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ainterne
November 3rd, 2014, 04:43 PM
Hi, has anyone worked out an easy way of figuring out the right angle to buy when ordering an oblique nib?

It seems like a lot of people that offer advice such as, "go try different angles until you find out what's good for you". Unfortunately, and like many I am sure, I don't have an abundance of different angled italic nibs I can try.

I have found no matter what I do, I rotate pens slightly to the right when I am writing, it's not enough to damage nibs etc, but I have been thinking it might be worth getting an oblique to see if it works for me.
I believe I need a left-foot oblique if I rotate right?..... please correct me if I am wrong.

Soooo any I was wondering if anyone had any cool advice on how to figure it out? I just don't want to go down the road of having to buy 3 or 4 pens to find out what would be right for me.

Thanks.... Phil.

gbryal
November 3rd, 2014, 05:19 PM
I have found no matter what I do, I rotate pens slightly to the right when I am writing, it's not enough to damage nibs etc, but I have been thinking it might be worth getting an oblique to see if it works for me.
I believe I need a left-foot oblique if I rotate right?..... please correct me if I am wrong.

Soooo any I was wondering if anyone had any cool advice on how to figure it out? I just don't want to go down the road of having to buy 3 or 4 pens to find out what would be right for me.

Thanks.... Phil.

I have one oblique, the 9314-M Relief for the Esterbrook J. It is a left-foot oblique (shaped like your own left foot if you look down at it.) To write with it, I must rotate it LEFT. If I rotated it right, it would rest on the "big toe" of the nib, that is, the high right side, and it wouldn't write.

Therefore, if you rotate right, I believe you will need a right-foot oblique. Note that if you call it "right-foot" that is clear enough, but some manufacturers call a left-foot oblique a "right oblique", so you really must look at it or talk to the seller to get it straight.

Also, by "rotate" i mean turning the pen on the axis that goes down the length of the barrel. If you are turning the pen another way, e.g. hooking, I am not sure what nib you'd want.

tandaina
November 3rd, 2014, 05:32 PM
Easiest way. If you are *right* handed and rotate the nib *inward* you need a left foot oblique (you are tipped hte top of the nib toward your left shoulder.) If you rotate your pen *outward* (Ie the top of the nib is rotated away from your body) then you need Right foot oblique.

For left handers it'd be opposite.

So when I sit down to write I put my pen down with the top of the nib rotated in (I'm right handed) toward my body. This is the most common rotation and *most* oblique nibs are left foot oblique. Finding a right foot oblique stock is pretty darn rare, you usually have to have htem ground. I actually have a war era Montblanc with a Right Foot Oblique nib. I find it terribly uncomfortable to use, the opposite of what I need. I'll happily sell it to one of those rare Right Foot Oblique writers.

ainterne
November 3rd, 2014, 07:00 PM
Easiest way. If you are *right* handed and rotate the nib *inward* you need a left foot oblique (you are tipped hte top of the nib toward your left shoulder.) If you rotate your pen *outward* (Ie the top of the nib is rotated away from your body) then you need Right foot oblique.

For left handers it'd be opposite.

So when I sit down to write I put my pen down with the top of the nib rotated in (I'm right handed) toward my body. This is the most common rotation and *most* oblique nibs are left foot oblique. Finding a right foot oblique stock is pretty darn rare, you usually have to have htem ground. I actually have a war era Montblanc with a Right Foot Oblique nib. I find it terribly uncomfortable to use, the opposite of what I need. I'll happily sell it to one of those rare Right Foot Oblique writers.

Thanks...... so if I look down at my pen, the nib is in the middle of the page, but the cap of the pen is pointed at my right hand shoulder. So I feel as if I am putting more pressure on the right hand tine. What makes it worse is that I write at a forward slope, so I also rotate the pen on it's axis as gbryal said, slightly right.......

So the nib on the paper looks like (this being the top of the nib → / ) but at about 10° not 45°.. Does this make any sense.. lol..... I am thinking from whats being said that I do need a right hand foot oblique?

ainterne
November 4th, 2014, 03:50 PM
Easiest way. If you are *right* handed and rotate the nib *inward* you need a left foot oblique (you are tipped hte top of the nib toward your left shoulder.) If you rotate your pen *outward* (Ie the top of the nib is rotated away from your body) then you need Right foot oblique.

For left handers it'd be opposite.

So when I sit down to write I put my pen down with the top of the nib rotated in (I'm right handed) toward my body. This is the most common rotation and *most* oblique nibs are left foot oblique. Finding a right foot oblique stock is pretty darn rare, you usually have to have htem ground. I actually have a war era Montblanc with a Right Foot Oblique nib. I find it terribly uncomfortable to use, the opposite of what I need. I'll happily sell it to one of those rare Right Foot Oblique writers.

Thanks...... so if I look down at my pen, the nib is in the middle of the page, but the cap of the pen is pointed at my right hand shoulder. So I feel as if I am putting more pressure on the right hand tine. What makes it worse is that I write at a forward slope, so I also rotate the pen on it's axis as gbryal said, slightly right.......

So the nib on the paper looks like (this being the top of the nib → / ) but at about 10° not 45°.. Does this make any sense.. lol..... I am thinking from whats being said that I do need a right hand foot oblique?

Tandaina, you are quite right....I found a couple of spare Conklin Stub nibs I purchased from hisnibs.com a while ago. It turns out that it's an easy nib to work on and I shaped it into a right hand oblique. I was quite surprised at the angle I achieved and still felt good writing with it.

I did find an interesting article at http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/aboutpens/ludwig-tan.html , though I would share...

I did PM you with a couple of other questions.

Thanks and thanks to gbryal also for you input and help.