Is The Platinum Preppy Good For Lefties?

[Ritvik]

If So Which Nib Size Should I Get? My Action Is Like A Cross Between A Hook And A Sidewriter. Do you suggest the preppy or should I go with a Parker??

[Sailor Kenshin]

I am a lefthanded overwriter, and use both Preppy and Parker pens.

 

Which Parkers were you looking at? The Preppy is a wonderful bargain, and inexpensive enough to try all three nib sizes.

[TheDutchGuy]

I frequently give Preppy's with the 0.5mm nib to lefties and they love it. Using standard Platinum blue (not blue-black), they write a nice line that's dry before the writer's hand reaches it.

[Qoan]

I'm a righthanded overwriter (hook), which has been always a bit problematic when writing with relatively wet or broad nibs. That's probably why almost all my pens go from MF to UEF. Then, I do speak some Arabic and write in that language from time to time, so in those cases (writing right to left) my situation is virtually the same as a letfhanded person writing a left-to-right script.

 

I've regularly used 03(F) and 02(EF) preppies in the last 3 years or so (often in the body of a Plaisir, but that doesn't affect writing) and never had a smudge problem, either with the Latin or the Arabic script, except when writing in very short columns from some reason (counts, lists...). I've had a couple of modern Parker Vectors (with an M and an F nib) and I used to have problems with both, often even when writing left to right, so they're both in a drawer now... That's all my experience with Parkers though, apparently vintage Parkers did have narrower nibs.

[DasKaltblut]

The ink matters too. A slow drying ink will give you fits.

[Ritvik]

I'm a righthanded overwriter (hook), which has been always a bit problematic when writing with relatively wet or broad nibs. That's probably why almost all my pens go from MF to UEF. Then, I do speak some Arabic and write in that language from time to time, so in those cases (writing right to left) my situation is virtually the same as a letfhanded person writing a left-to-right script.

 

I've regularly used 03(F) and 02(EF) preppies in the last 3 years or so (often in the body of a Plaisir, but that doesn't affect writing) and never had a smudge problem, either with the Latin or the Arabic script, except when writing in very short columns from some reason (counts, lists...). I've had a couple of modern Parker Vectors (with an M and an F nib) and I used to have problems with both, often even when writing left to right, so they're both in a drawer now... That's all my experience with Parkers though, apparently vintage Parkers did have narrower nibs.

I completely agree with you. I ordered the Preppy, and I like it WAAY more than my Vector, whose fine is like a broad to me. Thanks for helping!

[torstar]

as an underwriting lefty, the only problems were left-footed oblique nibs, took a few hours to find the sweet spot without having to think about it and it wasn't a good way to write for me.

 

ink drying is important, if you drag yourself through it

 

also some papers are more forgiving of your hand laying on the page when you write, sweat and other stuff may cause smudging on the bottom 1/3 of the page.

[Honeybadgers]

I personally find the EF to be the star nib. Almost no other pen is as fine from the factory, making it a useful tool even alongside pens a hundred times more expensive.

 

I also have a preppy that I dropped and bent the nib on, I just clipped off at an oblique angle with pliers and sanded smooth. now I have a triple broad oblique italic preppy.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Honeybadgers