# Left-Hand Nib



## ribanett (Apr 14, 2010)

I made a Majestic Jr. for a customer that has been using the same pen for over 5 years until her puppy used it as a chew-toy  Got a call from her this morning about the nib digging into the paper. She is left-handed and bought the old pen at a left-hand shop in the UK and never had this problem. Most of her writing is on 3 X 5 index cards which is not the best surface.

Do they make special left-hand nibs or can a regular nib be modified for a left-handed user?


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## glycerine (Apr 14, 2010)

Rollerball or fountain?


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## ribanett (Apr 14, 2010)

glycerine said:


> Rollerball or fountain?


 
Fountain Pen


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## THarvey (Apr 14, 2010)

Does she have the remains of the old pen?  Could you swap the nibs for her?


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## Texatdurango (Apr 14, 2010)

ribanett said:


> I made a Majestic Jr. for a customer that has been using the same pen for over 5 years until her puppy used it as a chew-toy Got a call from her this morning about the nib digging into the paper. She is left-handed and bought the old pen at a left-hand shop in the UK and never had this problem. Most of her writing is on 3 X 5 index cards which is not the best surface.
> 
> Do they make special left-hand nibs or can a regular nib be modified for a left-handed user?


 
Larry, Yes they do make special nibs for lefties and there are several folks around the country who specialize in custom grinds but but you may not have to go to that trouble, it cound be that you just sent her a bad nib.

Did you test the nibs before sending it out to insure it wrote smoothly? 

I write left handed and test every nib I send out with a pen unless the customer request that I don't, which has not happened yet.

If you look at the tip of a nib you will see that it has equal sized "globes" on either side of the slit so writing from just about any angle will be close to the same. Since most lefties tend to do more pushing than pulling when writing, slightly misaligned tines are more of an issue than one writing with their right hand.

I have experienced scratchy nibs, nibs with poorly aligned tines, etc so it pays to test and fix them before shipping.

Is there a chance that her custom nib might fit the feed on the pen you sent her? If not, test another nib to make sure it writes smooth and send it to her.


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## sparhawk (Apr 15, 2010)

I bought a set of Manuscript brand nibs for a friend to use on an existing pen because the threads were the same( my daughter works at Michaels where i found the nibs and had her open a pack to make sure the threading was right)and on the back it said you could order left handed nibs, but i think only in the U.K.


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## ribanett (Apr 15, 2010)

Texatdurango said:


> If you look at the tip of a nib you will see that it has equal sized "globes" on either side of the slit so writing from just about any angle will be close to the same. Since most lefties tend to do more pushing than pulling when writing, slightly misaligned tines are more of an issue than one writing with their right hand.


 
George,

I test every FP I make, but this one fell through the cracks. I'm left-handed also and the pen wrote fine for me. She is here in town so I went to see what the problem was yesterday afternoon. I took a sheet of hard wax and had her write on it, then I wrote on it and looked at the lines with a 10X loop. She applies more pressure to the nib than I do and her line showed scraping of the wax. Looking at the nib with the loop showed that the left tine was lower than the right by maybe a thou or two, I guess just enough to grab the fibers in the the index cards ( she has no problem writing on standard paper, I guess there is no sizing in the index cards).

Replaced the nib and all is fine now. She liked my quick response to her problem and ordered a FP as a gift for her husband.

Thanks




sparhawk said:


> I bought a set of Manuscript brand nibs for a friend to use on an existing pen because the threads were the same( my daughter works at Michaels where i found the nibs and had her open a pack to make sure the threading was right)and on the back it said you could order left handed nibs, but i think only in the U.K.


 
Hugo,

Will have to check this out the next time I go to Michaels.


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## Manny (Apr 22, 2010)

http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand writers.htm
Finally found this link


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## el_d (Apr 22, 2010)

ribanett said:


> I took a sheet of hard wax and had her write on it, then I wrote on it and looked at the lines with a 10X loop. She applies more pressure to the nib than I do and her line showed scraping of the wax. Looking at the nib with the loop showed that the left tine was lower than the right by maybe a thou or two, I guess just enough to grab the fibers in the the index cards ( she has no problem writing on standard paper, I guess there is no sizing in the index cards).



Very nice procedure Larry!!!!!


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