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I'm left-handed and there are several techniques for writing left-handed with a fountain pen. They don't all involve twisting your writing hand into "some bizar
by phaus 8y ago
I'm left-handed and there are several techniques for writing left-handed with a fountain pen. They don't all involve twisting your writing hand into "some bizarre contortion".
I collect vintage fountain pens, mostly about a hundred years old with flexible nibs that allow for fancy copperplate calligraphy. These kinds of pens are very delicate and some of them are so sensitive that if you don't know what you're doing you can destroy them pretty easily. With a little bit of work and a little bit of practice I was able to learn to write with them the way they were intended.
If you had an interest in fountain pens, don't let something like this kill it. With a small amount of effort you can find a technique that works for you without being uncomfortable.
- dorchadas 8y ago> I'm left-handed and there are several techniques for writing left-handed with a fountain pen. They don't all involve twisting your writing hand into "some bizarre contortion". I'm just curious if you've ever tried the mirror script technique? I remember reading in Isaacson's biography that Da Vinci wrote everything in the mirror script not to code it but because that's how left-handed people were taught to write. I figure that it'd work just as well in modern days, though obviously not if you needed someone else to read it.
- pseudolus 8y agoI tend to scrawl directly over the path of the text I'm writing. I'm aware of several writing techniques that I could adopt although I have to say that I've never even considered the mirror technique. I'm very surprised that they even bothered teaching an alternative method to left-handers to write during Da Vinci's era as I was always under the impression that, up until fairly recently, the strategy simply was to force people to write with their right hand regardless of their natural inclination.
- dorchadas 8y agoI was under that impression as well, but Isaacson implied that that's a more modern way, relatively speaking, at least when compared to Renaissance Florence. Which is partially why I was interested in seeing if you had tried it.
- s3ver1na 8y agoI am left handed but I write under the line (also known as an underwriter). This allows me to use fountain pens without smudging. My daughter is a left handed overwriter and I am working with her to get her to position her paper so she learns to write under the line as much as possible without the hook of the hand. She likes fountain pens but smudges them. I used to overwrite st a young age but switched to underwriting when I got frustrated of having ink on my hand every day.