- Joined
- Thursday August 8, 2013
- Location
- Silly Suffolk
I'd seen a lot about Noodler's pens and inks, mainly on US websites and YouTube, and wanted to see whether they are as good as their reputation.
There is now a UK source for almost all things Noodler's, so I treated myself to an Ahab fountain pen in the "Pequot" finish, a bottle of Noodler's "Monkey Hanger" blue permanent ink, and some refillable Noodler's cartridges.
The pen is about 5 1/2 inches long when capped, and just over 1/2 inch diameter at the thickest. The cap is a screw fitting. The pen generally resembles the Indian ASA/Ranga/Varuna ebonite ones that I've gone mad for, although I think it's made of a resin.
The nib is a steel fine to medium flex nib, which writes well enough from new, but I expect to improve with use. As with most flex nibs, it's necessary to write a bit slower to get the right efffects.
The pen can be filled three ways. It comes equipped with a push-pull piston filler, which screws onto the nib section. This has a small snorkel type breather tube to aid filling, and needs two or three actions to fill the reservoir. This model can also handle user-fillable hard plastic cartridges. These have a screw cap on the end which attaches to the section, and which allows a loose filled cartridge to be carried about. When the cartridge is screwed into the pen, the cartridge cap is screw-posted on the other end; a very neat idea. Finally, with the aid of some silicon grease, it can be used as an eyedropper.
There are,by my reckoning, 34 different colours of the Ahab model, including clear and coloured demonstrators. There's something to suit almost anyone.
The pen, with the piston filler installed, cost £18.50, and 5 of the cartridges cost £4.95. That, to me, and given the quality of the pen, is incredible value.
P.S. Delving in the paperwork which arrived with the pen, I found a very helpful leaflet, which is attached. This describes the pen as made from "a celluloid derivative", and with the help of people from several US States and India. This last explains my earlier comparison with other Indian-made pens.
There is now a UK source for almost all things Noodler's, so I treated myself to an Ahab fountain pen in the "Pequot" finish, a bottle of Noodler's "Monkey Hanger" blue permanent ink, and some refillable Noodler's cartridges.
The pen is about 5 1/2 inches long when capped, and just over 1/2 inch diameter at the thickest. The cap is a screw fitting. The pen generally resembles the Indian ASA/Ranga/Varuna ebonite ones that I've gone mad for, although I think it's made of a resin.
The nib is a steel fine to medium flex nib, which writes well enough from new, but I expect to improve with use. As with most flex nibs, it's necessary to write a bit slower to get the right efffects.
The pen can be filled three ways. It comes equipped with a push-pull piston filler, which screws onto the nib section. This has a small snorkel type breather tube to aid filling, and needs two or three actions to fill the reservoir. This model can also handle user-fillable hard plastic cartridges. These have a screw cap on the end which attaches to the section, and which allows a loose filled cartridge to be carried about. When the cartridge is screwed into the pen, the cartridge cap is screw-posted on the other end; a very neat idea. Finally, with the aid of some silicon grease, it can be used as an eyedropper.
There are,by my reckoning, 34 different colours of the Ahab model, including clear and coloured demonstrators. There's something to suit almost anyone.
The pen, with the piston filler installed, cost £18.50, and 5 of the cartridges cost £4.95. That, to me, and given the quality of the pen, is incredible value.
P.S. Delving in the paperwork which arrived with the pen, I found a very helpful leaflet, which is attached. This describes the pen as made from "a celluloid derivative", and with the help of people from several US States and India. This last explains my earlier comparison with other Indian-made pens.
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