My First Ever Pen Review - Noodler's Konrad

[EagleLobes]

Laying in bed, procrastinating, knowing I ought to be putting my pens and paper into boxes to be packed up for the new house, instead I chose to write out the attached review of the Noodler's Konrad Ebonite flex fountain pen. This is my first review so please be gentle. And remember, my handwriting is lousy but particularly so today because the paper's balanced on my knee, as I'm writing in bed.

 

Having had and lost a couple of fountain pens a couple decades ago, my collection really started with this pen. Aside from a couple of inexpensive Jinhao pens, I didn't have any fountain pens until this Noodler's Konrad. And not knocking the Jinhaos, this was the first pen I bought with the intention of holding onto it, using it, and eventually passing it along to one of my children one day. A very, very long time from now.

 

The ebonite Konrad, in my mind, is refined, elegant, with a restricted, pulled-in beauty. It's not glittery nor dazzling, it's completely unflamboyant, yet entirely gorgeous to me. The Dixie #10 Jade has a medium to dark green- about a Sherwood green, and black ebonite swirled together in a pretty rippled pattern on the barrel. It's got a black blind cap and black section. The section sits about 3/4 cm below the barrel, between which, a clear acrylic window sits, with which one can view the ink swishing around inside the pen. When one has shimmery gold particles swirling about amidst the ink, each time one catches a glimpse of the sparkle, it's a little bit of a day brightener. Even without the glitter, seeing ink ebb and flow across the window is an awesome sight. I guess that's why I like demonstrators so much. That's just not something normal people see everyday - inky pools rollicking about inside their pens. Unless one happens to be a member of The Fountain Pen Network, of course.

 

The black ebonite cap has a silver clip with a little teardrop shaped ball on the end, kinda like if you took the quintessential Parker ball and smooshed it with your finger a little. It's proportioned nicely against the cap and the bottom silver cap ring. Under the blind cap is the knob you twist to fill the pen. Directly below the knob, flush against the distal end of the barrel, is the part where the piston unscrews from the rest of the pen. In theory, the pen can be taken apart and the inner workings of the piston given a full cleaning and lubricating if necessary. (I swear! I've seen it on YouTube so it must be true) But I have not been able to remove it, and am not interested enough to risk scratching my pen to try using more force than just my fingers. Perhaps one day, I'll grab a pair of section pliers from the spark plug aisle of the auto repair store, and give it a go. But cleaning the pen by removing the nib and feed has worked plenty well for me thusfar. And being able to remove the nib and feed is the best thing about the Noodler's Konrad.

 

I am a tinkerer by nature and truly appreciate that Nathan Tardiff, the sole proprietor of Noodler's Inks (and pens) has released this pen with that in mind. The feed, being made of ebonite, can be carved for greater ink flow, heat set against the nib, for optimal flow, and replacement feeds can be easily and inexpensively purchased. The nib is a #6 size, which is also #35 by some manufacturer's nib sizing code, which means there's a plethora of other manufacturer's nibs available for experimenting. So far, I have only put in a dip pen nib, as that's actually what had drawn me back to fountain pens this time around, and it fits a Zebra G nib nicely, and because the feeds are available, I have a dedicated feed for when the pointed pen flex nib is installed, and for most other times, I have the regular #6 nib and regular feed in it. Since the section is also made of ebonite, that can be heated to really tighten down the nib and feed if necessary, but I'd say that's something for more advanced users, unlike playing around with carving the feed- anybody with the will to do it, can do. The only reason being is that replacement feeds are readily available. If the section gets really screwed up, well, that pen owner is also screwed. Speaking of being screwed, the price point does not screw you. It's a fantastic price, especially for a piston fill, especially for an ebonite piston fill.

 

Did I miss anything? It's getting late and I should go pack at least 1 box up before getting up to start my day in ummmm, 2 hours. This accounts for the gradual drop in writing quality in this review, mind.

 

Oh yes, the Konrad Ebonite fountain pen is 140mm capped, about 160mm posted and weighs a total of 18gm with the cap on and about 1/3 filled with ink. The paper used in the review is my favorite, Tomoe River 54gsm, and the wonderful ink is DeAtrementis Pearlescent in Heliogen Green with Gold sparkly bits. In my written review, I flexed the bleep out of the pen so the ink would really gush out for you guys. And in hindsight, I probably should have written in larger letters for that because the broad letters are terrible to read at that size. My apologies, but I did warn you, this is my first review. The second half of the review, I wrote more like I normally do, and the writing is a little bit more legible, if not very pretty. My new year's resolution this year is to improve my handwriting, and god willing, let us hope i don't have to make that same resolution next year, although at this rate, i may have to.

 

Editorializing aside, i think I'm done. And I'll sign off with something I've been telling myself and rarely ever heed (do as i say, not as i do, hmm? Alrighty) ciao

 

Choose your words wisely, because they are powerful and your word matters.

EagleLobes

 

Edited for ease of reading and some grammarly stuff

Edited April 7, 2017 by EagleLobes

[Flippy]

Hi, Eagle!

 

Wow, nice review! Your handwriting is really nice, and I like your descriptive words,

 

I would recommend that you separate the paragraph into smaller paragraphs.

[EagleLobes]

Hi, Eagle!

 

Wow, nice review! Your handwriting is really nice, and I like your descriptive words,

 

I would recommend that you separate the paragraph into smaller paragraphs.

Hi FlippyTB! You are too kind. Thank you. And I have created what look like multiple paragraphs. Thank you for that. It didn't seen like I had written that much until it was split up into smaller paragraphs ^-^

[inkstainedruth]

I have several Konrads, and my ebonite one is probably my favorite. I really like the warmth of ebonite in my hand, and keep hoping that Noodler's comes out with some new colors (some of the colors of the Neponsets were nice...).

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[joebobbillyfrank]

A nice review indeed! I have personally found the Ahab to be better suited for my larger hands, but all in all Nathan makes great pens for the value! It's definitely an excellent means to learn the basic tinkering/workings of a fountain pen.

[Cocobird]

Great review, and the picture of the pen is good. Congratulations! Hope you write more.

[ptrcwikla]

Thanks for your review. Good start

[EagleLobes]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the positive sentiments.

 

FlippyThePen, I apologize for calling you FlippyTB instead of FlippyTP. I guess when I read your name, I imagined shooting someone the bird, and not flipping a pen, shooting across the room. Oi vet, and I can't get the edit box to China up on that comment from my phone.

 

I enjoy the Konrad pens I have very much. There are so many different beautiful colors and the ebonite i love especially - it is a lovely material for pens absolutely. I would love to see a really fancy Konrad with mother of pearl, or even pearlescent glitter. Never tried an Ahab nor a Neponset but I love the whaling theme of the Ahab's shape.

 

What I'd really like to try is the regular Nib Creaper because I put a flex nib from that pen into my free Charlie pen, and it flexes so much more readily than the Konrad. Now, if That was available in a glittery pearlized or mother of pearl finish, I'd probably buy a few, just for the ease of having multiple ink colors in my flex pens. But then again, demonstrators are beautiful too.

 

I plan on writing more reviews for sure. This place will allow me the freedom to ramble about pens. It's a no brainer, since I don't know too many people who will listen to me list a hundred reasons I prefer pen x over pen y Just need to decide which pen to review next. I want to such to the ones that are available for purchase, so I'm not reviewing something that no one else will be able to try.