How Do You Like Your Ahab?

[MRose]

Did you ever got the Ahab pen?

[mmg122]

I originally bought an Ahab to try flex. The pen I received was such a awesome writer without flex that I use it as an EDC. It is probably one of my top 3 favorite writers. Who da thunk? So I purchased another Ahab and have been tinkering with it and just about have it where I like it for flexible writing. The odor doesn't bother me although it is more noticeable than any other pen I have. In my experience, the Ahab is well worth the money and effort I have invested.

[timarti]

Mine worked as a flex pen but way too much pressure required for comfortable use. I swapped out the nib, first with a Goulet 1.5 stub and now with a Knox OBB, which has turned it into a really pleasurable writing implement.

[dinosaur_rides]

it was one of the first pens i had ever bought. and used it for a bit, but then i got a jinhao x450 and threw a zebra G-nib on there. and been using that 100 times more. i havent even inked up my ahab in over a month.

i personally didnt get enough line variation, especially compared to the modified jinhao and it just ended up sitting on the shelf doing nothing for awhile.

not a bad pen. but i wouldnt call it an instant recommendation .

[DarkAudit]

I have my first Ahab on the way from Amazon. I bought it after seeing various videos from Goulet and sbrebrown that showed much more flex than I was getting out of my 9128 nib. Planning on filling it with Brexit. Found some instagram shots with some yummy looking shading using it.

[FPRebel]

I love mine! It writes better than I do. Wrote beautifully out of the box with only initial cleaning and a quick hot-water heat-set of the nib and feed. Always inked with something....

[eharriett]

I just had to put mine away after months of regular use. It was my Noodler's Revolution Blue pen. The ink shades brilliantly and the flex on that pen made the two a perfect match. But the piston filler rounded out on the section, causing leaking. Or so I thought. On a lark, I put the Ahab piston on my Neponset and got a tight seal, and the Neponset's piston on the Ahab and it rounded. So obviously it is the section that rounded out. I am trying to decide now: do I turn the pen into an eyedropper and continue using it for the ink I got it for, or do I pitch it. My hesitation is I really am not keen about eyedropper s I can't somehow see the level in. But I guess if I want to keep using that ink (it stains pretty badly, if you are unaware -- totally worth it for the color and shading, but that pen will only ever use that ink as a result), I'll have to decide fairly soon. Might just wait until my next show and look over my options then.

[Flaxmoore]

I just had to put mine away after months of regular use. It was my Noodler's Revolution Blue pen. The ink shades brilliantly and the flex on that pen made the two a perfect match. But the piston filler rounded out on the section, causing leaking. Or so I thought. On a lark, I put the Ahab piston on my Neponset and got a tight seal, and the Neponset's piston on the Ahab and it rounded. So obviously it is the section that rounded out. I am trying to decide now: do I turn the pen into an eyedropper and continue using it for the ink I got it for, or do I pitch it. My hesitation is I really am not keen about eyedropper s I can't somehow see the level in. But I guess if I want to keep using that ink (it stains pretty badly, if you are unaware -- totally worth it for the color and shading, but that pen will only ever use that ink as a result), I'll have to decide fairly soon. Might just wait until my next show and look over my options then.

 

Mine is probably going to become an eyedropper when the piston dies. I've glued it in- only way it wouldn't leak like hell- and it keeps getting stiffer and stiffer, despite living on Noodler's Black Eel for the last month. If it doesn't loosen up, it's getting an O ring, chopping off the piston, and going eyedropper.

 

I've been using a plain non-flex Noodler's medium in it, and it writes beautifully. When I replace it, that nib and feed are getting recycled to the next one- they work perfectly together.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Flaxmoore

[PAKMAN]

Didn't love mine ended up getting rid of it.

[eharriett]

Just an update: today I tried to put some thin tape around the piston. Won't work. Couldn't get it back into the pen. Too tight. Guess it will be eyedropper or nothing for that pen. And I'm not going to use that ink as an eyedropper. So I'll have to replace my Ahab with another Ahab and figure out what to do with this one. But I want to get that ink back into my regular circulation again.

[DarkAudit]

Replaced the Brexit in my Ahab with Apache Sunset. I'm convinced that has unlocked a certain kind of magic within the pen. Flexed it's very nice, but unflexed? Whoa! It's almost like there's a direct connection between brain and pen, and it's moving my hand instead of the other way around. Almost without trying, the result is some of my best looking handwriting. I pick up another pen, and try as I might, I can't replicate the results.

 

I'm also reasonably convinced that I wouldn't replicate the results with any other Ahab I might acquire.

[sketchstack]

The question is not whether I like my Ahab(s) or not --I do like them.

 

The issue is that my Ahabs hate me.

 

I love so much about these pens, but the absolute weak link is the feeds that look like they were whittled by someone who wasn't wearing their glasses.

 

I've had several feeds, tried all kinds of tricks etc. and I just can't get a pen that I am satisfied with. In one case one of my Ahab gravity-dripped ink. So I bought a brand new feed and while it seems to work better, the new feed is actually too large --so every nib I've tried, when properly seated, has separated tines.

 

I keep asking myself how many more $4 feeds I should go through, or how many hours I should spend carving feeds and adjusting nibs until I get the $20 pen to work right.

[NicolausPiscator]

Well, the Noodler's Ahab! A complicated issue... This pen has been recommended to me and I trusted and ordered one. I looked for a pen with huge ink capacities, flex nib, demonstrator, not too expensive and uncomplicated... When it arrived after several weeks of waiting I was shocked by the hellish smell which passed to everything in contact with it - especially my fingers... I could not use it... my friend said to me that this is normal and that I should wait and use it. I did not because I could not stand the decay scent...

 

After nearly one year I had a problem with the Herbin's Émeraude de Chivor, the ink test was exciting and beautiful but in my pens the ink was flat. A friend whom I asked what to do answered me that I should put it in my Ahab. I did and it was overwhelming! The ink showed its potential and qualities. The reason is that the Ahab is an ink annihilator. It writes extremely wet and pours the ink on your papers which sometimes has bad effects when you have no time to let the ink dry properly. But when it is dry you will be amazed by the strong sheen.

 

So, I think that I can recommend the Ahab. And at the end it has another quality: You can repair it yourself and you can lear a lot about pens and their function when you dis- and reassemble your Ahab.

[sketchstack]

I am not an expert on fountain pen design, but I can't help but wonder what a knockout the Ahab would be if it featured a screw-in nib unit compatible with well known German nib manufacturers. Even if it raised the price of the pen. For budget minded folks, Noodler's would still have the Charlie for example.

 

I have Ranga (made in India) pens that I purchased from Peyton Street Pen that allow for a Jowo nib unit. Yes, these pens are approx. $50 ...but on the other hand I know they work beautifully each and every time.

[Bold2013]

Eharriet you should try them Noodlers 308cartridge for your problem ahab

[kpfeifle]

Hated it. Could never get it to work right.

[wallylynn]

Back to using my Ahab. Oddly been very dry leading to very hard starts. Used to be a nice wet pen. Maybe it's the new ink.

[oob]

I love the Ahab. It's a hacker's instrument (in the Unix sense of the term,) which appeals. Rather than offer further opinion though, I'll describe a couple of applications for the Ahab I find useful.

 

 

1. Generic Instrument

 

The Ahab model is the foundation for my everyday pens. I like that I can look at my fold and readily determine the colour and amount of ink in pens, and which nib is fitted. Further, I like that each instrument is identical in every other aspect, as much as I want it to be. I don't change, the instrument does.

 

 

With better pens we have a more romantic relationship of course, learning to live and love the idiosyncrasies. In my view that romance oughtn't prevent one from establishing an Ahab harem.

 

 

2. Franken Pen and Up-cycling

 

The Ahab is an optimal Franken pen, not least for the Ebonite feed. The ability to configure an Ahab to host a vintage nib is a wonderful opportunity to readily recycle something beautiful into something useful.

 

 

3. Configure and forget

 

This isn't an application, it's more my appreciation for a process. I like that I can mess about with the Ahab configuring it until it operates exactly as I like. And I very much further like that I can then heatset the feed to keep it that way.

 

Configure the tool -> Set the tool -> Use the tool.

Edited June 19, 2017 by oob

[NicolausPiscator]

Yup, oob! What you describe are exactly the overall advantages of the Ahab... Franken Pen... up till know I didn't think of trying out a vintage nib in it, but why not? A good idea. Thank you!

[AmandaW]

I have two Ahabs and another Noodlers pen - a piston filler - can't remember what it's called (maybe someone can tell me what it is from the picture).

 

Hardly used, then totally ignored, because my climate is so dry - north-east of Perth - only a few pens are reliable. If anyone in a kinder part of Australia would like to make a trade for them PM me because I would rather let them go than leave them sitting in the drawer.

 

Should I put this here or somewhere else?