An Oblique Obsession (with a lefty)

[mouse2cat]

I have been having a love affair with this vintage oblique nib on my Pelikan 120 

It was my mother's pen from when she was in school. This is not a nib that was ground down but was manufactured as an oblique it is a sharp edged angled thing. It has a sweet spot that you must hold it at. But it turns out my normal writing angle is that sweet spot. 

 

I realized that as a lefty I may be having a different experience with an oblique nib than other people so I thought I would share. 

Here's that nib. Sweet baby

 

This is the angle I am holding it at. I am an what's called an over handed writer so my hand rides above the line of text. This prevents me from smearing ink and also allows me to use right handed tools apparently. I tilt my paper away from me at about a 30 degree angle. I kind of pull the pen up and down side ways with the nib. With the oblique this means my vertical lines are skinny and my horizontal marks are wide. I think this may be a reversal of what many people would experience and why I have included a writing sample. 

 

 

Here is my short writing sample. I kind of dig the look. 

 

I just wanted to put it out there because I feel like a lot of lefties get some mixed advice on what works for them. And I think a major determining factor is hand position. If I was an underwriter (the mirror of a traditional right handed position) this nib would not have worked at all for me. 

 

Unfortunately true obliques have fallen out of fashion so I am kind of nervous about damaging this one. 

 

I would love to hear your experience with oblique nibs and maybe compare some writing samples. Anyone else having an "oblique obsession" lol

[brokenclay]

I am a left handed over writer, also. I write with the pen very, very vertical.

 

I just received a Pelikan 400NN with a bold oblique nib, and am working out the best way to write with it. I know from previous experience (a Parker Duofold with a flex stub) that practice, practice, practice is the way to go, along with a willingness to try different pen to paper angles. I don't intuitively rotate the nib counterclockwise, but that's what needs to happen to get a line on the page.

 

I have considered trying an architect nib in hopes of getting thick verticals and thin horizontals, but haven't done it yet.

[mouse2cat]

35 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

I am a left handed over writer, also. I write with the pen very, very vertical.

 

I just received a Pelikan 400NN with a bold oblique nib, and am working out the best way to write with it. I know from previous experience (a Parker Duofold with a flex stub) that practice, practice, practice is the way to go, along with a willingness to try different pen to paper angles. I don't intuitively rotate the nib counterclockwise, but that's what needs to happen to get a line on the page.

 

I have considered trying an architect nib in hopes of getting thick verticals and thin horizontals, but haven't done it yet.

 

As you can see from the photo tilting the pen away from me it the thing that makes my oblique work for me. 

 

I have a Lamy joy with a 1.5 stub nib that sounds absolutely perfect for you. I have to hold it at a much more vertical angle which sounds like what you prefer. It gives very similar line variation but with a different writing angle. 

 

I don't know much about architect nibs, but I would love to know more. 

[brokenclay]

2 hours ago, mouse2cat said:

I have a Lamy joy with a 1.5 stub nib that sounds absolutely perfect for you.

 

I had that pen, too, but found it to be more of a sharp italic than a stub, and I don't have that kind of patience 🙂. I also had a right foot oblique (there's a lot of different ways to define an oblique, but I'm talking about a tip that is the opposite of the Pelikan in my first post) that didn't really work for me either. I've got stubs I love, though - a couple of Kawecos, a couple of custom-ground stubs on Pelikans, a Fine Writing International 1.1mm stub that's fantastic, the aforementioned Parker flexy stub, some others I'm not remembering right now.

[brokenclay]

I'm starting to come to grips with this nib - getting a consistent line now.

 

[mouse2cat]

40 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

I'm starting to come to grips with this nib - getting a consistent line now.

 

 

Beautiful handwriting! It looks like you are hitting that sweet spot. It's interesting because the angle of your letters are more vertical so the skinny lines are at the same angle as mine but that is not your down stroke. So our writing samples have very different personality. Beautiful pen too ❤️

[brokenclay]

4 hours ago, mouse2cat said:

It's interesting because the angle of your letters are more vertical so the skinny lines are at the same angle as mine but that is not your down stroke. 

 

That's a good observation. My hand position is somewhere between yours and a sidewriter's, and that makes sense, too.

5 hours ago, mouse2cat said:

Beautiful pen too ❤️

 

Thank you! My second 400NN. The first has a medium nib, super duper smooth but definitely no line variation at all.

[OMASsimo]

Well, I’m a righty and thus can’t contribute much to how to write with a left oblique nib in your case. But sure enough I have a lot of those nibs in my collection and I’m very fond of them. I started writing with obliques in school and always loved the character I got from line variation. Most of this disappeared in modern nibs, unfortunately. But it seems that oblique nibs were extremely popular in Germany and I happen to have a weak spot for some German vintage makers. 
As far as I understand, the initial idea of an oblique nib is to improve writing experience for people who tend to rotate the pen in a certain way. It’s more of a problem with broader nibs which apparently were quite popular in Germany. I absolutely love those broad oblique nibs, which give the line variation a somewhat different appearance compared to standard broad (vintage) nibs. But I also have OF nibs with basically no line variation unless one flexes the nib. If I find the time, I might prepare some writing examples.

Anyway, enjoy the oblique experience.

[Aysedasi]

I'm  a lefty underwriter and I love left foot oblique nibs.  I have many of them in various pens.  They just seem to suit my (admittedly pretty shoddy) writing.  I've no real idea about rotation, but I can say that virtually every left oblique nib I've owned has been a delight.  

[dgturner]

Another lefty over-writer here, One of my favorite pens for long sessions was an M400 with an OM nib. Unfortunately it developed a crack and became a drawer pen. I have migrated the nib to an Indian pen-bought here of course 😄-and the nib continues to live on. If I don't use it for a while it feels odd when I start, but i quickly revert to writing with it rotated, it just feels more natural.

 

I also have a couple of Estie nibs that are oblique, and they are also mor natural (my favourite Estie nib is my 2442 Falcon stub).

[brokenclay]

In thinking about this, I've realized that there are two factors here: the angle of the nib, which dictates the degree of rotation, and the sharpness (vs stubbiness) of the nib, which dictates how precise the writer must be in maintaining the correct angle. What I'd really like to do is take this pen to a nibmeister in person, because it's also a combination of the nib and my writing position. I've never been to a pen show, but this might be the year to do that.

[OMASsimo]

28 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

In thinking about this, I've realized that there are two factors here: the angle of the nib, which dictates the degree of rotation, and the sharpness (vs stubbiness) of the nib, which dictates how precise the writer must be in maintaining the correct angle. What I'd really like to do is take this pen to a nibmeister in person, because it's also a combination of the nib and my writing position. I've never been to a pen show, but this might be the year to do that.

 

Your observation is absolutely right. There actually were two different oblique angles in vintage (German) nibs, a 15° and a 30° grind of which the latter is more rare. The shape of the tipping is one thing, the flexibility of the nib another one and both work together. Those vintage nibs when broader had a pronounced chisel like edge to produce line variation. But these nibs also sport a nice flexibility (semi- flex most often) which means that if you don't hold it a the perfect angle/rotation, the flex of the nib would level that out to a good degree. Most modern nibs are much stiffer and thus a much more precise holding the pen would be required. This might be the reason why modern obliques are rather blobby to compensate for the stiffness. Your 400NN should have at least a semi-flex nib with a chisel like tipping. Most of my Pelikan nibs from that era are very forgiving writers.

[brokenclay]

6 minutes ago, OMASsimo said:

Your 400NN should have at least a semi-flex nib with a chisel like tipping. Most of my Pelikan nibs from that era are very forgiving writers.

 

I believe it does. The seller's writing sample was wonderfully flexy. But again, as a left handed writer, flex really isn't in my repertoire. I know some left handed writers learn to write sideways or even almost upside down in order to be able to flex by pulling instead of pushing, but I'm not looking to learn to do anything even remotely resembling that. 

[OMASsimo]

I'm not doing flex writing either and those nibs are not meant for it imho. But my point was that  the natural flexibility of the nib (without exerting extra pressure) levels out problems when you don't put the nib down at the perfect angle. I love the feeling of such nibs but don't usually flex them. I have some nibs that are much more flexible, e.g. in a tortoise 400NN like yours, which are suitable for some flex writing. But it's still not a calligraphy nib and I would never write longer texts flexing such nibs.

[brokenclay]

2 minutes ago, OMASsimo said:

But my point was that  the natural flexibility of the nib (without exerting extra pressure) levels out problems when you don't put the nib down at the perfect angle.

 

Gotcha, thanks!

 

Since I'm having a fair amount of trouble with this nib, I'm guessing either the flex isn't coming into play since I'm pushing across the page, or the nib is ground really sharp. It also seems fairly dry, unusual for Pelikans, and I've been trying a bunch of different inks.

[OMASsimo]

17 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

Since I'm having a fair amount of trouble with this nib, I'm guessing either the flex isn't coming into play since I'm pushing across the page, or the nib is ground really sharp. It also seems fairly dry, unusual for Pelikans, and I've been trying a bunch of different inks.

 

Yes, that's very unusual, indeed. Maybe the nib needs a little bit of tuning. Most vintage Pelikans just write perfectly after a thorough cleaning but there are exceptions of course. Previous owners might have mistreated the pen and then put it in the back of a drawer. Or the nib wasn't perfect from the beginning and the owner was too rich or too lazy to return it to the seller. Sometimes this might have saved the pen from more abuse and after  fixing the nib issue you end up with a well preserved pen that writes perfectly. Happened to me recently with a 400 that writes like a charm again after I tuned the nib.

[mouse2cat]

I hadn't thought of the flex simply making the paper contact angle slightly more forgiving. Without it being used for flex writing. 

 

I think that sometimes the sharp corners of the chisel get rounded a small amount from wear and tear and the pen has less catching and perfect angle issues. My pen was very well broken in when I got it, so I am wondering if that is contributing to its smoothness. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Could well be you found the proper angle to lay the nib on the paper.

Most German obliques are 15 degree grinds, so as a right hander, I posted the pen with the clip pointed in the middle between the slit and shoulder.

Then just grasp in air and put to paper and write, the cant angle was then right.

 

For the rarer 30 degree grind, I pointed the clip at the right hand shoulder of the nib.

Either will put the proper cant/ (some call that rotation), of the grind angle to the paper.

It's grasp the pen in the air, and then just put the nib to the paper and write. No fiddling around.

 

I don't know if or how to tell a left hander how to cant the nib as I do as a right hander.....but it's worth a thought or two.

 

I come up with that aim the clip trick, and there were still problems for a few, and Richard* came up with either having the paper at 90 degrees or 180 not the normal 45 degrees.

*Richard Binder.....there was a time not long ago when just saying Richard, meant everyone knew who you were talking about.  Today Ron and Rick are still single names all know, along with a Mike (or two)

[mouse2cat]

I think since my overhand style is very similar to how a righty would hold the pen just rotated. So it would be the same advice but with a 180 degree rotation on it. 

 

Bonus since the nib points towards me I can really see how it's hitting it paper as I go. 

There is the rotation of the pen as well as the tilt in regards to how vertical is the pen in your hand.

[OMASsimo]