Why Would I Want An Oblique Nib Instead Of A Stub?

[eloquentogre]

Now that I have gone off the deep end with this hobby, I am starting to look at non-standard nibs. I get the whole general point of them, line variation and all, but looking at oblique nibs, I am quite confused. Why would I want an oblique nib instead a normal fancy pants nib (stub/cursive italic)?

[jar]

You would want an oblique nib if you rotate your pen when writing such that the tines do not lay flat on the paper. It is meant to compensate for the angle of rotations.

[RMN]

Good question.

 

Now, basically, an oblique nib allows you to write with your pen a bit slanted instead of straight. In an oblique nib one tine is a bit longer than the other. Some people tend to slant the pen, or rotate it a bit, and with a normal straight pen that would lift one tine of the paper, and you would not get a good contact with the paper any more, hampering flow.

Making one time longer (or shorter) remedies that.

 

Normally in perfect round and very fine nibs this does not matter so much, but in brouder nibs, and especially in stubs or italics a slanted writing position can be a nuisance. I have a few italics myself that are just a little bit oblique (15 dgr) but in some obliques the angle is much more marked.

 

The way obliques are made normally (by cutting some of the iridium blob away) will produce a bit stublike effect but oblique is not synonym with stub.

 

Only order an oblique nib if you actually need one because you rotate/slant your pen. If you have a normal writing position you will not like an oblique.

 

 

D.ick

[simar]

As the previous posters have said , an oblique nib must be rotated in the hand to give the desired effect to the writing .I find this a bit tedious as I normally don't rotate my pens in hand , so I have to consciously do this as I am writing. However they do give a nice effect to writing , similar to a stub or cursive italic . Pelikan make very smooth oblique nibs .

[eloquentogre]

Ah, so Oblique nibs are more a corrective thing than anything really special beyond any other non-round nib. That's good to know. It's good ruling things OUT of my potential want list once in a while.

[ac12]

If you hold your pen "normal," what it does is to change which direction/stroke has a thicker line vs thinner.

Examples:

A stub, when held at about 30 degrees from straight up/down. The thick line is from upper left to lower right.

A left foot oblique when held at the same 30 degrees, would give you a wider horizontal line and a thin vertical line.

A right foot oblique when held at 30 degrees, would give you a wider vertical line and a thin horizontal line.

 

Some people like a left foot oblique. I tried 2 of them and gave up. I did not like how my writing looked, with the wider horizontal stroke, and I just could not get used to it. I would probably like the right foot oblique.

Edited October 22, 2015 by ac12

[pajaro]

Ah, so Oblique nibs are more a corrective thing than anything really special beyond any other non-round nib. That's good to know. It's good ruling things OUT of my potential want list once in a while.

 

You have cracked the code. I have several left and right obliques. They are annoying to use.

[tinta]

If the rotation of the nib/section is pronounced, you may be more comfortable with an oblique nib.

For some good detailed description, please consult the very useful Reference Pages on http://www.richardspens.com/

 

This is my experience with the oblique nib.

I bought my first serious pen in 1968 at a German shoe specialty shop in Toronto. The Pelikans arrayed in a small fountain pen display were all well over my budget, but for one lonely 400 NN with a 14K OBB nib. That pen was on sale. (I can now guess the reason.)

 

I took it home without trying it out at the store. What an interesting angled nib, I thought? Sure, I grew up with fountain pens, but not with one that had real 14K gold nib.

I tried my hand at writing with the Pelikan sepia ink that was included in the price. Loved how it made my poor cursive script a little more elegant.

I cannot recall how I got used to writing with this oblique nib,... but I did. I also cannot remember if I naturally rotated my pen sections to the left from the very beginning. The OBB worked like a charm.

In short order, this pen became my one & only normal fountain pen.

 

Fast forward to 2010. The Pelikan's piston seal & whatever else finally failed to a point that Chartpak could not repair it. They suggested that I send the pen to Germany. It would have cost more than 100.00 CAD to do a fix. Since this pen had worked hard for over 40 years, I figured it did not owe me anything. It had a good run. I sent it on a PIF to the UK, OBB nib & all.

 

For my next new pen I bought a Sailor 1911-M with a music nib customized to a .8 mm. stub. I seemed to have had no trouble making the transition to writing with a squared-off tip, regular stub.

A year later, for nostalgia's sake, I asked John Mottishaw to replicate the Pelikan OBB size & shape using another 14K Sailor music nib. John did a tremendous job on that nib. However, when I tried to write with this oblique, it seemed as if I've never used an oblique nib before.

 

Strange! Could it be that in little over a year I have become so accustomed to a square-cut edged nib that I couldn't make the change back to an oblique?

Writing with this beautiful oblique nib became extremely uncomfortable & frankly quite frustrating. After much struggling I sold that pen.

I admire those folk who can use a square-cut or oblique edged nib with equal aplomb.

Edited October 22, 2015 by tinta

[KaB]

 

The way obliques are made normally (by cutting some of the iridium blob away) will produce a bit stublike effect but oblique is not synonym with stub.

 

Only order an oblique nib if you actually need one because you rotate/slant your pen. If you have a normal writing position you will not like an oblique.

 

 

D.ick

 

+1 on that.

Last time I visited my B&M, I wanted to try some more stub pens. They also offered to try the Pelikan (800 & 1000) but with an oblique since there's no factory stubs available for these pens it seems.

 

At the best moments of writing, I didn't feel or see any difference with a normal nib. At other moments it just felt awkward. But it produced none of the desired line variation in my hands.

[RMN]

 

+1 on that.

Last time I visited my B&M, I wanted to try some more stub pens. They also offered to try the Pelikan (800 & 1000) but with an oblique since there's no factory stubs available for these pens it seems.

 

At the best moments of writing, I didn't feel or see any difference with a normal nib. At other moments it just felt awkward. But it produced none of the desired line variation in my hands.

 

Indeed.

There are 2 ways to obtain line variation:

1: Flex nibs. This requires a lot of skill because you have to learn to give more or less pressure, in a way moving the nib a bit up and down, hence why I call it 3D-writing.

2: Italic nibs, of which the stub is a transition between normal round and italic, then cursive italic and most pronounced but more difficult on the paper: crisp italics.

 

Note that oblique is not in that list.

 

 

D.ick

[Ghost Plane]

Obliques are easier to use for shoulder writers than for finger writers. I switch back and forth effortlessly because I simply let the pens find their own sweet spot on the page. Love 'em.

[Mastiff]

I've been to scared to try obliques and I think I hold the pen pretty straight.

My question, in addition to the OP's one would be, why can you not hold the pen slightly at an angle to begin with if you know that you rotate the pen, rather than resorting to buying an oblique nib?

Thanks.

[Ghost Plane]

Corners on obliques & italics, losing the sweet spot on ball nibs.

[Pterodactylus]

I do not agree with all the former comments.

 

Yes initially they were introduced to correct An writing shift angle.

As in former times the most nibs had an italic/stubby character these nibs need a constant angle not like a modern blob like spherical nib which writes in almost every angle.

 

So I think modern oblique nibs are useless because the blob like spherical nibs write in almost every angle. There is no need to correct an angle shift anymore.

For that reason also many manufacturers already stopped producing oblique nibs.

 

But and here comes the big but.

I really like to use vintage oblique nibs because they provide a different writing experience.

As they have a Italy/stubby character an oblique nib shifts the broad stroke more to the horizontal.

This gives your writing a different interesting look.

IMO using an vintage oblique is really nice (and I have for sure no need to correct a writing angle slant).

 

And if you don't have a problem holding a constant writing angle, e.g. You are able to use an italic nib without any problem you can easily also use a vintage oblique nib, you just have to rotate your pen according to the nib slant.

 

My conclusion:

Modern Oblique nibs are useless, vintage oblique nibs are very nice and can give you a very nice different writing experience.

[Jackokun]

If you hold your pen "normal," what it does is to change which direction/stroke has a thicker line vs thinner.

Examples:

A stub, when held at about 30 degrees from straight up/down. The thick line is from upper left to lower right.

A left foot oblique when held at the same 30 degrees, would give you a wider horizontal line and a thin vertical line.

A right foot oblique when held at 30 degrees, would give you a wider vertical line and a thin horizontal line.

 

Some people like a left foot oblique. I tried 2 of them and gave up. I did not like how my writing looked, with the wider horizontal stroke, and I just could not get used to it. I would probably like the right foot oblique.

Same here , in fact I have a left oblique on a steel Lamy2000 that I don't use because I just didn't cope with the writing and how it looked on the paper

[jsolares]

I do not agree with all the former comments.

 

Yes initially they were introduced to correct An writing shift angle.

As in former times the most nibs had an italic/stubby character these nibs need a constant angle not like a modern blob like spherical nib which writes in almost every angle.

 

So I think modern oblique nibs are useless because the blob like spherical nibs write in almost every angle. There is no need to correct an angle shift anymore.

For that reason also many manufacturers already stopped producing oblique nibs.

 

But and here comes the big but.

I really like to use vintage oblique nibs because they provide a different writing experience.

As they have a Italy/stubby character an oblique nib shifts the broad stroke more to the horizontal.

This gives your writing a different interesting look.

IMO using an vintage oblique is really nice (and I have for sure no need to correct a writing angle slant).

 

And if you don't have a problem holding a constant writing angle, e.g. You are able to use an italic nib without any problem you can easily also use a vintage oblique nib, you just have to rotate your pen according to the nib slant.

 

My conclusion:

Modern Oblique nibs are useless, vintage oblique nibs are very nice and can give you a very nice different writing experience.

 

Montblanc's modern obliques are stubby but the vintage ones are something entirely different still, another use for obliques i see is allowing left hand writers to do italic and similar broad edge writing without hand contortions and/or putting the paper at a weird angle on the table.

[playtime]

See my signature, which quotes Professor Propas.

[pajaro]

What if the oblique doesn't feel right when you don't rotate it? Like it doesn't hit the sweet spot?

 

What is the authority of Mr. Propas?

[Randal6393]

Let's go back to the theory of penmanship, as espoused by the Craft movement of early 20th century England. My favorite two penmen of that time are Graily Hewitt and Edward Johnston. Both talk about straight vs slanted writing, both talk about formal vs daily hands. They point out the advantages of oblique nibs and of straight nibs.

 

The two books that most typify their writings are Graily Hewitt's Lettering and Edward Johnston's Writing and Illuminating and Lettering. WIL is available on-line, not sure about Lettering. Well worth a read, for an understanding of the how and why of writing.

 

Enjoy,

[Randal6393]

What if the oblique doesn't feel right when you don't rotate it? Like it doesn't hit the sweet spot?

 

What is the authority of Mr. Propas?

See my post on theory of penmanship.