Left handed nib selection for first gold nib purchase.

[Pencidental]

 I am about to make my first gold nib purchase and I'm unsure about which nib I should get. I am a lefty, over writer without a hook. I turn my paper/journal at a  45 degree counter clockwise angle when I write, so I write away from my body. I will be purchasing a Santini pen, I enjoy using the Pilot Metropolitan Cursive Medium and would like a similar, if not more refined writing experience. My choices are Italic, Left Oblique or Reverse Oblique. They also offer a 0.9mm Italic nib as an option to their 1.1 Italic.

 

Any insight would be appreciated, I've had a recent bad experience with a TWSBI Precision Stub pen which I had to pass on to my wife as it proved to be unusable in my hands. I'd like to think it's a one off experience being a lefty, but I do not want to risk a similar experience.

[torstar]

As a lefty i found left-foot obliques a bit of a problem, had to hold the pen backwards to find the sweet spot, couldn't train myself to do it routinely.

 

As a lefty you are pushing the nib across the page, unless you have curled things around severely, not pulling it like a right-hander.

 

 

 

 

[ParramattaPaul]

As a leftie myself, I favour a broad nib.  My experience has been that a broad nib is more forgiving of pen angle, tilt, and movement than a fine or an oblique nib. 

[Pencidental]

2 hours ago, torstar said:

As a lefty i found left-foot obliques a bit of a problem, had to hold the pen backwards to find the sweet spot, couldn't train myself to do it routinely.

 

As a lefty you are pushing the nib across the page, unless you have curled things around severely, not pulling it like a right-hander.

 

 

thanks for the reply, I've never used an oblique, and thanks to the pandemic, can't even go to a brick and mortar store to get a feel for them. Unless some new information comes my was soon, I'll more than likely play it safe and get either a fine or an extra-fine nib.

 

2 hours ago, torstar said:

 

 

1 hour ago, ParramattaPaul said:

As a leftie myself, I favour a broad nib.  My experience has been that a broad nib is more forgiving of pen angle, tilt, and movement than a fine or an oblique nib. 

thanks for the reply, I'm a small font writer, I have a few JoWo broad nibs in Chinese pens and they have their purpose and write beautifully, but as an everyday go to, its extra fine or fine for me, especially on a next level pen like this for me.

[tim77]

Pencidental, have you already tried out an italic nib?  Some lefties, including myself, find them awkward -- even more so than the stub you already tried.  Italics need to be held at just the right angle, and the harder you grip the pen the less easily you can feel that angle.  Lefties often have a relatively firm hold, since we're pushing the pen rather than dragging it across the page.  If the angle is wrong the pen skips or catches on the paper.

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, tim77 said:

Pencidental, have you already tried out an italic nib?

 

5 hours ago, Pencidental said:

I enjoy using the Pilot Metropolitan Cursive Medium

 

@tim77 The CM (which stands for Calligraphy Medium) nib on the Pilot Prera and MR models is an italic nib and not a stub nib, on account of the ratio of the lateral nib width to the thickness of the business end (with no tipping) and the relatively sharp corners. I doubt Santini's italic nibs are as ‘italic’ as Pilot's CM nib, or the M and B nibs on its Plumix pens.

[torstar]

does a right-foot oblique our sinister purposes better?  I have not gone searching or test-driven one.

 

 

[Aysedasi]

17 hours ago, torstar said:

As a lefty i found left-foot obliques a bit of a problem, had to hold the pen backwards to find the sweet spot, couldn't train myself to do it routinely.

 

As a lefty you are pushing the nib across the page, unless you have curled things around severely, not pulling it like a right-hander.

 

 

 

 

 

Strangely, as a leftie, I have always found left foot obliques to be absolutely perfect for me.  A left foot broad oblique is an immediate attention-grabber if I see one in an eBay ad.  Mind you, I am an underwriter....  I also favour broad nibs anyway and as I am a 'heavy' writer, fine nibs just don't work for me.  Nor flex - having tried any number of flex nibs without success I now positively avoid them.  

[torstar]

4 minutes ago, Aysedasi said:

 

Strangely, as a leftie, I have always found left foot obliques to be absolutely perfect for me.  A left foot broad oblique is an immediate attention-grabber if I see one in an eBay ad.  Mind you, I am an underwriter....  I also favour broad nibs anyway and as I am a 'heavy' writer, fine nibs just don't work for me.  Nor flex - having tried any number of flex nibs without success I now positively avoid them.  

 

as an underwriter you are using the left footed oblique backwards, and pushing it across the page, much easier ways to get the same effect

 

again, a right-footed olbique might help?

 

if you severely curling your wrist inwardly as an overwriter (i guess) you could be pulling the pen as a righty does...

 

 

[Aysedasi]

4 minutes ago, torstar said:

 

as an underwriter you are using the left footed oblique backwards, and pushing it across the page, much easier ways to get the same effect

 

again, a right-footed olbique might help?

 

if you severely curling your wrist inwardly as an overwriter (i guess) you could be pulling the pen as a righty does...

 

 

 

I've actually never tried a right foot oblique - always wanted to though....  I have only slight curling of the wrist to the left.  No inward curling at all.  

[Pencidental]

On 1/31/2021 at 7:37 PM, tim77 said:

Pencidental, have you already tried out an italic nib?  Some lefties, including myself, find them awkward -- even more so than the stub you already tried.  Italics need to be held at just the right angle, and the harder you grip the pen the less easily you can feel that angle.  Lefties often have a relatively firm hold, since we're pushing the pen rather than dragging it across the page.  If the angle is wrong the pen skips or catches on the paper.

 

 

 

Aside from the Metropolitan CM (which I just learned is an Italic nib), no I have not. The Metro CM does skip on me on occasion but nothing that degrades from my overall experience. Since I've gotten into this hobby during a pandemic, I have not had the chance to go out and test out different nibs at a store. (Not even sure if stores would allow you to 'test drive' a pen to see how it feels. I went the safe route and ordered an XF with my Santini. It's a 0.5mm nib and should be similar to my Twsbi fine and Pilot medium nibs. 

 

I do want to try out an architect nib as well as oblique and italics, maybe after the lockdowns are over, I'll head to my local brick and mortar shop and see what they have.

[Pencidental]

On 1/31/2021 at 9:25 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

 

@tim77 The CM (which stands for Calligraphy Medium) nib on the Pilot Prera and MR models is an italic nib and not a stub nib, on account of the ratio of the lateral nib width to the thickness of the business end (with no tipping) and the relatively sharp corners. I doubt Santini's italic nibs are as ‘italic’ as Pilot's CM nib, or the M and B nibs on its Plumix pens.

 

On 1/31/2021 at 9:25 PM, A Smug Dill said:

 

 

@tim77 The CM (which stands for Calligraphy Medium) nib on the Pilot Prera and MR models is an italic nib and not a stub nib, on account of the ratio of the lateral nib width to the thickness of the business end (with no tipping) and the relatively sharp corners. I doubt Santini's italic nibs are as ‘italic’ as Pilot's CM nib, or the M and B nibs on its Plumix pens.

Thanks for that bit of knowledge. Might explain why I can use the italic but cannot use a stub.

[sidthecat]

I’ve accumulated a sufficiency of vintage pens, and my firm favorite (for now) is a Mabie Todd ringtop that has a straight-across medium-to-broad nib that is wonderfully flexible. I’m skeptical of left-footed nibs; they strike me as restrictive of one’s style.

[Aysedasi]

6 hours ago, sidthecat said:

I’ve accumulated a sufficiency of vintage pens, and my firm favorite (for now) is a Mabie Todd ringtop that has a straight-across medium-to-broad nib that is wonderfully flexible. I’m skeptical of left-footed nibs; they strike me as restrictive of one’s style.

 

What it rather shows, I think, is that one kind of nib is never going to be all things to all men (or women).  There are hundreds (thousands perhaps) of members on here who love fiddly-diddly little fine nibs that I just can't write with.  I can't write with flex nibs either, which are favoured by so many.  Left oblique nibs just somehow work for me and I'm pleased about that.  I guess it's a case of trial and error until you find what you're looking for.  

[A Smug Dill]

8 hours ago, Pencidental said:

I went the safe route and ordered an XF with my Santini. It's a 0.5mm nib and should be similar to my Twsbi fine and Pilot medium nibs. 

 

It's a little disheartening to see Santini Italia's finest nib on (standard) offer is 0.5mm — which, to be fair, it clearly communicates to prospective customers on its web site — that is similar to a Pilot (or more generally, Japanese ‘Big Three’ brands') Medium nib, as you quite aptly put it. When I ordered my Calypso Mother-of-Pearl pen from Santini, I had to ask for the EF nib to be especially made narrower than that and preferably a little stub-like in geometry. The result is passable, but neither showing as much difference in line width between cross-strokes and downstrokes as a Pilot Plumix steel (italic) F nib does, nor as fine/narrow/precise as a regular Pilot or Platinum gold F nib. I sorta regard it as a wet ‘Western’ Fine nib.