Noodler Ahab Vs Other Pens?

[CPenCPenC]

I have heard that Noodler's Ahab and any Noodler's pens are terrible pens out of the box so you need to clean and adjust them to get them to work. However, it is at this point that opinions I've heard regarding this pen varies greatly.

 

Some say that if adjusted properly, you get a reliable and inexpensive pen that competes with if not 'better' than other durable pens like Lamy Safari, Parker pens and even a brand called "Twisbi" (not sure if I spelled it correctly) which I don't know much about but apparently everyone else claim it's a reliable maker.

 

Meanwhile others spoke out far more negative reviews that Noodler's Ahab, even when adjusted leaks ink into the cap like a fleeing squid, skips frequently, writes like the talon of an eagle on rock and that you would be far better off with "Jinghao?" (Dunno much about this maker either) than Ahab.

 

I have had break from using my fountain pen for a while and the only fountain pen I have is the Lamy Safari Umbra so I am considering a reliable and inexpensive back up pen in case I run out of ink in the Safari. (The Parker Vector I used to have was accidentally broken by a close friend who thought that fountain pens were the ones requiring pressure to write with and ballpoint pens were the one requiring little pressure.)

[LuckyKate]

I have bought three Ahabs and had fun playing around with them. Plus I think they're really nifty, I like the nibs, and I like the pretty colors. That said, not one of the three works--everytime I screw open the caps, ink puddles everywhere. The converters don't work. The annoying little breathing tubes fall out. When I made an eye dropper out of one the ink just fell through the nib.

 

Now I'm probably doing something wrong and if I am I'd love to know what. These pens please me--probably because of the size and light weight and the smooth fine nib, but I don't dare use them anywhere that doesn't have easy access to soap and water.. The minute I think one of my Ahabs is working, it leaks all over my fingers.

 

On the other hand, I have had the same Lamy Al-star for the last 10 years and it's always worked, never leaked etc. I have never had a lick of problems with it. I got a Kaweco Sport last month and like it very much too. It works and I can pull it out to use in class and not have ink fly everywhere.

[Ian the Jock]

Jinhao is a Chinese manufacturer of low price fountain pens, which, like the Ahab, many people like and many people don't like.

You'll find all the information you could want on the China\Asia forum.

 

Ian

[The Blue Knight]

If your in the UK you should be able to find either a Parker Frontier or something like a Pelikan Twist, style or Future for than £15.

 

All of these are nice reliable pens perfect for daily use.

[rwilsonedn]

If you are looking for a reliable back-up pen, there are many options out there, and several recent threads devoted to the topic. Noodler's pens are not really intended for that purpose. They provide a range of interesting materials, interesting filling systems, and a modern interpretation of a semi-flexible nib at a moderate price point for people who are somewhat experienced, curious, and willing to mess around with their pens and sometimes willing to just give up on one. They are not beginners' pens, go-to reliable pens, or for that matter particularly inexpensive pens.

If you want inexpensive and reliable, try either the low-priced Japanese pens from Pilot or Platinum or the Indian manufacturers who supply the pens to Noodler's in the first place.

ron

[AAAndrew]

TWSBI is a relatively new manufacturer of fountain pens. It's a division of an established Taiwanese company which makes pens and pencils for others. They're known for innovation and excellent customer service. But as a newer company there have been some bumps in the road with some earlier models having some cracking issues. Much of that seems to have been ironed out for their newer models. While not as cheap as an Ahab, the quality is much, much better.

 

They're also going to be coming out with a lower-cost version called the Eco sometime later this summer. The price point, at least for the US, is just under $30. But by spending a bit more you can get a really nice vacuum fill pen that holds a ton of ink and has interchangeable nibs and can be completely dissembled for thorough cleaning. ($65 in the US for the Vac 700). And that's the most expensive model they normally offer.

 

Some people love fiddling with their pens, and many seem to like to do that with their Ahabs. But as soon as heat-seating the feed into the nib starts to be talked about, that sounds like a bit more than fiddling.

 

For a really cheap pen that is only there for backup, you really can't do much better than a Platinum Preppy or one of the cheaper Pilots.

[J85909266]

I bought an Ahab and had a ton of issues with it. One day it poured ink all over the page like the nib and feed weren't even there, and I got angry and tossed it.

 

I bought a Jinhao that was just as bad and tossed it , as well.

 

That said, I have a Noodler's ebonite Konrad piston filler that works like a charm and is one of my favorite pens.

 

As far as TWSBI, I have a Vac 700 that I am in love with. It feels so quality, it holds a ton of ink, the flow and nib are perfect, it's beautiful and striking in appearance.

[tiqdreng]

I grabbed an Ahab to play around with a flex-nib at a cost that wasn't going to kill me as the only pen that I had at the time is a Lamy Safari. When the pen came in I completely striped it, scrubbed it clean, and reassembled it. I did this without reading up on the pen first, which reading up on the pen after this I found that I was right on the money to do this.

 

The pen is still RUBBISH. I can get the pen to flex without a problem, but the feed cannot keep up with flexing at all which is perplexing in the fact that it comes with the flex-nib installed. There are a lot of suggestions out there, and the biggest suggestion that I took away is that this pen is MEANT TO BE PLAYED WITH and is not to be expected to work out of the box or anytime therein without heaving adjusting. I don't have time for that so it is sitting on my desk with ink in it as I refuse to put ink from a pen back into my bottle.

 

I also acquired a Jinhao 450 at the same time so that I could try fitting it with a flex-nib. The 450 uses a #6 nib so the flex-nib from the Ahab fit in relatively nicely. It had the same flow issues for flex writing as the Ahab, albeit not nearly as badly. I now have the regular Jinhao nib in the 450 however and it is a wet writer compared to my Lamy Safari.

 

Needless to say I use my Lamy.

 

My suggestion is: If you want something to play with... get the Ahab. If you want something that writes without a lot of time and effort... get something else.

[Kataphract]

Unless you really like fiddling with pens, and want some inexpensive flex, stay away from the Noodler pens. If you want inexpensive, reliable, and tough, get a Pilot Metropolitan (aka MR). I got it as a backup to my Twsbi (pronounced as if it has two I's in it, but only has one at the end), and it ended up being my daily carry pen.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Kataphract

[inkstainedruth]

I don't have an Ahab, but I do have several each of the Konrads and the smaller Creaper pens (plus one of the new eyedropper Charlie pens). It must be the luck of the draw, but I haven't really had problems with them. All have worked well out of the box with only a soapy water flush before inking the first time (although one of the Konrads is a dry writer).

OTOH, the Konrads and FPCs are all piston fillers, which I find easier to use.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[GeneralTree]

I would like to speak in praise of the Ahab.

OP was correct in that it needed a bit of fiddling to get the nib and feed lined up so that it would work right. But, once I did that My Ahab was all set, and it is only with some trepidation that I use it as an everyday kind of pen. That is the thing though, it does work. I take off the cap and it writes like a normal pen because to me it is a normal pen. It may not be what the OP wants, a sturdy backup pen, but the Ahab is not bad for what it is. I paid $20 (American) for mine and am pleased as punch with the purchase.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

For someone who gets an Ahab working properly, it may indeed be a good pen. My failure to get my own two to work like that may be due entirely to my own lack of skill in working on them. Or it may be that there are some duds out there that are beyond reasonable hope.

 

At one point, I got three Goulet #6 nibs, F, M, and Italic, to try in my two Ahabs and one Jinhao. I actually did get one of them to work reasonably well in one of the Ahabs, I thought, but it turned out that the pen was still a hard starter after being left overnight. The other Ahab wouldn't take any of the #6 nibs; the internal dimensions must have been different, because they were all way too loose. Eventually I tried heat setting, which I have done successfully on other pens with ebonite feeds, but I couldn't get it to work here. The original nib still fits, but the pen won't write reliably. Who needs the aggravation? I put the spare #6 nib in a Schrade Tactical pen, but that's another story. And I haven't tried the Ahabs now for well over a year.

 

There are so many good, reliable pens that you can find for between $20 and $40, both vintage and modern. Just off the top of my head, Parker 45, Pilot Prera, Sheaffer 100, Waterman Kultur, and there are many others. If you just want a backup for when you run out of ink, get a pack of "disposable" Pilot Varsities and search this forum for the various methods of refilling them. Or you can throw the dice and buy an Ahab; it obviously works out for some people, and if you don't like it, you can give it to someone who you want to discourage from using fountain pens.

[stuartk]

I have at least a dozen Noodler's pens and I've had very good luck with them. I think they're an excellent value. I've put JoWo nibs into Konrad's and the result writes as well as any pen you can get, no matter the price. I've attended one of Richard Binder's nib smoothing seminars though, so I generally can get most pens to write the way I want.

 

You can spend $1000 and get a pen that writes horribly. You can get an inexpensive Chinese pen that writes wonderfully. It's kind of luck of the draw with most brands, unless you buy them from a dealer that fixes them if they need it before selling it to you.

 

Buy a Noodler's pen if you want. Buy some Noodler's ink. Or not. Don't obsess about it though. There are better things to do in life than worry whether a $15-20 pen is worth owning, or whether or not a bottle of ink is going to eat a hole through your floor all the way to the center of the Earth.

[torstar]

It was hit and miss on Ahabs working when they first came out.

 

They are easy to adapt and change around for fun, and not that expensive if it was a total lemon.

[Randal6393]

Why not buy another Safari? Or a Parker Vector? Both are good, inexpensive pens. Yes, I have a half-dozen Konrads and another half-dozen Ahabs. It took a bit of effort but I have been able to adjust my Noodler's pens to write the way I want them to. I learned quite a bit about nibs, feeds, and adjustments in the process. Glad I have mine, I use them every day. I also use a lot of other pens daily -- Lamy Studios and a 2000, Safaris, a Jinhao or two, some Parker Sonnets, several Sheaffer NoNonsense pens (don't like the Viewpoints, though).

 

Bottom line: life is too short to cope with pens you may not like. You should concentrate on what you find fun about your pens.

 

Enjoy,