This Seems Like A Yes Or No Question (But Here, You Never Know!)

[Drone]

 

How did you manage this? Even when I've gotten my Ahabs and Konrads writing well, I've still had dry-out issues.

 

By "dry-out issues" do you mean the pen writes for awhile then stops? If so then perhaps the key is "ink flow". Your Ahab or Konrad may write well - for awhile, but if there is not enough ink flow to keep the feed saturated and able to supply the nib for extended periods of writing, then eventually you're going to run out of ink and the pen will skip or stop writing all together until the feed takes up more ink.

 

Or perhaps by drying out you mean you put your pen away for a day or two and the nib is dried out and won't work? I don't have this problem at all with the Konrad and Ahab pens. The caps are sealed, not ventilated. I just picked up my Konrad which has been laying down in a desk pen tray for three days inked with Mont Blanc Johnathan Swift (Seaweed) LE ink, and it wrote immediately upon touching the paper.

 

Or perhaps by dry-out you mean you set the pen aside uncapped for say ten minutes then the pen won't write immediately when you pick it up again? I don't have this issue with the Ahab or Konrad pens. The feeds are juicy and it would take perhaps and hour or more for enough ink to evaporate to cause a start-up problem. I do see this however on some of my Japanese pens with very fine nibs and dryer feed systems. But not on the Noodler's pens. There's just too much ink reaching the nib/feed to allow this type of problem to occur.

 

How did I make my Noodler's pens write well? Quoting myself...

 

I took my time and hacked the feed and tuned the nib/feed combination; in one case that including heat-setting the nib/feed. Eventually I have been able to make every single Noodler's pen work perfectly, even when flexing like crazy. This is also true for the Ahab and Konrad pens with nibs that I modified (ground) for even more flex.

 

Adding to that:

 

I just read and followed the myriad Noodler's rants and posts here on FPN gathering up what seemed to be good advice and tossing the rest.

 

In the worst case, I had to deepen the feed channel running lengthwise and open-up four to six of the cross-wise ribs on the top and bottom of the feed. I used the back (not edge) of an X-Acto knife blade inserted into the handle backwards to deepen the length-wise channel and a small X-Acto blade edge to open the cross-wise ribs. The important thing is to make sure the cross-wise ribs are deepened to the same depth as the length-wise channel so the ink flows well between them.

 

Take your time cutting away at the ebonite feed material. Actually the material more like "chips" away rather than cut away. Do some cutting/opening, stop and test the pen, repeat if needed. Work in increments like that so as not to overdo it. Remember if you overdo the work, the feed will flow too much - and there's no going back without starting with a new feed.

 

Also, in one case, heat-setting the nib and feed helped quite a bit. BUT I would only recommend heat-setting as a last resort unless you know what you're doing.

 

Heat-setting can solve several problems such as a poor feed/section fit causing the tines to spread when the feed/nib are inserted and/or bringing the feed into closer contact with the nib so as to improve capillary flow.

 

Here are links to a couple of YouTube videos that discuss heat setting ebonite feeds. I used open flame as that's what I'm familiar with. I'm a bit worried about immersing an ebonite pen section in hot water along with the feed unless the section is warped so badly heating the feed alone isn't enough.

 

Nathan Tardiff's Ebonite Feed Adjustment Video (Open Flame)

 

 

FPR's (Kevin) Ebonite Heat Setting Video (Hot Water)

 

 

Edited February 6, 2014 by Drone

[Kugelschreiber]

Or perhaps by drying out you mean you put your pen away for a day or two and the nib is dried out and won't work? I don't have this problem at all with the Konrad and Ahab pens. The caps are sealed, not ventilated. I just picked up my Konrad which has been laying down in a desk pen tray for three days inked with Mont Blanc Johnathan Swift (Seaweed) LE ink, and it wrote immediately upon touching the paper.

 

 

 

 

Remember if you overdo the work, the feed will flow too much - and there's no going back without starting with a new feed.

 

 

 

 

 

First, thank you for the detailed reply.

 

I meant problems after not using the pen for 10 days or a couple of weeks or more. Someone else mentioned evaporation problems earlier, and that is what I was wondering about.

 

Regarding the other quoted bit, I think Nathan recommends sealing the cuts with paraffin or cement to get it back to its original state.

[Drone]

I meant problems after not using the pen for 10 days or a couple of weeks or more. Someone else mentioned evaporation problems earlier, and that is what I was wondering about.

 

Hmm... I don't have this problem with my Konrads or Ahabs. Uncap the pen and blow into the cap with your lips sealed around the open end of the cap. There should be no air leaks when you do this. If there is leaking, try tightening the piece at the end of the cap (the finial) that holds down the clip. This is the case on the on the Ahab anyway, I'm not sure about the Konrad. I can't get the piece on the Konrad I have with me right now to easily unscrew.

 

If there are no cap leaks, try storing the inked pens nib down. When I'm not using the pens, I store them laying down and always with enough ink left to ensure ink comes into contact with a part of the feed. I never store inked pens nib up for long periods.

[Larry Barrieau]

Hi all, Re my post above: I just got a nib in the mail from noodlers and a letter. They apologized for the delay. As I said before, I bought a nib from Goulet and the Ahab is working the way I expected it to out of the box.

 

I agree with you Rabb, all pens should work right out of the box. Some here enjoy tinkering with them but I have no idea how to do that so I want a pen that works. It really isn't too much to ask.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have a Konrad, and while it no longer has the "flex" nib installed it came with, it always wrote pretty well for me. It writes better now that I have put a Goulet broad nib in it. It just doesn't flex. If I decide I want to do some flex writing, I can re-install it pretty easily. it did write well out of the box. I just flushed it when new.

[WirsPlm]

 

Seriously, Bo Bo, you've tested them all? Or are you doing your bit to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt across the internet?

 

I've run Zhivago - which is largely bulletproof black - for months at a time in different pens, with no flushing between fills and no problems. Most of the Noodler's inks I have don't take any more time to rinse out than average, and sometimes they take less. Even when they do take more, flushing a section under a cold tap for two minutes rather than one hardly counts as high-maintenance.

 

We're talking about fountain pen ink, not Maris Crane.

So true, people say 'high maintenance' but I've abused Noodler's inks pretty badly without any bad consequences, and had other ink brands behave badly for me, it's so much a YMMV situation. If anyone has done scientific tests on any inks I'd be happy to see the data but until then all we've got is anecdotes and some unprofessional FUD. And the BayState inks, which are well known to be risky and weird (what is their purpose anyway, just seeing if the chemistry would work?).

[Bill Wood]

So here it is: unlike the Ahab, on which I have given up for good, does the Konrad write? Even if left capped for 15 minutes, or, Heaven forbid, overnight?

IRabb .. Get yourself a Goulet nib. Clean the feed. Start again.. That will save the day.

[iRabb]

IRabb .. Get yourself a Goulet nib. Clean the feed. Start again.. That will save the day.

 

Funny you should mention that. I have one on the way. I figured it could not hurt to try it out—the Ahab I have is so physically beautiful (the blue Lapis), so I would love to make it work.

[WirsPlm]

 

Wow, thanks for sharing it.

That is an interesting link. But it doesn't actually say anything significant about the ink involved. Plastic feeds can have manufacturing or chemical defects just like other pen parts can (I consider this just as likely that an FP ink damaging a feed), and many people do use BSB safely in all kinds of pens (mind, I wouldn't, but that's me).

 

The best metaphor I've seen for this situation is a rotten deck, if you see someone fall through a rotten deck the question isn't 'How did this person rot the deck so fast!' it's 'How did the deck become rotten?' BSB is the person who falls through here, who could have had something to do with the problem or could not (interaction with the testing ink is easily possible).

 

We really should do some kind of scientific testing, but I think most people can't be bothered and I don't really blame them (except when they make pronouncements, if they want to make a PSA for FP users everywhere they should man up and post some scientific results).

Edited February 10, 2014 by WirsPlm

[Loeschpapier]

My Konrad didn't convince me either. I bought the first skinny nonflex piston pen and while it wasn't the easiest starter, it was quite reliable otherwise after the first word, or so. I just found it too skinny, more build for children's hands.

 

I skipped the Ahab and figured I'll just let it outgrow it's first generation.

 

Then came the Konrad and I've been fiddling ever since up until a few weeks ago and it now sits almost unused with a brandnew Goulet nib.

I've been using fountain pens since first grade since all kiddos in my country had to use fountain pens, we even learned to write our first words with a FP, we never ever used pencils and ballpoints were only permissible from 7th grade on. I wrote with East German wet exploding hoses and super leakers, and those things cost next to nothing. Our fingers were permanently ink stained because we were kids and had cheap pens until we finally got some Gehas, and we were used to fiddling with pens, removing nibs just to see what happens and collected the little balls from the cartridges.

 

So I was completely aware of the whole tinkering pen concept- but I assumed the tinkering part meant improving an already working pen to fit personal preferences. I was quite excited to receive the pen and then to my horror it would cease to write even before I attempted any flexing. And that came after flushing, disassembling etc. Try to flex felt like bearing down on brittle wood and I couldn't even write any cursive with it.

 

More fiddling with nib, feed etc. Nothing. Whatever I did, the feed refuses to write more than a few sentence and then - nothing.

 

I assumed that a 20 Dollar pen would at least write, not to mention flexing. I appreciate the concept of an affordable flex pen for the masses, but it's close to infuriating to unpack a pen that wouldn't write at all, not matter what. Before joining FPN I never even knew about rinsing pens before use, never had to resort to any of these measures even for a 2.50 pen from the Supermarket.

 

At this point I consider it a bit of marketing idea, a pen that needs basic fixing, and that honestly put me off of buying any further products. My Konrad is now a dip pen, if it ever sees use again. But it's also not a 20 Dollar pen anymore if one has to buy nibs just to get some use out it.

 

I understand that there are ardent fans, and that's cool. But for 20 Dollars I can get several simple nonflex FPs that at least will write. Kinda disappointed now.

[FarmBoy]

That is an interesting link. But it doesn't actually say anything significant about the ink involved. Plastic feeds can have manufacturing or chemical defects just like other pen parts can (I consider this just as likely that an FP ink damaging a feed), and many people do use BSB safely in all kinds of pens (mind, I wouldn't, but that's me).

 

The best metaphor I've seen for this situation is a rotten deck, if you see someone fall through a rotten deck the question isn't 'How did this person rot the deck so fast!' it's 'How did the deck become rotten?' BSB is the person who falls through here, who could have had something to do with the problem or could not (interaction with the testing ink is easily possible).

 

We really should do some kind of scientific testing, but I think most people can't be bothered and I don't really blame them (except when they make pronouncements, if they want to make a PSA for FP users everywhere they should man up and post some scientific results).

Someone asked for results and data, I linked to one such data point that I knew of. In particular, that a new pen was only inked with Bay State Blue and the feed dissolved in a few days is a data point. A second identical pen purchased at the same time and inked with another brand of ink suffered no problems is I suppose a control for the data point.

 

I'd recommend you have your deck repaired and check for termite damage while doing so, recently had to deal with this issue.

 

What does "a PSA for FP users" mean. I've not seen this terminology before.

[WirsPlm]

Someone asked for results and data, I linked to one such data point that I knew of. In particular, that a new pen was only inked with Bay State Blue and the feed dissolved in a few days is a data point. A second identical pen purchased at the same time and inked with another brand of ink suffered no problems is I suppose a control for the data point.

 

I'd recommend you have your deck repaired and check for termite damage while doing so, recently had to deal with this issue.

 

What does "a PSA for FP users" mean. I've not seen this terminology before.

Yup, it's one data point. It's not terribly helpful though, since it's just one (plural of anecdote isn't data and all that) and there are at least 2 mitigating factors I can see off the top of my head. Any more of those would be great, see if we can find a common thread. If there is anything we can point to and say is definitely a problem then I'll be first in line to get it changed, but we're not at that point with any ink I know if (maybe IG inks with the centuries of experience).

 

I really do wish there was some way to get cheap samples of plastic feeds so we could see the impact of inks on them. I know someone is or was doing an experiment of immersing pieces of latex sac in inks (no problems reported yet that I know of), but I don't know where to start with feeds (except by buying pens, which isn't something my bank account can stand).

 

'PSA' is an acronym for Public Service Announcement, it's an idiom for someone making a blanket statement. If someone's going to make a blanket statement about a certain type or brand of anything I want to see hard data.

Edited February 10, 2014 by WirsPlm

[FarmBoy]

'PSA' is an acronym for Public Service Announcement, it's an idiom for someone making a blanket statement. If someone's going to make a blanket statement about a certain type or brand of anything I want to see hard data.

This I am glad to hear. I first assumed it was a test directed at older men...

I do believe there to be other data points out there. I am aware of several others though collecting them in one spot has proven to be difficult. I only have first hand experience with this one, I had the pens in my possession for a while. I could find no difference in the two pens. Unfortunately I was not allowed to try a repeat experiment on the second pen as the ink was sent down the drain. Which also poses a second problem, we can't do an analysis on the ink and are left with only forensic evidence left behind on the feed.