Jump to content

How To Get A Steady Flow With A Noodler's Ahab?


dragos.mocanu

Recommended Posts

Hello, I know this question must have been answered in a bazillion other places, but I'm really confused. I bought an Ahab a while ago and been fiddling with the feed position, but can't get it to run right. Some people say that if you get the tip of the feed closer to the tip of the nib you will have better flow. Others say it the other way around: if you take it farther from the tip of the nib, it will have better flow...Which one is true?

Also, the pen exhibits occasional skipping, like when i do an 'o' or the start of a cursive letter (the oblique line from lower left do upper right), but sometimes it just floods the page (no ink blobs, but the flow increases substantially and unpredictably). Is there any way I can have a more constant flow? I don't use the flex, I just want to use it as a sturdy everyday writer. At the moment it's filled with Pelikan Blue Black, because my other inks are way too wet for this pen. Also, I've got a Konrad Demo on the way too (gonna have to deal with that one as well :D ). Thank you.

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 5
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • dragos.mocanu

    3

  • ndw76

    2

  • MBFan

    1

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Take the feed out and give it a scrub under water with an old toothbrush, sometimes residues are left from manufacturing and can cause such issues. Also, make sure the nib sits in its proper place; if it's not then more ink may get to the feed, making it wetter.

I find that the further out the feed, the wetter the flow, the further in, the drier.

 

Give the flex a go! It's lots of fun, it hasn't affected the way my Ahab normally writes.

 

Good luck! :)

<img src='http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png' alt='Posted Image' class='bbc_img' /><span style='font-family: Arial Blue'></span>Colourless green ideas sleep furiously- Noam Chomsky

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did scrub the feed as soon as I received the pen (been watching a lot of videos and reading reviews long before receiving the pen...so I knew what I was getting into). Also, the nib sits in it's place, aligned perfectly with the feed. It writes great, I love the wetness of the lines, but the flow is not always very consistent (with the additional now and then skipping).

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have heard that the ebonite feed in the Ahab gets better with age. I converted mine to an eyedropper, removed the breather tube and opened up some of the vents where they meet the channel. Made it very wet, but still skipped. Now that it is about six months old and been inked for that time I decided to restore it back to a self filler and now it doesn't skip at all.

Please call me Nathan. It is a pleasure to meet you.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.pnghttp://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5642/postcardde9.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Double post.

Edited by ndw76

Please call me Nathan. It is a pleasure to meet you.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.pnghttp://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5642/postcardde9.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have heard indeed that the feed needs to 'soak' for a while...I will try this and see what comes of it. Thank you for the suggestion.

"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true..." (Carl Sagan)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...