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Any goons with a Noodler's flex pen? Is there much difference between them? Are they as fiddly and godawful as the freebie Charlie that came with my bottle of Heart of Darkness? If so, what's a good flex alternative in a similar price range?
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Sep 8, 2017 12:52
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I have an ahab, I never use it after the novelty wore off. The nib is stiff so to get decent flex you need to push quite hard. It's not a cheap and bad as a charlie by far, and I honestly don't know of any flex options in the same price range.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:08
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The Ahab is very stiff, I've seen the nib with a relief cut out to make it more flexible, but I found I had to use too much pressure to get any variation out of it. Was good for a novelty. I don't think a true flex exists in that price range. But a nib holder and some Zebra G nibs are fun and cheap.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:09
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Zebra Gs fit some pens designed for № 6 nibs. Jinhao X750 is a prime example. It’s not a wet noodle, but it’s cheap, pocketable, and capable of as much line variation as anything. e: Get the titanium Gs because 24/7 ink contact will quickly corrode the nickel ones.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:21
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It also can't be understated that the Ahab does smell.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:31
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Noodler’s vegetal resin pens smell but they sell acrylic and ebonite versions that don’t. They cost twice as much, naturally.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:37
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I also have an Ahab, from 2012-2013 (no idea if they're exactly the same now). It's not an easy flex, as others have said. I do like the fat barrell, I stuck an EF Goulet nib in it and use it for basic black. It was fun with the flex nib for a while, but it's.. you basically have to learn the nib's quirks. I kept forgetting. Megabound posted:It also can't be understated that the Ahab does smell. Well now I need to sniff my Ahab.
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Sep 8, 2017 13:46
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Cindy Shitbird posted:Any goons with a Noodler's flex pen? Is there much difference between them? Are they as fiddly and godawful as the freebie Charlie that came with my bottle of Heart of Darkness? If so, what's a good flex alternative in a similar price range? I own one of each of Crazy Nate's Pens. The nib creeper has the smallest nib, flexes the easiest but with the least range. The Ahab and Konrad are pretty stiff. They do flex plenty if you set your mind to it, but I tend to ink them up as normal pens that get a little more expressive when my writing is more focused. The Neponset has the music nib, flexes pretty easily relatively speaking, and is the wettest loving nib that I own, alongside my Visconti Homo Sapiens bronze age. All of them are fiddly, and you will spend time getting the nib and feed just right for the particular ink that you have loaded in the pen. They are pens whose primary appeal to me is as a tinker. There's a lot of little quality of life things you may miss from c/c pens that cost more, and that may not be balanced out by the ability to take everything apart and tweak it just how you want it. The smell is a thing, but it's not nearly that bad. If you've ever bought a store brand pen from India (Wallity, Air Mail, Camlin, Kanwrite) you know exactly what the smell is already, since he uses vegetal resin sourced in India, manufactured in India, and designed his pens based on designs from Indian store brand pens.
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Sep 8, 2017 15:01
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Cindy Shitbird posted:Any goons with a Noodler's flex pen? Is there much difference between them? Are they as fiddly and godawful as the freebie Charlie that came with my bottle of Heart of Darkness? If so, what's a good flex alternative in a similar price range? Look at something from Fountain Pen Revolution instead if you want cheap flex.
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Sep 8, 2017 17:35
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On the Zebra G nib in a #6 pen front, Goulet has the Jinhao 159 buy one/get one free today only. Completely unrelated, of course, I now have two more pens and some Tomoe River paper getting shipped to me... 
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Sep 8, 2017 19:47
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I'm never bothering with a Noodler's pen ever again. My wife misses the one she had that just decided to start vomiting ink one day after 6 months of good performance (and no amount of heat setting or nib/feed placement fixed it), so I'm just getting her a Pilot Falcon in soft fine. Might get it ground down to be extra flexy. That's the closest thing I can think of to a pen that will give her line variation and also isn't completely dysfunctional.
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Sep 8, 2017 20:29
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grack posted:Look at something from Fountain Pen Revolution instead if you want cheap flex. drat now I got an urge and only one of those psychedelic acrylics will fulfill it.
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Sep 8, 2017 20:39
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I got a couple of old freebies today, one is a Parker 51 from 1943 that seems to be in working order, the other is a Shaeffer 875 that is not. That said, both of them could probably use some TLC so what's the go to for refurbishing?
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Sep 9, 2017 01:01
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Abe Frohman posted:I got a couple of old freebies today, one is a Parker 51 from 1943 that seems to be in working order, the other is a Shaeffer 875 that is not. That said, both of them could probably use some TLC so what's the go to for refurbishing? Lina Kennedy at Indy-Pen-Dance is pretty swell. Or get to experimenting yourself!
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Sep 9, 2017 01:19
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Abe Frohman posted:I got a couple of old freebies today, one is a Parker 51 from 1943 that seems to be in working order, the other is a Shaeffer 875 that is not. That said, both of them could probably use some TLC so what's the go to for refurbishing? It's a fun and good hobby! I got my start from this video but I disagree with the amount of soaking he does, as that can be damaging to casein based pens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EthyJkvlJmU And for polishing and cosmetic work I like this guide http://blog.andersonpens.com/zen-and-the-art-of-pen-polishing-micro-mesh/
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Sep 9, 2017 01:29
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I collect smoking pipes, so I'm no stranger to polishing. I guess I just want to be 100% sure the pens will be usable which isn't something I can do myself for sure. Edit: To clarify the Lever on the Shaeffer is missing, and when shaken it rattles like broken glass on the inside.
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Sep 9, 2017 01:34
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Abe Frohman posted:I collect smoking pipes, so I'm no stranger to polishing. I guess I just want to be 100% sure the pens will be usable which isn't something I can do myself for sure. The rattling will either be the perished sac or the j-bar, but you are going to need a replacement lever for it to work again and they're not the simplest thing to come by.
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Sep 9, 2017 01:48
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Pretty much as I expected. I'll see what I can find, but I'll probably send it off to someone with skill. I'd like it to be working, it's a fantastic looking pen.
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Sep 9, 2017 02:00
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What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video?
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Sep 9, 2017 02:15
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ElGroucho posted:What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video? Herbin, but don't watch marketing videos for ink. Does the smell of Noodler's/various indian pens really bother people that much? I think they smell alright, but I also don't like, use my pens as a nosering or whatever.
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Sep 9, 2017 02:22
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A buddy of mine has a Noodler, it smells like he put it in his butt. He may have, but it also smells like it.
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Sep 9, 2017 02:47
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ElGroucho posted:What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video? waterman?
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Sep 9, 2017 02:59
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ElGroucho posted:What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video? Sailor, but their bottles are the worst.
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Sep 9, 2017 03:09
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Abe Frohman posted:A buddy of mine has a Noodler, it smells like he put it in his butt. He may have, but it also smells like it. what is wrong with his butt, my noodlepens smell nothing like my butt e: I wonder if it's like Cilantro, where there's an actual biological difference in people who think it tastes like soap?
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Sep 9, 2017 03:13
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ElGroucho posted:What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video? I am partial to Diamine.
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Sep 9, 2017 03:58
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NeurosisHead posted:what is wrong with his butt, my noodlepens smell nothing like my butt Maybe he has a prosthetic butt made of  precious resinfe. or is precious resin what the expensive brands call their plastic?
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Sep 9, 2017 04:04
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Lowness 72 posted:I am partial to Diamine. Yeah, me too. Grabbed a little bottle of some green (meadow?) for the green Jinhau I got for the B1G1 at Goulet today. The orange one gets Diamine Autumn Oak which I got for my fall-crazy wife.
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Sep 9, 2017 04:18
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Diamine also, the blue black is awesome. Anyhow, I took the Nestea plunge and dismantled the pens. The vac pump in the Parker seems to be in good working condition, it was drawing water before I tore it down. The sac in the Schaeffer is definitely shot, dried and and broken to bits, the J-bar is there but has some signs of corrosion from age, the post for the lever is there so I'm guessing the lever itself got fragile over the last 80 years and ate poo poo at some point. Nibs on both pens seem to be in good shape so maybe I'll keep going and try to fix the Shaeffer myself. It was a free pen, and while I'd like it to just work, I also want to understand these mechanisms myself.
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Sep 9, 2017 04:27
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unkle77 posted:I'm never bothering with a Noodler's pen ever again. My wife misses the one she had that just decided to start vomiting ink one day after 6 months of good performance (and no amount of heat setting or nib/feed placement fixed it), so I'm just getting her a Pilot Falcon in soft fine. Might get it ground down to be extra flexy. That's the closest thing I can think of to a pen that will give her line variation and also isn't completely dysfunctional. You should also look at a Platinum 3776 with a Soft nib. Had a chance to try one a few days ago and I was impressed. Not quite as soft as a Falcon out of box but it kept up with ink demand better. ElGroucho posted:What's the best ink brand that doesn't involve the manufacturer including a diatribe in their marketing video? Montblanc, Diamine and Waterman all make great quality, highly reliable inks. Diamine also has a ton of really nice colours. Edit: VVVVV Diamine, KWZ and Rohrer-Klingner all make good, permanent modern iron-gall inks that are usable for modern fountain pens. grack fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Sep 9, 2017 |
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Sep 9, 2017 04:37
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Private Reserve makes cellulose-reactive (bulletproof) inks, if you want that.
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Sep 9, 2017 04:42
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hasn't Private Reserve had a mould issue since the beginning of time, though
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Sep 9, 2017 05:07
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Kessel posted:hasn't Private Reserve had a mould issue since the beginning of time, though Perhaps? Reviews aren’t frequent. I got their Invincible Blue because Noodler’s doesn’t have any bulletproof blues that pure. It hasn’t moulded yet.
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Sep 9, 2017 05:21
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I've had PR Avocado for like six years and it hasn't had any mold problems. Sample size of one. Am I the only person who doesn't really like Noodler's ink? It just has... problems. Too wet, or too dry, or it takes forever to dry, or it feathers like crazy. I've only found one or two that I actually like without reservations - Alamo Twilight in particular is wonderful.
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Sep 9, 2017 06:13
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I only have Heart of Darkness and it feathers like crazy on the below-poo poo-tier paper I use at work. 
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Sep 9, 2017 06:34
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I quite like some Noodler's inks. Black Swan in English Roses may be my favorite ink period. American Aristocracy is useless and the only ink I straight up regret buying.
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Sep 9, 2017 06:47
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Cindy Shitbird posted:I only have Heart of Darkness and it feathers like crazy on the below-poo poo-tier paper I use at work. It’s supposed to. Or rather, that is a known trade‐off of its formulation. Noodler’s Black is the original, balanced formula. X‐Feather was developed to prevent feathering, at the expense of taking longer to dry on finer paper. Heart of Darkness is the opposite. Noodler’s Black sits on top of a sheet of Rhodia practically forever. Heart of Darkness sinks into the page more readily, but this also makes it feather particularly severely on cheap paper.
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Sep 9, 2017 07:06
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I have a sample of PR Ebony Purple from the mold days, and it hasn't molded. Didn't mold inside a pen, either. From what I understand, they fixed the mold issue. Noodler's kills me because some of the colors are so pretty (I need to try Black Swans in English Roses) but the formula is a dice roll.
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Sep 9, 2017 09:16
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Someone literally just posted about PR moulding up their pen a few hours ago on the FPN Facebook so I think we're not in the clear yet.
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Sep 9, 2017 11:25
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:I've had PR Avocado for like six years and it hasn't had any mold problems. Sample size of one. I love Navajo Turqouse in a Lammy Safari Petrol, it's a nice pen/color combo.
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Sep 9, 2017 16:55
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BSIER, Navajo Turquoise and Habanero are all superlative Noodler's inks if you like bold shading colors. For work stuff Bad Belted Kingfisher is an excellent (semi-?)permanent blue black. Apache Sunset is an amazing ink but really only looks good from broad nibs and looks stunning from a flex.
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Sep 9, 2017 19:42
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