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Fountain pen - recommendations

Took the plunge:

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Let me know how it goes! A Noodler's pen is the first thing to've even remotely tempted me, since I got my engagement Nakaya.
 
mrs quoad said:
. . . . http://www.purepens.co.uk/acatalog/Ahab-Fountain-Pens-.html

I am *very* tempted by a couple of their less expensive options.

An ebonite one, in particular.
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What . . . Ho Hum!! like the one I have in front of me, NOW!! ;)

And 2 bottles of the mega ink (not the cheap muck) one very very dark blue (Grape summiterother) and an English Rose red

The pen itself is very light - I like a pen with a bit of weight behind it - my Parker and my Sheaffer, with metal barrels are nice but the Parker has gone walk about somewhere and the 3776 Platinum has a fantastic nib but it more like the Noodlers pens

The writing experience is actually quite nice - there's flex in the nib, but as this is my first flex nib pen I can't say if it's a lot or a little - all I know is that if you lean on it then the nib opens right up and the ink comes out in 2 thing lines rather than one nice fat line - so maybe it's me pressing a little too hard
 
Either you're pushing it beyond the limits of reasonable endurance, or else could do with boosting the ink flow.

(I have a feeling it's quite easy to change the ink flow on Noodlers pens?)
 
mrs quoad said:
. . . or else could do with boosting the ink flow.

(I have a feeling it's quite easy to change the ink flow on Noodlers pens?)
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:hmm: Tell me more :hmm:

Do I need a hammer, for instance?

And SWMBO is away this weekend looking after her "bionic" mother (new hips 'n stuff) so I'll have plenty of time to clear up any unfortunate spillages
 
First thought'd be flushing with a dibble of washing up liquid. Google fm posts passim for details. That might help.

Can also try varying inks, or google: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=i...ahab&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

I have a feeling I've seen something somewhere about unscrewing / extending Noodlers nib units to boost the flow. But don't quote me on that without checking first.

A flex nib that can't feed *any* flex would be a bit chuffing pointless, though :D if you're unable to get any line variation without the tines / ink flow splitting, that ain't right.
 
So. Ummm!! Hypothetically. What might be good for removing, say, Oh! I don't know, a small, wiped up yet still there, Noodlers Grape ink spill on, for instance, a light beech table
 
High Voltage said:
.. . so I'll have plenty of time to clear up any unfortunate spillages
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Famous last words

So, the lemon juice doesn't appear to be working

I've already raised this potential hypothetical scenario with SO and bleach has been officially ruled out in a phone call

Ummm!! are there are other "lightening agents" that are available OTC
 
Oo, it just arrived!

i5FRcGwOehTHz.jpeg


I'm going to put the Waterman's ink in first.
So the age old question - do you shake your ink, or do you not shake your ink?
 
Might swap out the ink, it's not flowing too well. Well it'll work for a while and then stop entirely. Bloody nice pen, though. Need to learn out vents/channels and carving ebonite.
 
I usually flush new pens with lukewarm water, then with ink once before loading it properly. They can take a little while for the ink to flow properly if they're just out of the box.
 
Structaural said:
Thanks FM, I'll give that a go. I just looked up the Waterman's ink, it should flow pretty good.
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Yes, generally it's very reliable stuff. The Florida Blue and the Blue Black (both washable - the same as Quink, these days, but in better bottles) are often used in old, fragile pens or ones which have flow problems, and I've never had trouble with the Black.
 
Certainly a lot better. It stopped for a bit after the 'was' and then was pretty good. Excuse spelling and old bit of paper..
 

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Vintage Paw said:
My Lamy 2000 EF has started having problems. It stops writing after a few lines. I have to prime it again to get it working. Might be a problem with the piston, I hear it can be prone to causing a bit of a suction problem, so the ink doesn't travel down too well. Doesn't seem to be any problem with the nib. My F version still writes beautifully, but it's too broad for my tastes when note-taking (which is what I usually use my pens for).

So, I decided to look for a new note-taking pen. I considered just getting an EF nib for my Safari, but I'm not a massive fan of the design of the pen, and over extended periods the larger barrel makes my hand feel awkward. After a bit of random googling and reading around, I decided to take a punt on the Hero 616, a clone of the Parker 51. They are cheap as chips, only come with a fine nib, have a finicky aerometricish style filler, and are, apparently, made in the old Parker factory in Shanghai (which is why they look like Parkers, probably). They come well regarded, for such a stupidly cheap pen.

Well, it turns out, that there are fakes of the Hero 616's out there. Fakes of a clone, Baudrillard would roll his eyes, no doubt.

I bid on a pack of 10 on ebay. I figured it was highly likely they might be fake, but whatever. I won the auction, paid £5 for the pack, which included shipping. I figured, hey, even if they are fakes, I've got myself 10 stupidly cheap pens I can use for doodling, trying out inks, messing around, whatever. They arrived this morning. Construction quality isn't the best thing in the world, and looking at the tell-tale signs of a fake (slightly botched engraving, filler sac and lever not quite as good) I think they may, indeed, be fakes, but I'm finding it really hard to tell for sure. Thing is, I inked one up (with Diamine China Blue) and it writes like a thing of great beauty.

The F nib is about the same width as my Lamy EF, and probably a touch wetter. And get this, I turned it over to write upside down - which I always do when testing a new pen, just, well, why not? It writes smoother upside down than any other I've tried. So really, I've got 2 pens in one - a really quite smooth (considering it's a steel, fine nib) and decently wet F nib, and upside down a non-scratchy, slightly drier extra-fine, and the nib (if not the barrel and filler construction) feels good and sturdy for vigorous note-taking.

I'm tempted to get a 'real' Hero 616 from a reputable seller to compare them, but tbh, I can't imagine it writing much better than this, other than being a touch drier (because this could be described as just the slightest bit too wet, but I'm perfectly okay with that).

All in all, I'm satisfied. As long as they don't start leaking atrociously, these are probably going to be nice little note-taking workhorses.

Apols for the ebay details on this pic, it's the clearest I could find online:
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mine finally arrived. I'd pretty much aggree with everything you've written. they write well. my only criticisms would be that they are a little light. much lighter than any other pen I'm using, feels like about half the weight of the parker 51, which until yesterday was the lightest fountain pen i owned.and i don't quite like the feel of the filler mechanism. i'm not sure it's really fair to compare the feel of it directly to the parker.i bought these so I have a fine nibbed pen, my parker is bold, my rotring is M. so they will do for notetaking, if they break, it's no disaster. if i loose them, so what. they are cheaper than the rollerball pens i'd be using otherwise.
 
I'm still getting on very well with my little Indian pen, the Camlin Cute. It's about 8mm longer than a KAWECO Sport capped, has a nice fine nib, and seems to like my Rohrer und Klingner inks.
 
ViolentPanda said:
A bit of sili grease on the threads not enough?
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You'd probably be okay, but I think it's safest with an O-ring as well. I got one converted to ED with a bottle of Noodler's ink a while back which had had an O-ring put on it (this was before he started with Indian EDs instead). Mind you, I'm not actually sure where to get O-rings of the proper thickness - my local hardware shop only had ones which were really a bit too thick.
 
FridgeMagnet said:
You'd probably be okay, but I think it's safest with an O-ring as well. I got one converted to ED with a bottle of Noodler's ink a while back which had had an O-ring put on it (this was before he started with Indian EDs instead). Mind you, I'm not actually sure where to get O-rings of the proper thickness - my local hardware shop only had ones which were really a bit too thick.
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Ebay is usually worth a punt, IME.
 
my 4 year old has just run off with one of my cheap hero pens. the massive grin on her face and the drawing of homemade christmas cards with it would strongly suggest that it has now become hers.

and one of the pack of 10 is unusable, it's scratchy with no proper flow.

if i keep loosing them at this rate, i'll have to get another pack
 
toggle said:
my 4 year old has just run off with one of my cheap hero pens. the massive grin on her face and the drawing of homemade christmas cards with it would strongly suggest that it has now become hers.

and one of the pack of 10 is unusable, it's scratchy with no proper flow.

if i keep loosing them at this rate, i'll have to get another pack
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That's a pretty good hit-rate for pens that cost less than a pound each, mind.

I do love the idea of a 4-yr old with a fountain pen, though! :D
 
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