Show Us Your Oblique Penholders!

[Stompie]

  On 5/13/2013 at 5:54 PM, DanF said:

 

 

Dan

 

Interesting - I was wondering when someone would make them in resin but could not find anything.

 

Question: Dan, Can you do a side slot to take a flange or is the material too delicate?

[AD356]

Mickey thanks for the answer, BTW forgot to say you have some amazing looking pens.

 

MusinkMan these are truly beautiful!!

[JonSzanto]

Ok, then. No help for left-handers. No interest, even.

[Stompie]

  On 5/14/2013 at 3:46 PM, JonSzanto said:

Ok, then. No help for left-handers. No interest, even.

schin posted a you tube thing on a left handed penman - I don't recall which thread but it was here on the penmanship board. It was excellent!

[DanF]

  On 5/14/2013 at 8:59 AM, Stompie said:

Interesting - I was wondering when someone would make them in resin but could not find anything.

 

Question: Dan, Can you do a side slot to take a flange or is the material too delicate?

I don't think that I would trust the strength of a slot in resin, having no grain structure to hold it together, though one could make the section part from ebony and glue into resin for the main body. I might give that a shot. It would add a little length as well; most resin blanks are short, 5 -6" in length.

 

Dan

Edited May 14, 2013 by DanF

[Mickey]

In answer to JoeSzanto regarding Lefties:

 

The examples I've seen, like the one below, were done with a conventional oblique pen. The importance of obliquity is really over-rated. The bigger advantage is lowering the nib angle, which reduces the tendency for sharp points to snag. Paper positioning, relative to the body, can compensate for the everything else except the nib's rake angle. (Changes in grip and hand position can compensate to some degree for rake.)

 

BTW, the earliest patent for an oblique holder is English in the first half of the 19th century, and P. R. Spencer developed the hand bearing his name with quills, not steel pens, i.e., without an oblique holder.

 

Edited May 15, 2013 by Mickey

[MusinkMan]

  On 5/14/2013 at 2:32 PM, AD356 said:

 

MusinkMan these are truly beautiful!!

 

Thanks so much AD356. I'm working on some more. So time consuming, but it's quite enjoyable! I do get frustrated with it at times, but overall I find the hobby more fascinating than frustrating.

[thang1thang2]

  On 5/14/2013 at 4:00 AM, MusinkMan said:

Here are some that I made. I'm kind of on one of my obsessive compulsions; making custom oblique holders. Cool thread!

 

Those are absolutely phenomenal! How are you making your flanges? I only have my century holder, but I've messed up my flange pretty badly (I think). I screwed around with it to make it fit a gillott 303 perfectly, but then I realized that my favorite nib is the principal and, thus, the holder didn't work... so I bent the flange horribly and got it to work. It's not super pretty, but I don't need to take the flange off every time I add a new nib anymore.

 

And, I would like to echo the sentiments of the other person asking for where one would find an european oblique pen holder. While they're "over rated" as Stompy has said, I do quite enjoy them and recommend them whole heartedly to all people who wish to learn the hand. The less struggles one has with angle of pen to paper and angle of stroke upon paper, the faster (I find) they learn to enjoy the hand and to progress in it. It's quite discouraging to many people to spend hours learning just how to hold a pen in such a way that it doesn't scratch horribly and that letters are formed at the right angle.

[smk]

  On 5/14/2013 at 4:00 AM, MusinkMan said:

Here are some that I made. I'm kind of on one of my obsessive compulsions; making custom oblique holders. Cool thread!

 

You make really nice holders MusinkMan - thank you for sharing these pictures.

 

Salman

[Stompie]

  On 5/14/2013 at 6:41 PM, thang1thang2 said:

And, I would like to echo the sentiments of the other person asking for where one would find an european oblique pen holder. While they're "over rated" as Stompy has said,

 

I said what? WHere? When?

 

I get my decent oblique holders from USA, but for the plastic ones you can try Scribblers here in the UK, J&T Arts as well.

[MusinkMan]

  On 5/14/2013 at 6:48 PM, smk said:

You make really nice holders MusinkMan - thank you for sharing these pictures.

 

Salman

 

Thank you Salman...you as well. I saw all that hand carving and hollowing out on yours. I have no idea how on earth you do that. They look great though.

[JustinJ]

I knew better than to look at this thread. I was going to put off ordering an oblique holder but after seeing some of these, I may not wait.

 

I am finishing up learning Spencerian Script and looking for an oblique holder to add some fun to my writing. What would be a nice oblique holder to purchase? I am thinking that a thinner oblique holder may not be good, since I prefer thicker grip section on my pens.

 

Any ideas on one that is a reasonable price?

[Mickey]

When Ken started this thread, I believed the intent was not only to show off our collections, but also discuss the merits of the various holders and feature, so that our purchases in the future might be better informed.

 

I believe I've covered the merits of the 'natural grip style' (the first two holders in my 1st picture) and, as I'm the only person displaying a Buddy Blackwell in their collection (the second holder in picture 2), I will move on to it, leaving the PIA to someone else to describe.

 

The Blackwell is well made and about as stripped down (some might say elegant) a design as your likely to find. The shaft is 3/8 inch, a typical diameter for the thinnest point on an oblique holder, and perfectly straight except for a pointed end. The wood is only lightly sanded and the finish is fairly thin, so a certain amount of grain is evident, helping the shaft feel secure in the fingers.

 

The flange is nearly impossible to adjust for rake, something it shares with the PIA holder, but the amount of preset rake on both pens is sufficient. Likewise, rolling the flange in slightly to accommodate the modern grip is not possible, but as my grip is a bit of a throwback (level, not rotated to the right) this is not an issue for me. The best part of the pen is the flange, which is as simple to adjust as they come: put the nib in the slot, line up the point on the center-line, and take up any play side to side with the set screw. Don't be tempted to over-tighten the screw. Use a finger nail, not a screw driver from your armorer's tool chest. That's it. If you want to swap to a radically different sized nib, just take the old point out and repeat the process. The holder will accommodate anything from mapping nibs to all but the largest vintage nibs without taking the pliers out of your drawer. It will not, I believe, hold crow quills (but who wants to write with an old crow?).

 

As for its decidedly unsexy shape (about as shapely as a '60s runway model), let me say, it works. This is a comfortable holder to use, well balanced, and, while I've tried a fair number of other styles, I keep coming back to the Blackwell, especially for larger points, like G nibs and the Esterbrook 14 (Bank) nibs.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Mickey

[caliken]

Thanks, Mickey.

 

This is exactly what I hoped for, when I started this topic..great photos and in-depth, comprehensive descriptions of the capabilities and characteristics of the individual holders.

 

Without the emergence of Spencerian Script in the USA, there would probably be no holders to discuss. Even today, the beautiful, commercially-produced oblique holders are, to the best of my knowledge, unobtainable outside the US. This type of review is invaluable to those of us who have to order long-distance.

 

There are so many talented people here! I had no idea that there were so many wonderful one-off holders being produced with such skill and imagination.

 

Ken

[Mickey]

I should have added that the Blackwell holder is available from JohnNealBookseller.com in both the straight style I showed and with a plastic, traditional hourglass shaped shaft.

[Mickey]

I promised Musinkman I'd post a picture of the holder he made for me once I fitted a flange to it. So here it is. It actually looks better in person.

 

 

[MusinkMan]

Excellent. Very nice Mickey, thanks for posting the pic! You have the flange thing down pat, man! Here is a similar one that I finished today. Woods used: padauk, wenge, burled maple, walnut, acrylester pearl. Overall handle length 8 3/8". This holder is very very light.

 

 

 

 

Here is another that I completed today. I tried something different with the flange...I trimmed it to make more "thumb room" so to speak; a bit of experimentation. It actually is very comfortable and works out very well. I know it's not a textbook flange, but it works so well that I plan on repeating it a time or two on future projects. Woods on this one: cocobolo rosewood, wenge, padauk (red stripes), wenge (dark stripes), box elder burl (grip) acrylester pearl inlay (center of grip). Cocobolo is a heavy dense wood, and this handle has decent mass. This is a heavier holder, but I like the substantial feel of it.

 

[Scribe_Not]

Gorgeous work!

 

Is it too presumptuous to inquire whether you do commission work or have any available from time to time?

I'm new to this board so I apologize for the nube inquiries.

 

-Doug

[MusinkMan]

  On 5/16/2013 at 5:37 AM, Scribe_Not said:

Gorgeous work!

 

Is it too presumptuous to inquire whether you do commission work or have any available from time to time?

I'm new to this board so I apologize for the nube inquiries.

 

-Doug

 

I certainly will, Doug. PM me and we can discuss.

[DanF]

I have a Buddy Blackwell holder, love the flange but find the rest of the holder too small in diameter to use for any length of time without cramps. I have thought about cutting off the flange and making a larger holder for it.

 

Shape wise on the ones that I make, I like a section diameter of about .40", and like the feel of the full belly behind the section. On the oblique, the flange is mounted in a slot that goes all the way through the holder, rather than the more traditional mounting with a drilled hole that is then slotted. This allows the slot to be cut at an angle to give some built in rake. The flange is then glued in with epoxy. I think the idea for that came from the Paper and Ink Arts hourglass holder. Hourglass Adjustable Oblique

 

Dan