Noodler's Ink Ahab Flex Nib Cardinal Darkness Fine Point Fountain Pen - ND-15029

I haven't used fountain pens for many years. I remembered them as being messy, fussy and inconsistent creatures; I moved to ballpoint pens and never looked back. Until now. I ran across a description of the Noodlers Ahab Flex Tip pen in a NaNoWriMo forum and started browsing. This flex tip pen allows varying thicknesses of line. It is also extremely modular (can be completely disassembled without any tools). I was intrigued and the relatively low cost of this pen made it an easy purchase decision.When it arrived, I dipped it in my Noodlers Bullet Proof Black ink and drew back on the piston. Surprisingly, almost no ink was drawn into the chamber. I did some googling and found my problem: you have to insert the entire nib all the way up to where the grip begins (otherwise, the air pathways in the nib aren't sealed by the ink and there isn't any vacuum for the piston to work with). I also found an instruction video on how to pre-clean the Noodler (with a bit of dish detergent and ammonia with water), which was surprisingly easy and quick to do (followed by a clean water rinse).Once the pen was cleaned and primed with ink, it has been a joy to use. Even day to day, just unscrewing the cap and putting the pen to paper--it works every time without fail. The ink flows. It is a delight to use, capable of both finer and thicker lines through varying pressure. The one proviso I would add (as a neophyte fountain pen user)--don't touch the nib once it is primed with ink. The ink flow is fast and you will get an inky fingertip very quickly.I expect to enjoy this pen for many, many years.One other note: there have been two versions of the Cardinal Darkness pen. The original version was red with traces of black. The new version is black with traces of red. To my mind the new version (which is what I received) is much nicer than the original.

I love a good flex pen, but this was not it. This was my first noodler pen and while I love their ink, this pen is not good. The internal mechanism that drives the converter broke within the first month. There is a tiny plastic tube inside that did not stay attached and now it’s useless. Even when it did work, the converter was unclear - more an amber color. The flex is not there either. The pen skips when trying to flex it.

This pen has a geat size, but the nib is only one size. The ink flow is very good. So, this pen is exelent for begginers.

I love this pen. It looks fantastic and has a nice weight to it, doesn't feel cheap. It does have a smell but the smell conjures fond memories of working on old cars with my father as a child and perhaps lends to my affection for the pen. I heat set the nib as seen on youtube videos and it has not let me down. The nib is not extremely flexible to the point that you notice it in general writing but it feels great and the Ahab makes me want to write something just to enjoy the feel of the pen in my hand and the feel of the nib as it deposits ink onto paper.

I bought this pen for my husband and he loves the way the pen looks and how smoothly it writes, BUT... he was very disappointed to find that the ink leaked out of the piston-type barrel after awhile. It doesn't happen immediately, but seems to be that if the pen goes through some temperature or weather changes (differences in air pressure, perhaps?), the ink leaks. The cap holds it in well, so it doesn't leak in your pocket, but when you take off the cap, it is full of ink that leaked out of the barrel. I have one of these pens, too (blue and black), and it did the same thing. Overall, I love the look and feel of this pen. It is substantial without being too heavy, big enough to write for for awhile without hand fatigue and the nib worked great right out of the box. I love the piston-type barrel for loading the ink - you just depress the plunger, insert the pen up to the top of the nib and pull the plunger to fill with ink - simple. Unfortunately, this is not a pen you can fill and leave filled, so traditional ink cartridges work better for that. Now, I fill my pen when I use it, then empty and clean it when I'm through writing.

These pens are fantastic, I have two of the ahab and use them for drawing daily! Some things you should know if you are looking at one of these:1: CLEAN THE PEN FIRST!!! If you just load it up with ink right out of the box it's probably not gonna function well, and you'll have a tough time with railroading and hard starting. I ran some speedball pen cleaner through it before first inking.2: HEAT SET YOUR NIB AND FEED! these use an Ebonite feed, which is rather different from the plastic feeds on say a twsbi. Goulet pens has a fantastic vid on using hot water to heat set your nib and feed.3: lastly, the smell. Wash the barrel and cap with water and dish soap, this will help cut down on the smell alot, the rest of it will fade with time.These are flex nib pens, which are similar to say a gpen comic nib, so definitely something to get used to before you bring it to work and start filling out paperwork with it. I find them to be a rather dry writer which works for my purposes, but I also write with a light pressure anyways, want more ink, increase your pressure it will flex a little bit.TLDR: for less than 30 bucks you get a cheap fantastic flex nib pen that holds alot of ink, I think alot of the issues folks have is cuz they don't expect to have to clean or adjust it right out of the box, but that's the nature of fountain pens sometimes. These are good pens, just make sure you know that you might need to make some adjustments to it to have it work perfectly For you (everyone's a little different)

I love Noodlers products any this would have been a 5 star review but there's NO O RING that's mentioned in the paperwork.

I own at least 20 fountain pens several of them being flex nibs. I owned a cheaper Noodler that I got so frustrated with I snapped it in half and threw it out. I was giving them another chance with this and have used several different inks one of them being Mont Blanc and I can’t get ink to flow. Noodlers are junk, absolute garbage. Do not buy their pens.