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Ahab Pen - Opening Up Fin Vents - With Photos

SamCapote

By SamCapote
in Of Nibs & Tines

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cbaytan Rare

cbaytan

Posted
Posted

To thank to Sam I had to wake the subject again, I thought my Ahab was defective opened up 4 fıns on the right and it works like a charm now even with the not well flowing French L'Artisan Ruby ink. Great info, appreciated..

One boring blue, one boring black 1mm thickness at most....

Then there are Fountain Pens with gorgeous permanent inks..

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Plusfoursmax Near Mint

Plusfoursmax

Posted
Posted

Is there a special circle of hell reserved for late correspondents to old threads?

Anyway, I'd just like to thank Sam for his clear and concise notes; I did the flex mod as suggested by Pterodactylus https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/240492-noodlers-ahab-ease-my-flex-mod/

Which works an absolute treat; bit occasionally the flow can't keep up. I accessed the feed and ran my jewelers saw across the top of the first 4 fins and now I understand the term ''gusher"!

Thanks,

Max

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LamyOne Extremely Rare

LamyOne

Posted
Posted (edited)

Is there a special circle of hell reserved for late correspondents to old threads?.........

 

............I accessed the feed and ran my jewelers saw across the top of the first 4 fins and now I understand the term ''gusher"!

 

Hello Max,

 

I know exactly how you feel - I think the problem is that a lot of the participants of the older threads have moved on to other things or other places and are no longer active (or as active) as they were then.

 

I'm glad you have your Ahab working like a kitchen faucet now; I'll have to try that someday... if I ever get an Ahab. :D

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

Edited by LamyOne

- He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me; and I in him. (JN 6:57)

- "A woman clothed in the sun," (REV 12.1); The Sun Danced at Fatima, Portugal; October 13, 1917.

- Thank you Blessed Mother and St. Jude for Graces and Blessings obtained from Our Lord.

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Zhooom Dipped Only

Zhooom

Posted
Posted

Obviously I'm guilty of replying to a very old post, but I wanted to say Thanks to the OP for the great info presented. ;) I recently reshaped the feed on my Ahab so that I could use a Zebra G nib, and while it works ok, the flow was a little to be desired. (The out-of-the-box Ahab Flex worked perfectly however!)

 

After cutting the first three fins, I wound up with a gusher - but fortunately it was just a matter of moving the feed closer to the tip of the nib and it worked fine. (I had previously heat-set the feed - I just needed to tune it a bit for the better ink flow).

 

No more railroading or skips. :D Note that I'm using this pen for drawing, not writing, as it's scratchy as heck, which I consider unpleasant for writing.

 

Modifying the feed per these instructions eliminated the occasional stoppage, skip or railroading I was having. I spent the afternoon inking some pencil drawings with the only interruption being to put ink in my pen ... so far anyway! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've said goodbye to my dip pen. :thumbup:

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Thier. Vintage

Thier.

Posted
Posted

I think I have to do that after having grind my nib to obtain some flex as shown on another thread ..... But what I believe is that that Ahab is the worst pen I ever bought ...

 

I've just grinded my nib.

fpn_1430428040__xe017742.jpgfpn_1430428080__xe017745.jpgfpn_1430428006__xe017744.jpg

And, yes some 10 minutes later, the job was done ....

fpn_1430428152__xe017746.jpgfpn_1430428186__xe017747.jpg

fpn_1430428631__xe017748.jpg

Yes, the nib had a real flex, but then, the ink flow was so bad that it was impossible to write with it ..... So I decided to replace the scrap called "nib" by Noodler by a real flex gold nib from the fifities ...

fpn_1430428379__xe017749.jpg

No way, ink flow is too bad .....

I've never had such a bad pen .... Ok, I should now work on the ink flow but I don't know if I will .... I'm very disappointed by that scrappy pen ..... For such a price, I could have had at least 5 good Jinhaos !!!!!!!

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markh Vintage

markh

Posted
Posted

With all the people wondering and perhaps getting less than optimal flow, I decided to take one of my feeds out and modify the top fin vents (the side under the nib) to open them up for a juicy flow. I used an X-acto #11 blade which are VERY sharp.

 

The original Ahab pens came with an instruction sheet describing how to do this. Later models don't.

 

.

...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

.

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Honeybadgers Donor Pen

Honeybadgers

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have a feed that I've shoveled out massively on one of my nib creapers. I did my cuts the same way you did and also ran a dremel cutoff wheel down the feed channel. Pen lays down unlimited ink.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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Honeybadgers Donor Pen

Honeybadgers

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think I have to do that after having grind my nib to obtain some flex as shown on another thread ..... But what I believe is that that Ahab is the worst pen I ever bought ...

 

I've just grinded my nib.

fpn_1430428186__xe017747.jpg

No way, ink flow is too bad .....

I've never had such a bad pen .... Ok, I should now work on the ink flow but I don't know if I will .... I'm very disappointed by that scrappy pen ..... For such a price, I could have had at least 5 good Jinhaos !!!!!!!

 

 

I personally don't like the mod myself, I find it makes the nib mushy, and I actually kind of like the noodlers nib as-is, perfect snap back, you're never going to use it for copperplate but it does lay down a wide line on a flourish. If it wrote a little more smoothly when unflexed, I'd consider it a near-perfect steel nib.

 

The picture you show here has a gap wide enough to kick a field goal. That is never going to hold surface tension properly. If you didn't tighten the tines, that was almost certainly your problem.

 

That said, I am fairly sure you either didn't set the feed or didn't actually open the feed up. The noodlers feed runs a little dry on purpose. because you CAN open it up. It's a pen for tinkerers. I find the feed keeps up fairly well with non-extensive flexing on the standard nib when set properly, and works perfectly with normal non-flex #6 nibs like stubs, EF, and oblique double broads. If you want to go flex, you need more feed. Don't worry about ruining the feed, they cost $5 to replace.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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