Why do executive pens have odd tip.

[roadman65]

https://franklinfineries.com/?fbclid=IwAR37RBS_wEosBX7LaNQ9fLZYI1N0duj100eGZYxMaYX8BmL3S7cBiJV_32k_aem_AcPhscaH45FU16rPm4RNhW-qK12CyV5itJp9hXV1kLiR3pCvwewo_Rdz1AgoXjkqNDp2xQqrcLcLCMbRsoziSCZ4eXRxiGKwhlHBmOgsPM39tcn6SH1Y3xV7ZxBsDpDUiHM

Look in the pic from the ad?

[JayhawkCO]

They're called "nibs".

[1995hoo]

It's a fountain pen. There's nothing "odd" about it. That's how a fountain pen looks. Many people have never used one (myself included). I have a Mont Blanc fountain pen sitting here–it belonged to my late father and was given to him as a gift by his colleagues when he departed a job he'd held for over 20 years. I'd need to put new ink in it in order to use it, but since I've never used a fountain pen I'm not comfortable doing so, and I also note that with fountain pens you're better off writing in cursive (which I generally do not do). But my father loved nice pens and when my mother didn't want to keep this one, I took it to save it.

[Dirt Roads]

I went through a long phase of life where I signed most everything with a Calligraphy pen.  The nibs on those are angled to give a broad brushstroke on the straight lines, and a narrow brushstroke in the curved lines.  Executive pens give the broad brushstroke during the up-down movement and the narrow brushstroke in the right-left movement.  I found that executive pens need to be twisted occasionally during the stroke to achieve a distinct handwriting style.  Anyhow, I got "addicted" to heavy brushstroke handwriting (I tend to write in Architectural block print acquired during my days on a drafting table at the railroad), so I can hardly read anything not written with a broad brush without reading glasses.

Fun fact:  The Chessie System used traditional ink cartridge pens (without the wide nib) for most of its manual drafting efforts.  They had ditched the Leroy stencils just before I arrived, but some of the older folks used them anyway because their handwriting was poor.  But we had a bunch of plans from the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal District that were originally etched in pencil, mostly dating back to 1906 -to- 1909.  These plans were drafted on pure linen covered in heavy starch, and they were an odd size (something like 32" x 56").  Needless to say, the starch was peeling off long before the 1980s.  These were the first priority to get scanned, and forced Chessie to find several expensive contractors with huge scanners. 

[Scott5114]

I have a fountain pen that I've used on and off. Once you get used to writing with one, it's a pleasant experience, as they're smoother, and the shape of the nib makes your handwriting look nicer because it accentuates the difference between thick and thin parts of the letters, even in print (I rarely write in cursive with mine). It's also nice that, instead of just throwing it away when it dries out, you can refill it with whichever color of ink you like (when you like how a pen writes, it's always a bummer when you use it up and have to throw it away).

The downside of fountain pens, in my experience, is that their ink doesn't play well with cheap paper (which unfortunately includes most typical printer paper). It tends to get sucked along the paper fibers through capillary action, called "feathering" by fountain pen enthusiasts. There are special inks, like Noodler's X-Feather ink, that try to reduce this, though they don't eliminate it entirely. Fountain pen ink also takes longer to dry than ballpoint ink, meaning it's very easy to smudge the ink if you're not careful. I'd imagine left-handed people would find them almost unusable without having to relearn how to hold the pen to prevent this.

[kkt]

Fountain pens need to be cleaned out regularly, preferably after each use.  Otherwise the ink dries in place and clogs up.

I did calligraphy for a while and I don't see anything that forces you to connect your letters like cursive if you don't wish to.  There are lots of styles of calligraphy, some connect letters most of the time, some don't.

To avoid smudging, you can get a blotter and blot each line after writing it.

[kalvado]

And for real old farts, here is my recent trophy

[hbelkins]

My dad used a fountain pen to record grades and attendance for his students on the official documents.