Noodler's Boston Safety Pen

[Nhartist40]

Hi,

 

I just posted a review on YouTube of Noodler's Boston Safety pen.  Its a very frustrating pen to use, but I still enjoy using it.  There is something satisfying about retracting the nib, and when I can get it to write, the nib is quite nice for drawing.  I reviewed it on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIfXK7jBMU8wwg1tOS4gfkQ

[inkstainedruth]

I have one of the original ebonite ones.  I like it okay, but had trouble finding an ink that worked well in it -- that ink turned out to be Noodler's Luck of the Draw, which IIRC was the special show ink a few years ago for the Baltimore-Washington Pen Show, and I'm not overly enamored of the color....  

I'd had hopes for Kung Te Cheng, but that ink didn't work any better in the Boston Safety than any of my other Noodler's pens....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[mhguda]

I have one made of transparent acrylic - it was kindly given to me by @Amberleadavis via this forum.

After a bit of a struggle to get to know how to work with the pen, I seem to have found a way to get it to work pretty consistently.

I have now filled it with Diamine Shimmering Seas, and the combination is so good that I have decided to not use any other ink in this pen so long as I have the shimmer-ink to put in it. It can rest on my desk for weeks and start right up when I open it and push the nib out.

I think it wants a bit of a saturated ink.

[Nhartist40]

Yes, I think making it out of transparent acrylic makes so much sense, otherwise you have no way of knowing if you run out of ink, and if you run out of ink the whole concept of the nib not drying out is defeated.  Marc Kompaneyets shared with me an observation that if you are not careful the nib gets in the way of filling ink in the chamber.  I think filling it with a needle instead of an eyedropper is the way to go.  I do like the way it feels in the hand and when its properly inked it writes nicely.  But I wish I had one of the clear ones like you have.  Do you have a picture you could send of it?  I am curious to see what it looks like in clear acrylic.

[mhguda]

Even faster than photographing mine: here's one I found on reddit.

[MidSouthern-Dad]

I have the original one without the metal shaft.  It was always very stiff to deploy or retract the nib.  When it retracted, it always spit out ink due to some type of air displacement.  I then bought the latest version, which has a metal shaft linking the nib unit to the retraction sleeve.  It is easy to take apart, and works quite smoothly.  This one doesn't spit ink when retracting the nib. Both of my pens have #2 flexible nibs (great for those loose Waterman or Conklin #2, 14 K flex nibs).

[WalterC]

The last few times I got interested in the Boston Safety pen, I couldn't find them for sale. Yesterday, I saw that that Gold Spot pens and Goulet had them in stock, so I ordered one (with a couple of bottles of ink). I ordered from Gold Spot which is in NJ, so I hope I get it faster (I'm in Mass.). The next step will be to find unused waterman #2 nibs to try to fit them into the pen.

[peroride]

4 hours ago, WalterC said:

The last few times I got interested in the Boston Safety pen, I couldn't find them for sale

Same here, feels like years of checking.

 

Thank you, good to know that they have been restocked and hope they have the new steel rod. Outside of the limited edition clear acrylics, I think in a past video Nathan said only the black ebonite would carry steel but looks like the chestnut has been restocked too. I have the ebonite rod versions and was always trying to be extra careful lest it, SNAP! 😢 

 

Pro-tip: Concord/PO nib replacements do not work; the inner steel pin will just scrunch the nib, I learned the hard way.

[mhguda]

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/368328-haiku-about-fountain-pens/?do=findComment&comment=4580905

 

[Nhartist40]

It is cool to see the demonstrator version of the pen.  I wish they would put it into production again because that solves the problem of it running out of ink and also of being sure the ink is getting in the barrel when you fill it.  I now have it working well with the nib I took off a Muji pen.  The Noodler nib was to unreliable.