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| Q: What is the difference between an italic, an oblique and a stub? | |
| While all three of these
tip styles deliver broader downstrokes and narrower cross strokes without the
addition of pressure, their differences deserve mention. | |
| A stub tip is cut straight across the top and is the easiest to use of the three, since it has somewhat rounded edges and corners. A cursive italic point is similar to a stub except sharper, giving more line width variation between the vertical and horizontal strokes. It is also more position sensitive; however, the sharper and narrower the point, the less smooth it will feel on paper. By contrast, a rounder stub will feel smoother but not have as distinct a difference between the thin horizontal and broad vertical strokes. | |
| The oblique tip is cut at an angle, usually about 15 degrees, normally from top right to lower left, looking like ones left foot from the top. This one is called a left oblique, and is the normal one used by right-handed writers. Unfortunately some companies, including Parker Pen, call this a right oblique. (A Right Oblique point, also called a Reverse Oblique, with a slant exactly the opposite of a Left Oblique is used by only a few right-handed writers.) An oblique delivers more subtle line width variation than stubs and italics because the broadest stroke is the upper-left-to-lower-right diagonal and if your writing style is typical of most right-handed writers, your characters will have few of these strokes. John loves a left oblique point but he is also used to the rotation required (the pen must be rotated to the left in order to find the point's "sweet spot") and enjoys the subtlety of the line variation. | |
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| We don't recommend starting with anything as narrow as a fountain pen fine for customization to either italic or oblique (broadest stroke of only approx. .3-.4mm as opposed to an "italic fine" which has a broadest stroke of approximately 1mm). A point that narrow would be very position-sensitive, require an extremely light touch from a slow deliberate hand, still tend to be scratchy and not show very much line width variation. A very few people can tolerate this point. | |
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Paper quality will
have a great deal to do with the line width variation produced by customized points:
the better the quality the crisper the variation. According to several of our
customers Smythson
of Bond Street London has wonderful fountain pen-friendly stationery. | |
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