Noodler´s Ahab - Ease My Flex Mod

[Pterodactylus]

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_36 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

 

(Serwex MB - flex EMF ..... ESS Registrars Blue/Black)

[Inkydinkydog]

http://imageshack.us/a/img534/6987/i58f.jpg

 

(Serwex MB - flex EMF ..... ESS Registrars Blue/Black)

Hi Pterodactylus. I think it would take me longer to figure out how to post a photo than it took to do the modification, LOL. But my nib looks like the photos already shown, except that the indentation on each side is somewhat narrow--as in the first photos posted in this thread--rather than the broader indentations shown in the more recent photos. Sadly, my handwriting is no where near as lovely as yours, as I'm just learning how to "write flex," and generally use a 1.1mm and a 1.5mm nib on my two Ahabs. But I just ordered another Ahab solely for using with the modified nib, so I can practice my "flex" writing without changing out the nibs. Your lovely handwriting makes it look so easy and your advice to simply flex on the down strokes sounds easier than it is for me to do. If I print, I have no problem enjoying all that flexing, now that it requires much less pressure, but when I attempt to write in script or cursive, it's awkward right now. As they say, practice, practice, practice!

[grainweevil]

Good news about the new feed, Ptero! I've been messing around trying the nib in other pens, and found the feed on a cheap Chinese calligraphy set (like this one at the top of the page) absolutely pours out ink - I pushed it as hard as I could to get it to railroad, and it just wouldn't. So might be worth a look if you can't get the Serwex to cooperate. An added bonus is the cap doesn't damage the nib if you don't pay attention when re-capping.

 

Cheers, Al

[Brooks MT]

I ground the nibs of my Ahab and Konrad...Success! Much less effort is now required to generate a broad line. I don't think it's broader than before this mod, but it's sure easier to achieve varying line weight. No cramped hand after just 6 lines of writing. All Thanks to our Experimenter, Pterodactylus!

But...success was not attained without some trials and tribulations along the way. I'll tell where I screwed up, and how I corrected the errors.

A. Screwup: Spread tines - my second altered nib ended up with tines spread. This may have happened when I propped the pen tip against the table while grinding. So... don't prop the nib against anything while grinding, just hold it in your hand.

Solution to spread: i) Examine the tip of the nib end-on with a hand lens. I recommend the Hastings Triplet 10x hand lens, favorite of geology students when I attended college. The Triplet displays less distortion than cheaper hand lens', something my old eyes appreciate.

ii) I discovered that one tine was higher than the other. I bent the tine down with small needle nose pliers, gripping about halfway along the slit. It took a couple iterations up/down before the slit ended up mostly uniform at about 0.004" wide. This can be checked with a slip of copy paper; my sheet was 0.005" thick. Start the slip at the inner end of the slit, and try to slide outwards towards the tip. My tips did not end up perfectly in-plane...but the pen writes anyway, and seems ok. I decided to quit fiddling for perfection,and go with something that worked.

iii) It's useless to try to bend the tines back together in the horizontal plane by pushing horizontally (the first thing any newbie like me tries). But pushing up or down does the trick: Since the tine is an arc (not a plane), the reaction to a force up/down is at about a 45deg angle, giving right/left motion too. Pushing the tines upwards will spread the tines (as we well know when we use a flex nib pen). So, pushing a tine downwards (with pliers, or fingers) will move the tip inwards, towards it's neighbor. I made the first bend with the pliers, and fine-tuned the tine with just my fingers.

B. Useful tips: i) I painted the arc to be removed on both sides of the nib with a black marker pen, fine tip. Note: several previous posters (including Perodactlyus) mentioned this, It's easier to get symmetry if you draw on the tip before grinding, I think.

ii) I kept a small cup of water at hand to dunk the nib when it got hot. Letting it stay wet while grinding (rather than drying it off before continuing) worked well.

iii) My Dremel bit was a conical shape, about 3/8" dia at the big end. The small end of the cone was good for working on the ends of the arc to be removed, while the big end was good for the initial cut, and for smoothing the arc. The bit ended up grooved by the end of 2 nibs, so probably would need to be replaced if I grind anymore.

C. Screwup: Altered nib no longer contacted feed out at the end of the feed. Symptom was low or no ink flow. Confirming symptom: pen writes a nice, very thin line when nib is held upside down (ie barrel of pen rotated 180deg). The pen will write because as you press "down" the upsidedown nib is squished against the feed, allowing capillary action to move ink to the tip. It's hard to see if there is a gap, but this upside down trick proves that there is one.

Solutions: i) swap nibs with other Noodler pen if you have one. Maybe the other feed will fit the modified nib. Since both my nibs were modified, and swapping ended up with both pens working, maybe I lucked out. Or maybe the feeds were heat set to a particular nib, and my nib-swap just returned them to their pen.

ii) Reset the pen by heating the feed, per Nathan's instructional video (somewhat misleadingly labeled "Noodler's air-ink interchange demonstration").See video here: http://www.gouletpens.com/Noodlers_Cobalt_Ahab_Flex_Fountain_Pen_p/n15032.htm

 

iii) Let the nib-to-end-of-feed distance be larger than before. The nib is less distorted (up/down) the farther away you get from the tip. So, extending the nib (or shoving the feed farther into the pen), will move the end of the feed into a less distorted portion of the altered nib. Nib will likely be "wet".

D. Screwup: Forgetting that the Ahab has only one segment where the nib will enter, whereas the Konrad allows nib entry all the way around. Fortunately I remembered this before hammering the nib into the Ahab and gouging something :-)
------------------
My thanks again to Pterodactylus.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Brooks MT

[minasourial]

Thanks for the awesome tip! I'm going to try finding a Dremel so I can try this. I enjoy writing with the Ahab and taking advantage of its flex capabilities, but my fingers start getting upset with me after about five minutes of writing, since I'm fighting with the pen the whole time..

[Bo Bo Olson]

How this thread escaped my notice I'll never know. I don't come to fountain pen reviews much.

 

I did get a nib done in the Pterodactylus method, BC to some nice poster.

Before the nib was semi-flex hard, which is too hard for a flexible nib. After this modification, it wrote with Easy Full Flex pressure.

Regular flex, Semi-flex (1/2 the pressure of regular flex), 'flexi'/maxi-semi-flex (1/4th), Easy Full flex (1/8th),

 

I had to take out the breather tube to make my pen work well....it was dripping, and blobbing before...now not at all.

I'd not had to do any modification to the feed at any time.

Edited December 22, 2013 by Bo Bo Olson

[Fabienne]

I am getting itchy fingers and want to take out my Dremel tool BUT could you please tell me what tools you are using for modifying your feeds? I might need to know that.

[Sinistral1]

I've used an Exacto knife to cut the channels deeper and wider.

[Drone]

I was thinking about this "Ease My Flex Mod" the other day because I thought I had seen this same thing done on a commercial nib before. Then it came back to me, the Pilot FA nibs...

This is the Pilot FA nib (picture scraped from somewhere on the Web):



The FA nib (to the best of my knowledge) is available only on the Pilot Custom 743, 742, and 912 pens. Some say the FA refers to a "Falcon" nib. But I'm not sure about that. The FA nib looks quite different than the nib on the Pilot/Namiki "Falcon" pens.

Here is a page with a side by side comparison of the Pilot Custom series pens with a table of nib availability by pen type:

http://kmpn.blogspot.ca/2011/06/pilot-custom.html

BTW, Happy New Year - David

[balson]

I need to get my hands on a Dremel tool and try this mod................................

 

you don't need a dremel, sandpaper works too. i think the sandpaper i used was 400 grit.

[NoodlersFan]

Wow - I wish I'd found this thread before I made this clip:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yU1CTg6rXY

 

I could have gotten way more FLEX from my Ahab

[Pterodactylus]

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_37 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

 

(Serwex MB - flex EMF ..... ESS Registrars Blue/Black)

[Fabienne]

I finally got the nerve and time to do a Noodler's Flex Mod on one of my pens. It works like a bomb! Much flexier and nicer. Here is the side view. Pretty easy. I did use a Dremel and it took no time at all. Wear eye protection, darlings, and it is perfectly safe to hold the nib in your hand as you grind. Use slow speed. It won't take more than 5 minutes.

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af174/fabienne301/E913C59A-D845-4BB8-A153-2CB896F59EF7_zpsxwlxmj5k.jpg

 

Here is a shot of both sides simultaneously. I got a lens which takes wonderful macros with my iPhone ($60 about , Olloclip which comes with wide angle and fisheye, too).

 

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af174/fabienne301/739701F1-6623-41FF-902F-C4C1609790F8_zpscrpu7obx.jpg

 

And you want writing sample? Not as nice as yours, P, but I am working on it. I am using Hero 233 blue ink with Tanzanite to give it surfactant goodness for the flex. Some railroading BUT generally very good.

 

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af174/fabienne301/48E48CE1-5952-4DFF-A3C8-3D517BDA76FE_zpsm1xepdiw.jpg

 

This mod is highly recommended!

[rizo52]

Wow - I wish I'd found this thread before I made this clip:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yU1CTg6rXY

 

I could have gotten way more FLEX from my Ahab

Great vid. Very clever.

[rizo52]

Pterodactylus, it may just be me, but it seems that your penmanship is improving with the modified pen, at least,

[watch_art]

Love the video! Thanks for sharing!

[Pterodactylus]

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_38 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

 

(Noodler´s Ahab - EMF ..... Rohrer & Klingner Salix)

[Fabienne]

I do think it would be a good idea for me to dig out the feed a bit to let the ink flow a bit more, it is railroading, Do you have detailed instructions on how and what and with what to do it? A video would be wonderful here. Do you cut the side fins, the central channel. What techniques do you use with an Exacto, or is that the proper tool to use? Thanks, this is really good.

[WirsPlm]

I do think it would be a good idea for me to dig out the feed a bit to let the ink flow a bit more, it is railroading, Do you have detailed instructions on how and what and with what to do it? A video would be wonderful here. Do you cut the side fins, the central channel. What techniques do you use with an Exacto, or is that the proper tool to use? Thanks, this is really good.

 

Relevant threads with instructions and pictures:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/210763-noodlers-ahab-setup-for-beginners/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/209439-ahab-pen-opening-up-fin-vents-with-photos/?&p=2175615&hl=ahab&fromsearch=1&do=findComment&comment=2175615

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/210238-ahab-feed-update-from-nathan-mr-noodlers/

[Fabienne]

i did cut my fins open and tried it out. It was wetter by far but there was still railroading! Actually, it was kind of worse. So, I thought that maybe I had the feed too far down in relation to the end of the nib (I was looking for BIG flex but I may have been asking the ink to bridge a gap too big for any ink). After putting the end of the feed closer to the end of the nib, things were still railroading.

 

Even though the writing is now wetter, I think I should do more cutting channels deeper in the feed, or at least cut a couple more on each side.

 

I will be doing that tomorrow. If you have any other ideas, please let me know.