Hello gents. Well the restraint is on, and I am currently bound to not buy anything for myself. Luckily for me, I was able to make some pre GRU purchases and top off's. One of those purchases was a noodlers ahab medium nib fountain pen, and a bottle of B&B noodlers ink. I've never tried a fountain pen before, and currently use a pilot G2 .7mm. My handwriting is utter chicken scratch, but I have been interested in improving my penmanship, as well as trying out a fountain pen, for some months. So please feel free to give me any noob tips, resources, or examples I should follow. Thanks guys!
New to the Nib, First pen on the way.
- Thread starter emt88
- Start date
Welcome to the Nib! The Ahab is not something that I'd normally recommend as a first fountain pen to somebody starting out. It may be just fine out of the box, or it may need a lot of tweaking. I'm sure you'll get opinions from others as well. Just remember, if you do have problems with it, it's not necessarily you, and there are other good fountain pens for not too much money.
Or the Ahab may be fine for you. If I recall, it comes with instructions on how to adjust and maintain it. It has a flex nib, which lets you change the line width by pressing down a little, but at first I suggest just writing normally, with a very light touch..
Or the Ahab may be fine for you. If I recall, it comes with instructions on how to adjust and maintain it. It has a flex nib, which lets you change the line width by pressing down a little, but at first I suggest just writing normally, with a very light touch..
- Thread starter
- #3
Oh boy, well it sounds like I'm in for a bit of a challenge.
I have had far fewer problems with my Noodler's Nib Creaper than with the Ahab. The Konrad is also supposed to be more friendly than the Ahab.
I love how my Ahab looks, and how it writes (flex nib or Goulet replacement nib). I don't care for the false starts/etc (I took out the breather tube), and yesterday the darn thing leaked a little inside the cap.
I love how my Ahab looks, and how it writes (flex nib or Goulet replacement nib). I don't care for the false starts/etc (I took out the breather tube), and yesterday the darn thing leaked a little inside the cap.
Welcome to the nib, good luck and have fun!
- Thread starter
- #6
Thanks for the warm welcome from all. I am starting to worry a bit about my choice of pens here. Hopefully the Ahab works out ok. If not I may have to replace it come June. (after the restraint of course) I am expecting to get it by Friday or Monday. At least I will be able to get me feet wet.
Welcome aboard! If you don't like the Ahab I'll loan you one of my Esterbrooks to get you going until June. Just be warned that buying inks can become as addictive as buying soaps/creams.
- Thread starter
- #9
Thanks for such a generous offer! Fingers crossed that it won't come to that, but I will keep it in mind.
You guys are also probably right that I will end up with a bunch more ink and pens than necessary.
welcome to the nib... some great reading in the nib wiki while you wait for the pen. congratulations and hope it serves you well... until your next pen lol
- Thread starter
- #11
So it has been a few days since I placed my order. And I was starting to get a little worried because I haven't gotten a ship notice e mail from wcs yet. So I decided to give them a call today. I give the gent the order number, and he comes back with "looks like that order has been cancelled." What! Who cancelled it? Turns out my wife, who is very into writing, decided she wanted to try a fountain pen as well. She also decided, that because I had talked to her about my apprehensions with my pen choice, that it would be worth it to upgrade and surprise me. 
We now have matching palisir platinums coming with converters. 
We now have matching palisir platinums coming with converters. 
Welcome to the nib. Have fun on your journey, fountain pens and inks can be very addicting.
I liked the Creaper better, too. To the OP: don't sweat it, if it is a bit too leaky for you and smells weird out of the box, just understand that isn't standard across all brands.
So it has been a few days since I placed my order. And I was starting to get a little worried because I haven't gotten a ship notice e mail from wcs yet. So I decided to give them a call today. I give the gent the order number, and he comes back with "looks like that order has been cancelled." What! Who cancelled it? Turns out my wife, who is very into writing, decided she wanted to try a fountain pen as well. She also decided, that because I had talked to her about my apprehensions with my pen choice, that it would be worth it to upgrade and surprise me.
that's a "SWMBO" who's easy to Obey.
So it has been a few days since I placed my order. And I was starting to get a little worried because I haven't gotten a ship notice e mail from wcs yet. So I decided to give them a call today. I give the gent the order number, and he comes back with "looks like that order has been cancelled." What! Who cancelled it? Turns out my wife, who is very into writing, decided she wanted to try a fountain pen as well. She also decided, that because I had talked to her about my apprehensions with my pen choice, that it would be worth it to upgrade and surprise me.
Sounds like your SWMBO is a keeper. Mine has been letting me hang around since 1974.
Welcome to the nib!
Bob
- Thread starter
- #17
You guys got that right! We are headed to the local used bookstore tonight, I will be poking around to see if there are any good looking books on penmanship.
I was using Pilot Varsity disposables until I got my Ahab and a bottle of Heart of Darkness. It took me about an hour of adjusting to get mine to write nicely, but now it's great! The smell is a little interesting though... I've had mine for a couple of months now and rinsed it out numerous times, but the smell still hasn't completely dissipated. Although, for the price I paid, I couldn't be happier, and I LOVE the flex nib. It's my favorite part of the pen.
So it has been a few days since I placed my order. And I was starting to get a little worried because I haven't gotten a ship notice e mail from wcs yet. So I decided to give them a call today. I give the gent the order number, and he comes back with "looks like that order has been cancelled." What! Who cancelled it? Turns out my wife, who is very into writing, decided she wanted to try a fountain pen as well. She also decided, that because I had talked to her about my apprehensions with my pen choice, that it would be worth it to upgrade and surprise me.
Great. The Platinums are a much better choice when starting out. Noodler's pens are hit and miss.
- Thread starter
- #20
I got my platinum in the mail yesterday, and of course had to give it a test run immediately. I popped the included cartridge in and began to write random thouhjs on a notebook. The pen was pretty smooth, and the fit and finish was nice. I carried it at work today and had no problems at all. My one gripe with the pen would have to be the GIANT Chrome ring around the base of the cap. In all honesty, it is a bit obnoxious. Other than that, it seems to be a good writer. I assume that the cart will be quickly depleted, mainly because I have been taking full advantage of any writing that I can. So the next step will be to put the converter in and give the b&b 5 o'clock shadow black a try.
