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I was watching a review the other day on YouTube for a Pelikan 140, because of the give away... curious to see what it was. One review I watched had a flex nib and now I want to try one. review So, looking for a cheap starter pen to try out... I know I won't get anything as good as that Pelikan has, but, wanted to give something a try. The Noodler's Ahab looks like a good pen to start with... just wondered if something better in that same $20-$30CAD range. I was hoping there was a way to put in a different nib into something like a LAMY Safari, but I guess that's not the case (?).

Still hoping to get a Konrad when I see stock appear, in the meanwhile I bought an Ahab clear flex nibbed pen to see if I like the flex or not. Cleaned it when I got it, put it back together and only needed to adjust the nib once and seems to flow just fine, though wish it was more broader of a tip. Otherwise I am liking the flex more than just a standard nib. Too bad not easy to find... I'd love to test this pen with a broad flex or even a 1.1. Anyways... one thing I'm not liking is the piston. It fills with ink, as well as the stem (part you push/pull to get the ink). I tried the pen with one ink, then went to try another ink and that stem part is not the best thing to flush clean. I unscrewed the black cap on the end off expecting there to be a hole there to make it easier to run water through, but no hole. Should this stem be filling with ink? and should there be a hole at the end with the cap? On a side note, writes well, but, not a clear pen... has a sorta milky white haze swirled in it, some yellow staining around the rubber bits, and stinks of silly putty... happy to finally try a flex nibbed pen, but glad it was only $25CAD. It's an ugly stinky pen.

I gave my boss a Waterman Commando last Christmas, and he likes to sketch with it. Then his mom gave him an MB 149 that belonged to his grandfather. Honestly, I'm happy for him. Really. So today I let him try my Joseph Daluz Ahab, which is crazy-flexible. A totally evil thing to do to a man who really doesn't have time to hang out on ebay.

I've had a Noodler's ahab for the last couple months, and I've loved every part of it. Converted to an eyedropper the Ahab can hold 6mL of ink!!! and I've tried to do this a couple times, with little success. Every time I think I've successfully done it, to either one of my ahabs, it suffers from severe burping and and leaking from the feed, and often ending up with a cap filled with ink. Is there anyway to alleviate this problem? Thanks

Note: I changed my story a bit in light of new evidence that Noodler's pens aren't made in America like I assumed. You know what they say about assuming... It's no secret that Nathan Tardif, mastermind behind Noodler's pens and inks, is a patriot. In fact, I have an idea that the Henry Repeating Arms Company may have actually stolen Nathan's original idea for a company slogan some years ago; "It will be made in America, or it won't be made at all." His videos often contain heavy political underto... Oh who am I kidding. They're not undertones. He just comes right out and says it. Even his ink names suggest his disdain for the way our country is run. So, you can imagine the disappointment he'd have in me if he knew what I had done to one of his American-made pens designed and inspected here in America. A couple of years ago when I was still new to fountain pens, I found some images or videos of flex writing and said to myself, "I want to write like that!" So... Rather than reading a book or taking a class or practicing, my initial thought was, "Get one of those flexy pens so you can write like that!" Ask me how that worked out with golf clubs, guitars and RC planes. I'll save you the trouble and just say that I'm no Tiger Woods or John Mayer and I sure as heck can't keep a plane in the air. Although quadcopters are my thing... GPS-enabled, can't-crash-me, quadcopters... Glorious little things, they are! That's beside the point though. My point is, I had a flexy Noodler's Konrad. And Ahab. And Creaper. A couple of each, probably. One day, one of my Konrads broke. I think the filling mechanism snapped or something. I don't really remember, but I do remember just throwing the whole thing in the trash and thinking, "To heck with this... I'll just go back to my extra-fine nails and never write flexy again! HUMPH!" Then, I quickly grabbed the broken pen from the trash and removed the nib and feed for salvage. I figured the nib would come in handy if I ever messed up the nib in an Ahab or my other Konrad. Fast forward a couple of years and I have a little parts bin with nibs and feeds and collars. I was digging through said parts bin yesterday to put together a nib, feed and collar for a fellow FPNer and stumbled on that Noodler's nib. I also stumbled on a long-forgotten Jinhao X750 whose nib was a terribly mushy, wet, mess. I did love the shape and weight of the pen though so, naturally, it went into the parts bin with the thought that I might make something of it someday. I looked at the Noodler's nib and then looked at the Jinhao. Back at the nib. Back at the Jinhao. Back at the n... You get the idea. I thought, "Hm... The X750 uses a No. 6 nib and the Noodler's Konrad and Ahab use a No. 6 nib. And I've got these assorted feeds. I wonder..." Yep. I went and fitted Nathan Tardif's American-made steel flexy nib into a Chinese-made Jinhao X750 and did it all with the assistance of some feed that I got from God-knows-where. Oh... And there's an International Converter in there that I salvaged from a Monteverde pen at some point. So, it's a Frankenpen. And... IT'S ALIVE! It works wonderfully! I've never enjoyed a Chinese-made pen OR a Noodler's nib more in all my years of fountain pen writing. Not my Heroes, not my Jinhaos, certainly not my Ahabs... It's like the perfect pen. The feed keeps up. There's no tinkering or adjusting. It just bloody works! So... without further ado, feast your eyes on the Noohao! or Jindlers (although that's awfully close to Schindler which carries a completely different kind of anti-American connotation, but is one of the greatest films ever made; I digress). Either way... Here's the little matte black abomination (please pardon my TERRIBLE handwriting... You can see I still haven't gotten around to the practice part yet): http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3779/12011697455_95231e2e75_b.jpg http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5476/12012518496_a4069b990d_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/12012057084_48213b42e6_b.jpg http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5506/12012056234_8a2ba1e3c1_b.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2820/12011687875_3b1247b5c3_b.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3722/12011698495_e366f71887_h.jpg So yeah... Long live the Noohao! Also... pardon the gunk on the image. My paper had some ink splats from somewhere else. It's ugly, I know, but I had hoped it would detract from the handwriting.

Recently my Noodler's Ahab fountain pen developed a leak, and I found out it's because the piston piece is not screwed tightly onto the part of the barrel that holds the nib and feed. When I try to screw it on tightly, the piston piece just skips over the spot on the screw thread where it's supposed to stop and just keeps on turning. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? There is an O-ring at this junction, so would changing that out or adding more O-rings help keep a tight seal?

So I've recently heard that normal noodler pens (made from vegetal resin) have the tendency to disintegrate with expose to ink or water. I personally love all noodler products, and own a bunch and would be pretty concerned if this was tue. That being said is there any validity to these claims?

Do flexible pen nibs become more flexible over time? For instance, leather shoes tend to be stiff at first but will become more supple and stretch a bit with wear. Does this go for flex nibs (ie: the more you use the pen, the more flexible the nib becomes).

Hi all, Quick question from a beginner looking at purchasing a first fountain pen. What are some good nibs I could get for the Noodler Ahab pen. I am not intimidated by the flex nib (I am toying with some Hunt 101 nibs for dip pens right now), but I do want to try some other nibs out too for some variety and to experiment. So what are some good, moderately priced (college student on a budget here) nibs I could try? Also, how can I tell which nibs are compatible with the Ahab? Just looking at the descriptions I can't seem to tell. Thanks!

Hi all, Just getting back into pens and would love to give a stub nib a try, so was hoping some of you could recommend an inexpensive nib I could swap into my Ahab. I saw Goulet is selling some for $15, was hoping there was something cheaper available by now. Also, am I right in assuming the 1.1 is like a fine and the 1.5 a medium, at least on the broad part? Thanks much, GBB

Hello, this is my first post. Anywho, I think I might have found the perfect feed placement on an Ahab. Out of the box, it barely wrote at all. Tons of skipping. But after adjusting the feed and putting it a little lower, it was perfect. Here's a picture of writing before adjusting the feed and after, excuse my bad handwriting: http://i62.tinypic.com/27y8x2a.jpg Here's a picture of writing and playing with the flex after adjusting the feed. There's still some railroading when pushing the Ahab to its limits though: http://i61.tinypic.com/wmgv12.jpg Here's a writing comparison between the adjusted Ahab and a Lamy Safari with a medium nib. Both pens are using Noodler's Bulletproof Black ink. The Ahab's writing is noticeably darker and wetter: http://i61.tinypic.com/29c6t15.jpg Here's a signature comparison between the Safari and the Ahab. I like the Ahab's signature more, but that might be because the flex might have made it look a little better. But it is nicer looking and blacker than the Safari's. http://i57.tinypic.com/nmi3o3.jpg Finally, here is a picture of the feed placement on the Ahab. http://i59.tinypic.com/11wdm4k.jpg Thanks for reading.

To followers of Ahab threads, Over the past two days, I have turned two unusable dogs into excellent writers. Because I did three things, I can't say that all three are essential, but two of the three definitely are. However, it has raised a question I would love to kick around with you. Here is what I did, which all came from advice from Drone and Brian Goulet: 1. Cleaned the channel with the BACK, not the blade, of an Exacto knife. 2. Cleaned the entire feed with a grease cutting dish soap (blue Dawn). 3. Heat set the nib (thanks to Brian Goulet for his excellent how-to video). 4. Tested with a well behaved ink (Waterman Mysterious Blue). I've actually done three, but I have not yet inked up the third. The first two write perfectly. One has the Ahab stock nib, the other has a Goulet nib. Here is my issue: The Goulet nib is a #6 nail, but is beautiful to look at. The stock Ahab nib is at best plain, possibly ugly as sin. The Goulet also has a hole in it which allows using a straightened paper clip to make sure the slit in the nib is perfectly aligned with the channel. The Ahab nib does not. The Ahab with the Goulet nib went from a $20 waste of money to a $35 dollar pen that writes perfectly and is stunning to look at. But it is not a flex nib. But is the Ahab a flex nib? Yes, you can flex it, but it takes plenty of pressure to get real line variation. My best pen has a JinHo semi- flex Binderized nib, and it is far more flexible that the Ahab nib. The experience of using the Ahab nib is far closer to writing with a nail, unless you really bear down to get some flex. So, is the Ahab nib a flex nib, or is it an nib that can be flexed, given enough effort? The Ahab I have not yet inked in now set up with the stock nib. I'll probably try it that way first. The second Ahab I did is not particularly beautiful, and I'll leave the stock nib in it. But I am seriously thinking about that third Ahab, which is also gorgeous, topping it off with another Goulet nib I have, and giving up the ability to flex it in favor of a truly striking pen that really performs. So I'm curious about other's opinions on the designation of the Ahab as a flex pen. To me, that means I should get a bit of flex as I write, not have to decide "now I want it to flex" and bear down to make it do so. So what say you? Is "flex pen" an apt description of the Ahab, or a bit of a stretch? Ben

You can really cut an Ahab feed in two ways: 1. Chip away some of the fin wall to make the channel wider, or: 2. Cut the fins that do not open into the center channel so that they do reach the center channel. I have a supply of feeds to experiment on coming soon. I'm curious if folks have more success with approach #1, #2, or combining both ways. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this already well-hashed topic. I've read loads of posts including SamCapote's detailed Opening Up Fin Vents, but SamCapote seems to focus only on #1, which is more difficult to do than #2, so I dared to open the subject yet again, focusing on those specific points. I am aware of the need to clean the feeds, etc., before use. Again, thanks for sharing your experience with me. These feeds are not expensive, but I would like to ruin as few as possible (and yes, I have ruined a few). Ben

Well here I am - a true sign that I'm a goner is when I join a forum. I am new to fps. I love to draw and have discovered that lovely inks are available to fp users. My mom sent me an old AW Classic Impressions that writes beautifully with the old ink cartridge that came with it, but it's ugly as hell. A splotchy black and green body. Somehow a gaudy Jinhao 3000 Tiger ended up on my Amazon wish list and my sister sent it to me. Writes like a dream. It glides on the paper without a sound - I really like that. But it is encased in metal and very heavy. Slightly difficult to hold. And ugly. Meanwhile I ordered a Noodler's Ahab from Goulet Pens and some ink samples. The Ahab is a great pen as well except for the scratchiness on the paper, which is a minor complaint. Ink flow is just about perfect. I'm loving these forums so far. Must research my next purchase of course. I'd like something sleek and whisper quiet. And then I'd like 10 of them, each with their own ink.... yeah....

So, I've had my Ahab for a good few months, got it all tuned and set up nicely and I've been having fun with it. I hadn't used it for a week or so until today, but it started almost straight away. I thought I'd check out how much ink was left, so I unscrewed the barrel and it took the plunger unit with it! Luckily I had it nib up, so I contained most of the ink. Turns out the threads on the plunger unit are stripped. Any suggestions?

I am a student who likes italic handwriting. I have an Ahab. Does anyone have any experience with Nemosine 0.8 nibs? Apparently they fit in Ahabs (http://goo.gl/aFMZ8K) --- can someone check this? College ruled paper is about 7.1 mm. Would a 0.8 italic be too wide or bleedy on this paper? I'm looking for a density about like this: http://goo.gl/EH3IXK.

I received a Noodler's Ahab for Christmas and it writes beautifully. It did from the moment I inked it up. However, I don't get as much flex out of it as I expected. I find that when I really push it, it tends to railroad. Is this something that will improve with use? I get no dry starts or skipping when I'm not flexing so I don't think the nib is bad at all. Maybe I just need practice...? I tried to search for others topics about the Ahab but there were just too many threads to weed through so I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death.

So there I was. I'd loaned my Ahab to a Martian who needed directions to the White House. He/she/they(?) sneezed, and the Noodlers flex nib dissolved. My pen was out of action! Interplanetary Crisis! Noodler's doesn't sell replacement flex nibs, at least not yet. I had a Noodler's regular fountain pen nib, free gift when I bought my pen. Taking my trusty Dremel, I set out to modify the regular nib to make it into a flex. Fortunately for the Solar System, it worked. In case you ever find yourself in a similar boat, here's what I did. 1) Extend slot of regular nib with Dremel cutoff wheel. 2) Apply Pterodactylus' Ease My Flex (EMF) Mod. 3) Adjust the tines; heat-set the feed if necessary. 4) Clean...and test. Details: 1) I made a jig to position the Dremel cutoff wheel on the nib. Ahab/Konrad nibs have an arc that matches a 1/4" bolt. I used a 1/4" wooden dowel about 1.5" long for the jig. I hand cut a slot in the dowel with a coping saw, trying to keep the slot in the middle of the dowel. Slot length is about 1/2 the diameter of the cutoff wheel. I clamped the dowel vertically in a vice, and ran down the slot with the cutoff wheel to enlarge the slot to fit the wheel. BE SURE TO WEAR A FACE SHIELD whenever using a cutoff wheel. These cutoff wheels can't take any twist, they will shatter. There will be some smoke as the wheel cuts/burns its way down dowel. Stop when the axle of the wheel reaches the top of the dowel. I clamped the nib in a vice, using the dowel and a popsickle stick to protect the nib. See photo. Note, the 2nd bit of dowel in the vice, to the right of the nib, is there to keep the vice jaws from cocking as I tightened the vice. I wanted to extend the slit to match the length of a Noodler flex nib's slit. I marked the approximate stop point on the nib with a black marker pen. I positioned the dowel slot over the center of the Concave side of the nib. By cutting from the concave side, the wheel will have less tendency to wander. Positioning the nib/dowel/vice took some fiddling. My goal was to start the wheel at about the 1/2 way point in the desired slot extention. The cutoff wheel diameter gets smaller as you use it on your projects. You'll have to match the size of your wheel to the middle of the desired slot, I can't give you any precise figures. My wheel was not quite new, so was a few mm smaller in diameter than a new wheel. Take light cuts, removing the wheel to check that the nib is not getting too hot. I dribbled water on the nib periodically, just to be safe. But the nib never felt hot to my fingers, even after the first (dry) cut. The wheel will cut on both sides of the slot since this is a "plunge" cut. I positioned the Dremel so that the wheel would try to climb up the nib; I never had a problem with climbing, though. I used a "medium" speed for the Dremel. After I got the slot length I wanted, I deburred with wetordry sandpaper, and a scraper (small screwdriver blade...the universal tool). Deburring took a while. 2)Once the slot was deburred, I applied the EMF mod. See his thread for details. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/240492-noodlers-ahab-ease-my-flex-mod/ 3) I had to adjust the tines, in/out and up/down and rotation. The slotting had spread the tines, and the EMF procedure had warped them a bit. I needed to use round-jaws needle-nose pliers to bend the tines parallel to the arc; this was to correct an "Inverted Grand Canyon slit" problem (Richard Binder terminalogy), probably caused by the slotting operation. Eventually I got the slit and tip looking ok. Richard Binder's Nib Smoothing Workshop notes (.pdf) is a great help in showing you what you need to see at the tip. The nib was not snug against the tip of the feed, so I heat-set the feed to the nib. Nathan Tardif uses a "Tiki oil candle" in his demonstration video. Ace Hardware had similar candles under the "Ultra Pure Liquid Candle" name (on a shelf next to lamp oil and tea candles). This was my first heat-set....I held the feed a little too long above the flame, and the feed started to smoke, oops. The fins expanded a bit, clearly suffering from the heat; but they still will hold ink, fortunately. 4) Clean and clean again with dish soap+ammonia. I also used rubbing alcohol to remove fingerprints & grease from the nib. Testing was long. Initially, the pen would not pass ink past the slot. The ink channel would dry up, under the slot, as I wrote. This drying was exacerbated by the wonderful flex of this nib - wide areas are Very wide, expending ink quickly. Pen would work fine if I covered the slot with a bit of masking tape. This would restore the wicking action needed to move ink past the slot to the slit. I tried various fillers to increase capillary action in the ink channel under the slot: brass wire, cotton threads, stainless steel wire. Cotton thread (from string) laid in the ink channel wetted the best, but flow was still slow. Eventually, repeated cleaning of the feed with a the soapy solution and a test-tube brush, got me back in business. The ink will flow through the ink channel without needing any capillary enhancers or masking tape lid. When I burned the feed, perhaps some of the combustion products were inhibiting ink flow? The pen writes fine now. I can't write at blazing speed, the feed can't keep up. However, for normal calligraphy writing speed, the new nib with slot works well. If I feel the need for speed, I'll just put a small bit of tape over the slot. If it was clear tape, no one would even know :-) Oh yes, Step 5) Always carry a Loaner Pencil in case you run into Martians. The photos: 1) Modified nib and original flex nib. 2) Jig and vice. Slot has been cut, deburring next. 3) Look, it writes! I diluted the ink to get more shading. A 50% dilution, not seen here, works better. Without dilution, my wet lines show no shading with this ink.

So, here's the deal--I have been using fountain pens for about 4 months now and love everything about the ones I have ....except the EF's I bought for school. Breakdown: Lamy Safari EF (enjoy)TWSBI Mini EF/1.1 (too stiff-don't enjoy/too broad for everyday writing)Noodler's Ahab w/Flex nib & w/Noodler's $2 Fine non-flex nib (Love/ too dry and stiff)I thought I'd love the EF's as a student, but have come to find all but the Lamy EF too uncomfortably thin for my writing style; they give me the sensation of "writing with a nail". However, I LOVE the wet, springy feel and ink saturation of writing with the Noodler's flex and simply not flexing it (see photo.) QUESTION FOR YOU: Is there another #6 nib out there that would meet these needs in my Ahab? A little springy with a nice wet line, not too broad, and with less nib creep than my Noodler's flex? Give me a nib match for my Ahab this Valentines' day If I've missed a thread about this, please give me a link. Understand, I am not bashing any of the other nibs. They performed as they were intended. It wasn't them...it was me. We were never meant to be.

Here's a quick sample. Ink is Noodler's Polar Blue.

Hello All, I'm in the mood for a purchase...it's -15 F here Minneapolis and I need a little something. Nothing over the top, just a treat. I stumbled upon a lessor know brand, THINK - they have a some very eye-catching designs but not a lot is know. Most feedback is good. We're talking less than $40 here. Then again I don't own an Ahab or a Konrad yet (we all know about what those cost)... I can even get an extra nib, in the event Flex just isn't my cup of tea. So there it is... an unknown - THINK or the much-discussed Ahab and Konrad. Thoughts? Here's the THINK model I was considering....

My brand-new Ahab did what I have been reading about: the outer O-ring either came broken or broke as soon as I screwed the top back on the pen. I replace it with a ¼ inch ring (3/8x1/4x1/16) which fit in place, but was too thick for the top to screw back on the body. In looking at the pen, it seems to me that this outer O-ring, the one that goes around the top of the wider section of body threads, is really unnecessary unless you use this pen as an eyedropper. I'm going to use the piston fill, so I wonder: do I really need that o-ring at all? If I do, does anyone know what size I need? Even the supplier seems to carry only the ring for inside the piston, and does not know the size of the outer ring. Calling the number on the Noodler's web site always gets an answering machine. While we are on the topic, is there a significant difference between 90% and 100% silicon grease? Thanks so much for your help. Ben

Folks, I know I am new to this forum, but understand that I have used a fountain pen almost exclusively for thirty years. I just never considered it a hobby, which I now do. I had a Parker that would not write no matter how many times I sent it back to Parker, and various Crosses until I got the Townsend that has been my workhorse pen for as long as I can remember. You may have read the post(s) concerning my rough start with the Ahab. It came with a torn outer o-ring. Today, I replaced that o-ring, and as you can do with the Ahab's friction fit nib and feed system, I adjusted it a bit. I'm not going to say that I will never buy a higher end pen someday, but I've got to tell you that I think if you are anti-Ahab, I think you should go back to it and play with the feed system. I now believe the Ahab is one of the best buys for the money on the market. For $14 dollars, you can bet I will be adding a few more to the arsenal. Some will be used with the piston filler, which works extremely well, and others will be used as an eyedropper style, which will probably hold six months worth of ink. I strongly urge anyone looking for an inexpensive, high quality flex pen to try out an Ahab, with the caveat that you may have to tweak the ink flow by adjusting the nib. That sounds intimidating. It's not at all. It's just a matter of sliding the metal nib and the wooden feed sections in and out a bit. How much? No two will be identical, and it will also depend on the ink you use. Goulet's has a great video on it here: . If you buy an Ahab and hate it, send it to me and I'll make a donation to your favorite charity in the name of Ahab! Just my two cents, of course. YMMV.

Hello everybody, I'm new here so I apologize if this isn't the ideal location for this thread. Anyways, I've been contemplating getting a flex pen lately, and most people tend to recommend noodlers pens. Since they're in my price range, and most people tend to like them, i decided they'd be the best inexpensive flex pens to look into; one problem however, im not sure whether to go for the slightly controversial ahab, or the even more inexpensive yet older nib creeper. I was hoping that maybe somebody who has experience with both of them could chip in as to the pros and cons to both, which one they personally prefer, and why, and maybe someone who has one or the other but is satisfied (or dissatisfied) could do the same. I think it would be an interesting conversation and very helpful! Thanks in advance for the help.

No matter how far in I seat the feed, I can't get my Ahab to stop draining ink into the cap after a few hours, and this happens whether I am holding it or not (the issue is not heat-related). I have been very careful to clean and align the nib and feed properly in the section, and the feed does have a breather hole and does come with a breather tube which I have been using. Any advice on how to get this pen to stop draining? Thank you! ps: my two Konrads have never had this problem, but this is my first Ahab.