Noodler's Ahab Setup For Beginners

[P.A.R.]

Heat setting an ebonite feed is not permanent. If reheated, it will return to its original shape (as shown in one of Nathan Tardiff's videos.)

[SamCapote]

3. Once railroading was taken care of, I found out that there is another serious issue - feathering and bleeding. The tines are very, VERY sharp. Combined with wet flow, this pen feathers and bleeds incredibly on cheap paper, and sometimes even on higher quality paper. You can clearly see the lines that the tines carve into the paper.

 

This is also dependent on ink. The Waterman I mentioned was fine to write with on ordinary inkjet paper, while the Herbin feathers so much that it's unusable. Which is really a pity, 'cause I really wanted to use that ink on daily basis with this pen

 

Now all I wish for is that the pen wouldn't feather, and that I would have some more feeds to play with.

 

I'm troubled by this issue with both my Ahabs. Any suggestions on how to smooth the tines a little bit?

 

After making sure the tines are aligned properly, I would then strongly encourage you to get two things from Richard Binder's website. The smoothing kit, and some buffing sticks.

 

http://www.richardsp...othing_kits.htm

http://www.richardsp.../buffsticks.htm

Then spend a few mins reading the guide by our own admin, WIM at this link:

 

http://www.pentrace....icle.asp?id=403

 

Personally, I think Wim was way more fastidious than I have been, but he gives good overall background information. Usually good to include light smoothing of the inside edges of each tine (like he shows towards the end), by inserting the mylar sheet between the tines letting the abrasive side slide back and forth a little bit on the inside edge, then reverse for other tine. Usually doesn't need much.

 

You have to move and angle the nib tip all around and at different angles to not create a new sharp edge on the margins of what you were smoothing. That's why it may be a good idea like I did to get the "Student kit" which includes 2 pens to experiment on.

 

 

 

 

.

Edited May 2, 2012 by SamCapote

[SamCapote]

Miles & Novarider, another few suggestions. After cleaning, drag the back side of an Xacto or other knife down the center channels several times. It's ok if you are abrading or lightly "scoring" the channel surfaces. Make sure the top blow hole is clean either with the tip of a pointed Xacto, or even a paper clip. Apparently some of the channels had gotten coated with a waxy lubricant that can repel ink, and that may not wash off with soap and ammonia. Some have had better luck cleaning with Formula 409 which cuts grease, etc.

 

Next, try pressing the tip down towards the feed (just turn over and press nib against tablet), as sometimes it is bent up slightly, and not making good contact with the feed. There should be a tiny separation of the tines as they are resting on the feed tip. (Just enough so you can barely see a sliver of light between the tines when dry and held up against a light. If I try to slide a piece of normal copy paper between the nib and feed at the front, it is extremely difficult to get it in as a measure of how tight it is, and mine writes flawlessly. if it slides in easily, the gap between feed and nib is too wide.

Edited May 2, 2012 by SamCapote

[Miles R.]

Miles & Novarider, another few suggestions. After cleaning, drag the back side of an Xacto or other knife down the center channels several times. It's ok if you are abrading or lightly "scoring" the channel surfaces. Make sure the top blow hole is clean either with the tip of a pointed Xacto, or even a paper clip. Apparently some of the channels had gotten coated with a waxy lubricant that can repel ink, and that may not wash off with soap and ammonia. Some have had better luck cleaning with Formula 409 which cuts grease, etc.

 

Next, try pressing the tip down towards the feed (just turn over and press nib against tablet), as sometimes it is bent up slightly, and not making good contact with the feed. There should be a tiny separation of the tines as they are resting on the feed tip. (Just enough so you can barely see a sliver of light between the tines when dry and held up against a light. If I try to slide a piece of normal copy paper between the nib and feed at the front, it is extremely difficult to get it in as a measure of how tight it is, and mine writes flawlessly. if it slides in easily, the gap between feed and nib is too wide.

Thanks for the suggestions, Sam. Regarding the second of them, I find no space between the nib and the feed, so I don't think that's an issue. I'm afraid that if I tried to bend the nib down I would merely crease it or spread the tines. As to the first suggestion, which seemed to me more promising when I first read it, I tried cleaning out the feed by lightly drawing an X-Acto blade through the channel and through the gills, and inserting a paper clip into the blowhole (whose presence I had not noticed before). But when I put the pen back together, I found that it behaves exactly as before: sheds drops of ink when shaken (in my efforts to get it started), writes for a line or two, then stops completely.

 

I did notice that the blowhole is not drilled straight into the center of the feed: although the opening is in the center of the feed channel, a paper clip inserted into it enters at a slightly oblique angle. I don't know if this could cause the behavior that I have observed.

Edited May 3, 2012 by Miles R.

[The Anachronist]

Great info! I have been debating getting an Ahab, since I just got my regular Noodler's Flex. Can anyone say how well the adjustment and modification instructions apply to the 'original' Flex pens?

[Miles R.]

I seem finally to have solved the problem with my Ahab. (It only took me a few hours of work over a period of three days!) Having used up all the ink that I had put into it (in only about three pages of writing, so much having been lost to removal and reinsertion of the nib and feed and to the excessive flow of ink), I took the pen apart again to wash out it completely. It occurred to me to check on one thing that I had not looked at before, namely the alignment of the channel in the top of the feed with the slit in the nib. Since the nib has no breather hole in it, I had to use indirect means to do this, namely by resting an X-Acto blade edgewise in the feed channel and then looking at the feed from the underside to see whether the projecting part of the blade aligned with the tapering end of the feed. It turned out that it did not: viewed from the underside, the channel was the better part of a millimeter to the left of the point of the feed. So this time, when I put the pen back together, I made sure that the feed was rotated slightly clockwise, with its point slightly to the right of the slit (viewed from below). I filled the pen with ink again and found that it now writes without interruption. Shifting the feed further into the section from the nib reduced the flow to a tolerable rate. Now the ink that I've got in it now is Noodler's Lexington Gray, which is a thinner as well as a cheaper ink than the Herbin Lie de thé that I was using before, so I am not at this point doing an exact apples-to-apples comparison. But it seems pretty clear that the source of my flow problems was the misalignment of the feed channel with the nib slit.

Edited May 3, 2012 by Miles R.

[Pemako]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

[Miles R.]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

I suspect that it is not for me either. I am not sorry that I got the pen, as it was only by getting one that I could have satisfied my curiosity about it, after all that I had read about its distinctive attractions: a fountain pen with a flexible nib, a fairly high-capacity piston convertor (along with the option of conversion to eyedropper-fill), a hand-cut nib made of genuine ebonite, and an attractively colored transparent body (I got the demonstrator in Carniolan Honey, after waiting for months for it to become available!), at the price of only $20. But in view of the amount of research and experimentation that was required for getting it simply to work, I would say that it is a costly pen in non-monetary respects.

[The Anachronist]

This article should be a sticky somewhere! The instructions helped get my original Flex going and it really was a lot of fun even though mine didn't take much tinkering. I just need to back it off as its a bit too wet now and figure out what's keeping the ink from staying down by the feed. So far it quickly falls and hasn't created issues, but anyone have any ideas?

 

Because of this article and learning more about Nathan's intent, I'm going to get more. Definitely the Konrad flex, and probably the Ahab as well! Many thanks to the OP!!!

Edited May 3, 2012 by The Anachronist

[SamCapote]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

I suspect that it is not for me either. I am not sorry that I got the pen, as it was only by getting one that I could have satisfied my curiosity about it, after all that I had read about its distinctive attractions: a fountain pen with a flexible nib, a fairly high-capacity piston convertor (along with the option of conversion to eyedropper-fill), a hand-cut nib made of genuine ebonite, and an attractively colored transparent body (I got the demonstrator in Carniolan Honey, after waiting for months for it to become available!), at the price of only $20. But in view of the amount of research and experimentation that was required for getting it simply to work, I would say that it is a costly pen in non-monetary respects.

 

Miles, thanks for your feedback. Just so I understand what you did with the alignment. Are you saying that your top air feed is off center more than what I show in this new Ahab feed? If so, that was how most of mine looked, and did not have your problem. The blow hold should be perpendicular to the air tube channel, and communicate with it. An easy way to check that is to blow through the air tube plugged into the back center drilled hole, and you should fee air coming up through the blow hole. The shorter lengthwise center slot on the bottom is the ink feed channel. Obviously, ink engulfs the entire feed and slits on all sides once in use.

 

 

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/pike444/IMAG0239.jpg

[Miles R.]

Miles, thanks for your feedback. Just so I understand what you did with the alignment. Are you saying that your top air feed is off center more than what I show in this new Ahab feed? If so, that was how most of mine looked, and did not have your problem. The blow hold should be perpendicular to the air tube channel, and communicate with it. An easy way to check that is to blow through the air tube plugged into the back center drilled hole, and you should fee air coming up through the blow hole. The shorter lengthwise center slot on the bottom is the ink feed channel. Obviously, ink engulfs the entire feed and slits on all sides once in use.

I'm not sufficiently in command of the terminology to know whether "air feed" is the correct term for what I have been calling the channel: that is the term that I thought to be commonly used for it. The main point is that the channel or air feed or whatever it is called on top of the feed, as indicated by a thin straightedge inserted into it, does not align with the end of the feed as viewed from the bottom, which is the angle from which one sees it when inserting it into the section. So if you line up the feed with the nib from below by aligning the point of the feed with the slit of the nib, as one would naturally do with any correctly made pen and as I had been doing, the channel on the top of the feed will be slightly to the left of the slit. I am not sure how to compare the feed that I have got with the one in your photo, as the apparent orientation of the top channel to the point of the feed changes according to the angle from which one looks at it, but it looks to me as though the top channel on yours is misaligned to the right while the one on mine is misaligned to the left--or perhaps rather one should say that the point of the feed is misaligned in the opposite direction.

 

I have verified that the blowhole reaches the hole that runs through the axis of the feed. Nonetheless, as I said before, it does not run perpendicular to the top channel.

 

I suppose that some people find such defects of manufacture to have some sort of charm, but in view of their contra-functionality I find them to be simply a nuisance.

 

Edited to add: Well, I just tried filling the ink with another J. Herbin ink (Café des îles), and I find that it won't write more than a few characters at a time. So perhaps the pen works only with Noodler's ink.

 

Edited again to add: I could try other inks in the pen, but I'm tired of wasting ink and time and effort on a pen that is so finicky and unpredictable that you need to be some sort of expert on the care and tweaking of the brand in order to get it to work for more than a few seconds at a time. I've satisfied my curiosity, and now I think I am done with Noodler's pens permanently.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Miles R.

[Splicer]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

 

My Ahab wrote fine out of the box. But the setup for flex and the setup for ordinary writing is not necessarily the same. Someone that uses flex needs more ink flow. For ordinary writing, such a setup might be too wet. This argument about pens writing out of the box has gone around and around here on FPN but "requires adjustment" isn't the same as "doesn't work" any more than "requires tailoring" means "doesn't fit."

[mik86]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

 

My Ahab wrote fine out of the box. But the setup for flex and the setup for ordinary writing is not necessarily the same. Someone that uses flex needs more ink flow. For ordinary writing, such a setup might be too wet. This argument about pens writing out of the box has gone around and around here on FPN but "requires adjustment" isn't the same as "doesn't work" any more than "requires tailoring" means "doesn't fit."

 

 

I am having the exact same experience as Miles, but didn't check my alignment yet. I thought my ink might be cheap so I used iroshizuku tsuki yo without success. I am going to go cut a bunch of feeds and see how that works.

 

Splicer, while I agree with you, it seems that a pen advertised as a "flex" pen should be flex-ready out of the box, meaning better flow. It is ok if it needs modification, or that some may need modification, but it should mention that on the box so it keeps me from wanting to throw the pen against the wall. I don't mind modifications if necessary, but i would like to know what they are. I have spent a long time recleaning it thinking that was the problem. I didn't realize that only half the feeds were cut! I got the flex pen because I wanted to write with flex, which is kind of the whole point. Anyways.... time to go cut some feeds. This will be my last attempt

[Miles R.]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

 

My Ahab wrote fine out of the box. But the setup for flex and the setup for ordinary writing is not necessarily the same. Someone that uses flex needs more ink flow. For ordinary writing, such a setup might be too wet. This argument about pens writing out of the box has gone around and around here on FPN but "requires adjustment" isn't the same as "doesn't work" any more than "requires tailoring" means "doesn't fit."

Lucky you. However, Pemako's comment was, I believe, a reply to my account of my troubles with my Ahab and did not concern fine adjustments for one or another kind of writing, but simply the capacity of a pen to lay down a consistent but not paper-soaking line of ink. My Ahab has not satisfied this meager requirement despite the hours that I have spent trying to make it work using advice offered in this thread. While it remains possible that there is something which, if done to the pen, would make it write properly, a pen that gives this much trouble without yet working seems to me to merit the description "a pen that does not work."

Edited May 4, 2012 by Miles R.

[The Anachronist]

Yikes, fiddling with the Ahab sounds like a lot of fun, but it´s not for me. I only buy pens that work.

 

My Ahab wrote fine out of the box. But the setup for flex and the setup for ordinary writing is not necessarily the same. Someone that uses flex needs more ink flow. For ordinary writing, such a setup might be too wet. This argument about pens writing out of the box has gone around and around here on FPN but "requires adjustment" isn't the same as "doesn't work" any more than "requires tailoring" means "doesn't fit."

 

Well put. My flex did write from the get go. Just not the way I wanted. Many people seem to miss the point intended for these pens. I can understand how the hands on customization of these pens would be a turn off for some but I love it. Having tuned mine myself, I've learned something and have a greater attachment and connection to the pen, notti mention the sense of pride in doing the 'work'. What I don't understand is why people who don't appreciate these things feel the need to rain on those that do, and take a wonderfully written instruction thread and hijack it, turning it into a debate over the quality of the pens.

 

That contamination has been done on every other thread about these pens, it's beyond redundant. All the trash talking has already been done, it's not even remotely on topic, it's time to give it a rest and move on.

[novarider]

It's not the fact that some people don't like it. It's the fact that it's advertised as a flex nib. Nowhere in any of the descriptions that I read did it say that it needs to have the feed cut to flex properly. If you want to design it as a tinkerers pen that's fine just put it in the description!

[The Anachronist]

That is fair, for sure. The Goulets have videos about it on their product page but they're the only ones I've seen that mention the need to adjust it. Nathan discusses it in a video, but I admittedly thought it came across as something that could be done rather than something which is required. That combined with the nay sayers initially turned me off. I'm glad I kept researching and found this thread. It really is a remarkable pen if one has the patience to tune it.

Edited May 4, 2012 by The Anachronist

[SamCapote]

Miles, thanks for your answers, I do appreciate the process of learning, and sharing experiences. I think we were on the same page as far as my calling the top (under the nib) lengthwise channel the "air channel" (the shorter bottom one is the so called "ink feed channel"). For clarification of terms in case others are reading this in the future, in addition to the top "air channel," of this (and other pen feeds), the Ahab also has center hole drilled forward towards the front. It continues as far as the perpendicular blowhole which separately drilled down from the top, through the air channel about 1 cm from the back.

 

The back hole with the breathing tube inserted is a continuous opening that ends at its merge with the perpendicular blowhole, so if you put the breathing tube in your mouth and blow out air, it will come up through the perpendicular blowhole. This is both a secondary, functional way for air getting back into the ink chamber (in addition to the air channel running under the nib), helping to equalize pressures needed to continue normal ink flow, and a symbolic reference to Captain Ahab's Moby Dick (whale blowhole).

 

Hearing that your problem has recurred, I now believe you are running into an issue with certain inks that have less surfactant. While I'm not saying you should have to deal with this given your justified frustration level; you may be curious in what now seems to be a rational explanation.

 

Putting the Ahab behind you, just to give peace of mind, consider reading this Nov 2010 TWSBI complaint thread from Lsarios, and see if you recognize the parallel scenario. Keep reading up until post #32. His story also ends in frustration, and giving up on his TWSBI. I think it was likewise resolvable, but when one reaches a certain threshold of frustration, I can understand people moving on.

 

mik86, with respect, the Ahab box contains a detailed two sided instruction and background sheet that explains all of what you think should have been included in way more detail than any pen I have ever purchased. If you tossed yours, or didn't read it, there is a copy of both sides in my review from last year here. It clearly even says which vents to open up for increase flow. It flexes out of the box if you move the pen at a slower rate. If you need to flex at a faster rate, you need to follow those instructions. Nathan gives the user the ability to do dramatic customizations for a number of purposes. No other pen that has been made that I am aware of encourages and gives photographs of how to modify and adjust the performance of a pen. None. Most will void your warranty if you even attempt to do any of your own work. Most members on FPN tell people to always send their pens to nib/pen meisters, or back to the manufacturer for any and all adjustments.

 

 

 

 

 

.

Edited May 4, 2012 by SamCapote

[mik86]

Miles, thanks for your answers, I do appreciate the process of learning, and sharing experiences. I think we were on the same page as far as my calling the top (under the nib) lengthwise channel the "air channel" (the shorter bottom one is the so called "ink feed channel"). For clarification of terms in case others are reading this in the future, in addition to the top "air channel," of this (and other pen feeds), the Ahab also has center hole drilled forward towards the front. It continues as far as the perpendicular blowhole which separately drilled down from the top, through the air channel about 1 cm from the back.

 

The back hole with the breathing tube inserted is a continuous opening that ends at its merge with the perpendicular blowhole, so if you put the breathing tube in your mouth and blow out air, it will come up through the perpendicular blowhole. This is both a secondary, functional way for air getting back into the ink chamber (in addition to the air channel running under the nib), helping to equalize pressures needed to continue normal ink flow, and a symbolic reference to Captain Ahab's Moby Dick (whale blowhole).

 

Hearing that your problem has recurred, I now believe you are running into an issue with certain inks that have less surfactant. While I'm not saying you should have to deal with this given your justified frustration level; you may be curious in what now seems to be a rational explanation.

 

Putting the Ahab behind you, just to give peace of mind, consider reading this Nov 2010 TWSBI complaint thread from Lsarios, and see if you recognize the parallel scenario. Keep reading up until post #32. His story also ends in frustration, and giving up on his TWSBI. I think it was likewise resolvable, but when one reaches a certain threshold of frustration, I can understand people moving on.

 

mik86, with respect, the Ahab box contains a detailed two sided instruction and background sheet that explains all of what you think should have been included in way more detail than any pen I have ever purchased. If you tossed yours, or didn't read it, there is a copy of both sides in my review from last year here. It clearly even says which vents to open up for increase flow. It flexes out of the box if you move the pen at a slower rate. If you need to flex at a faster rate, you need to follow those instructions. Nathan gives the user the ability to do dramatic customizations for a number of purposes. No other pen that has been made that I am aware of encourages and gives photographs of how to modify and adjust the performance of a pen. None. Most will void your warranty if you even attempt to do any of your own work. Most members on FPN tell people to always send their pens to nib/pen meisters, or back to the manufacturer for any and all adjustments.

 

 

.

 

doh! u r right, i think i remember that. So I was cutting vents, but it didn't really solve the issue. I was able to figure out what was wrong, however! SO.... its like this, when the pen stops railroading and doesn't start again, here is why:

 

1. I held the pen nib up to the light to see the slit. I could see the air and the tines were not touching. As soon as I squeezed the tines together, capillary action sucked the ink up. When i let go, the ink stayed restored up the tines from the feed.

 

2. similarly, the ink is quickly restored to the end if the nib when the pen is turned upside down and tapped on the paper. This closes the tines enough for capillary action to put the ink back in the end of the tines.

 

Solution: Make the tines closer together. I bent it together but when I put it back into the feed, the feed pushed it apart again. I heat set it but it didn't heat set very well. I need to do it again but I am tired of fiddling with it. There is something about the space between these tines that make it unfriendly to ink. I suppose it could be the space it too large. I isnt huge though...

 

Edit: also, i wanted to add that cutting the vents didnt make it a whole lot wetter for me. It was really hard to see, so I am not sure if I cut it as well as I could have anyways.

Edited May 4, 2012 by mik86

[torstar]

Excellent page!!

 

But I'll posit that the Ahab just isn't for me. I've bought 3 (and they are great daily writers) and with the advice of pages like this I have shaped the feed on one so that I get (on occasion) amazing 1/4" swaths of ink. It can be done...

 

I just don't have a huge need for a flex nib outside of goofing around and it has been nice, but I'll go back to the pens I have paid a lot of $$$ for and deep down enjoy a lot more.

 

If I do go back to this kind of pen, will expensive flex pens reliably write without my tinkering, or is the whole process one of longsuffering and experimentation and tearing up of dozens of attempts before finally coming up with a sentence worthy of showing off on the board?