I am new to GH and recently came across this thread. I have always wanted to get a fountain pen, but I always decided it would be a stupid purchase because I am left handed and imagined that I would smear the ink with my hand as I wrote with the pen. Am I wrong in making this assumption? Please tell me I am wrong. If I am given the OK by you guys that I won't get ink everywhere, what do you recommend as a good first fountain pen?
a basic overview for left-handed fountain pen use. as mentioned by others, it depends on a variety of factors. However, if you write under the line (which is probably not the case since you brought up smearing), you'd have free reins on the choice of ink, paper and most nibs (stubs and italics are slightly more complicated).
If not, you'd have to tweak the other factors to use fountain pens; very fine nibs, dry feeds, fast drying inks. Exaggerating the 'hook' if you're an overwriter. Rotating the paper. Lefties who hold their pens at a high angle is going to find fine nibs scratchy without adjustment because of the push strokes. Not much point using absorbent papers to achieve this end imo (though it is one way to prevent smearing), as the results look like crap.
One of the pens (or rather, nibs) that really worked for me before I switched to writing under the line was a needlepoint from franklin-christoph. Same nib as the TWSBIs, but the feed was noticeably drier. Most inks dried under 4s, some even lesser. However, its not cheap for a first step into fountain pens.
You can probably look into the Pilot Metro with a fine nib to start with and see how you do with it, and if you need something finer, get a Pilot Penmanship (comes with an EF nib that isn't available for the metro) for a nib swap.
