New Noodler's Ahab Recommendations

[npmsax]

I received my new Noodler's Ahab today. A friend recommended it.

 

Besides washing it out before I use it, any other suggestions from people?

 

Thanks!

[Larry Barrieau]

Put some ink in it.

[dk76]

Facetiously: get another pen.

 

I don't think it's required, but I applied silicone grease on the threads and the piston o-ring.

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Ahab is a Flex/superflex nib with a semi-flex pressure needed to flex it. That is hard work.

 

Later after you get use to it, there is the 'Ahab Mod' you can find when you look in search.

You take a Dremel or a round file and file out half moons on both sides of the nib, to make it Easy full flex the first stage of real Superflex. It becomes much more a fun nib.

 

Having other superflex of the Easy Full Flex level, My Ahab sat until that was done to it. It is now always out in the to use cups.

When you get enough inks of different colors, you can get cups of different colors to put the pens in with @ that color of ink in them.

 

It is a good pen to learn about feeds, and what can be done to them. It has a good ebonite feed one of the few modern pens with that, in it is actually an Indian pen made to Noodler's specs. For the price a good pen.

Ebonite is better as a feed than plastic, but costs a lot more to make, so major pen companies saved the pennies giving us less for more.

There is an sub section, where you can learn to make the ink flow faster by cutting the feed channels deeper or cutting off combs/rills so the buffering is less.

 

I think there is an Ahab sub section...could be wrong, but you can learn a lot there.

Don't go cutting and hacking until you see you need too.

My Ahab came perfect to me....well after the 'Ahab Mod'.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[grainweevil]

I highly recommend the advice in this thread.

[Piper 987]

I like Ahabs for several reasons. They're not a lot of money for a decent pen, work just fine as is and they're built to be fiddled with. You can mess with the nib or substitute a size 6 nib from other sources. You can even use a ultra-flexible dip pen nib like a Brause Rose. The feed is ebonite so it's ideal for fiddling with as well. When using a Brause Rose nib for example, the feed should be modified. (There is a thread on doing this... somewhere.) The feed and replacement nibs are available for those (like me) who like to experiment.

 

I like the size of the Ahab. It has a decent section diameter and fits my hand nicely without posting. It is easily and completely disassembled for cleaning. The piston filler holds a decent amount of ink and as an eyedropper, it holds a whack of the stuff.

 

I know that some members don't care for Ahabs but life would be so boring if we all agreed on everything.

[Glenn Atkins]

take it apart and figure out how it works...don't lose the breather tube in the drain...don't ask...

 

Glenn

[Randal6393]

+ 1 for Piper 987, + 2 for GAtkins. Nicest thing about the Ahab is that it can be modified to be the pen you want. Which is what Nathan Tardiff set out to achieve when he started the project. Also love the Konrad. Feel that flex is a goal that fountain pens don't meet nearly as well as dip pens. But a lot of people seem to like them.

 

Best use of either an Ahab or Konrad, for me, is to set it up for broad-edged writing, especially italic. Makes for calligraphic-level work.

 

Enjoy,

 

PS: A handful of No. 6 nibs by different manufacturers makes for a great experiment in how a pen can be adjusted to your needs.

[gryphon1911]

+ 1 for Piper 987, + 2 for GAtkins. Nicest thing about the Ahab is that it can be modified to be the pen you want. Which is what Nathan Tardiff set out to achieve when he started the project. Also love the Konrad. Feel that flex is a goal that fountain pens don't meet nearly as well as dip pens. But a lot of people seem to like them.

 

Best use of either an Ahab or Konrad, for me, is to set it up for broad-edged writing, especially italic. Makes for calligraphic-level work.

 

Enjoy,

 

PS: A handful of No. 6 nibs by different manufacturers makes for a great experiment in how a pen can be adjusted to your needs.

 

I'm a fan of the broad edged nibs. I like the differing look it gives to my writing when I want something else other than ink color variation.

I'm going to need to investigate this broad nib approach of which you speak!

[pepsiplease69]

 

I'm a fan of the broad edged nibs. I like the differing look it gives to my writing when I want something else other than ink color variation.

I'm going to need to investigate this broad nib approach of which you speak!

Randal makes some very valuable points.

 

Monteverde 1.1 stub nib, jowo/goulet 1.1, 1.5 nibs, nemosine 0.6 & 0.8 nibs are all good candidates for using with the ahab.

 

I haven't tried putting a 1.9 Christoph music nib in an Ahab but it would be interesting to find out whether the feed can keep up.

[Arkanabar]

Noodler's feeds are available at far fewer vendors and far less often than their pens. Expect them to be mostly stay back ordered, and to sell out quickly when they come in. Something to keep in mind before you do anything irreversible to yours.

[AlanO]

I got one a few months ago, and I knew from this forum that it's a pen that can need a bit of fettling. But mine was great the way it came - no dismantling or adjusting, just a quick wash and then a fill and it was writing beautifully. It's a blue one, and it's dedicated to the use of Baystate Blue.

 

Alan

 

[Drone]

Noodler's feeds are available at far fewer vendors and far less often than their pens. Expect them to be mostly stay back ordered, and to sell out quickly when they come in. Something to keep in mind before you do anything irreversible to yours.

 

Yep, places like Anderson Pens and Goulet Pens seem to be perpetually sold out of the Noodler's feeds. I've complained directly to Goulet Pens about this in the past, but the problem persists. But if you look down the less trodden paths you can usually find them. For example at post time Goldspot pens and Hyatt's still seem to have the feeds in stock for four bucks a piece.

[gryphon1911]

Randal makes some very valuable points.

 

Monteverde 1.1 stub nib, jowo/goulet 1.1, 1.5 nibs, nemosine 0.6 & 0.8 nibs are all good candidates for using with the ahab.

 

I haven't tried putting a 1.9 Christoph music nib in an Ahab but it would be interesting to find out whether the feed can keep up.

 

The Goulet and Nemosine nibs are all within my "experimental" price range. Using the Plumix pen/nib right now, would like to see how the 1.5 fairs with my hand writing. I'm thinking of getting another Plumix to run in a Pilot Metro that I have with an F nib. It writes OK, just a bit too small for me. I recently got another Metro with a medium and love the writing/feedback from that nib so much better.

 

I don;t think that I am a Japanese EF/F nib kind of person. Broader, bigger nibs seem to agree with me more.

[Brian Anderson]

Yep, places like Anderson Pens and Goulet Pens seem to be perpetually sold out of the Noodler's feeds. I've complained directly to Goulet Pens about this in the past, but the problem persists. But if you look down the less trodden paths you can usually find them. For example at post time Goldspot pens and Hyatt's still seem to have the feeds in stock for four bucks a piece.

The problem is if Nathan doesn't make them we can't get them. Every week when we order we check if there are any in stock and the answer is always no.

[Randal6393]

@Brian Anderson, yeah, Nathan's supply lines shut down or get mulish on him every so often. Good products, horrible logistics at time. But, for a one-man setup, he doesn't do too bad.

 

@Gryphon, Have you tried out italic? gothic? maybe copperplate, palmer, or spenserian? Studying handwriting around the world is my turn-on.

 

Enjoy,

[Arkanabar]

Yep, places like Anderson Pens and Goulet Pens seem to be perpetually sold out of the Noodler's feeds. I've complained directly to Goulet Pens about this in the past, but the problem persists. But if you look down the less trodden paths you can usually find them. For example at post time Goldspot pens and Hyatt's still seem to have the feeds in stock for four bucks a piece.

A recent thread alleges that Goldspot never, ever, ever puts the words "out of stock" on their website, even if they are.

[Drone]

A recent thread alleges that Goldspot never, ever, ever puts the words "out of stock" on their website, even if they are.

 

That's an interesting claim. Can you provide a link to said "recent thread"?

 

I'm not defending Goldspot, but if I remember correctly (and it was a more than a year ago), I found I was unable to add an item to my shopping cart if it was out of stock at Goldspot. That's not as good as showing something explicitly as out of stock, but it is better than ending up with an automatic back-order item in the queue.

 

With Regards, David

[pepsiplease69]

Studying handwriting around the world is my turn-on.

 

 

That made me chuckle.

 

And it's so true in my case.

[majolo]

 

That's an interesting claim. Can you provide a link to said "recent thread"?

 

I'm not defending Goldspot, but if I remember correctly (and it was a more than a year ago), I found I was unable to add an item to my shopping cart if it was out of stock at Goldspot. That's not as good as showing something explicitly as out of stock, but it is better than ending up with an automatic back-order item in the queue.

 

With Regards, David

 

That may be referring to my posts in this thread. I hope to be able to post an update soon--I finally got a shipment notification.