen for writing Farsi, you are technically accurate except your comments apply to right handed writers. I as an underwriter left handed find the opposite to be correct. I have several right-foot oblique nibs that I use and they work perfectly.

 

You are right, my comments were for right handed people.

 

While I can understand left-handed writes being able to write Arabic/Farsi/Urdu/Pashto with right-oblique nibs, there are some left-handed calligraphers who use a left-oblique cut of the reed and produce fantastic work. Here is one example:

 

Salman

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At least some of you create at all. I find myself writing comfortably with at least 4 different nib sizes, yet achieve nothing pleasing with any!

 

I begin to think it is a subtle curse to see such beauty in one's head, yet be completely incapable of creating it oneself.

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Interesting you should say that. I am quite jealous of people who have the ability to paint pictures with words - calligraphy is more or less a craft that anyone can learn with a bit of structured practice.

 

S.

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Thanks for sharing that clip. I have tried left-foot oblique nibs but for day to day writing I still find right-foot obliques much more convenient. I have ground two Pilot Plumix italic/stub 1.1 mm nibs to ~20 degree right-foot oblique and they work great. They get slightly wider after the grind which gives the text a little nicer line variation. My holy grail pen is a Pelikan M800 blue stripe with a 0.9 mm Hebrew/Arabic italic nib from Richard Binder.

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Interesting you should say that. I am quite jealous of people who have the ability to paint pictures with words - calligraphy is more or less a craft that anyone can learn with a bit of structured practice.

 

S.

Anyone?! X decades of practice have failed to create even an apprentice level result on my end. I'll stick to the words for now as practice seems to be yielding results. Sigh...

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Thanks for sharing that clip. I have tried left-foot oblique nibs but for day to day writing I still find right-foot obliques much more convenient. I have ground two Pilot Plumix italic/stub 1.1 mm nibs to ~20 degree right-foot oblique and they work great. They get slightly wider after the grind which gives the text a little nicer line variation. My holy grail pen is a Pelikan M800 blue stripe with a 0.9 mm Hebrew/Arabic italic nib from Richard Binder.

 

Very interesting. So when you write the letter bey (ba' in Arabic) is the top edge of the nib is leading the stroke? (Rather than the bottom edge leading for a left oblique nib.) I would love to see an example of your day-to-day writing if possible.

 

Salman

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