Obliques Ground on Two Planes?

[Karmachanic]

7 hours ago, Rroberrt said:

 So no click.

 

In that case tap.

[Bo Bo Olson]

10 hours ago, Rroberrt said:

Love that phrase, “Line Variation on Demand”

Took that line from a fine poster, along with the stub and CI being 100% line variation.

It was one of those AH HA!! lines that explain everything.

 

One does have to have a slightly light Hand, to be able to Demand the line variation.

One can get away with a heavy Hand in stubb or CI, but not when one wants to Demand in semi-flex.

 

When I got my semi-flex Pelikan 140 OB, it took me 6 weeks to stop maxing the semi-flex nib out to 3X all the time....and another 6 weeks to have a Hand light enough to Demand anything at all...............Ham Fisted I was. (As many are from ball point use.)

But a good German semi-flex nib is robust enough to handle that.

 

Semi-flex is NOT a Flex nib....IMO a Flex nib is superflex....which is two to three flex rates lower and easier in tine bend and spread, than semi-flex.

Nail 1X only, semi-nail mashes out to 2X,(P-75, modern Pelikan 400/600.

3X set: regular flex &or Japanese 'soft', semi-flex, maxi-semi-flex.

 

Superflex..4X; normal 5-6X to very rare; outside of Youtube videos and people selling sprung nibs, 7 X....

Easy Full flex, Wet Noodle, and John Swoboda, the English nib grinder's Weak Kneed Wet Noodle. (Seen one on a 1920's MB Safety Pen ......(.don't want one, I'd have to learn how to write.)

 

(Of course the more superflex nibs you have more the borders between start of superflex Easy Full Flex to Weak Kneed blur.....but beginners have to start somewhere.)

[Rroberrt]

44 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

but beginners have to start somewhere.)

…And this backward beginner starts with fixed stubs.

 

I suppose when I get bored with stubs, moving ‘up’ to Flex or even Super-Flex, will be natural.  

 

In the meantime, sir, descend and help me, if you will, find adequate words to describe the wonderful transformation that stubs, (and practice, practice, practice), brings to our hand-writing, for those words I cannot find.

 

For example: My wife and I do the bills twice a month.  She does the adding up, and I write the checks. Yes, we are still in the written check mode - and chances are that’s where we will stay, because those checks have become, by virtue of ‘Almost CI’, and ‘Varied line width’  -  “Works of art” - in my wife’s words. (Or, “Were those typed?”, in the words of the teller.

 

Of course that writing is not in the same class as what we see here, or with flex nibs.  But still, there is a pleasure in it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Defiantly asked the wrong guy....BS'ing is much easier than practicing.

I do have a an Italic calligraphy book, meant for a stiff italic nib......but it does show one how to Draw a letter. So is good for stiff stub nibs, or even semi-flex.

Such a book will help you learn to draw letters properly with a stub nib also, or CI.

 

I of course have a special rubber hammer to use on the chisel I use to smash open the fossilized dust shut book; every time the moon is green.

 

But I do know...one has to practice drawing letters....and some day with enough practice one will have that letter and many others memorized enough that one don't have to go from letter to letter in the book, to write something fancy.

 

It depends on how many hours over weeks or weeks over decades you wish to practice......hopefully more than me.

But I scribble on books in my spare time..............so use that as an pitiful excuse to hide my laziness. 15-30 minutes a day would have done wonders.

[txomsy]

Maybe you didn't get the right book for you.

 

Instead of learning how to "draw" each letter, you may perhaps feel more comfortable trying to "copy" sample text and consult the "ductus" when you have doubts.

 

The ductus is the order you follow to write. Some (the more calligraphic) books use many strokes to "draw" (lettering) a perfect letter (mainly for artists), while others concentrate on the overall look and how to make your handwriting as cursive (flowing) as possible.

 

There's a typical distinction between copy books and lecture books, in the first you'd try to imitate samples with minimal indications, in the later you'd be given detailed instructions letter by letter. Different people have different tastes.

 

In my absolutely ignorant opinion, with modern stubs, you can just take a copy book, and try to imitate the script your own way, and when you have doubts, then look at a detailed instructions manual for advice and hints. Even then, detailed manuals come in many ways, and in your case you may be better served by looking for one that emphasizes cursiveness over "calligraphyness".

 

If I remember well, which I may well not, "Italic & Copperplate Calligraphy", by Eleanor Winters has a good mix of both approaches.

 

Another great resource is "www.operina.com" where you'll find very useful resources for handwriting improvement based on italics for free.

 

[Rroberrt]

23 hours ago, txomsy said:

In my absolutely ignorant opinion, with modern stubs, you can just take a copy book, and try to imitate the script your own way, and when you have doubts, then look at a detailed instructions manual for advice and hints. 

Agreed. It is surely acceptable that conformity to any particular discipline, while it may be admirable, is not necessary for a legible and pleasing page of hand-writing.

 

My question was not about how to attain a particular style, but simply why does proper use of a stub add ‘flair’ to handwriting? (Which perhaps begs the question and, in any case appears to be un-answerable.)

[Bo Bo Olson]

Stub.....You get constant flair, wider and thinner lines with out having to do anything fancy but write so you can read it. The nib is flatter so fatter; narrower  on your uplines, due to the grind.

 

CI gives a sharper version.

 

Semi-flex if German 50-60's is mostly a factory stub....I do have a few late '60's American Bump Under semi-flex that are not stubs.....

 

So you have the factory stub, with a bit more line variation, that you give yourself, by pressing a nib a bit more than normal making lines wider or narrower....adding to your basic stubb pattern.

 

Semi-flex Oblique gives you the stub, the tine spread & a tad more pattern.....that again, you decided to press a touch more or less varying your patterns.